#larry linville is SO fucking funny

[majorbaby]

#mash #m*a*s*h #bj hunnicutt #frank burns #sherman potter #majorbaby.gif #s05e02: bug out pt 2 #this scene gets me every time #larry linville is SO fucking funny #BJ is also a hoot here some great acting from mike

[thebreakfastgenie]

12 for the ask game (hope it's frank)

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

It's Frank!!!!!!!!! Frank Burns is a great character. First of all, he's funny, and what more can you ask of a sitcom character? Secondly, Larry Linville was genius. Thirdly, Frank is sad and pathetic and pitiable! He's repulsive! He's lonely! He has no friends! He doesn't know why! Fourthly, Frank is such a valuable character. Law and order president Richard Nixon (I know) had won re-election in a landslide not even two months after MASH started. Conservatism was popular! And Frank agreed with all that shit and he was mocked for it. He was uncool. He was never vindicated. He existed to show conservative ideas were wrong and the show was never as political without him. He's also the best case for a deeply repressed gay/bi character if you're into that sort of thing. Watch The Chosen People! Frank is also a poor little meow meow. He had abusive parents. He's living a lie in a loveless marriage. He's everything fandom wants other characters to be, and it's canon! He's also just. So fucking funny.

[marley-manson]

More on Post Op

The return of Jerry Moody was also nice, though he didn't get much to do. But hey, a scene where he talks about beating up some racists while Hawkeye encourages him is still enjoyable to watch.

The vignette with the patient who incessantly harasses Margaret for like 3 straight minutes was annoying but the punchline was worth it honestly. Repeating his stock opening line to another nurse when she leaves, who turns out to be Klinger, who repeats Margaret's "Do you have any idea how often I've heard that line?" response just as exasperatedly... man that delivery was funny lol. And as far as man in a dress jokes go, the dude dealing with the exact same shit as the women around him is one of the better kinds imo.

The moustache subplot was adorable of course.

And Frank's monologue about hiring detectives to spy on his wife was a comedic masterpiece as usual. God I'm gonna miss him so fucking much when this season is over. They are so lucky they got DOS because no one else on the show even approaches Larry Linville in terms of comic genius. At least not once Margaret stopped being a villain. Like ilu Alan Alda but you're not making me laugh out loud just with the way you say a word here.

And finally, this is just a tiny little detail and I know I'm preaching to the choir here lol, but the scene with Hawkeye and the dude who got shot in the ass was a nice little microcosm of Hawkeye's attitude towards everything imo. Hawkeye makes a few jokes about it to make the dude feel better and less self-conscious about it, dude laughs and says, "Don't make me laugh," and then Hawkeye quickly swaps to a serious line. "We're talking about your body being invaded by a bullet. There's nothing amusing about that."

Like it's a solid demonstration of how Hawkeye is very capable of making jokes and also of not making jokes and taking things seriously, in the very same scenes even, according to whichever attitude is called for. He knows the things he jokes about aren't actually funny and he can treat them with gravity just as easily.

There's another line in an episode where he's joking while performing surgery and someone, I think Margaret, says, "I wish I had your sense of humour," and Hawkeye says, "I wish I did too." And again it's just a good acknowledgement that the things Hawkeye jokes about are serious and he's very aware of that. He actively chooses to make the jokes, to insert the humour where there is none, to make himself and others feel better.

#mash #marley on mash #mash s5 #hawkeye mash

[bornforastorm]

LARRY LINVILLE IS HANDSOME AS HELL AND FRANK MAKES THAT REALLY DIFFICULT TO ACCEPT. He's second on the Hot But Intolerable list after Flagg imo.

frank is hilarious and pathetic and such a weasel and a coward and a fascist and larry linville is cute and funny and plays it on such a fine line it’s intolerable. every time i think I hate frank completely for being the worst kind of imperialist there’s a scene where he begs hawkeye to like him or happily spitshines margaret’s boots and i’m like ok fuck he’s so pathetic i want to put him in a jar and shake him

#mash #i have a Type that is muldoon from jurassic park-larry linville-jason isaacs #and i have a Type that is kenneth branagh-theo stockman-kiefer sutherland #and the connective thread is Thin Lips Makes Funny Sounds #geez #anyway glad to not be alone in liking to watch frank burns

[drpierceandmrhyde]

Frank Burns is objectively a rat bastard but Larry Linville is so fucking funny. his line delivery and physical comedy positively kill me.

#the way he says ''oH yOu gUys''? classic

[majorbaby]

16 and 24 for the MASH ask? Thank you and have a nice day!

16 . you can pick one of the write off characters to stay on the show and develop , the others’ roles don’t change . who are you picking ?

voting mulcahy off the island. uhh who said that

ANYWAY maybe trapper because it's trapper but i think frank was more valuable... ugh also henry... okay, trapper. final answer.

24 . what’s your favorite prank ever pulled ? why ?

i'm cheating, there's 3:

1:

AIR RAID!!!!!!!!!!!!! AIR RAID!!!!!!!!!!!! [SPLASH]

larry linville is so fucking funny and allan arbus' delight as sidney at the whole thing is adorable.

2:

the flying desk... top-tier traphawk shenanigans and i love that henry is their victim lol.

3.

the garbage prank in "some 38th parallels" love that dunking on authority gives hawkeye an immediate, raging boner. what.

#thank you!! i hope you have a nice day as well #i didn't get any duplicates of these two questions and i'm glad i got to answer them #ask game #replies

[marley-manson]

additional scattered thoughts on The Abduction of Margaret Houlihan and Dear Sigmund:

- Lots of gay jokes in Abduction, most kinda generic and uninteresting imo, but Klinger has some great moments. Very fast-paced episode all around, especially dialogue-wise. Everyone has so much energy.

- Margaret has messy doctor writing lol

- Margaret’s civilian boxers was a fantastic bit, but also shoutout to Margaret buying Klinger’s earrings so he could stay in the poker game lol. Some great Margaret + Klinger exchanges between this and Abduction.

- I do love the ‘anger turned sideways’ description of Hawkeye. Not aimed outward, not aimed inward, but just spilling out in and exorcised through humour.

- Which is especially fitting in this episode where Hawkeye somehow resists punching this bomber as he waxes poetic about how great it is to clock in, bomb people for half an hour, and clock out lmao. He treats him with so much calm compassion while disillusioning him, idk how he does it.

- Larry Linville still the comedy mvp, he’s especially so fucking funny in Abduction, funnier than Flagg even honestly.

- Also love his little freakout about his wife getting a life outside of him. Proto-BJ issues lol. I’d say good for Louise, but she’s volunteering for the republican party so yk.

- Actually speaking of Louise, as much as fandom loves to characterize off-screen wives as whatever the current lingo for cinnamon rolls is, and Louise specifically as someone stuck with Frank who deserves better, lbr here, she’s probably just as shitty as him lol. Frank’s the one who married for money, and Louise could easily divorce him, and probably will at some point, but she liked him for a while. Also imagine Frank marrying a female version of himself, and both of them growing to hate each other because they’re both self-loathing. Comedy gold.

- And with the pranks we got the first glimpse of BJ being more interesting than a cardboard box, hooray! The pranks themselves are pretty basic, but Sidney’s mystified description of BJ, and the framing of the pranks as a release valve for a buried volcano, is great and very fitting given where it leads.

- Solid couple of episodes overall.

#marley on mash #mash s5 #mash

[marley-manson]

larry linville is so fucking funny omg, the drunk scene in dear dad again killed me. and i thiiiink this actually was the first mention of the ferret-face nickname, which surprised me lol. round of applause for early continuity.

also like i guess this was klinger’s character finally getting solidified and i love our proper introduction to him here. the wedding dress, the mild bait and switch with hawkeye where it looks like he might have an issue with the dress but then compliments it and offers advice to improve it

lastly i like radar’s psychic abilities being ambiguous and able to be explained away as experience and observation, so i appreciated that after hawkeye mentions it, with the joke about radar knowing what he’s writing, radar’s scene is him failing a test where psychic powers would’ve helped him out. idk mash doesn’t appeal to me as magical realism lol, i have other shows i like for that. mash is more typical sitcom occasionally using the idea for comedy along the same lines as, say, phoebe’s psychic powers in friends, and that’s how i like it.

and yes follies of the living concerns of the dead is still one of my favourite episodes lol. it’s a whole separate self-contained vibe that actually utilizes the magical aspect for the Themes.

#mash #text post #marley on mash #mash s1

[thebreakfastgenie]

frank burns for the character ask game

YES I was hoping for Frank!

favorite thing about them

So, he's cartoonish, but he's actually pretty well-rounded? Like, I pity him. His childhood sounds awful. But I don't really feel bad for him because he continues to make choices as an adult. Frank isn't irredeemable, but he continually chooses not to redeem himself, which I think is very true to life. Also, just, Larry Linville. That little giggle he does.

least favorite thing about them

Like. His entire personality. I guess if I have to pick one thing, he will take things SO far. He tried to get Hawkeye executed??

favorite line

"A bakery?! :D" which I genuinely think might be the single funniest line in the show.

brOTP

Frank doesn't deserve friends but that one moment when he gets an insult in on Margaret after she dumps him and Hawkeye and BJ are kinda on his side it's cute even though I am absolutely team Margaret. Also in general every time he tries to be friends with Hawkeye and Trapper/BJ it's pathetic and it's so fun. There really should have been a MASH that's like when Greg has a fight with Rowley in Diary of a Wimpy Kid and uses Fregley as a back-up friend, but it's Hawkeye, BJ, and Frank.

OTP

None, but I do think he was genuinely in love with Margaret. Also he wants to fuck Flagg so bad. Margaret could have been good for Frank if he had actually left his wife, but Frank was bad for Margaret and it was good that they broke up.

nOTP

Really just Frank/anyone. I hate Frank/Hawkeye and yet, Hawkeye hits on him just a little too much.

random headcanon

Margaret helped him set up those pranks on Hawkeye in Showtime. She's later shown to be a prankster and he never is besides that episode.

unpopular opinion

I don't like it when Frank is the automatic least favorite. I do understand it, because he's not lovable. But he's very interesting, very funny, and he really adds something to the show. The show lost a lot of its political bite when Frank left. Like, he exists to be a satire of conservatism and the military, which is kind of a revolutionary character in 1972. And he's always wrong. Except for when he said Hawkeye and Trapper were alcoholics. He was right about that. Oh, and the colonels do blatantly favor Hawkeye over him and sometimes I think he has a point that there's a double-standard but who can blame them?

song i associate with them

nobody likes me everybody hates me guess I'll go eat worms

favorite picture of them

Unfortunately I can't think of one but I will add one if I do.