# McHale's Navy is cracking me up. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 21, 2013, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mchales-navy-is-cracking-me-up/666807 "2013-08-21T15:46:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mchales-navy-is-cracking-me-up/666807/21 "2013-08-22T01:03:22Z")
I don’t think I’ve ever seen an episode of McHale’s Navy, but it certainly has the pedigree for comedy. I have, however, always loved [this classic kidding around](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8E8trKZGbE) by the cast. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mchales-navy-is-cracking-me-up/666807/22 "2013-08-22T01:15:39Z")
Bilko was voted Best Sitcom Ever over in Blighty, where they know a thing or two about sitcoms. > **[Bilko named best ever comedy](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/sep/30/broadcasting.uknews)** > > The snappiest minds in modern TV comedy surrendered gracefully yesterday to a crafty, bespectacled 1950s conman who created chaos in an American army base. By Martin Wainwright. What it and MHN had in common was the best people in the business, both in front of and behind the camera. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mchales-navy-is-cracking-me-up/666807/23 "2013-08-22T01:25:34Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > There was a MHN movie with the original cast that came out more or less when the series was airing. I actually saw it in a theater. > [Here it is.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058336/) I wouldn’t go out of my way to see it unless I were a big fan. I saw it in Chicago with my dad and older brother in the summer of 1964, and remember it fondly. There were actually two movies filmed about two years apart; Borgnine wasn’t in the second, and I never even knew it existed until I saw part of it on TV much, much later. The thing I noticed most about it was that the national insignia on US airplanes were wrong (post-1947), making me wonder if the setting had been changed to Korea. I watched the first _ **MHN** _ movie on TV with my daughter a couple of years ago. It was sooooooooooooo un-PC! My favorite moment was when Gruber offered some Chinese racetrack workers a pack of opium-flavored chewing gum! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mchales-navy-is-cracking-me-up/666807/24 "2013-08-22T01:31:50Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > There were actually two movies filmed about two years apart. Correction: The first came out in '64, the second in '65. One year apart. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mchales-navy-is-cracking-me-up/666807/25 "2013-08-22T01:38:30Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Tim Conway was clearly the best part of that show. Yeah! I caught the laughing gas episode not too long ago and he was absolutely hilarious when trying to get to a bunker during an air raid. ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mchales-navy-is-cracking-me-up/666807/26 "2013-08-22T05:13:01Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Bilko was voted Best Sitcom Ever over in Blighty, where they know a thing or two about sitcoms. > > [Bilko named best ever comedy | Television industry | The Guardian](http://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/sep/30/broadcasting.uknews) > > What it and MHN had in common was the best people in the business, both in front of and behind the camera. Interesting list. I never knew the MTM Show was popular in Britain. When I was stationed in England, _Mork & Mindy_ was the hot American comedy. ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mchales-navy-is-cracking-me-up/666807/27 "2013-08-22T05:20:15Z")
I really thought Ernest Borgnine was strictly a comedic actor based on my exposure to _McHale’s Navy_ as a kid. Then I finally saw _From Here to Eternity_ and…whoa! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mchales-navy-is-cracking-me-up/666807/28 "2013-08-22T05:45:04Z")
> [@wedgehed](#): > > I really thought Ernest Borgnine was strictly a comedic actor based on my exposure to _McHale’s Navy_ as a kid. Then I finally saw _From Here to Eternity_ and…whoa! > > :eek: Not to mention Marty, which he won an Oscar for. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mchales-navy-is-cracking-me-up/666807/29 "2013-08-22T05:54:56Z")
> [@wedgehed](#): > > Interesting list. I never knew the MTM Show was popular in Britain. When I was stationed in England, _Mork & Mindy_ was the hot American comedy. When I was there ('76–'77) they were also showing MTM spinoffs _ **Rhoda** _ and _ **Phyllis** _. ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mchales-navy-is-cracking-me-up/666807/30 "2013-08-22T12:31:31Z")
You can catch a reunited Borgnine and Conway as Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy in reruns of Spongebob Squarepants (Spongebob also reunited most of The Young Ones). ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mchales-navy-is-cracking-me-up/666807/31 "2013-08-22T14:17:32Z")
Little Nemo writes: \> I doubt there was any direct connection. There’s always been a genre of \> service comedies. Down Periscope was inspired by McHale’s Navy - but also by \> Sgt Bilko, MASH, Operation Petticoat, Mister Roberts, In the Navy, Gomer Pyle, \> The Wackiest Ship in the Army, Stripes, Son of a Sailor, The Last Detail, Kelly’s \> Heroes, Catch-22, Private Benjamin, 1941, Father Goose, Let’s Go Navy!, Buck \> Privates, No Time for Sergeants, Great Guns, The Sad Sack, Caught in the Draft, \> Don’t Go Near the Water, Ensign O’Toole, The Private Navy of Sgt. O’Farrell, etc. Interestingly, if you combine the list above with the list of service comedies (a.k.a. military comedies) in the following Wikipedia entry, you can see that the genre began in World War II and began fading out about 1980 as soon as there was no one left (below a certain age) who had been drafted into the military. The later examples like _Private Benjamin_ and _Stripes_ are about joining the military more or less by mistake. There are still a lot of people in the military. They just don’t tend to be the ones who end up writing films. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mchales-navy-is-cracking-me-up/666807/32 "2013-08-22T16:16:38Z")
Forgot to include the Wikipedia entry: > **[Comedy film](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedy_film)** > > A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes on humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh in amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (dark comedy being an exception to this rule). Comedy is one of the oldest genres in the film and it's derived from classical comedy in theatre. Some of the earliest silent films were comedies such as slapstick comedy which often relies on visual depictions, such as sight gags and pratfalls, so they can be enjoyed [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mchales-navy-is-cracking-me-up/666807.md?page=1)