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Dr. Strangelove, MASH the Movie, Animal House, The Wolf of Wall Street


What do they have in common?

NUMBER ONE: EPISODIC COMEDY

Each movie consists for the most part of "individual comedy scenes" that can be chopped out of the movie and watched on their own.

STRANGELOVE: The President's call to Dimitri. Colonel King Kong's speech("Boys it looks like this is it, nuclear combat toe to toe with the Russkies") Buck Turgidson's speeches("I'm not saying we won't get our hair mussed but 10 to 20 million deaths, tops!)

MASH THE MOVIE: The Hot Lips scene; the Painless's suicide scene; the trip to Tokyo; the shower scene; the football game.

ANIMAL HOUSE: first Delta house party scene; naming the pledges scene; Golfing scene; horse killing scene; Toga party; Road trip; student council trial; final parade.

WOLF OF WALL STREET: Matt McConaghey scene("Those are rookie numbers"); Jonah Hill discusses marriage to cousin scene; introduction of Rob Reiner scene; discussion of hooker expenses scene; discussion of dwarves scene; helicopter crashing scene(both versions) ,too stoned to drive scene; FBI interrogation scene("Little man"); crashing the helicopter scene; sinking the yacht scene.

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NUMBER TWO: "BOYS CLUB"

These four movies are about "guys." The military/political guys in Strangelove(postulating a post nuclear world of 10 beautiful women per man to pro-create); the military surgeons in MASH the movie; the frat brothers in Animal House; Leo, Jonah and their gang of wayward young guys in WOWS. And the women? Sex objects and girlfriends in the main, from the bikini woman with General Turgidson in Strangelove to the women in MASH, Animal House, and WOWS.

NUMBER THREE: "MEAN"

Those movies find the funny in "mean." The men in Strangelove are OK with blowing up most of the world. The surgeons in MASH(justified by their life-or-death jobs) are cruel in their pranks(they drive Major Burns mad, break Hot Lips.) The Animal House frat guys are nicer than they look but Otter and Boon make fun of people and the horse killing stunt is a mean one. The Wolf of Wall Street guys are out to ruin people's lives and break their bank accounts and they're just plain unfeeling about things like dwarf tossing.

That's four great, un-PC, male-oriented, funny, sexual movies. Long may they live!

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