When Reality & Dreams go to war, love is the greatest weapon of all. note
In 1936, world-famous film star Harpo Marx and renowned art icon Salvador Dalí met at a party in Paris, then quickly became lifelong friends over their shared love of Surrealism and absurdist humor. This bond inspired Dali to propose Giraffes On Horseback Salad, a romantic comedy that would blend his off-kilter worldview with The Marx Brothers' madcap antics into a movie like none before. But the idea was too much for MGM, who rejected the pitch, leaving it to languish in obscurity...
...until 2014, when pop-culture historian (and longtime Marx Brothers fan) Josh Frank recovered Dali's notebook for Giraffes and vowed to make it real. Teaming up with writer Tim Heidecker and artist Manuela Pertega, they reformed Giraffes as a graphic novel published by Quirk Books. The result is a distinctively unique work of Sequential Art that is simultaneously zany, touching, silly, absurd, and very surreal, a glimpse into a movie that never was.
The story itself centers around Jimmy (Harpo), a highly successful entrepreneur who is locked into success and engaged to Linda, his social-climbing attention-seeking girlfriend. His life is abruptly thrown off-course when he runs into the Surrealist Woman, an enigmatic Socialite and Mysterious Waif whose every appearance is a spectacle. Aided by her assistants Groucho and Chico, the Woman Surreal finds herself falling in love with Jimmy, even as Linda's ire grows exponentially. But what is the fate for the newfound lovers when their passion threatens to (literally) change the world?
The book's website is here
. The official soundtrack is available here.
Giraffes On Horseback Salad demonstrates the following tropes: note
- Alpha Bitch: Linda, full stop. She insists on being the queen bee of any situation, pushes around her friends and fiancee with unveiled contempt, and stares daggers at anyone who challenges her authority.
- Animal Motifs: Jimmy and the Woman Surreal are represented by different animals.
- Jimmy is symbolized by butterflies. Love is compared to a butterfly, trapped in a cocoon as it transforms into something beautiful, yet it must be protected even when it's ugly. Butterflies are also allowed to fly freely because of their beauty, even if the chaos they spread isn't always welcome. Finally, the butterfly reflects Jimmy's metamorphosis into Harpo Marx when he embraces surrealism completely.
- The Surrealist Woman (and surrealism as a whole) is represented by flaming giraffes, because.
- Apathetic Citizens: When the world starts to become more and more surreal, most people — including authority figures — respond with feeble attempts to cope as best they can.
- Big Finale Crowd Song: "Tomorrow Isn't Just Another Day", an uplifting song sung by the entire cast.
- Can't Stay Normal: After her reality warping powers causes Jimmy to have a near-fatal auto accident, the Woman Surreal tries to settle for a life of domestic normalcy to keep them safe. Unfortunately, she finds it too stifling and repressive, and eventually tells him that she must return to her surrealist ways. In response, Jimmy abandons his dreams of a normal life and fully embraces surrealism, turning into Harpo Marx in the process, and devotes himself to a life with her.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Played with; Linda is very protective of her relationship to Jimmy, even though she treats him as an afterthought and has a lover on the side. She's obviously only after Jimmy so she can leverage his meteoric rise to success.
- Courtroom Antics: The trial of the Surrealist Woman quickly descends into zany hijinx thanks to the efforts of Groucho and Chico.
- Creator Cameo: In flashbacks, the Surrealist Woman's father resembles Salvador Dalí.
- Cuckold: At the start of the story, Jimmy is engaged to Linda even as she is romantically involved with Michael. Jimmy doesn't particularly care, as their relationship is primarily one of convenience.
- Determinator: As the story progresses, Linda becomes more and more obsessed with tearing down the Woman Surreal, both for stealing Jimmy away from her and for being the center of attention.
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: In keeping with Giraffe's origins as a Marx Brothers movie, the graphic novel features several songs incorporated into the story. These include "Doing the Chez La Vie" (Groucho's opening act for the Woman Surreal), "The Pull of the Heartstrings" (Jimmy's harp solo), and "La Femme Surreal" (Groucho's report to Linda).
- Doing In the Wizard: Invoked in-universe as the Socialites initially discuss the Woman Surreal's amazing public spectacles, theorizing that they're elaborate special effects funded with a secret fortune. This debate is dropped when her Reality Warper powers grow powerful enough to affect the entire planet.
- The Faceless: Played with; the Woman Surreal is almost always shown either with her face hidden or her eyes masked. She only appears clearly two times — once in flashbacks to her youth, and once when she reveals her innermost self to Jimmy.
- Fancy Dinner: The Surrealist Woman invites Jimmy to such a dinner along with a bevy of other guests. The dinner is served on her massive bed, where they eat while she reclines.
- Fear Song: "The Shadow Plays", an inner monologue about Jimmy's self-doubts.
- Glad I Thought of It: After it is revealed that the Woman Surreal bathes every day in a bathtub full of fresh small oysters while wearing a stoat wrap, Linda does the same thing... while insisting that this has been her routine for the last three years.
- Helping Hands: Groucho is often assisted by a swarm of disembodied hands that perform assorted odd jobs.
- Hidden Depths: Jimmy first catches the eye of the Woman Surreal after he
beautifully plays the harp at the Chey Phoenix. His friends are astonished that he's never demonstrated any musical skills before, and he halfheartedly mumbles that it's something he learned from a long time ago. - It's All About Me: Linda insists on being the center of attention wherever she goes. She becomes visibly angry when the Surrealist Woman appears and draws everyone's interest, and she seethes at Jimmy for simply being inquisitive about her.
- Literal Metaphor: When Jimmy finally meets the Surrealist Woman, she points to a picture of herself from a flashback and says "You wanted to see me. So, here I am."
- Literal-Minded: Invoked by Groucho; when Linda demands "What is the meaning of this?!", he looks up the meaning of "this" in a dictionary.
- Literal Transformative Experience: After Jimmy fully embraces surrealism, he turns into Harpo Marx, complete with top hat, trenchcoat, and bicycle horn.
- Love Theme: "What They Call Falling In Love" is a duet between Jimmy and the Surrealist Woman.
- Marriage of Convenience: This is the nature of Jimmy and Linda's engagement — he marries her to get access to her father's fortune, while she gets to ride his entrepreneural success and become famous as a result.
- Medium Awareness: Groucho is aware that he's in a graphic novel."We could go on like this all night, but this publisher only allowed us 240 pages."
- Mob War: Parodied. While the Surrealist Woman is imprisoned, Jimmy, Groucho, and Chico start spreading madness throughout the city in an attempt to normalize surrealism. They are opposed by the Realists, led by Linda, Michael, and their socialite friends. The Realists use weapons modified to shoot food, confetti, paint, and rubbish, while the Surrealists retaliate with circus animals, tentacled eyeballs, and other indescribable apparitions.
- Mysterious Waif: The Woman Surreal is an in-universe example; the story begins with a group of socialites gossiping over her identity and her rumored fortune.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Groucho attempts to spoil Linda's dueling party by zapping it with a surrealism beam, causing the venue to grow legs and walk away. Unfortunately, this enrages Linda's guests, causing them to attack the Surrealist Woman's party and have her captured by authorities.
- No Name Given: Many of the characters are never referred to by name, most notably Groucho and Chico's characters.
- Only One Name: Named characters only go by their first name, such as Jimmy and Linda.
- Party Scheduling Gambit: When she learns that the Surrealist Woman is planning a party in the California desert, Linda rents out a nearby farmhouse and schedules her own party at the same time to try and overshadow it.
- The Power of Love: When the Woman Surreal begins falling in love with Jimmy, her powers are quickly amplified to the point where she begins altering the entire world into a surrealistic fantasyland.
- Present-Day Past: Used by Groucho when he shows off his pager (a ghostly page that is used to send messages):Groucho: "The pager allows you to have people call you from wherever you, or they, are! The patent is pending, as is the technology, which won't be available to the everyman until the 1980s, so I wouldn't use it if you need a response before Ronald Reagan is president."
- Real Dreams are Weirder: The Woman Surreal explains that her manifestations are simply products from her dreams.
- Reality Is Out to Lunch: The Surrealist Woman is the living embodiment of this trope, as her Reality Warper power lets her alter herself and her environment with every step. She has to actively concentrate to prevent creating oddities everywhere she goes.
- Reality Warper: The Surrealist Woman can alter herself and her surroundings with nary a thought; her appearance changes from moment to moment, and her assistants only need to express a request before it's fulfilled. Coupled with her Cloud Cuckoo Lander tendencies, it's no wonder she leaves a trail of surrealism wherever she goes.
- The Runaway: After a childhood incident when the Surrealist Woman endangered a schoolmate with her abilities, her parents were ordered to send her abroad to avoid harming anyone else. She instead creates a giraffe and rides away, and her parents are never mentioned again.
- Seen It All: As the longtime assistants of the Surrealist Woman, Groucho and Chico take their bizarre working conditions in stride. Whether it's answering phone calls with lobsters or driving cars that rain inside, nothing fazes them.
- Surreal Humor: This is a romantic comedy written by Salvador Dalí with Harpo Marx as the leading man — how could it be anything else?
- Surrealism: Not surprising for a work by Salvador Dalí, this story is full of surrealist imagery and philosophy. The tale begins with a woman traversing an exclusive nightclub in a winding white velvet tunnel, an orchestra playing music with roast chickens tied to the tops of their heads, and a ballerina dancing while a swarm of disembodied hands caress her — and it simply gets more inexplicable as the story progresses.
- Those Two Guys: Groucho and Chico, whose duties consist of an equal balance between fulfilling the Surrealist Woman's requests and making nonstop jokes at the people and situations around them.
- Turncoat: Played for laughs when Chico gets hired as Linda's prosecuting attorney in the trial against the Woman Surreal. Given that this is Chico here, it's not particularly effective.
- Willfully Weak: After the Woman Surreal is imprisoned and awaiting trial, Jimmy asks why she doesn't simply free herself with her powers. She explains that she doesn't want to risk hurting anyone with them, as she's frightened by what she might do when scared.
- Word Salad Title: Good luck trying to figure out what exactly is a "horseback salad". And while (flaming) giraffes appear, they're not directly related to the plot.
- Workaholic: Jimmy is this at the beginning. Not content to be the visionary CEO of a massive company, he spends much of his workday in the trenches, answering multiple phone calls and performing mundane tasks that should be done by his subordinates.
- World of Weirdness: Earth becomes one of these when the Surrealist Woman falls in love with Jimmy and her Reality Warper powers are amplified — the streets of Paris all go in one direction, Venice has been drained and floats twenty feet off the ground, bridges of slime fill the city and lead to roads in the air, and more.
"Empires will always crumble, everything now standing will one day be defeated by time. There is nothing worth holding onto if it ties you down to this silly little earth with its laws of nature that drive everyone mad with logic and reason." note
