Easily, possessor of the world's fastest wit.

Twenty-five years ago today the world’s greatest comic disappeared from our lives forever. His work, however, will go on and on and on. I’m talking about a man named Julius Marx, aka Groucho, whose comedic brilliance sent the world into tears of laughter and whose penchant for turning around any given statement into something else inspired my sense of humor moreso than any other comic, with the exception of Benny Hill.

I first encountered The Marx Brothers at the age of seven or eight on one of the Lazy Sunday afternoon moviefests with my father. I remember laughing not so much at the antics but moreso at the lines uttered by this funny looking guy with the odd walk, an ever-present cigar, a pseudo-moustache, and the leering eyes. The earliest Groucho line I can recall was when he told someone to “lie down until rigor mortis sets in.” The audacity of this little guy in a funny suit to lay into anyone and everyone in his path both shocked and tickled me simultaneously. I had found a new hero… and his name was Groucho.

In college I reacquainted myself with The Marx Brothers and their collective works. For Halloween for several years I went as the man, enjoying getting to cut into people all the while smoking a cigar. I poured over the movies with increased fervor, wanting to learn all the lines and basically train my mind to twist a sentence around so that it’s original meaning is lost and a new, comical one is established. For example, a woman once said to Groucho — “Will you join me?” to which he replied “Why, are you coming apart?” Corny, sure, but quick and easily proves my point. A co-worker recently said to me in regards to me bundling up a project I was working on using a program called Zip — “After we finish this, you can zip it up!” to which I wanted to reply “If I had zipped it up before even starting I wouldn’t have two kids today.” I ended up toning it down and merely said “Now THERE is a line that could be taken out of context.” It became less of a zinger but still achieved the end-result… I put a smile on someone else’s face.

To me, the greatest facet of comedy — true comedy — is the ability to create humor with mere words… and when it came to doing this, no one could ever hold a candle to Groucho. Robin Williams is perhaps the second fastest wit, Jonathan Winters a close third, but I’ll forever back that Groucho will always be the King of Comedy in the Wit Department.

Thank you, Groucho Marx, for giving me the blueprints to make lots of people smile.