>It's the fact that Marco Polo is bullshitting, and Kublai Khan knows it, and does not care. The whole point is that this guy is a borderline fraud, weaving tall tales, but no one cares because the stories are good. Its a comedic absurdist view, a mirror held up to fiction, basically asking, "who cares?"

I never quite thought Marco Polo was bullshitting, per se, but rather revealing aspects of a city (perhaps even the same exact city, or all cities, for that matter) that are otherwise left unexamined.