ConchRepublican wrote:I liked it a lot more when I was younger. Now I find Hawkeye's arrogance and condescension annoying, as well as the show's preachiness.
Conch, your view is in contrast to my own, as imo the world has few Hawkeye Pierces and far too many Frank Burnses in it.
As for the series itself, I've come to the following conclusions and probably comes across as "preachy."
So many read "preachiness" into what
M*A*S*H was doing but what good would it be if they already told us what the audience already knew---that totalitarianism is bad. For some bizarre reason Americans cannot handle being criticized or parodied and that's what
M*A*S*H was doing. The show would be a redundant, hopeless Cold War relic if its emphasis was on how evil the Communists were (and always have been). To be upset about the absence of anti-Communist rhetoric means that one is missing the point of what the program was about. We learn more about ourselves through self criticism, not by constantly saying how bad the enemy is.
Even if what
M*A*S*H was saying rankled one's political sensibilities, hopefully one can see that there is truth in what they were lampooning: the hypocrisy of institutions, politicians, and the lesser-qualities of the United States itself. It doesn't make
M*A*S*H anti-American or pro-Communist but hopefully gets the viewer to think, whether said viewer agrees with what is being criticized or not.
As for the program's change in tone and humor. I take the view that
M*A*S*H is not about merely telling jokes, but about commenting on life and its tragedies, which is when comedy works best--in proportion to drama. I also see someone like, say, Woody Allen's humor this way which is why I understand his need to cover dramatic themes. Humor shouldn't really exist on its own, or even comedy; the same goes for drama. It's not about one liners
per se, but rather the context of the one liners and how they serve as a response to something that needs lampooning. You know, all that "state of the human condition" stuff that
M*A*S*H has which so many apparently "hate" but nevertheless torture themselves watching which in turn tortures those of us who enjoy the entire series with their inability to handle seasons four and on.
To quote Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, author, and World War II veteran
Bill Mauldin:
"War humor is very bitter, very sardonic. It's not ha-ha humor. I asked Tad Foster, a cartoonist I admired a lot from the Vietnam war, if people came up to him and said, 'I loved your stuff from the war--it kept me laughing all the time. Foster said, 'Yup. sons of bitches.' I feel the same way. When someone says Willie and Joe [Mauldin's characters] made them laugh, I tell them, 'You're not supposed to laugh.' Maybe you grin or nod, but it's not ha-ha humor."
I believe that this brand of humor also applies to
M*A*S*H and the show was all the better for adopting this attitude.
I don't expect any responses to any of this. lol