Editing Marx Brothers (section)

==Screen and Theatrical Persona==
The on-stage personalities of Groucho, Chico, and Harpo were said to have been based on their actual traits. 

Zeppo, on the other hand, was considered the funniest brother offstage, despite his straight stage roles. He was the youngest and had grown up watching his brothers, so he could fill in for and imitate any of the others when illness kept them from performing. "He was so good as Captain Spaulding [in ''[[Animal Crackers (1930 film)|Animal Crackers]]''] that I would have let him play the part indefinitely, if they had allowed me to smoke in the audience", Groucho recalled.{{sfn|Kanfer|2000|p=139-140}}

The brothers satirized high society and human hypocrisy, and they became famous for their [[improvisational comedy]] in free-form scenarios. A famous early instance was when Harpo arranged to chase a fleeing [[chorus girl]] across the stage during the middle of a Groucho monologue, to see if Groucho would be thrown off. However, to the audience's delight, Groucho merely reacted by commenting, "First time I ever saw a taxi hail a passenger." When Harpo chased the girl back in the other direction, Groucho calmly checked his watch and ad-libbed, "The 9:20's right on time. You can set your watch by the [[Lehigh Valley Railroad|Lehigh Valley]]."{{sfn|Marx|Barber|1961|p=191}}

Out of their distinctive costumes, the brothers looked alike, even down to their receding hairlines. Zeppo could pass for a younger Groucho and played the role of Groucho's son in ''[[Horse Feathers]]''. A scene in ''[[Duck Soup (1933 film)|Duck Soup]]'' finds Groucho, Harpo, and Chico all appearing in the famous greasepaint eyebrows, mustache, and round glasses while wearing nightcaps; the three are indistinguishable, enabling them to carry off the "mirror scene" perfectly.