Please join us in the third floor CAC Colloquium room May 7 at 4 p.m. for the first of our 2026 musicology lectures\, 'Musical Humor a nd the Marx Brothers' with Beth Levy of UC Davis.
Negotiating a midd le register between physical and verbal humor (slapstick and wordplay)\, t he Marx Brothers relied on musical humor at every phase of their long care ers. This chapter draws upon scenes from their films of the 1930s-1940s to demonstrate how their madcap musicality depends on the careful pacing of punchlines and an allusive mishmash of genres and styles. Many have interp reted the Marx Brothers’s mockery of societal norms\, polyglot accents\, a nd affectionate disrespect for the English language as a brand of immigran t anarchy. In counterpoint with these views\, this talk shows how their m ultivalent musical humor united the Marx Brothers as an ensemble act and d rew listeners into the rhythm of their jokes\, either implicating the audi ence in the delivery of the punchline or rendering it viscerally surprisin g when the joke hits home.
Beth E. Levy is Associate Professor of mu sicology at the University of California\, Davis. Her book\, Frontier Figures: American Music and the Mythology of the American West (University of California Press\, 2012)\, won awards from the Ame rican Musicological Society\, the Society for American Music\, and the PEN Center USA. She has published in American Music\, repercussions\, the Jo urnal of Film Music\, Aaron Copland and His World\, and Tonality 1900-1950 . Her current research involves the community and historical pageant in C alifornia\, the outdoor “Grove Plays” of the San Francisco Bohemian Club\, and the music of the Marx Brothers.
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260507T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260507T173000 LAST-MODIFIED:20260505T175350Z SUMMARY:Musical Humor and the Marx Brothers with musicologist Beth Levy TRANSP:OPAQUE X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=TEXT/HTML:Please join us in the third floor CAC Collo quium room May 7 at 4 p.m. for the first of our 2026 musicology lectures\, 'Musical Humor and the Marx Brothers' with Beth Levy of UC Davis.
N egotiating a middle register between physical and verbal humor (slapstick and wordplay)\, the Marx Brothers relied on musical humor at every phase o f their long careers. \;This chapter draws upon scenes from their film s of the 1930s-1940s to demonstrate how their madcap musicality depends on the careful pacing of punchlines and an allusive mishmash of genres and s tyles. Many have interpreted the Marx Brothers’s mockery of societal norms \, polyglot accents\, and affectionate disrespect for the English language as a brand of immigrant anarchy. \;In counterpoint with these views\ , this talk shows how their multivalent musical humor united the Marx Brot hers as an ensemble act and drew listeners into the rhythm of their jokes\ , either implicating the audience in the delivery of the punchline or rend ering it viscerally surprising when the joke hits home.
Beth E. Levy is Associate Professor of musicology at the University of California\, Da vis. \; Her book\, \;Frontier Figures: Amer ican Music and the Mythology of the American West \;(Universi ty of California Press\, 2012)\, won awards from the American Musicologica l Society\, the Society for American Music\, and the PEN Center USA. \ ; She has published in American Music\, repercussions\, the \ ;Journal of Film Music\, \;Aaron Copland and His World\, and Tonality 1900-1950. \; Her current research involves the community and historical pageant in California\, the outdoor “Grove P lays” of the San Francisco Bohemian Club\, and the music of the Marx Broth ers. \;
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