Anarchy had long been a staple of film comedy before the Marx Brothers came along. The entire concept of the Keystone Kops depends upon chaos and disorder. And, of course, one of the foundations of literature is the way to tell the difference between tragedy and comedy. Tragedy begins with everything in order and ends with every in anarchy; comedy is the exact opposite.
This truism is demonstrated in Duck Soup which begins with the appointment of Rufus T. Firefly to the position of leader of Freedonia. This is the stimulus for anarchy and the chaos that continually erupts and expands throughout the movie. While Duck Soup cannot be given the honor of creating the genre of anarchic comedy, it raised the stakes to a new level and in the process can right be honored with foreseeing the creation of a new literary genre to rise in the wake of World War II: absurdism. Whereas the progenitors of Duck Soup from the Keystone Kops to the shorts teaming Zasu Pitts and Thelma Todd feature anarchic comedy based on chaos, Duck Soup introduces elements which will become philosophical foundations for the Theater of the Absurd. Wordplay as a manifestation of the breakdown of communications, a pervasive existential threat that there is no meaning or purpose to life, the implication that existence is merely a series of unending and entirely predictable cycles, satirical undermining of respected institutions and conventions, and, of course, the underlying expression of even the most serious of issues as being absolutely absurd in the larger scheme of things; these are all elements of absurdism and Duck Soup manifests each.
What separates Duck Soup from other anarchic comedies that preceded it and most that followed in its wake (and what separates it from most other Marx Brothers movies) is that all this anarchy and chaos is manifested from an underlying structure that is a model of precision. There is a very definite plot line to the movie even if the enjoyment of its comedy is quite easily separated from that plot. Duck Soup advances its storyline logically, not chaotically, with each successive exhibition of anarchic humor building up the previous one.
The irony at work is that while the comedy of individual scenes move increasingly toward anarchy until the finale in which all rules completely break down and chaos reins completely, the storyline continues to follow the maxim that comedy starts in anarchy and moves ceaselessly toward restoring order. The film begins with Freedonia in a such a state of turmoil that someone comprehensively unfit for office like Firefly could be made leader from which it moves to a point where Freedonia finds itself in a state of war brought about by a personal insult before order is restored with the announcement by Mrs. Teasdale that the war has been won and victory claimed by Freedonia.
