#klinger

[radarsmenagerie]

henry made it home safely with a pinup of klinger in his wallet

#just mash things

part 30

[dyingroses]

M*A*S*H Monday!

[mashhistorian]

Happy 90th birthday to Jamie Farr! M*A*S*H’s Maxwell Q. Klinger 🥳

[morganaconda]

[cuepickle]

My beloved

[mashbrainrot]

'When the Heart is Young', John William Godward, 1902 || Jamie Farr as Max Klinger, MASH, 1972

[merchantphoto]

our enhanced photo of Jamie Farr as Corporal Maxwell Klinger on M*A*S*H warming his hands by a fire

[euphoric-deadlights]

M*A*S*H - I just love them all so much 🫠

[hearteyespierce]

m*a*s*h + vintage pulp novels part 1

[priapocalypse]

I was watching a documentary about M.A.S.H. the other day, and Jamie Farr (Klinger) talked about why, in the later seasons, the character went back to wearing fatigues instead of women's clothing. I'd always assumed it was because of some network decision to "appeal 5o new audiences" or some bullshit. The reason is much more legit, though. Farr and the writers were sick of Klinger just being a gag. He was always the comic stereotype - the soldier who is trying to convince his superiors that he is crazy and deserves to be sent home on a Section 8 (soldiers deemed mentally unfit to serve), and he wore women's clothes because I guess it meant he was crazy. That was Klinger's gimmick, and the fact that he eventually loved clothes made for women made it better.

But it was a gag. Farr and the others felt that Klinger deserved a more complex and serious story. When the character Radar left, Klinger was a perfect fit for his position. While he still maintains a love for women's clothes, the change also reminds the audience that underneath the gag, there's a frightened soldier trying to trick the army into thinking that he's insane, when in truth, the army and entire war are crazier than he'll ever be. It's a nod to Yossarian in Catch 22. But there's so much more to the character than a joke - just like all the members of 4077.

EDIT: in the comments, @klapollfranmayinator pointed out that Jamie Farr also requested the change because he was afraid that his kids would be bullied. Sorry I didn't include this in the original post, because it's important to know in it's own, and deserves a separate discussion on how fucked up that is and also expected, given that it was the early 80s.

Also, here's the documentary where I first heard this:

M.A.S.H.: The Comedy that Changed Television

[legoyass]

The Q in Maxwell Q Klinger stands for Queen

[radarsmenagerie]

mashgender part 66

[dyingroses]

M*A*S*H + text posts and tweets

[misguidedtreestump]

A photo study thing from mash

[morganaconda]

[animnightmare]

Do I even need to say Klingers name