Since I went crazy and decided to abandon a perfectly successful career to become a nurse, I've come to realize the greatness of Klinger. Listen to some quotes from the Master:
Trapper: Klinger, how can you wear just a skirt on a cold day like this?
Klinger: You think it's easy being a nut?
Frank: Klinger! I want to see you out of that dress!
Klinger: Never on a first date, sir!
Frank: How dare you wear that hat while in uniform?
Klinger: It's spring, sir!
Officer: Klinger, I'm here to relieve you.
Klinger: Good. Undo my bra.
Frank: What are those earrings doing in your ears?
Klinger: Just hanging there, sir.
Klinger: These low heels are killing me.
Ah, Klinger, you hairy-legged wordsmith you! As Isaac Newton once said, "If I have seen further it is by standing on ye shoulders of Giants."
I ask you, where would we crazy male nurses be - struggling through classes, waiting for acceptance letters, learning about sodium/potassium pumps, loose connective tissue and the bulbospongiosus - without this great role model to inspire us?
We are doing this so some day we can have bodily fluids we never even knew existed splashed all over our shoes. When we finally achieve that dream, let us remember that pioneer who blazed the trail we each follow. God bless you, Klinger! :bowingpur
I think Klinger was the ironic epitome of the show personified.
Klinger in drag accented the craziness and confusion of their time. In this, he was the show's poster child...if not for the whole cast. Despite the horrors one can see in a MASH unit and war (hyper charged masculine environment), there was a sensitive man/human being screaming to come out of this mess. In Klinger's example, it was in the manner of his dress. It was an "in your face" expression of "isn't this just plain crazy...if not, then I must be". An invitation to look inward.
Extend this irony through the rest of the cast as they confront the realities of raw, unchecked aggression (casualties) that war brings to their doorstep...on a daily basis: the adolescent Hawkeye and Trapper bucking the system every chance they get...yet needing to be a part of it in order to save lives; the childlike but very perceptive Radar (with his Teddy Bear) who really runs the camp behind the scenes; the grandfatherly Colonel (somewhat broken by WWII) finding himself leading in another war and not knowing much else...career man...hopelessly caught in this war and somewhat fearful of retirement...which is worse?; Hotlips "seeking her father's love and respect all her life" by going Army Officer like himself...however, she may never get the approval she seeks despite her efforts; the bumbling, timid priest/Father trying to bring hope to a hopeless situation; the psychiatrist (like a big brother) stepping in only when needed and providing some sanity in the insanity found there; et cetera. In fact, look at all the men on the show...quirky, but very sensitive and nurturing in their own way. The typical hard core GI Joe as a main character was not to be found there....from the Colonel down to the private. Major Burns was possibly the exception...but as a man who tried to be hard core, he allowed us to see how crazy that was. In fact, he was just as sensitive as the others....if not more so. Being hard core just made him look all the more foolish.
As a TV show, MASH allowed men to be human. Extending that further, it allowed us as an audience to see humanity through their own eyes. The show was more than a comedy...it made us sit still, listen, and to think a little about ourselves in relation to others. As stupid as this sounds, I became a little tearful on the show's finale, "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen". Hawkeye and BJ's goodbye scene really brought home how difficult it is for men to be openly sensitive to each other. It was more normal and acceptable for Klinger to be the drag queen on the show all those years than for Hawkeye to verbally express his love and goodbye towards BJ at the end...as a man/friend. B.J. had to show him how. This was the Greatest Irony! I couldn't have thought of a better way to have closed the show.
Another irony was the instrumental theme song. The actual title of the theme song that we came to know and love is "Suicide is Painless". The irony of suicide is that it is not painless...it just propagates additional suffering to others. Which makes more sense during the horrors of war?....take your life, ending your witness of the loss of humanity, and allowing others to die and suffer by default because you are now absent from your own angst OR to live it despite the horror, remaining true to yourself despite your own personal craziness, refusing to let that part of you die, and nurture others who suffer along with you. Which has more integrity? Which provides more hope? The theme song's music/title captured the show's underlying essence of this internal struggle...give up or move on. In the show's finale, Hawkeye found this out first hand as he indirectly caused a mother to smother her own child to save others. A part of him died as a result of that child's death. Sidney, the psychiatrist, helped him to confront this personal death of the child and the personal death in himself...much to Hawkeye's resistance to do so. Hawkeye needed to see the hope that he can move on...as a man, as a human being.
In conclusion, Klinger had no confusion as to who he was...he was all man, despite how he appeared on the outside (another irony). It is what is on the inside that counts...not what others may see you as. This is what makes a man a man. What a great living example he was and a lesson he provided to us all. Through himself, Klinger invited viewers to examine themselves...their own integrity...as the cast of characters stumbled along trying to find their own. Klinger was simply awesome.
Yes, Thunderwolf made an excellent post regards to Klinger's characterization. I was more of a Radar fan and hated that he left the series early. Nonetheless, after Radar's character left the writer's did an excellent job with increasing Klinger's significance to the series. BTW, Klinger was suppose to be one time episode deal. Yet, the writer's were so pleased with the character, well the rest is history. I still cannot believe the series ended in 1983. Even though the setting was the Korean War, the television series was certainly ahead of its time. I mean, you can watch an episode tomorrow I not realize its reruns from at least 23 yrs ago.
Dr. Sidney Freedman: "Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice: pull down your pants, and slide on the ice."
Good advice, 23 yrs later.
~faith,
Timothy.
DEAR SIGMUND
Dear Sigmund,
I've been feeling somewhat frustrated lately so I came to a kind of a spa. The waters are pretty good; that is they mix a mean martini and the inmates have an interesting defense against the carnage. Insanity in the service of health.
One of them is particularly good at it-name of Hawkeye. Couple of weeks ago, he made rounds in postop with a personality that had split two for one...wearing a tuxedo with swim flippers and a pair of sunglasses.
I guess what draws me to these people is that faced with aggression in its most brutal form, they've regressed to a state of antic, if not lunatic pleasure. As you pointed out, Sigmund, there's a link between anger and wit. Anger turned inward is depression. Anger turned outward is Hawkeye.
If there's a way to preserve your sanity in wartime, they've found it here. They slide their patched-up patients into the evac ambulance like loaves in a bread truck, and yet they never forget those packages are people.
Your friend,
Sidney Freedman, MD
The above was from page 108 in The Complete Book of M*A*S*H by Suzy Halter.
I'm glad that I'm not the only M*A*S*H fan on here. I loved naive Radar, but Klinger does have a special place in my heart.
My friends dad was a nurse in a M*A*S*H unit many years ago. After leaving the military he was my Great-Grandmother's favorite nurse at her nursing home. I hope to one day be half the nurse that he was.
Just to add a side note, the remaining cast that are still alive went to Korea when the last real M*A*S*H unit was dispanded.
My favorite episode with Klinger was when he was threatening to set himself on fire. Potter smelled the gas can and had Radar replace the "water" in the gas can with real gas. When Klinger poured the gas on himself, he hollered
donsterRN, ASN, BSN
2,558 Posts
Excellent, Wolfie!