So I was watching Horse Feathers the other day, and when Groucho begins singing, "Whatever it is, I'm against it," something kinda clicked in my brain. I realized that the Marx Brothers and the Ramones both scratch the same itch in my brain. It's like my affection for both of them resides in the same mental file drawer.
I tried to figure out why this might be. I mean, yeah, there's the connection to the Ramones' "I'm Against It," but that's not all of it. Eventually what I came up with is that the Marx Brothers' whole act is based around them creating their own reality. No matter what's happening, they simply refuse to take it seriously. Nothing can really affect them, because while they occupy the same space as everybody else in the movie, they live in their own world.
I think the same thing might be true of the Ramones. And I think this is why, despite some fine songs on the later albums, the first few albums are the most beloved. It's like they created this whole weird cartoonish world of freaks and pinheads and horror movies and puppy love that just didn't really match up to anything in the real world. And it was the same thing with the live shows. It's not that they were stuck in 1976, because it's not like tons of people wore that uniform in 1976 either. It's just that they existed in their own world, and whenever they came to town, it wasn't like they visited your town--it was like you visited their world.
In the end, this is an incredibly subversive and cool schtick, which may be why the Marx Brothers were beloved by so many counter-culture types of the 60's, and the Ramones continue to be beloved of misfits and oddballs. Don't like the world you live in? Make your own!
