Oh no he didn’t! Also: Flyin’ high!

Cecil tells tales about the one, the only Groucho, SDStaff VegForLife goes up, up, and away and rolls [The Straight Dope] Oh no he didn’t! Also: Flyin’ high! By [The Straight Dope]( • Issue #9 • [View online]( Cecil tells tales about the one, the only Groucho, SDStaff VegForLife goes up, up, and away and rolls around, and we all get the munchies. Threadspotting The best of the Straight Dope Message Board  Feb. 21, 2020: [Disposall is a brand name, not a challenge](. Straight Dope Classic: July 25, 1986 [Illustration by Slug Signorino] Illustration by Slug Signorino [Did Groucho Marx utter a famous double entendre ad lib on the air?]( Dear Cecil: I heard a cute tale about how Groucho Marx supposedly got the hook while hosting a live broadcast of his famous TV quiz show, You Bet Your Life. As this micro-legend has it, Groucho was small-talking with a female contestant when the following exchange took place: GROUCHO: So, you got any kids? FEMALE CONTESTANT: Yes, Groucho, I have eleven children. GROUCHO: Eleven?! Did you say eleven kids? FEMALE CONTESTANT: Well, I love my husband. GROUCHO: Lady, I love my cigar but I take it out of my mouth once in a while. Supposedly, the program’s censors immediately stopped the broadcast and never let Mr. Marx do the show again. I’ll admit the story does sound a little contrived. Still, as a hunter of truth in the forest of deceit, do you find any droppings of plausibility? More important, can I get it on VHS? —   William S., Arlington, Virginia Cecil replies: I’ve had to strangle so many show-biz myths in their cradles, it’s a pleasure to report on one that has some basis in fact. Groucho Marx, who regularly did for the airwaves what Cecil tries to do for the newspapers, really did pull off the exchange quoted above. In fact, he mentions it in a book he wrote with Hector Arce about his broadcast experiences called The Secret Word Is Groucho. But it didn’t happen at the end of his network career, it happened at the beginning, in 1947 or ’48, when You Bet Your Life was still on the radio.  [Click here to keep reading]( Straight Dope Staff Report: September 7, 1999 [Can helicopters do loops and rolls?]( Dear Straight Dope:  Can a helicopter perform such classic aerial maneuvers as the roll and the loop?—  Lukys13 SDStaff VegForLife replies:  Seemed like the obvious thing to do was to ask some of the propeller heads at work, so that’s what I did. In the classic “yes and no” tradition, Lukys, the answer is “some can, some can’t.” It all depends on the design.  [Click here to keep reading](. Straight Dope Classic: June 1, 1984 [How does marijuana cause “the munchies]( Dear Cecil: I know that this really isn’t the type of thing that is asked about frequently, but I gotta ask. When someone smokes marijuana, they get the much-fabled “munchies.” I know that this occurs, I am just at a loss as to why it does occur. What is the physiological reasons for this to occur? — Out of My Skull at Ohio University Cecil replies: You need to slack off on the ganja, bro. What you meant to ask was what the physiological reasons are. Also, you used “occur” three times in two sentences. Besides interfering with cognitive function, marijuana impairs short-term memory. Looks like yours can be measured in milliseconds. Last time [the subject of the munchies came up, in 1977]( — I’ve been writing this column longer than a lot of you sumbitches have been alive — all I could tell you was that scientists had ruled out dope-induced fluctuations in blood sugar as a cause. Since then, I’m pleased to inform you, great strides have been made.  [Click here to keep reading](. Did you enjoy this issue? [The Straight Dope]( By [The Straight Dope]( Fighting ignorance since 1973. (It's taking longer than we thought.) [Tweet](    [Share]( If you don't want these updates anymore, please unsubscribe [here](. If you were forwarded this newsletter and you like it, you can subscribe [here](. Powered by [Revue](