Marx Brothers Film Fest Set

(Taylor Hallway) The WSCU Film Club will host The Lighter Side of Karl Marx in conjunction with Communist Days at Western on April 23. The series of rare film portrays the founder of Communism as a happy-go-lucky German living in London during the end of the Industrial Revolution.

“Rather than working his tail off in a sweat shop to support his family Marx opted for a life of poverty while penning Das Kapital in chains on the tobacco-stained kitchen table,” said Dr. Lorraine Engels, first chair of the Embellished History Department here.

“People think of Marx as some hard-nosed revolutionary when in fact he was a party animal to the max. His fondness for the ladies was fodder for gossip as far away as Liverpool. Talk about petit bourgeois! To other philosophers he was the rigid, bearded prophet of doom but to the ladies he was just Lil’ Karlo.

In addition to films regarding the rise and fall of Marx, a series of short pieces will fill out the dance card. These quickies focus on the family life of Joey Marx, Karl’s younger brother and owner of Proletariat Boutiques, a chain of upscale work clothes shops in England.

“The Joey Marx section of the festival is not endorsed by flick enthusiasts here since it is comprised of vague landscapes and terrible home movies collected by Vladimir Lenin during the Bolshevik uprising in St Petersburg in 1916.

Recent findings as to the daily life of Karl Marx may yet serve as an  further embarrassment to the left side of the family. Just yesterday afternoon researchers linked the Father of Communism to a kosher luncheonette that was allegedly operated by Karl and his half-brother Eddie “Haptz” Berg, in Leipzig during the first days of the new century. Marx later claims in a manifesto that he rejected a life of capitalism while Eddie insists that, due to a hole shortage, they could not secure a reliable daily bagel delivery and were forced to close the doors.

– Tommy Middlefinger