Outside of a dog

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx

I remember discussing this quote with a friend aeons ago. I argued with him till the time he lost ground to my convincing talks and gave in to my speculations regarding this quote. I never undestood this quote until now. Now that the logical and straight-forward me is lost and I understand the two sides of the same coin with utter simplicity, I do understand this quote. And I also realise that my friend indeed was right.

I would love to call it a 'subtle twist', but its his disembarkation of one thought and introduction of a totally new one though still related that fascinates me. The ease with which two totally different thoughts are connected with each other depending on the usage of the word 'Outside' shows the genius of Groucho Marx.

When you read the first sentence, you think 'outside' has the meaning 'other than' : "other than a dog, a book is a man's best friend". The next sentence changes the meaning of 'outside' to the spatial sense : "inside of a dog's body, it's too dark to read".

It's the unexpected switch from one meaning of 'outside' to another that is the essence of this quote. But I still am apprehensive to imagine "inside a dog". How could he even think of something like this?? This always has been the point of my disagreement. As I said, one cannot be logical here.

When I stumbled upon this quote recently in a newspaper article, I found myself craving for more of this kind. I found none. But here are some of his better ones.

"A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five."

"From the moment I picked up your book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it."

"Money frees you from doing things you dislike. Since I dislike doing nearly everything, money is handy."

"Those are my principles, and if you dont like them... well, I have others." - another one of my fav.

"Women should be obscene and not heard." - well its a good one, but I dont approve of it.