i have to admit, my favorite way to watch mash is to imagine it's the second or third or even seventh time these events have happened. sometimes Hawkeye is aware of it, but sometimes he isn't. some episodes, he knows he's about to watch someone die or have the worst day of his life, again. he knows exactly where every piece of shrapnel is inside some 16 year old kid because he's picked out every piece of shrapnel from this 16 year old kid fifteen times already. he knows who dies and he still tries everything to save them. some episodes, he has no idea he's trying in vain to save someone he's never been able to save before, and may never be able to save. he's going to try everything. he can't help but try everything. and the food doesn't get better, either
This was pretty much just a stream of consciousness writing. I haven't looked at it much since I wrote it a couple of days ago but I wanted to post it anyway.
The sitcom M*A*S*H ran from 1972 to 1983 and captured households around America. The series follows M*A*S*H (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) unit 4077 through the Korean War. Knowledgable readers might have noticed that the Korean War lasted 3 years from June 1950 to July 1953 while the M*A*S*H series ran for 11 years from September 1972 to February 1983. This significant timeline difference created an interesting effect on M*A*S*H that led to many fans discussing the ‘M*A*S*H time loop theory.’ As the name would imply, this fan theory posits that the events of M*A*S*H do not take place during the Korean War as we know it, but instead that the show follows the 4077th as they are stuck in an endless time loop and are unable to escape the war.
Clearly, the timeline of M*A*S*H is a bit difficult to line up with the events of the actual Korean War due to the 8-year difference. Characters such as BJ Hunnicutt and Radar O’Riley were on the sitcom for 8 years but canonically it is difficult to say if they were meant to have spent the same amount of time in Korea. While the episodes were aired weekly, it is impossible to say if most of the episodes were meant to take place a week apart. There are several episodes for which we know this is not the case, for example, the season 9 episode ‘A War for All Seasons’ begins with the 4077th ringing in the new year and follows several key events throughout 1951 and ends on New Year’s Day 1952. This seems to imply that the previous 8 seasons all take place in 1950. It could also imply that subsequent episodes all take place in 1952 or later, though many assume that some episodes show events that were not seen in ‘A War for All Seasons.’ On the opposite end of the spectrum, several episodes take place over a matter of hours. The season 8 episode ‘Life Time’ happens essentially in real time as Hawkeye has only 20 minutes to complete an arterial graft on a wounded soldier. These and other episodes make creating a sensible timeline for the M*A*S*H series an incredibly complicated process. Trapper John leaves in the first episode of season 4, does this mean that he was only in Korea for 6 months? As mentioned earlier, Radar and BJ were on M*A*S*H for the same number of years, but Radar leaves before ‘A War for All Seasons,’ does this mean that Radar was enlisted for a year or less while BJ was present for 2 years? Does it matter how long any of these characters were engaged in the Korean War? The time loop theory certainly says no.
The nature of all sitcom television lends itself very well to the concept of a time loop. The show almost always resets itself at the end of every episode and it begins the next episode in essentially the same place. The order of the episodes often doesn’t matter. Everything is always happening, nothing happens, it doesn’t matter. In M*A*S*H specifically, one of the core themes of the show is the cyclical nature of war. It intentionally pokes fun at the repetition, the monotony with lines like ‘the future’s been canceled by the war department’ and ‘Father, what do you think of purgatory so far?’ as well as with aspects such as the omnipresent PA voice. Hawkeye Pierce becomes the main focus of the show and the audience's lens in many ways and as such is one of the easiest introductions to this concept. Hawkeye complains about being stuck nearly every episode and often phrases it as though he is not just stuck as a surgeon in a war zone, but as if his whole life is stuck, as if his past and future are all contained within the war. Another character giving credence to this theory is Radar O’Riley. Radar earned his nickname due to his uncanny ability to sense incoming wounded before anyone else and to predict what his commanding officers will ask for before they open their mouths. While this is certainly a fun gag for the show, many think it shows that Radar is aware, consciously or unconsciously, of the time loop. Radar is aware of when the choppers will arrive and when Henry needs files because it has all happened before and will happen again. Many fans also point out that this could be the reason for Radar’s reaction to Henry being sent home. It is more than just realizing that he will be left in Korea while the man he has come to see as a father figure goes home to his family. On some level, Radar remembers that Henry will not make it home; he knows he can not stop it. Of course one of the biggest pieces of evidence against the idea of a time loop is the fact that it does end. Everyone goes home in the end, however, this does not entirely disprove the theory. Many pieces of media that focus on the concept of time loops end with our protagonists escaping. But they can not escape entirely. Though all of our characters leave Korea by the end of the series, those who are still alive have not left completely. They will be stuck remembering this time forever.
While the original intention of M*A*S*H certainly was not to tell a story about a group of army doctors, nurses, and enlisted men trapped in a time loop, that is in many ways the story we got. It is the best showcase of the cycle, the monotonous horror of war in modern media. The only changes come with tragedy, death, or abandonment. It is a time loop in the only ways that matter.
i can't stop chewing on the MASH time loop situation. my star trek brain will not turn off. there is definitely some kind of temporal anomaly at play, but it's not really a time loop in the traditional sense.
effects carry over from loop to loop. they appear to age. the same wounded soldiers appear on the table three times, but the scars of past surgeries are still there. a character leaves or dies and is gone from the mash forever; their replacement arrives near the end of the war and is still there at the beginning. the dates overlap, yet their presence is sequential. the other characters remember all of them.
how far does this effect extend? if it's summer again at mash, is it summer in tokyo? is it summer in maine? if BJ is in korea two years before he arrived, who's in residency in california, marrying his wife, conceiving his child?
their family trees at home deform—different wives, different children, loved ones alternately dead and alive and never born. those inside are oblivious to what they've lost. hawkeye remembers trapper, but not his sister. what happens in korea persists; the world outside is a fragile suggestion. he tells a soldier that men at the front can't see the whole war, only the other guys dug in with them on their one little hill.
for a deep space nine fan this is irresistible. hawkeye says, wars end, but war is forever. kira asks, if the past has changed, why do i still remember it? sisko never left that ship. time itself is warped by trauma. it is not linear. you exist here. you choose to exist here.
I was scrolling through your blog for a bit and came upon the mash time loop theory which reminded me of something l.
I got interested in mash one day while I was surfing the tv channels. The time slot in the channel I watch it through is, Monday through Friday from 5pm to 7pm and on Sundays from 6pm to 7pm. Last week, on Wednesday exactly, they ran episodes 14 and 15 of season 11, but instead of letting episode 16 run (even though they had a whole hour left in the time slot), they immediately began playing the first episode. And in doing so, starting rerunning the whole series again. That struck a note with me, why not let the last episode play even if you're just restarting the series all over again?
Very time-loopy
based on some other posts i’ve seen on mashblr i think this is pretty common practice for cable tv… i’m sorry to sound so young but i only watch mash online (@ the internet archive!! laugh track free) so i have complete control over what order i watch the show in. however. i actually think about this all the time. the way that broadcast tv works (worked, at this point) and how american television was basically originally designed to be rewatched/re-aired and randomized in the television schedule and how that affects the timeline of the show is so so fascinating to me!! it’s the same sort of phenomenon that leads to theories about that 70’s show, or the infamous snow globe reveal of st elsewhere, or any of the variations on “it was all just a dream” that have become a tv staple/joke.
the fact that this is all set in a war zone + the way that it becomes so flagrant even by season 3/4 (or even episode 1, if you count “South Korea, One Hundred Years Ago”) only adds to the almost undeniable fact that time is. stretching. looping. taking longer than it should. because war is excruciating. every moment feels longer and bloodier than the last and every moment is one that you’re both stealing and hating at the same time.
and yeah. it’s also the observer effect. none of this would be possible without us there to consume it and we perpetuate the “mash machine” the same way we perpetuate the very real military industrial complex because of the ways it contributes to/makes up the american economy!! wait sorry i have my own issues i don’t need to bring up here. anyways.
i find the (almost not really) incidental relationship between the practicalities of the broadcast tv schedule and their interminably repetitive portrayal of the capitalist grind so so interesting. for no reason at all.
