#this is the whole show but it was best executed by the gelbart-reynolds era because they wrote around this thesis

[majorbaby]

be it a black comedy or a workplace comedy or a satire or a dramedy, MASH is first and foremost a comedy. MASH needs to be a comedy. the point being made is that setting a comedy during a horrific and pointless war is absurd. point being that the war is horrific and pointless and absurd.

hence much of the dialogue in the early years, such as this bit from hawkeye in the pilot episode "throw away all the guns and invite all the jokers from the North and the South in here to a cocktail party. last man standing on his feet at the end wins the war". the Henry Blake character and on the flip side of Henry, the Frank Burns character and some of the others seem absurd and over-the-top because you're meant to ask yourself "how did a guy like henry end up in command??" or "how does a hack doctor like frank end up a major and constantly escape any formal consequences?".

this scene is hilarious - but it's also functionally anti-establishment. it's meant to drive home how stupid the whole thing is. hawkeye spells it out later in the scene, saying something like "if you wanna talk medical procedures, fine, let's talk. otherwise, this is a waste of time and if you're gonna make me be here i'm going to be as silly as disruptive as possible". and then he and trapper do just that, manipulating the "rules of order" which bring structure to the staff meeting, so that they become rules of disorder, and the meeting quickly devolves into chaos as the laugh track plays.

it seems obvious that a show about war would be gritty, tragic and at points, hard to watch. MASH also has those moments, and they easily convey that war and any attempts we make to justify war, are bizarre and hellish and immoral. the funny moments are doing the same thing, in a more unexpected way.