"Monkees a la Mode"

Recently, I started watching a box set of Marx Brothers movies, partially to see if I can find any specific elements that may have influenced The Monkees series.  I vaguely remember reading somewhere that the Marx Brothers were an inspiration for the script writers, but the closest evidence I could find was an interview in the New Musical Express, referred to in the entry for 1 July 1967 in Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story (p. 336), in which Mike Nesmith says, "We've taken a Marx Brothers approach and given it a contemporary twist."  (It's also worth pointing out that Micky impersonates Groucho in "Your Friendly Neighborhood Kidnappers.")

A couple days ago, I watched A Night at the Opera (1935) and found an element that, perhaps just coincidentally, is also used in The Monkees.  After Chico and Harpo sneak into the orchestra at the opera, Harpo starts antagonizing the conductor with a violin bow, and the conductor strikes back with his baton.  The violinists then come to his aid, and Harpo and the violinists use their bows as swords to attack each other.

The same sort of gag is also in "Monkees a la Mode."  When Toby reads the article about the Monkees that Rob Roy Fingerhead has fabricated for Madame Quagmeyer's Chic magazine, specifically the claim that "their taste in music runs to chamber music and organ recitals," there's an imagined scene of the Monkees as a string quartet, and Mike and Micky also use their bows as swords against each other, complete with clanging sound effects.