Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
Marx Brothers

Marx Brothers

7 4.1
A family of American comedians who made wild, funny films and stage shows
  • proper noun
  • /mɑrks ˈbrʌðərz/
translation icon : Hermanos Marx
  • On his influences growing up: "I used to watch the Marx Brothers, The Three Stooges, and Laurel and Hardy, so you could say I was drawn to black and white absurdism."
  • Marx Brothers movie
  • Marx Brothers comedy
  • Marx Brothers film

And I love my mom and she's the best, but she always reminded me of Margaret DuMont from the Marx Brothers movies.

Examples

  • Even if the work of the Marx Brothers is ever shamefully forgotten from their own films and Bugs Bunny impersonations, perhaps Dave Sim's Cerebus will keep Groucho's image alive for the people of the 22nd century...?

    Blog text (13)

  • They say that the old Marx Brothers film A Night at the Opera is very funny.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • My generation, my dad's generation, grew up on the Marx Brothers movies and then you bet your life.

  • And if you show somebody a Marx Brothers movie who's never seen one, I think that they'll think it's funny.

  • Yes, that was it: Irving Berlin's song "Always," which he wrote in 1925 for The Cocoanuts, a Marx Brothers Broadway musical.

    Academic text (2009)

  • "Why did kids like us see 'old' movies such as Sullivan's Travels, or the Marx Brothers, or Looney Tunes, W.C. Fields, etc., and were inspired and entertained by these crazy old movies, not bored?"

    Blog text (26)

  • I rate Stan and Ollie several notches above Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, the Marx Brothers, and The Three Stooges.

    Blog text (16)

  • The ragtag, anarchic spirit of vaudeville insinuated its way into early sound films in the work of comedians like W.C. Fields, Mae West, and the Marx Brothers.

    Academic text (2009)

  • The result is that W. C. Fields has become a mythic figure, and the public has confused the persona he created with the real man in a way that is not the case with the other great comedians of the era (Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, or the Marx Brothers).

    Academic text (2002)

  • The Marx Brothers were pioneers of comedy in American film and theater.

Surface Forms

Marx Brothers main

Morphology

Marx + brother

The phrase literally denotes brothers with the surname 'Marx', so a learner who knows the constituents can infer it refers to members of the Marx family. However, the specific notion that this refers to the famous American comedy team and their historical/cultural role is not derivable from the words alone, so the expression is only partially transparent.

Etymology

Marx Brothers comes from the real family name Marx and the fact they were actual brothers who performed together in stage shows and films. Their loud, silly comedy made their family name stand for that famous team of 'comedians', so today Marx Brothers means that group and their style of humor.