"War is the H-Word": References

"M*A*S*H" (TV series) --The scene with Zoidberg, iHawk, and the jellyfish alien is a parody of M*A*S*H, right down to the music at the beginning and the alternately maudlin/irreverent tone. --iHawk a parody of Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda), and the jellyfish nurse is Hot Lips Houlihan

"Dizzy" by Tommy Roe (1969 song) --Nixon sings it in the shower

"Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves (1983 song) --Fry sings it while scrubbing Kif

"Starship Troopers" by Robert Heinlein (novel) --The humans being the alien invaders, defeating the strange indigenous creatures in war --Uniforms similar to the 1998 film

Also, several Star Wars references which I'll leave to other people.

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Along those lines, they referred to the leader balls as "Brain Balls" just like the "Brain Bugs" in the movie.

Great episode!

-Fraggler?

Fraggler? wrote:

But a horrible book. I know this is kind of the blue, but I can never stress how bad Heinlein is. DON'T read Starship Troopers. Avoid that book like it was a rabid Chihuahua. That piece of crap wasn't fit for a pulp magazine much less a full novel.

No argument here, but "Stranger In A Strange Land" is really good. It's a thick one though. But Starship Troopers just bored the living bejesus outta me. Whole lotta technobabble...

[email] "It's pronounced 'JAY-sauce' (say it loud and you'll get it)"

---------- In article , Mike Zaite wrote:

Chris Wood wrote:

The first half of Stranger In a Strange land was good. Then it fell apart. It just lost it's direction and took way to long to get to any points. You could tell he got bored and lost interest writing it. At least that's what I get from it.

On Mon, 27 Nov 2000 01:49:58 GMT, Mike Zaite wrote:

Starship Troopers was very pro military and right-wing oriented. It was a projection of 1950's "weaker sex" female stereotypes into the future. Which ran against the general grain of sci-fi. That part of the book I found laughable and the movie, which tried to reverse it made it even worse. Still, the action and the imagery of futuristic warfare were good.

Some of Heinlein's older writings were better, my favorite being "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress". While some of his Libertarian idealism ultimately distracted from the book, it did give a foreign viewpoint from which to look back at ourselves. He expanded on that idea in "A Stranger in a Strange Land" which was probably the last readable thing he wrote.

I read "The Cat Who Walked Through Walls", which started out with pretty good action that was dragged down by the fact that he still portrayed women as people who just need to become a real persons wife. The plot and futurist imagery progressed well until about three quarter through the book when the plot fell apart and he never resolves any of the plot points from the beginning. Then he began introducing new characters from his many of his older books as well as characters from the "DR. Who" universe and elsewhere. The last 150+ pages were like trying to read a jigsaw puzzle with most of the pieces missing.

With so many books out there by consistently good writers, I've given up on Heinlein.

--Larry

Larry F wrote:

Yea he had the discriptive down but I mean That was it. It was like a Special Efect Movie. All action, weak plot.

Im not an expert on Heinlein But didn't he start on Pulps? I don't think he ever grasped how to properly write a full Novel. He gets bored after about 200 pages. Plus his Flaming Misogynisem is distracting.

On Tue, 28 Nov 2000 02:07:54 GMT, Mike Zaite wrote:

I first read him in anthologies of 40's & 50's short stories.

At first he wrote shorter books, "The moon. . ." was under 300 pages. He managed to end it before it got out of hand. With Starship Troopers it seems like he didn't know what to write next, so he just put a period and sent it in. The war didn't end and there was no indication how it would end. He made the political / social point he wanted and stopped.

Yup, that's Heinlein. He also wrote a book on politics called "Take Back Your Government". I bought a copy at a book sale years ago. It's on my read list right after the second and third volumes of "The Gulag Archipelago" and the Athens phone directory.

--Larry

Larry F wrote:

Even more interesting is the fact that he wrote "Moon" about three or four years AFTER "Starship Troopers". I happen to like both of these books, but not "Stranger in a Strange Land". Just thought you'd like to know.

David

In article , [email] (Andrew Levine) writes:

Also... REALLY obscure... Legion of Super-Heroes (comic-book): Leela uses the alias Lee Lemon. In an early issue of LSH, Mon-El uses the alias "Legionnaire Lemon".

Wow, that is really obscure. Quick question: although I think I know the answer, did anyone translate the Alien language on the tent (I"m assuming it says 4077 in reference to MASH)? I haven't seen it mentioned in any of the capsules.

Thanks, Lyle

It says "M*E*A*T."

What I want to know is whether that was really Alan Alda's voice.

************** "As wine critic, we'll need you to come up with adjectives other than 'grapey'." -- editor, ModernHumorist.com ******* Photographs of past and present regulars of alt.tv.simpsons: http://geocities.com/andrewdlevine/usualsuspects.htm

Andrew Levine wrote:

Been a while since you watched M.A.S.H.or Scientific American Frontiers? :)

No that's either Billy or LeMarche ( Im leaning toward LeMarche but I'm not positive)doing more a Groucho then Alan Alda. Alda has that New Englandy thing in his voice that's missing here. And he's also a little mumbly, that's missing to.

In article , [email] (Andrew Levine) writes:

If it wasn't, it was a really good imitation.

MEAT IS NATURE'S CANDY!

DGH