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    Tuesday, July 22, 2003

     

    Humor as Disguised Drama

    I've been rewatching the episodes of MASH as they come out on DVD. This is TV that I saw when I was young, and I'm of course picking up more references that I didn't understand as a preadolescent. I'm also picking up on just how much of the show was too preachy or filled with hippie propaganda.

    Much that I've read on the net goes along the lines of either: The early shows were wonderful and the show was ruined when it got all dramatic, or the show was fluff until it got all dramatic. In some ways. yes, the show was a two-headed beast, particilarly in the middle years. But I find I can enjoy both.

    This cuts to the heart of the arguments that comedy and drama can't go together, or that humor is not a legitimate way to handle difficult issues. I find this bewildering; the entire point of MASH was that humor is the only sane response to an extreme situation. Humor can be drama or satire in disguise. Look at "Life is Beautiful", or "Doctor Strangelove" for excellent examples of this.

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