Did the Dirtiest Joke in the History of Radio Really Happen?

The Golden Age of Radio isn’t known for featuring too many dirty jokes, probably because Jack Benny never dropped any F-bombs and Flash Gordon resisted the urge to recite obscene limericks about residents of Nantucket. But one iconic comedian made an impressively obscene quip during a popular game show – according to legend, at least.

The story goes that the great Groucho Marx, during a 1947 episode of the radio version of his popular quiz program You Bet Your Life, interviewed a female contestant with a large number of kids (the exact number varies depending on the telling). When Groucho asked how she came to have so many children, she responded, “I love my husband.” To which Groucho fired back: “I love my cigar, but I take it out once and a while.”

Several sources suggest that the anecdote is genuine, including Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx, which notes that the show’s director, Robert Dwan, thought that the line was “too bawdy and excised it.” And the stage play Groucho: A Life in Revue, co-written by Groucho’s son Arthur Marx, features a version of the joke.

As Snopes pointed out, the story is recounted in the book The Secret Word Is Groucho, which was credited to the comedian, but ghostwritten by collaborator Hector Arce. In the book “Groucho” recalls how he made the joke while chatting with a woman named “Mrs. Story.” Although, in this telling, the punchline was, “I love my cigar too, but I take it out of my mouth once in a while,” which kind of ruins the entire point of the joke. 

This claim was later backed by Steve Stoliar in his terrific book Raised Eyebrows, which chronicles the time he spent as Groucho’s personal secretary in the 1970s. Stoliar recalled that You Bet Your Life’s head writer Bernie Smith specifically told him that the joke was made while Groucho was speaking with a sign painter named Mr. Story and his wife, and that they hailed from Bakersfield, California. 

The full episode was eventually tracked down — although it aired in 1950, not ‘47. And it contains no ribald humor, which aligns with claims that the offending joke was cut from the broadcast. 

So it definitely happened, right? 

Yeah, not so fast. 

There are a few major problems with this story. For starters, Groucho himself denied ever making the joke during an interview with Roger Ebert. “I get credit all the time for things I never said,” Marx told the critic in 1972. And Groucho was never one to pass up the opportunity to take credit for his old one-liners.

And Dwan, who supposedly cut the joke out of the broadcast, also had no memory of the incident, but was later convinced by Bernie Smith that it was true. So that’s two instances in which Smith was the primary source for this anecdote. And it seems entirely possible that Smith could have been the source for the story in The Secret Word Is Groucho too, considering that he was interviewed for the book. Possibly ghostwriter Arce learned of the joke from Smith, then rewrote the story to read as if Groucho himself was describing the event.

So where did the joke actually come from? 

Smith was one of several writers who worked for You Bet Your Life, prepping Groucho’s apparent ad-libs based on pre-interviews with contestants. As the hosts of The Marx Brothers Council Podcast theorized, the joke very easily could have been something that was kicked around the writers’ room prior to the recording, but then ultimately scrapped. That would explain why Smith remembered the joke being told to Mr. and Mrs. Story, but nobody else seemed to. 

Also, if it had actually been recorded then cut out, there would still likely be evidence of it, because You Bet Your Life regularly saved any offensive content that didn’t make the broadcast and edited it together to entertain the sponsors.

But there are no recordings of the cigar joke anywhere, with the exception of an obvious fake that was included on a novelty blooper album.

Long story short: It sure seems like Groucho never actually told the cigar joke, despite what this retro deepfake would have you believe.

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