MovieChat Forums > Duck and Cover (1952) Discussion > Why do so many people think this movie i...

Why do so many people think this movie is hilarious?

posted 10 years ago by NewtonFigg
2 replies | jump to latest

I don't remember seeing it before today, but I spent enough time as a kid jumping down under the desk in the "no warning" air raid drills. I lived about 10 miles east of Manhattan which we assumed would be ground zero for the A bomb. A couple of million other people lived a comparable distance from Manhattan. That's a lot of people who could have benefited from the very elemental precautions of duck and cover. So, why is it funny? The possibility of a sneak attack was very much on the public mind. A TV show, Medic, dramatized the results of such an attack. Very strong stuff. The episode, entitled Flash of Darkness, is listed on IMDB and I reviewed it. The teachers who show Duck and Cover and laugh at it with the class should show Flash of Darkness and see how many laughs it gets.

[–] Amazon421 10 years ago

Just saw it on TCM. Asked my mom if she remembers it and she said no, but she did remember the duck and cover drills they'd do in school. I didn't read other threads to see anyone saying it was funny. But I thought it was funny in an ironic way because knowing what we know now about radiation and atomic bombs, duck and cover was a waste of time. If the immediate effects didn't get you, the radiation poisoning would either kill you or make you very sick. So it's more a false sense of security.

On a side note, I thought it was cool to see the old cars and classrooms and what the people were wearing.

[–] nammage 10 years ago

People find the 1936 Reefer Madness hilarious. Why? Because of the over-exaggerated, and outright lies about marijuana. The same with films like this one. To you it was very real, and you believed what they told you the same with those who Reefer Madness--why would they lie? Many reasons: with marijuana it was more about cannabis and the effect it was having on the cotton industry than really about marijuana but go after marijuana and make cannabis illegal.

With the A/H-bomb, though more localized (except the H-bomb), it really wouldn't help if students got under their desks. Personally, one would probably have a better chance if they ran for it.

-Nam

I'm on the road less traveled...