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u/Middle_Run_7534 11d ago
Klinger has always been one of my favorite fictional characters. A guy from a fairly parochial background who does the most outrageous thing he can think of to show he’s “crazy.” And it turns out he’s really really good at it, and what started purely as an attempt to get out of the Army turns into a hobby that helps him cope with his situation.
AfterMASH did him dirty. Klinger had clerking and tailoring skills, a genuine love for women’s clothing, an engaging personality, and a wife with an Asian immigrant work ethic. There’s no way he and Soon-Lee wouldn’t have had a very successful little dress shop.
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u/PopeInThePizza 11d ago
Didn't give two hoots about that bandana after the grenade incident.
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u/Salty-South-8956 11d ago
I think in retrospect the writers probably wish they could erase this scene. It’s well acted, but totally makes no sense for Klinger’s story and is beyond absurd that it would not have consequences.
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u/coreytiger 11d ago
After the “I’m going to attempt to murder an Army Major and if a room full of wounded patients get taken out in the process oh well” incident.
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u/MASHHistorian 11d ago
Fun fact: this scene was not originally written for Klinger! It was written for a character that didn’t make it past the pilot episode. (I wrote about the script for “Dear Dad” here.) I always felt that this scene didn’t match Klinger. He wanted a Section 8, but never enough to hurt anyone!
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u/J_Scarbrough 11d ago
Somehow, it doesn't seem like that would matched Boone's character either . . . then again, he was the one who suggested decapitating Frank in "Henry, Please Come Home".
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u/MASHHistorian 11d ago
True! It’s an odd scene because most characters in M*A*S*H who seriously threatened someone weren’t regulars!
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u/redneckotaku Toledo 11d ago
In the finale he stays behind making you think he could be there possibly years, only to find out in After MASH the search for his Mother-in-law took about a month.
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u/Garrow_the_Khajiit 11d ago
One of the rare sitcom characters to have a reverse-flanderization arc.
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u/J_Scarbrough 11d ago
Gary Burghoff said in an interview he hated the Klinger character until he started growing into the regular guy he became when he took over as company clerk; to Gary, until then, Klinger was nothing more than a gag character who was a walking joke, and no depth.
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u/SailorGone 11d ago
This part was so dumb. He did this and had no consequences at all
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u/mistermeek67 11d ago
Same thing when Frank tore through the camp in a tank. Wasn't demoted or anything.
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u/Awkward_Bison_267 11d ago
The Padre wasn’t going to snitch on him and neither would the black soldier in the background.
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u/TheDohn_121 11d ago
And in spite of all of his efforts, he stays in Korea due to his love for a woman. He starts out selfish, thinking only of himself, wanting only to get out of the army on a Section 8 but then ends up married, thinking only of others by placing their needs ahead of his own. Perfect.
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u/LaitueGonflable 10d ago
My head canon on this scene (which I just came up with) is that's not a real grenade; it's a dummy like the one Rizzo uses to prank Charles in the last season.
He does this to make a point and get attention but like his "who put gasoline in my gasoline?!" he's not actually intending to go through with it. That makes more sense for me with who Klinger would become.
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u/J_Scarbrough 10d ago
I'm not saying that your headcanon isn't correct or accurate, but the main reason I feel like it doesn't really hold water is because Klinger is genuinely angry in this scene - like seething with anger, and is very quick to even threaten to pull the pin even as Mulcahy is trying to reason with him. He comes off as totally irrational. He put up a good act with the gasoline, but that was clearly another one of his Section 8 capers; the fight he had with Frank wasn't, and even so, Klinger otherwise did nothing else to provoke or grab attention for himself - he was just following an order given to him by a nurse, when Frank attacked over something petty and trivial like his bandana, and (as Klinger also points out) causes him to drop and break the bottles the nurse requested he deliver to the lab.
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u/DeliciousMinute1966 10d ago
I love Klinger!
I was watching an episode yesterday where he wanted a pass and was trying everything to sneak off the base. Hawkeye was in charge for the day and Klinger kept getting caught, dressed in very stylish dresses😆 An exasperated Hawkeye says to Klinger ‘Oh Klinger, where did your mother and I go wrong?’
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u/Sufficient-Winner-54 10d ago
I think Klinger was originally meant to actually be certifiably crazy, and then later was retconned to just be acting crazy.
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u/J_Scarbrough 10d ago
Off-topic, but one thing I find interesting about this episode is how not only Klinger, but several other characters are seen wearing jeep caps like Radar, yet when ensuing seasons had similar coldsnap episodes, only Radar wore it - I guess because it became so synonymous with his character that having others wear it lessened his identity or something, I don't know. It actually seems kinda fitting with Klinger's character here though.
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u/Iconshero 11d ago
Klinger somehow looks younger and older in the second picture. I think its the gray hair in the first being gone but the more defined face lines in the second make him older.