Full Marx

A wormhole in time re-materialises Karl Marx in today’s London Soho, where he lived in the 1850s, agitating for the revolution. As he walks down the street, no one acknowledges him. Outside the Grouch Club, the same confluence of magnetic forces causes Groucho Marx to appear, having been in the area when he fronted a short-lived radio quiz in the 1950s. Karl and Groucho find an affinity: neither was much valued in their respective 50s and each was hounded for subversion.

As they walk, everywhere seeing capitalism become hypercapitalism, they believe they can get it finally laughed out of existence. But they argue over the precise jokes that’ll do it. Respectively offering a copy of Das Capital and a DVD of Duck Soup to passersby, they’re ignored. Karl is sure they’ll find a receptive crowd - and spark the catalyst this time against the exploitation and inequalities that capitalism engenders - in the pub here where he conceived the Communist Manifesto. But dodgy memory banks make locating it torturous.

Cracking jokes during their search (not all of them Jewish), they eventually find the right pub - now called ‘Be at One’. Perfectly renamed! Inside, about to deliver their shtick, they light up a cigar. They mistake the silence that falls (due to the sedition of smoking indoors) as preparedness to be taken seriously.