I don't think I would include this little sequence on any "best of the Marx Brothers" list or anything, but I think it's a very succinct encapsulation of the overall spirit of Marx Brothersness. (In particular, Zeppo's dance steps in the few seconds after he finishes playing the banjo are the definitive Zeppo moment, a snapshot of his whole character.)
Now watch this, and tell me Billy Joel isn't literally possessed by the spirit of Groucho Marx.
Starting with the intro scene ("Nah, not much longer"), I could see every movement of Billy Joel's face and body being performed by Groucho, and I could hear his lines in Groucho's voice, and now I can't not perceive that. I watch the video, seeing and hearing Billy Joel, while at the same time I see vividly in my mind's eye Groucho performing the same routine and hear Groucho's voice singing the whole song in my mind's ear. In fact, I can see a whole parallel video, in black and white, being performed by the four brothers and a crowd of extras.
Then I realized it's not just that one song. Take "Piano Man." This is a much more serious song, but doesn't it still have an awful lot of the air of classic Jewish Vaudeville about it? This one is harder to imagine as a literal Marx Brothers performance -- mostly because it would be Groucho singing and Chico playing the piano, but the singer and the piano man have to be the same person -- but the piano work has a distinct whiff of Chico about it, and the who can deny that the lyrics are very Grouchonian -- what Groucho might have written if he had taken himself just a bit more seriously and gone just a bit darker and deeper with his smart-alecky remarks?
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