Season 8, Episode 12: Dear Uncle Abdul
Special Guest: Kevin Lauderdale
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I haven’t seen this episode in a long time and couldn’t remember the punchline to Hawkeye’s joke. But I remember him flying around the room. And as soon as someone said “bird imitations”, I chuckled.
It’s not a funny joke, but the amount of time it took to put each piece together from memory made it funny to me.
Great episode recap gentleman. You both really brought the lilt and panache!
This is a very well-constructed episode. Like most of the “Dear ____” episodes, there are seemingly disparate aspects of camp life going on, and here, they all come together in the end when Klinger tells Hawkeye and BJ why they’re not the funniest ones at the 4077th. I like how Potter, Margaret, and Charles all seem crazy from Klinger’s perspective, and I wasn’t expecting those separate parts of the episode to be tied up neatly like that in the end. (I’ve heard Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David talk as if they invented the concept of bringing subplots together at the end of an episode, but MASH has done it at least three times so far in the eighth season, by my count, and this is more than 10 years before Seinfeld went on the air.)
I’m glad you mentioned that the bar is on the other side of the Officers’ Club in this episode. I thought I was going crazy. As far as I remember, it goes back to the other side after this. It kind of reminds me of Happy Days when the Cunningham living room was completely different architecturally when they switched to a three-camera format with an audience. Either the stairway or the front door was on the opposite side of where it was before, which can’t really be explained “in universe.” At least here, I suppose it’s possible they could have moved the bar temporarily to the other side for some reason.
Interesting discussion about diegetic comedy. It made me think of Cheers. As Ryan has discussed on Cheers Cast, the characters in the later years occasionally laughed at each other’s jokes, so I think that would be diegetic. On Cheers, I think it was the actors themselves who would naturally laugh at each other, as opposed to it being in the script, but it worked for the vibe of the show in the Rebecca years.
my dad wrote a joke “do you know the differnce between shit and peanut butter?
“no”
“I ‘m not having toast at your house!
I’m honestly surprised that Klinger, of all people, can’t score a new footlocker (or at least a replacement lock for the broken one). He’s so quick to insist it’s unobtainable through official channels, I suspect he isn’t making any effort to try back channels, presumably because Margaret has recently hurt his feelings with one of her barbs, and he’s not doing any favors for her right now.
And isn’t every M*A*S*H* unit technically in a combat zone? We’ve certainly seen the 4077th subjected to artillery shelling, snipers, and even the occasional biplane bombing, which seems to me to define combat.
And Winchester’s hunting attire is the perfect example of both common sense and a total lack thereof: he’s wearing his oak leaf insignia to prove he’s an Army office, so in the event of capture by the enemy, he’ll be treated as such. If he were entirely in civilian attire, he could be charged as a spy and executed on the spot. That said, as you guys have noted, wearing bright red is incredibly idiotic.
Lastly, shouldn’t a shotgun blast going off in the middle of the camp brought armed soldiers to investigate, or at least Col. Potter?
I love when people do in depth analysis of MASH!!! It’s such a complex show that can be viewed from so many different lenses like yes! Say this ep is basically just showing the rules of comedy and joke structure because you can explain it as such!! (I feel the same for the Beej analysis done on the Period of Adjustment ep he’s such a little freak of a guy who needs to be dissected like a bug one day I’ll stop lurking and join the beejhive) I’m currently doing a paper for an undergrad class analyzing Bless You Hawkeye (albeit from a more serious perspective) so it makes me happy when others are doing the same!
This was great! I had never heard the term “diegetic comedy” before, so now I know a new word.
I can answer the question if people who aren’t American get the jokes – the answer is yes. Here in Sweden, American culture is so integrated in everything, and even if we haven’t exactly studied American presidents for example, we have heard them referenced in so many movies, books and shows, so it feels like we know a lot about them anyway. (I use the term “we”, but I can only speak for myself of course, but I do believe many of us has this experience.)
It’s like this with lots of other things too, like shows we have heard referenced in other shows, but not actually seen – and yet it kind of feels like we have. For example, I have never watched a single second of Gilligan’s Island, but it also feels like I have fond memories of watching it, seeing all the shenanigans Ginger and The Skipper were up to on that island. It has been referenced in other things so many times, it has kind of made it’s way into my cultural background too. It’s kind of weird, really.
I think Dear Uncle Abdul is a fine episode, but there for sure is a lot going on… I wish they would have focused more on Klinger, and seeing life in camp from his perspective.
I’m also a little sad that Eddie’s storyline gets so little time, I really like it, and would have loved to see it explored more.
Same with BJ and Hawkeye – think their storyline is really interesting and deserved more time. Such an interesting look into BJ’s personality, how he comes off as sweet and charming, but has this mean streak always simmering underneath. He knows how important it is for Hawkeye to be the funniest, can’t he just let him have that? Is he still upset at Trapper, that he and Hawkeye were this epic comedic duo people keep talking about, and just wants to take Hawkeye down a few notches?
I mean, he doesn’t have to love the joke just because Hawkeye does, but since Hawkeye obviously loves it, it’s for sure a choice to try and outshine him, since it’s clearly not important to BJ. Really compelling, and I would have loved to see this whole dynamics between them explored more here.
But overall, all the storylines does work together, there’s this theme of things not being quite right, if you will.
BJ and Hawkeye’s friendship has this almost bitter vibe to it. Margaret tries to get things done the correct way, the army way, but has to resort to alternate methods. (Love how Loretta makes Margaret’s voice change between being upset over not getting what she wants, to getting super calm and poised once she has taken matter into her own hands). Charles’s hunting trip goes wrong. Potter’s model for the portrait isn’t perfect. Father Mulcahy’s attempt to write a song isn’t a hit. Eddie loses his anchor. Hawkeye’s mustache being the saddest little thing. In Sweden, we call mustaches like that “moppemusche” (meaning moped mustache), because they look like they belong on the faces of a 15 year old. 🙂
So, even if I feel like the episode is a bit too unfocused for my liking, it works fairly well.
And yes – 100% yes – Margaret should have gotten a Dear-episode! Dear Helen, Dear Lorraine, Dear whoever Margaret can be honest with. I think the writers in many cases just didn’t know what to do with her as a character, and were really unadventurous in their writing. With some amazing exceptions of course. But she has such a tremendous arc during all 11 seasons, and we should for sure have gotten a deeper look into her inner world. Loretta brought so much to the part, and she truly deserved a dedicated episode.
Thank goodness for us Margaret-fans, though, who will never stop celebrating her as a character. As I’m writing this, I am honouring her by having lost my voice, for example, just like she will in a later episode. That’s dedication! My loss of voice didn’t come with a perm, though, so there’s a silver lining.:)
Thanks again for a very interesting episode!
This is my favorite of the Dear … episodes. You talked about jokes in particular in your episode. So, unprompted, here is one of my favorites
A duck walks into a bar and asks the bartender, “got any grapes?”
The bartender says, “no, this is a bar. Order a drink or get out.” The duck leaves.
The duck comes back the next day and approaches the same bartender to ask, “got any grapes?”
The bartender says, “no, again, this is a bar. Order a drink or get out.” The duck leaves.
The duck comes back the next day and asks the same bartender, “got any grapes?”
The bartender becomes irate and says, “look, I didn’t have any grapes the other day. I didn’t have any yesterday. And I don’t have any today. This is a bar. I serve drinks. If you come in here again asking for grapes, I’ll nail your feet to the bar.” The duck leaves.
The duck comes back the next day and asks the bartender, “got any nails?”
The bartender says no. The duck asks, “in that case, got any grapes?”