Ironically, the song was originally written as a satire against racism and oppression of blacks:
Someone had to pick the cotton,
Someone had to pick the corn,
Someone had to slave and be able to sing,
That's why darkies were born.
Although several caucasians recorded versions of it (e.g., Kate Smith; Jimmy Durante in blackface), one of the best is actually the classic version by the great black singer/actor Paul Robeson.
However, the way it's used in Duck Soup ("My father was a little headstrong, my mother was a little armstrong. The Headstrongs married the Armstrongs, and that's why darkies were born.") is considered by many to be racist, although others disagree and feel it was a satirical, anti-racist usage that was simply referencing the original song.
Another song, Gordon and Revel's satirical Underneath The Harlem Moon, recorded by Don Redman in 1932 and by Randy Newman in 1970, explains: "They just live for dancing, They're never blue or forlorn, Ain't no sin to laugh or grin, That's why darkies were born."
The reason it is considered anti-racist satire is that it pokes fun at those who say that blacks didn't have it so bad.
The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. -- A. Einstein
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eholzapfel26
9 years ago
Thanks for the info.
But is there any logic to Groucho's joke, or was the humor simply that he referenced a song title known at the time?
Do the Headstrongs marrying the Armstrongs have anything to do with the rest of it which then makes the song reference a "punch line"?
I'm trying to figure out what made it a joke.
If I said, "My father was a little headstrong, my mother was a little armstrong. The Headstrongs married the Armstrongs, and that's why baby we were born to run." Would that be a joke? I'm referencing a line and the title of a Bruce Springsteen song (does simply stating the title make it funny?)
Either way, I don't get what makes it a joke.
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andrewwjohnson
9 years ago
The joke is the absurdity of the line like many "Duck Soap". The very fact it makes no sense makes it funny.
TAG LINE: True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.
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[email protected]
9 years ago
It sounds to me like they're using the song title (using a term that was probably objectionable then but has since become inflammatory*) as a nonsense punch line for a 'where do babies come from' question (you see, when a Headstrong and an Armstrong love each other very much...) Best not to overthink it. You know what they say, how trying to analyze humor is like analyzing an onion by peeling its layers - before long you're crying and your fingers smell.
* Louis Armstrong, criticized some for not being progressive, used the term 'darkies' when he recorded "When it's Sleepy Time Down South" in the 1930s, but dropped it in later performances.
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sjm519
9 years ago
I think I may have the answer. Now that I read the lyrics to the actual song about picking the corn and cotton etc...the beat of the song as it would have been sung back in the day when it was popular seems to be in step with Groucho's absurd reworking of the lyrics. I feel they were trusting that audiences in 1933 recognized the tempo of Groucho's lines (which admittedly aren't supposed to really make sense, remember this IS a Marx Bros. movie) from the popular song and just to let viewers know that they were right in picking up where they know the song from, he comes around at the end line with how the real song verse actually ends. To understand something like this again you have to put yourself in that time and try to hear it the way a 1933 audience would've heard it, and as well as try to appreciate what audiences in that day were listening to.
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pt100
9 years ago
Louis Armstrong, criticized some for not being progressive
Did you leave out the word "by" in that sentence?
The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. -- A. Einstein
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[email protected]
9 years ago
-Did you leave out the word "by" in that sentence? -
Good grief, would you believe I put some thought into how to word that? (Criticized a lot? A little? Not sure; I'll split the difference with 'some'.) Note to self: review before posting.
There's a mention elsewhere how Groucho's line worked off the meter of a poem/song, and that does carry some weight. I'd never heard the song in question (never on the radio for some reason) but consider his line in Horse Feathers about his son: "It's a lie! He's only a shell of his former self, which nobody can deny! Whoopee!"
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pt100
9 years ago
Maybe this explanation from professional film critic and journalist Eric Snider will help:
"Groucho uses the line simply because it was famous at the time and it sort of fit his train of thought. He does the same thing later in the film, when he urges a soldier on horseback: “Ride through every village and town! Wake every citizen uphill and down! Tell them the enemy comes from afar, with a hey nonny nonny and a ha-cha-cha!” The first part is a sort of parody of the H.W. Longfellow poem “Paul Revere’s Ride”; the last line is a nonsense phrase from another popular song: “Trumpeter, Blow Your Horn,” from George and Ira Gershwin’s Broadway show Of Thee I Sing. The Duck Soup audience would have recognized the line and recalled that Of Thee I Sing was, like Duck Soup, a political lampoon. (They might have even known that the Marx Brothers considered making a film version of Of Thee I Sing at one point.)"
The full article/review can be found here:
http://www.film.com/movies/whats-the-big-deal-duck-soup-1933
The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. -- A. Einstein
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Henry_Framus_Valentine
8 years ago
The first part is a sort of parody of the Wadsworth poem “Paul Revere’s Ride”
You mean Longfellow`s poem. Otherwise it`s like saying Langhorn wrote
Tom Sawyer.
🇺🇸 Liberty • E Pluribus Unum • In God We Trust 🇺🇸
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pt100
8 years ago
Thanks. I guess I was having a senior moment. 😉 I'll fix it.
The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.–J.B. Haldane
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