I never knew anyone who did not find the TV show M*A*S*H hilarious

[Ohiogal]

until my aunt told me she didn't like it because they made Hawkeye "too preachy", so she wouldn't watch it. ???

[Ron Obvious]

1. To be fair, she has a point

At least in the later seasons, it certainly became the Hawkeye Pierce show.

I don't know if I ever thought it "hilarious" anyway. I enjoyed it, but that's all. My favourite character was Frank Burns. What can I say?

[hlthe2b]

2. I've heard a few (including on DU) say that. I think comedy can also deliver poignant messaging

That is what M*A*S*H excelled in.

There have been few others who have come close to the consistent excellence of the show in that regard.

Taste is subjective. But quality and success in achievement are not.

[Ptah]

3. My father, a WWII veteran, disliked it.

He thought it made light of war.

[Aristus]

6. He may have misunderstood the message of both the film and the TV show.

It's not about finding war hilarious. It was about people serving in a war who try to preserve their humanity, amidst the horrors of combat, through humor. See my sig line for Lord Byron's take on it.

[Ptah]

14. I don't disagree with you.

He spent a couple of years in the south Pacific, New Guinea.

I heard very little except he did spend some time removing remains from battlefields.

He was not a happy or cheerful man.

[Skittles]

11. it didn't, not at all

and Alan Alda absolutely refused the use of a laugh track during the operating room scenes

[Ptah]

15. I don't disagree with you.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

4. I'm with your aunt on that.

That's just one of the reasons I didn't like MASH.

[Ohiogal]

5. For sure, it wasn't meant to be only funny.

The more serious, gruesome, and stupid side of war was also presented. I get that.

I guess I never heard of Hawkeye referred to as being preachy before.

[lunamagica]

7. He was, at the end. The early episodes were hilarious, but as the show progressed, it became more

and more serious, and yes, preachy.

[still_one]

8. I don't believe MASH was meant to be hilarious, just as Catch 22 wasn't meant to be

It was about people being immersed in war, and trying to cope with it to keep from going crazy

[Ernesto]

9. Plenty of Viet-vets that I know love that show!

So do I.

[misanthrope]

10. That show should have ended when Henry died and Trapper left

After that point, it took itself far too seriously. Yes, Hawkeye got preachy and the scripts grew maudlin. By the time Hot Lips is running around with a 1970s haircut and estranged from Frank Burns, it's done.

[tonedevil]

12. The TV show was good...

generally worth watching. Having seen the movie first I thought the TV show thin by comparison.

[rurallib]

16. yes - you put into words what I have never been able to

I tried to watch the TV show but it just never connected with me.
Loved the movie.

[hunter]

13. Hogan's Heroes, and later M.A.S.H., were off limits in my parent's house.

I suppose they took war too seriously.

The first time I saw M.A.S.H. was in 1989.

My father-in-law was a Navy medic assigned to the Marines during the Korean War. My dad was a nearsighted Radar O'Reilly medical clerk. By the luck of the draw neither men ended up in Korea, but both had been acutely aware at the time how little control of their own destinies they'd had.

[Fla Dem]

17. I never found MASH hilarious or slap your knee funny.

There was some slapstick humor, sardonic humor and dry witted humor. But not what I’d call hilarious humor. The best humor was when Hawkeye was cutting the knees out from under Major Frank Burns and later Maj Charles Emerson Winchester III.

I really didn’t care for Alan Alda then or in other later acting roles. There was just something in his personality that was off putting to me.

[UTUSN]

18. VietVet here who hates it.

First of all, my take is not about ideology. And neither was my volunteering into the military. As Rep. Charlie RANGEL, who was a great Dem until his fall from grace, said, the reason many if not most of those who enlist is because of economic reasons, not the pie in the sky type of "patriotism."

So upon resuming civilianship after four years I learned that M.A.S.H. was supposed to be about ideology. An anti-VietWar ideology that I shared. But just with sampling a dozen of episodes, my reaction was to *DETEST* it. Not for ideological reasons, but just because I detest smartass dudes in general, and yes the pop-up preachiness on top of the smartassery.

When I'm at the VFW, the cable channel invariably is set to it, but luckily the bartender puts it on Mute for me.

Besides smartasses, I also detest BLOWHARDS of all stripes, so I admired our fellow DUers who are idealistic and starry eyed over Hugo CHAVEZ for his supposedly hero-of-the-masses orientation, but all I saw/heard of him was demogogery.

"Rubbing the wrong way" is an infallible sign.