How Groucho Marx Inspired a Britney Spears Hit

Groucho Marx was far from a sexy pop star, yet he inspired a Britney Spears song. That fact only makes the song weirder than it is on the surface. On top of that, another pop star wore a sexy dress that inspired the tune in question.

Britney Spears’ ‘Hold It Against Me’ is based on a Groucho Marx joke

In addition to being a movie star, Marx also hosted a show called You Bet Your Life. Stereogum reports he loved to use the suggestive line “If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?” on the show. Eventually, a variation of that joke became the center of Spears’ hit “Hold It Against Me.” In her version, the pickup line is, “If I said I want your body now, would you hold it against me?”

That lyric is beyond corny, but Spears delivers it just as seriously as her other songs. That’s part of why “Hold It Against Me” is almost surreal. Over the course of the track, we get a Marx paraphrase, a dubstep breakdown, a bubblegum pop chorus, the sound of a clock, and Spears smacking her lips. If an indie artist put out “Hold It Against Me,” it would have been considered avant-garde.

How Katy Perry inspired Britney Spears’ song

“Hold It Against Me” was co-written by Bonnie McKee, the mastermind behind Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” and Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite.” During a 2013 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, McKee revealed what it’s like to write a song for the Princess of Pop. “Britney Spears is just all sex, all day,” she said. “It’s like, ‘How many sexual innuendos can I come up with?'”

In the interview, McKee connected “Hold It Against Me” not to Marx, but to Perry. “‘Hold It Against Me’ was a happy accident,” McKee recalled. “It was actually inspired by Katy because I was writing with her at the time and I went in the other room where I was working on Britney in between. She came into the room in some tight, sexy little dress and I jokingly said, ‘Damn, Katy if I told you you had a nice body would you hold it against me?’ I was like, ‘Bingo!’ and I wrote that song.”

McKee was asked if Spears was aware Perry influenced “Hold It Against Me.” “I don’t think so,” McKee replied. “I never actually got to meet Britney when we worked on the album, which is funny because I’m singing a lot of it. But she knows who I am, and she’s been really sweet about praising me.” In McKee’s opinion, “Hold It Against Me” is one of the best songs she ever wrote.

A critic compared ‘Hold It Against Me’ to an Austin Powers joke

Dance-pop songs like “Hold It Against Me” aren’t traditionally considered high art, but music critics have been warming up to the genre for the past 15 years. Rolling Stone put “Hold It Against Me” at No. 36 on its ranking of Spears’ songs. It compared the song’s central joke to an Austin Powers or Benny Hill line. Furthermore, it said “Hold It Against Me” was a good representation of a great album (Femme Fatale).

Marx knew how to turn cheeky sleaze into entertainment and Spears kept that legacy alive.