Dr. Strangelove

David Duneman

Expository Writing

Joe Serio

2/24/13

Dr. Strangelove is Funny

            I remember watching Dr. Strangelove in a film criticism class in high school and thinking that it wasn’t funny at all. In fact I didn’t even know it was a comedic film. After watching it for this second time I realized a lot more of the intended jokes and humor. Dr. Strangelove is a criticism of war and the making of the hydrogen bomb. One by the name of General Ripper, Jack Ripper which is a funny joke by itself, goes insane and orders a nuclear attack on Russia. He gives his troops outlandish orders such as: don’t trust anyone, and shoot anyone within two hundred yards, which ends with them fighting themselves. There’s an oxymoronic sign that states “Peace is Our Profession” while these troops are fighting themselves. Another funny thing about General Ripper is that he is always talking about “bodily fluids” as a term for peoples’ minds. I don’t know if there was a meaning behind this, but it was a funny character quirk.

            A good amount of jokes occurred in the B-52 bomber as well. The first shot in the cock-pit was of the pilot looking at a Playboy magazine. All the people in the cock-pit were showed doing nothing related to flying the plane in their first scene. The pilot is a redneck cowboy that puts on his cowboy hat when they get the order to release the hydrogen bomb. Also, when the plane gets hit by a missile, the emergency kits the pilot is passing out contains a good amount of humorous items such as; many types of pain killing pills, nylons, and a bunch of other items, and the scene ends with the pilot saying, “A fella could have a pretty good time in Vegas with this stuff.” The last scene the pilot is in he is riding the hydrogen bomb like a horse all the way into the ground, which shows how enthusiastic he is about the bomb.

            A lot of humor goes on in the “War Room” as well. The most memorable line in the film, probably, was when General Turgidson was fighting with the Russian ambassador and the President says, “You can’t fight in here, this is the War Room”, meanwhile a hydrogen bomb is about to be dropped on Russia. This oxymoronic statement is funny because this kind of thinking is what America runs on, we can’t fight in the “War Room” but we can drop hydrogen bombs where we like. When the President talks with Premier Kissoff is a good instance of humor as well. The conversations between them go nowhere, whereas the President is trying to tell him something important. Also, the actor Peter Sellers plays three important characters; the President, Dr. Strangelove, and Captain Mandrake, which is a style of humor a few other actors adopted after this film.

            Lastly, they have a few funny references about Hitler. For instance, Dr. Strangelove is portrayed as a Hitler character for being German and creating a device that has the capability of killing many, many people.  Also, Captain Mandrake resembles Hitler, not in his actions but in his look. This was a funny movie and I would recommend it.