Groucho Marx Idiot Joke
setpiece · Marx Brothers ·
retold in 3 talks
Groucho Marx as a lawyer tells the court his client looks like an idiot and acts like an idiot, but 'this shouldn't deceive you, he is an idiot.'
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 3
“look my client he looks like an idiot and acts like an idiot but this shouldn't deceive you, he is an idiot”
“this guy looks as an idiot and acts as an idiot this shouldn't deceive you this guy is an idiot”
“This man looks as an idiot and acts as an idiot but this shouldn't deceive you this man really is an idiot.”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
Its cast and sources
populated by
Groucho Marx3Rudolf Elmer1Judith Miller1Bill Keller1Daniel Ellsberg1Ray Brassier1Alison Tyler1Marion Cotillard1
alongside works
Every retelling 3
42:04 "THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is a Conservative Liberal Film" - Slavoj Žižek (2012) | TIFF REWIND2012 · 1:09:18
Groucho Marx as a lawyer tells the court his client looks like an idiot and acts like an idiot, but 'this shouldn't deceive you, he is an idiot.', illustrating paradoxes of identity
Groucho Marx, playing a lawyer, says of his client: 'he looks like an idiot and acts like an idiot, this shouldn't deceive you, he IS an idiot.' Žižek applies this to Rumsfeld's cynical defense of lying ('I was lying but truthfully'): we must not let him sell his lies as a deeper truth., illustrating cynical ideology,ideology through implication,Rumsfeld's cynical defense
Groucho Marx defends an idiot by saying: 'This man looks as an idiot and acts as an idiot but this shouldn't deceive you this man really is an idiot.', illustrating cynical reason