#that's the kind of dude hawkeye is to the average viewer in the 70s imo lol (tho maybe not quite as in your face)

[marley-manson]

Huh, just saw that not everyone takes "Captain Sodom and Captain Gomorrah. He's Gomorrah," as a gay joke. Not adding this to the post going around because I don't want to come across as argumentative or rude, but seeing it does compel me to overexplain why I think it's unambiguously a gay joke lol.

"Captain Sodom and Captain Gomorrah," would be a generic joke about debauchery imo. "He's Gomorrah," is what makes it a joke about gay sex specifically, by pointedly referencing sodomy. Because while technically sodomy refers to a lot of things, based on my own experience and 20th century media consumption I feel like I can pretty confidentally say that in public consciousness, at least in US media, it's functionally a synonym for gay anal.

Like I'm no expert here so maybe I'm wrong and biased in my media consumption and experiences, but if I saw someone on TV using the word sodomy to refer to het sex acts without it being in the context of like, an informative conversation about how sodomy doesn't just refer to gay sex, or like, in the context of a deep south bible thumper type railing against all non-piv sex in antiquated terms, I would be very surprised. I'd at least expect a woman to be specified if it's meant to be het pia, and idt I've ever seen it used as a synonym for blowjobs except in real life 'fun fact' discussions lol. (Also fun fact, cunnilingus is not legally sodomy.)

"He's Gomorrah," also just doesn't function as a joke if it's just referring to general heterosexual debauchery, the whole point of that line is to make the reference to sodomy in particular explicit, in differentiation from Trapper. And in this context Hawkeye isn't calling himself an enjoyer of receiving blowjobs or fucking women in the ass in comparison to Trapper who only has good christian piv sex, he's differentiating himself from Trapper in terms of his effeminacy, something he does often in comedic contexts.

And my impression is that the point of the gay sex jokes in general isn't "Hawkeye is bi representation" or "getting gay references past the censors sneakily," it's "Hawkeye making jokes about being unmasculine which includes making jokes about getting fucked in the ass in an exaggeration of his gender expression, which is not actually all that out there in the 70s counter-culture context."

#i'm sorry but i am constantly fighting the urge to explain (my read of) every joke on mash so i'll take any excuse to give in lol #i'm again reminded of the character 'marx marvelous' from a tom robbins book (i wanna say another roadside attraction?) #where his name is explained as something he adopted as the two words most likely to piss off conservative squares #marx from karl marx and marvelous as the number one word a red-blooded heterosexual man would never say bc it's too camp #this character was also straight and (based on what i remember from tom robbins books) probably loved eating pussy #that's the kind of dude hawkeye is to the average viewer in the 70s imo lol (tho maybe not quite as in your face) #they could very well hate actual gay guys but they'll happily use the idea of them as a symbol of nonconformity #marley on mash #hawkeye mash #mash gen #mash gs