Here’s how you know your politics have pitched a bit to the right: you’re enjoying a plate of Gino’s Pizza Rolls, watching an early episode of “M*A*S*H,” when suddenly you realize that just about everything Larry Linville says makes sense — and that, given the opportunity, you’d happily bend Alan Alda over a butcher’s table and thwack his self-satisfied ass about a thousand times with a rolled up poster of Douglas MacArthur.
…Failing that, I suppose you could just subscribe to The Weekly Standard or something…
I just want to take this opportunity to point out that Trapper John was, oh, about seven thousand times sweeter than B.J. Hunnicut. I guess if one wants to see “Providence, the Early Years”, then you’ll like Dr. Hunnicut fine. None of this should be construed to mean that MASH, at any time, didn’t totally rock the party that rocks the body.
MASH rant
Jeff, thanks so much for posting the toon on your blog-an honor, that is!
It’s odd, the older I get, the more I talk like Yoda…
Jeff,
you hit the nail on the head- I still like the show but even when I agree with the Hawkeye’s viewpoint (a much rarer occurance since the original run in the 70’s), I just want to reach through the screen and smack the smug off his face.
By way of comparison, I don’t think I will be saying the same thing about anyone on West Wing (except for Aaron Sorkin)over the next 20 years
3 things wrong with M.A.S.H.
Officers NEVER drank/fraternized with enlisted men. Never.
Combat commanders were almost never glory hungry maniacs heedless of the lives their actions cost.
Captured Communist officers were almost never loving Budah quoting father figures.
Alda got rich insulting people who, by and large, were better men than he was.
And, of course, as the difference between North and South Korea today demonstrates, the Korean war was not meaningless.
Most of us in the foxholes then knew why we were there and approved. Those who did not were, generally, spoiled assholes, kinda like Alda.