They went a long way to set up the baby/chicken joke, and it made me laugh, but overall it was a weak episode for me. That was one of the few genuine laugh out loud moments in the show for me.
Nitpick: that was Moby.
I didn’t understand that joke, even after watching it again. Anyone mind explaining.
I know the scene… “I thought this was a comedy show.”
The joke is that Alan Alda’s character broke into tears in the series finale of Mash (which was supposed to be a comedy show) over the baby/chicken incident on the show.
AH! Thank you!
Just watched this episode as well. One of the better season finales this season, I have to say. I practically died when it was revealed that Kenneth was Clay Aiken’s cousin!
Do we have a complete list of all the singers in Kidney Now?
Elvis Costello
Mary J. Blige
Clay Aiken
Sheryl Crow
Adam Levine
Adam Horovitz
Mike D
Sara Bareilles
Wyclef Jean
Norah Jones
Talib Kweli
Michael McDonald
Rhett Miller
Steve Earle
Moby
Robert Randolph
Rachael Yamagata
Cyndi Lauper
I know I’m late, but I had to post that I was almost literally rolling on the floor laughing my ass off at the baby/chicken joke. I saw that MASH episode when I was 10, and it was probably the heaviest, most tragic thing I’d ever encountered. It made a huge impression on me (I’m pretty sure I only saw it once, but I still remember details like the psychiatrist using the gold embossed letters on a pencil to hypnotize Hawkeye).
So anyway, knowing Alda was in this episode, as soon as Tracey admitted the baby was really a frog, and said, “I’m a chicken!” I started laughing like an idiot. Then of course the punchline from Alda - golden. Then I had to explain to my husband why it was funny.
Liz as relationship expert was great too: “Classic case of fruit-blindness - dealbreaker!”
Whether you love the show or not, this is a funny article on the show’s unsung source of inspiration. 
As a tangent, lately I’ve been catching MASH reruns (they just got past the transition from Frank to Charles) and I’m reminded of quite a few episodes in which Hawkeye goes nuts. In addition to the finale, there were episodes in which Hawkeye:
[ul][li]Starts sleepwalking and having nightmares about his childhood friends - cured by a talk with Freedman[/li][li]Starts suffering psychosomatic and crippling back pain - cured by a talk with Potter[/li][li]Starts suffering flu-like symptoms when a half-drowned GI stirs a repressed memory about a childhood incident in which Hawkeye himself nearly drowned - cured by a talk with Freedman[/ul][/li]
No wonder he drank.
Now he thinks he deserves a vajayjay upgrade. He doesn’t, he ain’t Tom Brady. SHUT IT DOWN, DEALBREAKER!
Great article, thanks!