Black Humor in DR

Black Humor & Satire in Dr.
Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and

Love the Bomb
Dr. Strangelove is a black comedy directed, produced and co-written by the North
American film maker Stanley Kubrick, an extrovert character that dedicated most of his
life to produce war, crime, and horror movies all of them with a pinch of black humor
and science fiction. Dr. Strangelove is not the exception; in this 1964 movie Kubrick
satirizes the nuclear scare of the time. Kubrick not only treats important issues regarding
the Cold War like the missile gap or the fear of an imminent attack coming from the
Soviet Union upon the United States of America, but he plays with or focus his satire on
the theory of mutual assured destruction in which each part (involved in the conflict) is
discouraged to initiate a war guided by the fear of a nuclear catastrophe that could
destroy both parts regardless who wins the war. In the film the theory of fear that
concerns the mutual assured destruction is exemplified by the Doomsday Machine. In
1960 the North American futurist Herman Kahn talked about this issue in his book
called Thermonuclear War, in which he said that both parts, the United States and the
Soviet Union already had half of a doomsday machine each of them, since their nuclear
arsenal together had the capacity to exterminate most living beings on Earth.
Kubrick portrayed the nuclear fear in a very humoristic way, something as serious as the
eradication of the human race was treated through the comic decision of a Russian
President (Dmitry) that was totally drunk. If the United States sends bombardiers to
attack Russia the Soviet Union would then release the unstoppable Doomsday Machine,
whose power is able to undo Planet Earth in just one go. Kubrick also played with the
possibility of a total extermination of human beings, when Dr. Strangelove (the
character) talks about the regeneration of the human race after a catastrophe like that
produced by a nuclear war, he says that a good method to save and reproduce the
inhabitants of the world would be to build underground shelters and put into them the
most important people (intelligently, genetically and academically speaking) and to save
ten women per each man, so the rapid reproduction would be guaranteed. This idea was
already proposed by Nelson Rockefeller, Edward Teller, and Herman Kahn in 1961
when they devised a plan to build a nationwide network of fallout shelters to protect
million of people from a nuclear attack.
Normally, in films whose dramas are about nuclear war the themes of war are treated
with certain significance and seriousness, creating expectation over the efforts to evade
a nuclear war, however in the film Dr. Strangelove all these themes are treated for the
sake of laughing and entertaining instead of warning the audience about the
consequences of such a disaster. For example, in the film, Kubrick also played with the
fail-safe procedures designed to prevent a nuclear war which in fact are the procedures
that precisely ensure that the war will happen.
Kubrick continued playing with other elements in the movie related to the Cold War
paranoia, in this time he used the names of some of the main characters to satirize not
only the army of the United States, but also the symbolism that soldiers had in the real
battle field as well as in the movie itself. The movie begins with an introduction to the
polemic Air Force general Jack D. Ripper, the one who orders the nuclear attack on
Russia. His name undoubtedly alludes to the infernal nineteenth century assassin Jack
the Ripper, very well known for killing lots of people regardless their age, sex, or social
condition. It is curious to see how Kubrick named a general of the USA Air Force in
that way, probably to mean that most of them are just that, serial killers and not
heroes as many people consider them.
Another name with dual meaning is that which refers to the airplane B-52, the one that
is used to drop the nuclear bombs upon Russia. In the film this plane is called The
Leper Colony, a name that means incompetence or absurdity, making reference, of
course, to the absurd of the crew task, that is, to follow the directions of a crazy man
whose actions and orders could and actually did exterminate life in the world. The
commander of the airplane was not the exception, Major King Kongs name also
alludes to the 19
th
century beast (gorilla) character that was characterized by his
incredible strength and brutally (destruction capacity), and by his animal instinct.
Major Kong is depicted just like that in the movie, like a Southern American whos
capable of doing whatever for his nation without questioning the authority.
Other characters such as Merkin Muffley are satirized. His last name, derived from the
word muff, which makes reference to a slang used to designate the female genitals.
The taunt is even worst when we come to decipher Buck Turgidsons name, which is a
Freudian allusion to an erect dick, turgid=erection. Now we come to understand the
type of relation between the USA President and Turgidson. In the minute 29:00 (in the
movie) we listen to a phone conversation between Turgidson and his girlfriend in which
she alludes to the physical relationship between Muffley and Buck, Kubrick played
with the honor and masculinity of the army officers of the time suggesting that some of
them, even the President, might be homosexuals, that those great men have a very
feminine side, hidden, but real.
All these names are just part of a great absurd that Kubrick so well presented to us.
They are not, as we certainly know, real names; notwithstanding, each character plays
his role with dignity and seriousness. Even the airplane crew does its best to accomplish
the orders of a madman. Kubrick shows how satirical and ironic reality can be, even
though the crew managed to drop the bombs (with Major Kong riding on them) they are
not presented as responsible of that massacre, but as other victims of an irony that not
even they could understand.

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Black Humor & Satire in Dr.

Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and

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