Groucho Marx? Neville Cardus? Godfrey Smith? Donald Trelford? John Gale? Michael Davie? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: A popular anecdote states that a famous U.S. comedian was taken to a cricket match. The comedian watched the field intently but without comprehension. The hosts attempted to explain some of the complicated rules of the game. After thirty minutes of dull action on the field the hosts asked uncertainly:
“How do you like the game?”
“It’s great. When does it start?”
This punchline has been attributed to Groucho Marx. Does this anecdote describe a genuine event? Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest evidence found by QI appeared in “The Spectator” of London in 1964 within an article by English critic and sportswriter Neville Cardus. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
A few summers ago, Groucho Marx was taken to Lord’s, during the course of a dull immobile county match. Through the windows of the Long Room he looked on, while a friend instructed him about the game’s rules and know-how. ‘Six balls bowled from this end, then six from the other.’ ‘If the batsman hits the ball where a fieldsman can’t stop it, they run.’ And so on.
Groucho listened attentively. ‘I think I’ve got it. The field changes over. They run. Yeah-—I think I’ve got it.’ He watched the game in silence for five minutes, then said, ‘Say — when does it begin?’
Citations presented further below indicate that the journalists John Gale and Michael Davie invited Groucho Marx to witness a cricket match. Marx accepted and delivered a variety of jokes, but there is no direct evidence from a witness that Marx used the punchline above.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
A joke with a similar type of punchline appeared in 1921. The United States prohibited alcoholic beverages beginning in January 1920. A poem called “The Bootlegger” was printed in multiple newspapers in May 1921. The punchline appeared as the final line of the poem:2
Under the spreading chestnut tree
The Village Bootleg stands.
He sells his wares quite openly
From his stock of the favorite brands.
…
As he sells his hootch and gin
From among his casts he grins and asks,
“Say, when does Prohibition begin?”
In 1930 a version of the Prohibition joke appeared in “The Minneapolis Sunday Tribune” of Minnesota:3
Seven or eight years ago the country was chuckling over the remark of the distinguished visitor from abroad who, when asked what he thought of prohibition, said: “I suppose it’s all right, but when does it begin?”
In 1964 Neville Cardus presented the anecdote featuring Groucho as mentioned previously.
In 1981 Neville Cardus published the collection “A Fourth Innings with Cardus” which reprinted the piece containing the Groucho tale.4
In 1984 English journalist Godfrey Smith published “The English Companion: An Idiosyncratic Guide to England & Englishness from A to Z”. The entry for cricket contained the following passage:5
Groucho Marx, taken by an English host to see his first cricket match, sat in rapt attention for half an hour. Finally his host turned and asked how he was enjoying himself. ‘Fine,’ said Groucho, ‘when does it start?’
In 1985 Godfrey Smith was a columnist for “The Sunday Times” of London. Smith repeated the tale in his column:6
Are we the most boring race in the world? We certainly have the most boring national anthem and the most boring national game. Groucho Marx, taken once to a cricket match at Lord’s, sat in rapt attention for half an hour. His host then turned to ask him how he was enjoying himself. “Fine,” said Grouchoa, “when does it start?”
In 1986 columnist Michael Billington of “The Guardian” referred to the tale:7
. . . reminded me of Groucho Marx being confronted by his first cricket match and asking in some bewilderment, “When does it start?”
In 1987 “The Observer on Cricket: An Anthology of the Best Cricket Writing” was published with an introduction by Donald Trelford who was the editor of “The Observer” newspaper in London. Trelford Presented a detailed version of the anecdote:8
One summer evening over thirty years ago, two Observer journalists were enjoying a pint of Guinness in an Irish pub in Fleet Street when their attention was caught by a paragraph in the evening paper. It reported that Groucho Marx, the famous Hollywood comedian, was visiting London and seemed to be rather bored. So, doubtless fortified by the Guinness, they decided to invite him to join them for a day’s cricket at Lord’s.
Trelford stated that the two journalists were John Gale and Michael Davie, and they were surprised when Groucho Marx accepted their invitation. During the excursion Groucho made some comical remarks:
As they arrived at Lord’s, Groucho pointed to a sign reading ‘Members and Friends’ and said, ‘That’s the most ambiguous notice I’ve ever seen.’ There was only a handful of spectators in the ground, watching a dullish mid-week county match in a reverent silence.
Trelford communicated with Michael Davie when attempting to obtain verification for the details of the anecdote. Unfortunately, Davie was unable to confirm the punchline:
According to the account I heard, the journalists turned to Groucho after about half an hour of watching the cricket and asked him uncertainly, ‘How do you like the game?’ To which he replied, taking his cigar out of his mouth, ‘Great, just great.’ Pause. ‘When does it start?’ Alas, Michael Davie does not recall this last bit, though he confirms the rest.
Michael Davie died in 2005. The BBC news service published a piece about people who passed on titled “Been and gone 2005”. The item about Davie included the following:9
In fact, he became known, while at the Observer, for sneaking off to cricket matches during the summer. On one occasion, he heard that Groucho Marx was growing bored with London during a visit. He invited him to Lord’s to watch Middlesex play on a lifeless wicket. When Davie asked Groucho if he was enjoying it, the comedian replied, “It’s great. When does it start?”
In 2017 “The New York Times” printed a brief instance of the tale:10
Mr. Adiga quotes Groucho Marx, who is said to have watched a cricket test match in London for an hour and asked, “But when does it begin?”
In conclusion, this anecdote appeared in a column published by the British sportswriter Neville Cardus in 1964. Groucho delivered the punchline in Cardus’s version of the tale. In 1987 newspaper editor Donald Trelford presented a lengthy version of the tale within the introduction to “The Observer on Cricket: An Anthology of the Best Cricket Writing”. Trelford communicated with Michael Davie who indicated that he and his colleague John Gale did take Groucho Marx to see a cricket match. But Davie was uncertain whether Groucho employed the punchline.
Image Notes: Abstract representation of cricket from Clker-Free-Vector-Images at Pixabay. The Image has been resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to the anonymous cricket enthusiast whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.
- 1964 June 26, The Spectator, The Test That Never Was by Neville Cardus, Quote Page 853, Column 2, The Spectator Ltd., London. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1921 May 17, Elmira Star-Gazette, The Bootlegger (With apologies to H. W. Longfellow) (Poem), Quote Page 8, Column 4, Elmira, New York. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1930 February 9, The Minneapolis Sunday Tribune, From a Senator’s Diary, Section: Entertainment, Quote Page 3, Column 8, Minneapolis, Minnesota. (ProQuest) ↩︎
- 1981, A Fourth Innings with Cardus by Neville Cardus, Chapter: The Test That Never Was (Spectator), Quote Page 121, Souvenir Press, London. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1984 Copyright, The English Companion: An Idiosyncratic Guide to England & Englishness from A to Z by Godfrey Smith, Entry: Cricket, Quote Page 72, Clarkson N. Potter Inc.: Distributed by Crown Publishers, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1985 March 3, The Sunday Times, Let’s all dare to be square by Godfrey Smith, Quote Page 27, Column 1, London, England. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1986 April 26, The Guardian, Watching by Michael Billington, Quote Page 11, Column 4, London, England. (ProQuest) ↩︎
- 1987, The Observer on Cricket: An Anthology of the Best Cricket Writing, Edited and Compiled by Scyld Berry, Foreword by Donald Trelford (Editor of The Observer), Start Page xix, Quote Page xix and xx, Unwin Hyman Ltd., London. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- Website: BBC News, Section title: Magazine, Article title: Been and gone 2005, Article author: Bob Chaundy, Date on website: December 28, 2005, Website description: News organization of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). (Accessed news.bbc.co.uk on November 25, 2025) link ↩︎
- 2017 January 4, New York Times, India, as Seen Through Wickets by Dwight Garner, (Book review of “Selection Day” by Aravind Adigas), Start Page C1, Quote Page C4, Column 1 and 2, New York. (ProQuest) ↩︎