Scrubs Satire

Humor and medicine are unlikely bedfellows. One conventional example of this interesting amalgam is the popular American medical drama Scrubs, which aired from 2001 to 2010. Scrubs was set in the fictional teaching hospital Sacred Heart. The central premise of the show focuses on various medical interns learning and transitioning into licensed doctors and the various shenanigans and commotions that parallel such a dramatic shift. During the concise twenty-minute episodes, various traditional tropes are employed to reach the audience, and best deliver the desired message, usually comical in nature. From an earlier vantage point, MASH, another culturally significant show–which aired from 1972 to 1983–additionally serves as an exemplum of comedy

In fact, gallows humor fights on the battlefield, festers in the wounded and diseased, and provides comfort to those dealing with these adverse situations. A scene characteristic of this ideal, which sharply contrasts the lighter voice and surroundings presented in Scrubs, is found in the episode “The Late Captain Pierce” of Mash. The episode opens blatantly comically black due to Hawkeye–the chief surgeon of the 4077th mash unit–falsely declared dead as the result of an err in paperwork. Hawkeye does not, however, let the administerial mark of death ebb his life. In fact, he utilizes this opportunity as a justification to be at leisure for the time being. Unfortunately, a hitch arises in his plan after he boards a bus of corpses being shipped out when discovers that being deceased carries unfavorable circumstances, such as how his family is reacting and the absence of pay. Thus, he returns to his duties and the working world of the living, refreshed by his moments of relaxation. This allowed him to distance himself from the culminating stressors while permitting him to connect with opposite spectrum of life that he too often dealt with: death on a personal