# How did Groucho Get His Name? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 10, 2011, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-groucho-get-his-name/581364 "2011-05-10T02:37:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-groucho-get-his-name/581364/21 "2011-05-10T20:27:33Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Groucho said “The URI you submitted has disallowed characters.”? I think your link is bad. I think you meant [this one](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/380/did-groucho-marx-utter-a-famous-double-entendre-ad-lib-on-the-air). 🆒 Hey, I love my keyboard, but . . . ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-groucho-get-his-name/581364/22 "2011-05-10T22:01:26Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > If you disagree with **Exapno Mapcase** in a Marx Brothers thread, you’re usually wrong- but I have to disagree with you here. “I don’t know” fits the rhythm of that line better that “I’ll never know.” You have to hit the “never” pretty hard, and in any case that comes after the funny part of the line, which is “how [the elephant] got in my pajamas.” So you want everything after that to go by quickly. There are lots of Marx Brother quotes that most people get wrong. It’s just that for the rest of them, people remember the idea of the joke but not the wording and invent individual new phrasing to fill in the blanks. The elephant joke is different. Everybody tells it wrongly and in the same way. That’s got to be significant. If there were 50 ways of ending it I’d agree with you. There isn’t. There’s only one, and that one happens to have a significant memorable meter while the original doesn’t. That may have been entirely deliberate on Ryskind’s part but somehow the effect is lost on virtually all hearers. When everybody gets a familiar thing wrong in the same fashion, it’s meaningful, and how they get it wrong also has to be meaningful. It sure raises my antenna. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-groucho-get-his-name/581364/23 "2011-05-10T22:26:12Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Groucho said “The URI you submitted has disallowed characters.”? I think your link is bad. I think you meant [this one](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/380/did-groucho-marx-utter-a-famous-double-entendre-ad-lib-on-the-air). 🆒 And Groucho is about as disallowable a character as I’ve _ever_ seen [tap cigar, wiggle eyebrows, and look upward…]. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-groucho-get-his-name/581364/24 "2011-05-10T22:39:47Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > TThere’s only one, and that one happens to have a significant memorable meter while the original doesn’t. That may have been entirely deliberate on Ryskind’s part but somehow the effect is lost on virtually all hearers. Right. And Groucho was well known for sticking slavishly to the script when doing a play. The famous Kauffman quote may never have happened, but it wouldn’t have resonated if there was no truth in it. The version of Coconuts in Kauffman’s collected plays says that the script was assembled from various places, though it seemed to stick pretty closely to the movie version as far as I can tell - but I didn’t compare it. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-groucho-get-his-name/581364/25 "2011-05-10T23:58:03Z")
Back in pre-internet days, I used to pick up _The National Lampoon_ as often as I could. Once I found a piece that was basically a list of names. The names had been collected from news accounts about self-described space alien abductees, who reported them as belonging to the spokes-aliens who led the close encounters. No way could I reproduce the list today, but to give you a feel for them, they were along the lines of: Nakro Goblo Morlo Norlo Borlo Klako The title of the snippet was: _Marx Brothers From the Stars_ 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-groucho-get-his-name/581364/26 "2011-05-11T05:22:58Z")
I always inferred that Manfred was the often-heard-of “Ditto Marx”… ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-groucho-get-his-name/581364/27 "2011-05-11T05:28:00Z")
> [@Sam\_A.Robrin](#): > > And Groucho is about as disallowable a character as I’ve _ever_ seen [tap cigar, wiggle eyebrows, and look upward…]. I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member. ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-groucho-get-his-name/581364/28 "2011-05-11T05:41:16Z")
I’d always heard that it was an homage to an angry Argentinian cowboy he spent time with in his youth, but apparently I heard wrong. ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-groucho-get-his-name/581364/29 "2011-05-12T01:36:08Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The elephant joke is different. Everybody tells it wrongly and in the same way. That’s got to be significant. If there were 50 ways of ending it I’d agree with you. There isn’t. There’s only one, and that one happens to have a significant memorable meter while the original doesn’t. That may have been entirely deliberate on Ryskind’s part but somehow the effect is lost on virtually all hearers. > > When everybody gets a familiar thing wrong in the same fashion, it’s meaningful, and how they get it wrong also has to be meaningful. It sure raises my antenna. Maybe most people first heard this joke, as I did, in [Chitty Chitty Bang Bang](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062803/quotes?qt0283938). (Well, it _could_ be! :D) ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-groucho-get-his-name/581364/30 "2011-05-12T03:35:05Z")
> [@SCSimmons](#): > > Maybe most people first heard this joke, as I did, in [Chitty Chitty Bang Bang](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062803/quotes?qt0283938). > > (Well, it _could_ be! :D) For me, it was a Bennett Cerf anthology of children’s jokes, ca. 1960. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-groucho-get-his-name/581364/31 "2017-03-14T17:12:21Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > There are lots of Marx Brother quotes that most people get wrong. It’s just that for the rest of them, people remember the idea of the joke but not the wording and invent individual new phrasing to fill in the blanks. > > The elephant joke is different. Everybody tells it wrongly and in the same way. That’s got to be significant. If there were 50 ways of ending it I’d agree with you. There isn’t. There’s only one, and that one happens to have a significant memorable meter while the original doesn’t. That may have been entirely deliberate on Ryskind’s part but somehow the effect is lost on virtually all hearers. > > When everybody gets a familiar thing wrong in the same fashion, it’s meaningful, and how they get it wrong also has to be meaningful. It sure raises my antenna. I’m bumping the thread for a bit of 60-year-old breaking news. I found the answer. Who said “How he got there, I’ll never know?” Groucho did. On his TV show, _You Bet Your Life_. And I have [the clip](https://youtu.be/Kq9xdYDo0qg?t=36s) to prove it. I’m betting that a hit television show was more memorable to more people than the older original. People started saying the line “wrong” because Groucho did. Why exactly he made the change I’ll never know, but it feels good to nail that down. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-groucho-get-his-name/581364/32 "2017-03-14T18:10:53Z")
Now that this thread has been resurrected: > [@](#): > > Later in life, he became a fan and friend of Alice Cooper, oddly enough. He also became friends with Elton John and the band Queen. He encountered Elton in Los Angeles and pointed his index fingers at him like a pair of revolvers. Elton raised his hands and said “Don’t shoot me, I’m only the piano player,” thereby giving the name to Elton’s recently completed album. In 1977, after the release of the Queen albums _A Day at the Races_ and _A Night at the Opera_, Groucho invited the band to his home to thank them. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-groucho-get-his-name/581364/33 "2017-03-14T18:34:23Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I’m bumping the thread for a bit of 60-year-old breaking news. I found the answer. > > Who said “How he got there, I’ll never know?” Groucho did. On his TV show, _You Bet Your Life_. And I have [the clip](https://youtu.be/Kq9xdYDo0qg?t=36s) to prove it. > > I’m betting that a hit television show was more memorable to more people than the older original. People started saying the line “wrong” because Groucho did. Why exactly he made the change I’ll never know, but it feels good to nail that down. Cool beans! ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2017, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-groucho-get-his-name/581364/34 "2017-03-17T05:15:55Z")
Just to provide a data point, I first read the line as “…nobody knows” in “The Epic of Sidney Kidney”, from Plop! #13, DC Comics, June 1975. Next, I am pretty sure I heard it from Mr. Kotter as “I’ll never know”, and then eventually I saw the Marx Brothers movie. I’ve never told the joke myself, though, because first of all I’m pretty sure that everyone has heard it, but even if not, it’s so implausible that I’d ever have shot an elephant under any conditions that everyone would be finishing the joke for me. ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2017, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-groucho-get-his-name/581364/35 "2017-03-18T02:40:38Z")
I’ve never watched the TV show, but the radio version of the game is a staple of old time radio broadcasts. It’s surprisingly good, not much game show, mostly Groucho and his one liners. He really was quick on his feet. They scripted some elements of the show, naturally - but people say some strange things at times, and he knew how to take advantage of that, Sort of like Johnny Carson in a way. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2017, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-groucho-get-his-name/581364/36 "2017-03-18T02:55:09Z")
As long as we’re on the subject, here’s a [picture](http://1125996089.rsc.cdn77.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/marx41.jpg) of the five brothers without their costumes and make-up. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2017, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-groucho-get-his-name/581364/37 "2017-03-18T03:05:37Z")
> [@Common\_Tater](#): > > I’ve never watched the TV show, but the radio version of the game is a staple of old time radio broadcasts. It’s surprisingly good, not much game show, mostly Groucho and his one liners. He really was quick on his feet. They scripted some elements of the show, naturally - but people say some strange things at times, and he knew how to take advantage of that, Sort of like Johnny Carson in a way. They also recorded an hour of show and cut it to the best half hour of comedy. Groucho is obviously as good as spontaneous quipsters get, but nobody is that good. Cutting out the bottom half of anything tends to make the end product look above average; cutting out the bottom half of something that’s good overall will make the end product really shine. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2017, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-groucho-get-his-name/581364/38 "2017-03-18T03:12:56Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > As long as we’re on the subject, here’s a [picture](http://1125996089.rsc.cdn77.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/marx41.jpg) of the five brothers without their costumes and make-up. Cool! Groucho second from the left? ---
**Author:** ![Junior\_Spaceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Junior\_Spaceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Junior_Spaceman)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2017, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-groucho-get-his-name/581364/39 "2017-03-18T03:19:11Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Cool! Groucho second from the left? Yep - it’s (l to r) Zeppo, Groucho, Chico, Gummo, Harpo. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2017, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-groucho-get-his-name/581364/40 "2017-03-18T03:23:12Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > As long as we’re on the subject, here’s a [picture](http://1125996089.rsc.cdn77.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/marx41.jpg) of the five brothers without their costumes and make-up. The family resemblance is really remarkable when they’re out of costume. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-groucho-get-his-name/581364.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-groucho-get-his-name/581364.md?page=3)