History Main / ArmedFarces

* Sweden has a long tradition of comics with the Peacetime flavor, starting with the comic ''91:an Karlsson'' which has been running since 1932.[[note]]The strip would also receive a Norwegian adaptation called ''91:an Stomperud'', although this version leans closer to Wartime comedy than the original[[/note]] When the comic got its own magazine it would later receive guest strips about other parts of the military, such as ''Flygsoldat 113 Bom'' (the Air Force) and ''Flottans gossar, Frisk och Rask'' (the Navy). The series' enduring popularity is because Sweden used to have mandatory conscription for young adult males even during peacetime, meaning that almost all of them could relate to military humour; ''Beetle Bailey'' is also [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff absurdly popular in Sweden]] for the same reason.

* ''ComicStrip/BeetleBailey'' is a peacetime variant to comic extremes, centering on a military camp located on the US which has somehow managed to remain uninvolved in armed conflict despite numerous wars over the strip's lifetime (Possibly because the Army has figured out that the best way the soldiers in that camp can aid the war effort is to stay as far away from it as possible).

* Swedish comic ''91:an Karlsson'' has been going on this theme since 1932.
** As is ''91 Stomperud'', its licensed Norwegian equivalent. It began in 1937.
** ''Flygsoldat 113 Bom'' (the Air Force) and ''Flottans gossar, Frisk och Rask'' (the Navy) aren't, however, but they had a good long publishing history. Basically, up until very recently Sweden had a conscript army for a very long time, so almost all adult Swedish males could relate to military humour. ''Beetle Bailey'' is also absurdly [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff popular in Sweden]] for the same reason.

* ''ComicBook/{{Sturmtruppen}}'' is a satiric comic telling the life and misadventures of a German battalion during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. To give you an idea of what Sturmtruppen is like, a story arc deals with a soldier [[NakedPeopleAreFunny going around naked]] because he has found out [[AintNoRule the rulebook doesn't say they actually have to wear their uniforms]], [[ExactWords only to keep them in perfect order]], and the doomed attempts of the captain and the sergeant to make him ''wear'' the uniform before the rest of the battalion follows [[{{Pun}} suit]]. [[UpToEleven That's not the most outrageous thing that has happened in the series]].

* ''Literature/CatchTwentyTwo'' is military farce turned UpToEleven.

* ''The Ship with the Flat Tire'': Everything on the U.S.S. Carnation was bass ackwards, so they called her "ASS-1". The worst thing that happened to the Carnation waws that she left the shipyard. The next worst thing was that Ensign J. Roger Westbury was assigned to her as supply officer.

* ''Series/{{Blackadder}} Goes Forth'', set in the trenches of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.

* ''Film/TheSeventhCompany'' series is about the comical adventures of a trio of not very bright World War II French soldiers who get lost somewhere on the moving frontlines in 1940 as Germans start to occupy France.

* ''Film/TheSeventhCompany'': the comical adventures of a trio of not very bright World War II French soldiers who get lost somewhere on the moving frontlines as Germans start to occupy France.

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "Forward March Hare", in which WesternAnimation/BugsBunny joins the army and [[RealityEnsues is treated like you'd expect an anthropomorphic rabbit to be treated if inducted into the army]]: with disbelief or thoughts of one losing one's mind. Make what you will of the fact that Bugs also once starred in a WartimeCartoon[=/=]recruitment commercial for the US Marines. [[note]]Apparently they were less inclined to be picky; see the trope page for details.[[/note]] It is also one of the few cases where Bugs is as blind as everyone else and screws things accidentally.

Simply put, military humor. This particular brand of funny centers on stereotypically dim-witted military personnel, asshole officers, and naive recruits. And a RagtagBunchOfMisfits.

Comes in two flavors: Wartime and Peacetime. Expect a wartime military farce to turn DarkerAndEdgier in the penultimate act when the "real war" comes calling for the characters.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow'': The

* Modern readers of ''Series/{{MASH}}'' may be surprised to find that the original book was more about military farce than social commentary. Later books in the series do include a lot of social commentary, but it's ''conservative'' social commentary.
* ''Literature/CatchTwentyTwo'': A dark comedy and satire about warfare and other absurdities in life. The story follows a range of wacky characters on an small [=WW2=] air base who struggle mightily to do everything ''except'' try to win the war.

%%* ''The Ship with the Flat Tire''
* The Literature/McAuslan series by Creator/GeorgeMacDonaldFraser consists of affectionate, semi-fictional Armed Farces stories. His ''Quartered Safe Out Here'' is a less farcical, less fictional (though still quite funny) memoir.

* ''Literature/AdolfHitlerMyPartInHisDownfall'' by Creator/SpikeMilligan. BasedOnATrueStory, but no less farcical.

* Creator/EvelynWaugh's ''Literature/SwordOfHonour'' trilogy is a story of a man who trains to be an [[SuperSoldier elite commando]] in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII... and spends almost the entire war dealing with pointless bureaucratic red tape and farcical incompetence. Only once in the entire war does he actually even see a [[ThoseWackyNazis German soldier]] with his own two eyes, and that is an indication that he has gotten hopelessly lost and accidentally gone too far toward enemy lines. This series was [[RealLifeWritesThePlot based on Waugh's own experience]] as a Royal Marine during the war, during which he participated in several military actions... all of which were incompetently-managed and utterly ineffective fiascoes.
* A section specifically made for military humor has always been a tradition for ''Magazine/ReadersDigest'' magazine.
* Literature/{{Discworld}} has some examples, such as ''Literature/MonstrousRegiment'' and portions of ''Literature/{{Jingo}}''.

* ''Radio/TheNavyLark'', following the exploits of the crew of ''HMS Troutbridge''; the worst ship in the Royal Navy.

* ''Deep Trouble'', set on a British nuclear submarine. They inadvertently torpedo the USS Nimitz in the opener of the first episode.
* Occasional parts of ''The Leopard In Autumn,'' set in Renaissance Italy.

* The first ''VideoGame/BattlefieldBadCompany'', where three military screw-ups and their long-suffering sergeant go AWOL to hunt for mercenary gold.

* ''Machinima/CombatDevolved'' Follows this trope to the tee, It has stupid military personnel, asshole military personnel and naive military personnel who spend more time bitching about each other and the Covenant than actually fighting them.

* ''Webcomic/GoneWithTheBlastwave'' makes use of this in a post-apocalyptic conflict. As one character asks: [[http://www.blastwave-comic.com/index.php?p=comic&nro=26 "Why haven't we lost this war yet?"]]

* ''Webcomic/TerminalLance'', a comic based on enlisted Marine life ([[TagLine You can't spell "Disgruntled" without "Grunt"!]])

* ''Webcomic/ContraFarce'' features mostly clueless mercenaries and ex-military.

* The "Shut The Fuck Up, Carl!" meme: What happens when one member of the squad is a CloudCuckoolander with no brain-to-mouth filter?

* ''WesternAnimation/PrivateSnafu'', a series of [[FauxToGuide army "training" films]] made during UsefulNotes/WW2.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' episode "In The Army".

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS18E5GIAnnoyedGrunt G.I. (Annoyed Grunt)]]", Homer winds up joining the army and ends up in a squad of dimwits like him. They took part in an army exercise which involves using them as cannon fodder, then they run off and hide in Springfield, to which the army occupies the town to flush them out.

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* In a sharp contrast to the original book's militaristic and nationalistic beliefs ''Anime/MayaTheBee'' is pretty light on army matters: the hive isn't as militaristic and Maya is free to wander around the world. What it also includes is an army of ants who is parodied as dignified and proud but is actually pretty shortsighted and thoughtless.

* George Baker's ''Sad Sack'', which was originally distributed to military personnel in "Yank, The Army Weekly" during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII; after the war ended, the Sad Sack cartoons were syndicated in various newspapers from 1946 to 1958, ultimately being published by Creator/HarveyComics from 1949 to 1982. The series depicted the antics of private Sad Sack, the Sarge, Slob Slobinski, Hi-Fi Tweeter, General Rockjaw and others at Camp Calamity (sometimes called Camp Browbeat).

%%* ''ComicStrip/PVTMurphysLaw''
* Bill Mauldin's ''ComicStrip/WillieAndJoe'', published in during WWII, and later collected in ''Up Front'' and ''Back Home''. He made fun of the top brass so well [[ButtMonkey General Patton]] threatened to stop publication of ''Stars and Stripes'', but Eisenhower came to Mauldin's defense due to the comics' morale-boosting effect.

** ''Film/CarryOnEngland'' is set in a gender-integrated military division on the Home Front in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the members of which are far more interested in pursuing sexual escapades than in anything to do with the military, to the frustration of the incompetent CO and the buffoonish RSM.
%%* ''Film/InTheArmyNow''
* ''Film/{{Stripes}}'': Two slackers inspire their ragtag bunch of misfits to be slacker soldiers, then drive a weaponized Winnebago into Czechoslovakia.

* ''Film/HotShots'' and ''Film/HotShotsPartDeux''; parodies of ''Film/TopGun'' and ''Franchise/{{Rambo}}'' respectively
* ''Film/MisterRoberts'', which is about the Navy for a change.

* ''Literature/CatchTwentyTwo'' is military farce turned UpToEleven.
* ''Film/TheWackiestShipInTheArmy''. During [=WW2=], Lt. Rip Crandall, who was a yachtsman before the war, takes command of the USS Echo, a sailing ship, for a secret mission in waters patrolled by Japanese warships. Mores of a comedy-drama.

* ''Film/DownPeriscope'' is another submarine example, with a RagtagBunchOfMisfits being assigned to crew a UsefulNotes/KoreanWar-era diesel submarine as part of a wargame scenario.

* ''Buck Privates'': Creator/AbbottAndCostello hijinks in the military.
* ''Film/IWasAMaleWarBride'', a VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory 1949 film with Creator/CaryGrant as a French army captain who ends up DisguisedInDrag as a U.S. army nurse in order to accompany his U.S. Women's Army Corps wife back to America after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. (This was because the Pentagon had only anticipated war brides, not war grooms.)

* ''Film/BuffaloSoldiers'' is a satirical comedy where a bunch of bored soldiers stationed in West Germany near the end of the Cold War pass their time by manufacturing drugs.
* ''Tankový prapor'' (1991) adapted from the book ''Republic of Whores'', about conscripts in a Czech tank battalion during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, thought it's meant as a satire of the communist system rather than the military.
* ''Film/SgtBilko'': A film adaptation of ''Series/ThePhilSilversShow'' featuring Creator/SteveMartin as the eponymous huckster/soldier.
* ''Film/PraybeytBenjamin'': A gay man tries to prove himself to his military family by joining the military.

%%* ''ComicBook/SadSack''.

* ''Tankový prapor'' (1991) adapted from the book ''Republic of Whores'', about conscripts in a Czech tank battalion during the ColdWar, thought it's meant as a satire of the communist system rather than the military.

* ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'': Roman soldiers are portrayed as a bunch of weak and incompetent losers. And quite a few centurions aren't that better. The army is very lacking in efficiency and organisation, the spirit is that everyone is only out for themselves and everyone treats their job as a chore.

* Literature/{{Discworld}} has some examples, such as ''Discworld/MonstrousRegiment'' and portions of ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}''.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS18E5GIAnnoyedGrunt G.I. (Annoyed Grunt)]]", Homer winds up joining the army and ends up in a squad of dimwits like him, they took part in an army exercise which involves using them as cannon fodder, they run off and hide in Springfield to which the army occupies the town to flush them out.

* "Meet The Soldier" trailer for ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' is a perfect example.

** Season 12 gives us the two sides in the civil war on Chorus, the Federal Army and New Republic. The war has been going on for so long that most of the worthwhile soldiers were already killed. To put it lightly, these guys look up to the Blood Gulch Crew, which tells a lot about their standards. Most of the actual fighting is done by mercenaries, who are in fact working together to kill off the planet's population and steal the alien relics kept within.

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' practically ''embodies'' this trope. [[spoiler:It starts getting serious (somewhat) when ''actual'' soldiers start showing up]].

--->'''Church:''' ''[after the Blue Team is sent a tank that none of them can drive]'' Holy crap, ''who is running this army?!?''

* ''Series/DadsArmy'' is set in the British Home Guard during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and features an arrogant but inept brigade commander, his sensible but ignored second-in-command, and the five men under their command, three of whom are over 60 years old, one of whom is a conniving spiv, and one of whom is a wet-nosed mummy's boy.

-->--'''[[http://store.steamgames.com/app/985/ The Soldier]]''' from ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'', on [[Literature/TheArtOfWar Sun Tzu]]

* ''Film/TheWackiestShipInTheArmy''. During WW2, Lt. Rip Crandall, who was a yachtsman before the war, takes command of the USS Echo, a sailing ship, for a secret mission in waters patrolled by Japanese warships. Mores of a comedy-drama.

* ''Literature/CatchTwentyTwo'': A dark comedy and satire about warfare and other absurdities in life. The story follows a range of wacky characters on an small WW2 air base who struggle mightily to do everything ''except'' try to win the war.