When Groucho Marx was on TV, I never missed a broadcast. He was one of the funniest people ever a my opinion. Thank you so much for posting this clip, I am going to save it, so I could watch it several times again. Today is January 24th 2023.
Groucho had lightning quick wit, it took a lot of skill to keep his humor within bounds of the censors of the day! So glad to see these outtakes, they show the genuine genius of this man and his guests. Thank you for this post.
Thanks for preserving this superb material. This just shows how good Groucho was. The guests were made part of the show and not treated as stooges.They must of had a great laugh making this show. The audience loved it
Its hard to move on from this classic. To laugh in todays times doesn't come easy, but watching Groucho keeps the smile on ones face, when not in full blown, laughter.
Absolutely! 30+ years of live entertaining experience had honed his skills to a razor edge. Let the audience expectation build while he lit, looked at, and puffed a cigar, writing our own jokes in our head, just waiting for him to hit that teed up ball. I was laughing harder at him doing that than the jokes he ended up telling. The "forbidden fruit" aspect of it helped, too. This was being filmed for TV broadcast, so you had to keep it clean. When it wasn't clean, that made it way funnier, and we were in on the "naughty" bit.
Certainly Jack Benny and Johnny Carson were great at pausing, looking away and letting the laughter build...but Groucho showed he was just as great at this as both of them.
Thank You for uploading these outtakes. I remember watching the old reruns of this show in the 1970's with my Mom and we would laugh . This brings backs good memories, since my Mom passed in 2012.
When you watch "You Bet Your Life " episodes today ,you realize just how much Groucho's humor was so far ahead of its time....there are many times I've seen where the joke goes right over the audiences head and there's crickets....what a fantastic wit he was, and his brilliance came from doing it ad lib! And his ability to put people on the spot- genius!
Groucho wasn't silent, he was just working over the many ways he could respond. His silence, facial expressions and hand gestures are funnier than a lot of comedian's acts.
Yes i loved how he would stare at people wondering are you nuts i loved when they clipped his cigar too. Yes he and George were great friends. Loved when he would sing.
7:55 The way he lights up that cigar and rides that wave of laughter is just masterful...any less of a talent would have been unable to refrain from commenting sooner. He lets it ride long enough and then steers it back to the guest...and then rides each wave after that, again, just long enough...listening, inserting a joke, riding the wave. Man, he was something wonderful.
As a comedian, Groucho had it all. Multi-talented - played instruments, could sing and dance since his childhood Vaudeville days. Very expressive, a great wit, he had excellent timing and could also be the perfect straight man. Just hilarious.
Incredible use of time. Not just _timing,_ but his use of time to let the audience get their own version of the joke, and he nutures the humor along with glances at the crowd and contemplations of the cigar. After the audience has enjoyed the joke, he steps in and deftly escalates it. Reminds me of a lesson I learned about Count Basie: lots of folks can play the notes. Basie played the rests better than anyone. Same with Groucho in the dialogue.
This was so funny! In the 70's I remember watching a rerun of YBYL, Groucho had a middle-aged lady on that said she and her husband have ten children. Groucho says to her, "You must love children". She responds, " Oh yes, we love children". Groucho then says the funniest thing I ever heard him say on the show; " I like a good cigar, but I take it out if my mouth every once in a while".
The line never aired. There is absolutely no question whatsoever about this. None. People remember seeing it, but they never have. Period. There is NO WAY the censors would have allowed it to air, and in fact there is no way the producers would have even TRIED to get it past the censors. Further, there is no existing outtake with the line, as you can see by its absence from this video compiling ALL of the surviving outtakes. Human memory is highly prone to error-- not just the folks on this thread, but ALL people, on ALL memories.
@@grouchomarx-youbetyourlife7476 Thanks. Very much agree it could not air. Lot's of people swore they heard the "that'll keep the little b_st_rd's" slip on the radio, but it never happened. Lot's of folks claim to have seen the Johnny Carson/Zsa Zsa Gabor "yes, if you'll just move that damned cat" line on The Tonight Show. Johnny was asked by Jane Fonda about this on the on one of Johnny's last Tonight Shows, and he denied it ("No, I would remember that!" The denial clip is available, but not the Zsa Zsa clip) According to Snopes, Groucho denied it in interviews, but in a largely ghostwritten work published at the end of his life, "he", or more likely his ghostwriter, Hector Acre, confirmed it. I doubt very much it happened. Snopes came up with a similar comment Groucho made to a woman with lots of kids where he talked about liking pancakes but not having closetsful of them. That may be the seed that someone misremembered or deliberately misrepesented to make it sound scandalous. Plenty of magazines and books got sold on BS stories of that type.
Groucho was sheer heaven and a comic genius. He doesn't even have to speak all he has to do is give one of his facial expression and look and we know what he's thinking which sometimes is even funnier!
I remember watching this show on re-runs back in the 70's. I always found it so relaxing. The whole show was about word play and conversation and it had such a gentle vibe and easy pace. It could easily have been a radio show but then you'd miss all of Groucho's facial humor. It still has this effect on me today. Thanks very much for posting.
I can barely remember my grandparents watching the show in the early 1960s. I was reintroduced to it in the 1980s when they used to play reruns at 11 o'clock week nights.
I am a longtime fan of Groucho from radio and TV. They have brought me countless hours of joy. This video is hilarious! I am recovering from surgery a week ago (I won't be specific, but it was in a painful location with tons of nerve endings where,as they say, "the sun doesn't shine") and have been enjoying episodes of You Bet Your Life, then this video came up, and I have laughed often and hard. It hurts to laugh hard right now...but it hurts so good! Thanks so much for posting. It is good medicine!
+tommytruth Back in "the day"....ANYTHING Groucho was involved in was MUST SEE NOW!!! It's truly a testament to his legacy that so many people through the years often imitate either the shifting of the eye brows....the Penguin style walk....the Voice... the Cigar mannerisms....or ALL of the classic Groucho "moves"! TY also Groucho Marx-You Bet Your Life for the postings of this Wonderful american Icon and Treasure!! Cheers All
Here he is...the One.....the ONLY.....GROUCHO !!! Greatest comedic genius of all time....and with his brothers, the greatest comedy team ever. Oh, and Duck Soup is the greatest comedy in the history of motion pictures, too.
something, i don’t know quite what??? tells me you think The Marx Brothers are the best thing since sliced bread ! :} watching these outtakes is just marvelous. he was a genius at making something funny about almost anything! i wonder if the story is true about why he was taken off the air, cause many of these are quite as raucous. and they edited the show for TV! this is what i heard. he had a couple on the show who had a whole buncha kids. the guy said something about loving his wife and Groucho said, as only he could, “I love my cigar, but i and take it out of my mouth once in a while!” ~ ~ ~
@@feralbluee The version I heard was that he asked the wife why she had so many children, and she said, "I love my husband." Then Groucho said, "Lady, I love my cigar, but I take it out of my mouth once in a while."
@@bernardbrenner6088 yup - you got it the right way around. LOL the audience must’ve bust a gut - even back then in the ‘50’s, when the younger generations think we were walking manikins doing the ‘50’s thing - whatever that was supposed to be. oh! i was a kid - i wore dresses and climbed trees :)
He was “The one, the only, Groucho”! His talent and quick wit shone in a format like “You Bet Your Life”. Some of his best stuff never made it to the airwaves then. These are some great examples.
It is june 7th 2024 and I watch almost everyday. Its over one hour but its so funny no problem watching Groucho with his wit and how he stares at some people wondering are you nuts. More peoole should watch for some real laughter.
Groucho's comic timing that looks so effortless here was the result of years of vaudeville comic experience, playing to different audiences every night and learning to listen the reaction, then playing to it. W.C. Fields, Jack Benny, Fanny Brice, Bert Lahr, Sid Caesar and many other comics of the era were products of vaudeville training. The closest thing to vaudeville today is improv comedy and many of our best comics today have a similar sensitive ear for the audience. Every night, the show is just a little bit different -- and as Groucho demonstrates, there are laughs in the pauses as well as in the lines.
56:00 "If you keep you feet on the ground you can be both actress and a mother" Groucho - "If you keep your feet on the ground you'll never be a mother!" - not strictly true but a great and funny comment.
The way Groucho can milk a risqué comment by remaining absolutely silent is a work of art! But it’s a shame these clips were not edited back in to the broadcasted interviews so that each interview could be seen completely intact. Would have been even more hilarious. It might have meant this video would have been 5 hours long but it would still have been unmissable!
I just love the reaction of the contestants when he throws those liners out there the looks in their eyes they just don't know how to handle it out there in the stage on a show feeling like everybody's watching them and he's throwing these liners out there this stuff is so uniquely priceless Groucho really had a good way of putting things
@Groucho Marx - You Bet Your Life The way RU-vid cycles automatically from one video to another, it can keep playing all night. I fell asleep listening to a different program (not even on one of your channels), and woke up to the sound of my husband laughing out loud at this one! :-D
What a comedic mind. You can see him thinking of how to respond to everything said by the guests. Never failed to deliver a great line. A lot like Johnny Carson.
Thanks for putting this together. Many nights in our home...we'll click on the RU-vid app on our big screen TV and have an awesome retro night of 50's fun! Groucho was one of a kind!
@@steam2go You really don't understand my comment, Mr. Know it All. From just one sentence you have ascertained that I "really don't understand implied humor." What else can you tell me about myself from that one sentence, The Amazing Kreskin? What a Macaroon!
@@TugIronChief ALL men prefer younger women, but most of us are not able to get there!....as Oscar Wilde once said _"Women should be obscene, and not heard!"..it's a joke---get over it!
Love the way these 'contestants' become part of Groucho's humor by simply being themselves, he motivates them to tell stories and anecdotes he can capitalize with his wit, not needing to be disrespectful. He was the master of comic timing, those pauses are 1-derful !!!
Back in late 1960s Groucho was on a televised Friars club roast of Johnny Carson. He was 2nd to last roaster and was in top form that night getting big laughs from audience. However Don Rickles followed Groucho and had the audience screaming and howling with laughter greatly outdoing Groucho. Groucho was great but Rickles was the best that night. ☺
What I enjoyed about this show were the plain simple folk who could be funny without trying. I loved listening older people talk when I was a kid growing up. There was an simple honesty and morality about America back then. I miss it.
The more I learn about Groucho the more I admire his talent, and his mind. I saw Dick Cavett discussing how, toward the end Groucho was so lonely he'd 'accidentally' bump into Cavett (and I presume other people) in order to spend time with them. I'd heard a similar story about Jimmy Stewart. A local disc-jockey talked about visiting Holly-weird, and randomly spotting an elderly Jimmy Stewart, who was out in the garden with his son. The disc-jockey gushed at meeting Stewart, told him he was a huge fan. Then, after getting his autograph and talking to him for a time, his son thanked the disc-jockey for having remembered Stewart. Apparently Jimmy felt as though no one remembered who he was. It's just an odd thing to get my head around the idea that even the most famous people whom you idolize may, at some point feel so forgotten... The other thing this video made me think about was today's SJW culture (circa 2020) as harmless and playful as a lot of these jokes were, at least for now, some of our culture has reached such an Orwellian mindset that various communities would be extremely offended by some of these words, and might even try to ban such a person from speaking. We've hit a very odd place, at this moment. I hope things stop moving in this odd direction.
An interesting thing about Groucho and Dick Cavett is they corresponded, as in letters, and Groucho willed that quite erudite and literate collection to the Library of Congress, where I presume they are accessible. Groucho was as is Dick Cavett, very very intelligent, and well read. I think I'm going to try accessing these letters myself.
Wow. What witty, down to earth and yet really hip comedy. Oh that edge, brains and, yeah, even risky innocence returned to TV. All kinds of American originals here - no homogenized reality stuff. Groucho, you were the best.
Yes, the Marx Brothers were the best comedic team of all times. The were magical, they were so different from each other. Love all their movies. But I didn't really appreciate Grouch until I grew older, at first I thought he was mean.
I love this show and i bet 1 hour 20 minutes is all laughter of the 127 minutes. It sure goes fast too. The ordinary people were mostly so much fun. GROUCHO was always interrupting the guests. Any way happy to see new views are happening. Will check back often.
Arabella Dawn lol and then Groucho refers to Christine Jorgensen, the first person widely known for having sex reassignment surgery. So literally, the gentleman became a broad!
And Groucho not saying a word, just letting the audience think about it and giggle! I'm sure the "abroad" "a broad" pun was well used in the day, but he played it perfectly. Bit of trivia, that pun was a throwaway joke in the movie "42nd Street". Ginger Rogers was playing chorus girl Anne Lowell. To stand out from the others she is using an affected aristocratic accent and wearing a monocle at the "cattle call". An old friend of hers is also there (Una Merkel), sees her, and calls over the Assistant Director (with whom she is sleeping with for the role). She brings him over to Anne to let him know Anne was to be guaranteed a role in the chorus as well. He is asked if he remembers her, to which he enthusiastically replies "Not Anytime Annie? Say, who could forget 'er? She only said "No" once, and THEN she didn't hear the question!" Anne was is deflated, her ruse foiled. As the screen fades out, we hear Una Merkel comment, "I didn't know you were abroad!"
best one liner..... well if you keep your feet on the ground you never become a mother. ....... there is no comedian today that can think of a one liner like that on the spot out of the air like groucho marx.
He was fantastic. The only ones who come close to being able to ad lib as well as Groucho, at least in my opinion, would be Norm Macdonald and Gary Shandling.
@@GeneBurnett Very, very different styles, but Jonathan Winters and Robin Williams also come to mind. But no matter how many names we can think of, none of them would be better than Groucho!
Baldi Locks Our progressive liberal friends call it a cultural progress, whereas I prefer the cultural decline and decadence instead . This is how we got here where we are!
Groucho was So,So Quick Witted and the Contestants were so funny, odd stories and the such. This show is still hilarious some 70+ years Later!! It still plays so Entertaining Even Now!!
This is what I'd love for heaven to be, infinite Groucho's art. I have literally not laughed like this for much too long. Absolutely nothing is as funny as Groucho in 2021. He will always be the best comedian on this planet. No one ever makes me laugh and feel happy like Groucho!
Groucho's one of my favorite people. So quick witted. He did an interview with William F Buckley back in the 60's with a judge as an arbiter. Very funny , very serious. Heh, he was doing his book tour. Buckley did not one up him, but he tried.
Groucho did so much with just his facial expressions. Just throwing this question out here. I will bet anyone watching this video is probably old enough to remember when old motels had coin operated vibrating beds. I was just a kid travelling with my parents so I had no idea what they were about back then.
Brilliant! A mind and a wit sharper than a razor. A trait Groucho maintained even into old age. Just watch how the contestants land themselves in it time and time again with Groucho. So naturally funny. Facial expressions and stares say a lot, something Jack Benny picked up on. Superb timing. Knowing when to ride a laughter wave, when to point it back at the mark, or to insert another joke. Groucho was the master. Never dirty or bad mouthed, something Groucho prided himself on. As he mentioned if you cannot make a joke without making it dirty or using foul language, then you are not a comedian. I agree. Such a wonderful guy, we will not see his like again. This compilation is an absolute gem. With it we will never lose what Groucho achieved. His comedy is timeless.
