More questions come, and they seem to dance tantalizingly around the secret word.
In chapter two the scribes ask, “Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” And the answer to their question is the secret word, but the scribes themselves don’t say it. Immediately, a demon says something like it in chapter one, but presumably, being a demon, he cheated. As soon as we hear them, we begin waiting for someone else to come along and say the secret words: “Son of God.”Ĭue the contestants, set the story in motion, and the suspense is not so much how the narrative will end, but will any of the characters say the secret word before the story’s over? No one else knows this, the identity of Jesus, but we in Mark’s audience know from the beginning. At the outset of the narrative, before the show starts, the audience gets the secret word Mark 1:1: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” The duck and the secret word because remembering Groucho Marx has me wondering if Mark’s gospel didn’t also wish it had a toy duck to drop down from the ceiling. If a contestant said the word, a toy duck resembling Groucho with mustache and eyeglasses, and with a cigar in its bill, descended from the ceiling to bring a $100 (prize). Some show tension revolved around whether a contestant would say the "secret word", a common word revealed to the audience at the show's outset. I can’t tell you the rules of the game because 1) I wasn’t around much in the 50s and 2) in the reruns I’ve seen, the game largely takes a backseat to Groucho’s ad libbed interviews with contestants. Sometimes Hawkeye would even wear exaggerated eyebrows and a mustache, with glasses and, of course, a cigar, in unspoken homage to his hero.Īnyway, long before M*A*S*H, Groucho had this game-show called “You Bet Your Life,” which began as a radio show in the 1940s before landing on television in 1950 and running for another decade. Pepper and eating Moon Pies.Īlan Alda’s Hawkeye Pierce was a surgeon in the Korean War his quick wit and penchant for zaniness both 1) helped him hold on to his sanity in the context of the war and 2) strongly resembled Groucho Marx’s own quick wit and zaniness.
#Groucho marx magic word tv#
My fascination with Groucho Marx stems largely from my prior love for Alan Alda, whom I first knew as the endlessly witty Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce, while watching reruns of M*A*S*H on TV late at night with my Granny on her living room sofa while drinking Dr.
#Groucho marx magic word full#
Full disclosure: I don’t come by the following example honestly - or at least not directly.