Answer:
   
   The sixth Marx brother Karl turned his comedic skills to literature.
   He wrote a spoof of an economic treatise which parodied the ponderous
   "scientific" tomes of his day. Unfortunately, people with no sense of
   humor took him seriously and attempted to carry out the philosophy he
   used in the book. It was as if the English had attempted to carry out
   Jonathan Swift's "A modest proposal" and the results were just as
   tragic.
   
   The last czar of the Russian Empire (Mikhail I of the House of
   Gorbachev) finally admitted this and abdicated, and there was much
   rejoicing.
   
   [For the humor-impaired, to quote Foghorn Leghorn, "the above was a
   joke, son."]