Comedy: the keys to the master's house?

Comedy may attempt to satirize the existing power structure, poking at the ruling class, or rigid ideology (be it moral, religious, or political) that is at the top, but it may also maintain the status quo. Just as Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew challenges traditional expectations placed on women, it ultimately wraps up the affair with outward acceptance of male dominance in relationships in society. But, Taming of the Shrew may not be far off from other modern examples in American comedy where play with sexual trappings maintain masculine/heterosexual privilege in society before ever really challenging the power structure. With the militaristic milieu for texts such as M*A*S*H and Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips, and the similarly prudish moral code in America during the 1950s (the Hayes code still in effect) for Wilder’s Some Like it Hot, the masculine/ heterosexual escapade of “boys will be boys,” nevertheless, carries on.

Hooker’s novel, M*A*S*H exemplifies this attitude of protecting and serving the heterosexual male’s sexual appetite given the circumstances of war. It is the classic player mentality, chalking another sexual encounter as easily as counting the number of martinis imbibed. The swampmen justify their free love philosophy, claiming that the stress of the war circumstances, being trapped in Korea and away from home not only grants permission to the men, but is also projected onto the women’s actions, making both parties equally culpable in the affair. Almost implicit in the rationale is their view of the absurdity of the military system running the war. M*A*S*H is not only an example of the inmates running the asylum, but also a classic example of the homosocial male domain taking precedence similar to the African conquest in Heart of Darkness or the whaling pursuit in Moby Dick. A perceived threat to this domain, The Painless Pole’s latent homosexuality is ceremonially crucified vis-à-vis the depiction of the Last Supper, and, symbolically, vis-à-vis the Pride of Hamtramck, his heterosexual desire is resurrected. And with this, the logic and social mores of home are temporarily suspended for the full, unrestrained pursuit of male heterosexual desire while stationed in Korea.

In many ways Some Like it Hot gender-bending charade challenges traditional mores, but this still remains on the surface. The heterosexual/masculine conquest of the feminine continues without the protagonists, Joe and Jerry, ever getting too comfortable in their feminine guise. There is a moment where Jerry/Daphne becomes enchanted by being the object of Osgood’s heterosexual male desire, wooed into engagement. Wilder may momentarily turn the world upside down for the audience when showing Jerry/Daphne’s own gender confusion. The object of h/er desire, consequently, is called into question, albeit momentarily. Wilder, however, must bring things back to the status quo, revealing this enchantment of Jerry/Daphne’s as actually being with Osgood’s checkbook. This resembles Bugs Bunny’s gender-bending in Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips, using feminine guise to dupe the enemy into submission. It is merely a means to an end and the Trickster, whether Bugs or Jerry, exits unscathed and impervious.