Instead, the legend persists in large part because misinformation about it is propagated over and over. This debate really should end here, based on a complete lack of evidence that Groucho ever said any such thing, coupled with his unequivocal statement affirming that he did not (and Groucho had no motive to disclaim one of the most famous lines associated with his celebrity if he really had said it). You know that line in You Bet Your Life? The guy says he has seventeen kids and I say: вЂњI smoke a cigar, but I take it out of my mouth occasionallyвЂќ? I never said that.

I get credit all the time for things I never said. I got $25 from ReaderвЂ™s Digest last week for something I never said.

So, did Groucho in fact utter this risquГ© remark, even if his bon mot never made it onto the airwaves? The one person who would undoubtedly know the truth is Groucho himself, and he maintained in a 1972 interview with Roger Ebert for Esquire magazine that he never said it: If Groucho had really made this quip, the only people who would have heard it would have been the people present during the recording of the program (i.e., the cast, crew, contestants, and studio audience). Since You Bet Your Life was taped in advance, heavily edited, and not aired live, this remark (if it truly occurred) would certainly have been cut from the finished program as too offensive for the standards of the times so we can state definitively that (claims to the contrary notwithstanding) nobody ever actually heard it broadcast. GROUCHO: вЂњI love my cigar, too, but I take it out of my mouth once in a while.вЂќД«ut did Groucho really say this, or is it a remark that (like so many other infamous quips) originated elsewhere and was later attributed to the notable figure deemed most likely to have said it? STORY: вЂњWell, because I love my children and I think thatвЂ™s our purpose here on Earth, and I love my husband.вЂќ GROUCHO: вЂњWhy do you have so many children? ThatвЂ™s a big responsibility and a big burden.вЂќ Story, a contestant with a remarkably large number of children (a number that varies anywhere from 10 to 21 in different tellings of the legend): The most notable remark of GrouchoвЂ™s You Bet Your Life years, that one that has gone down in legend as one of pop cultureвЂ™s most notorious comeback quips, supposedly occurred when Grouch was interviewing a Mrs.

About a hourвЂ™s worth of material was recorded for each half hour program so that flubs, uninteresting segments, and any troublesome or offensive remarks by Groucho could be edited out.

(In early telecasts of You Bet Your Life, Groucho can be seen reading off sheets of paper propped up in front of him on something resembling a music stand.) It was true, however, that Groucho didnвЂ™t actually meet the contestants until they walked onstage, and he certainly had plenty of latitude to depart from the prepared gags and questions (as did the contestants), with the result that much of the showвЂ™s banter was indeed improvised on the spot. Potential contestants were selected and interviewed in advance, scripts for each weekвЂ™s show were prepared by writers and reviewed by Groucho, and the comedian used a mechanical teleprompter to read his lines during the recording of the program. The interview-quiz show, featuring the famous $100 bonus paid to any contestant who said the вЂњsecret wordвЂќ (displayed on a cartoonish stuffed duck that dropped from above if a contestant uttered the word of the day) debuted on radio in 1947, aired on both radio and television through 1960, and continued on television only for its final season in 1960-61 - all in all, an amazing fourteen-year run for a quiz show with a tiny budget, a plain set, and a small jackpot (even by 1950s standards).ДЄlthough You Bet Your Life was structured to make it appear as though every show was completely ad-libbed by Groucho (who issued a steady stream of impromptu questions, off-the-cuff remarks, and cutting put-downs to contestants he had met only moments earlier), a good deal of preparation went into each episode. You Bet Your Life was the post-World War II vehicle that provided Groucho Marx with a career apart from his brothers and introduced him to a generation of viewers too young to remember him from his stage or film work.

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