History Literature / CatchTwentyTwo

* {{Catchphrase}}

** Colonel Korn got so fed up with Yossarian ruining educational sessions with pointless questions that he decided to put a stop to it by making it a rule that the only people allowed to ask questions during educational sessions were the ones who don't ask questions during educational sessions. He then got rid of the sessions altogether, since everyone agreed that you couldn't educate people who never asked questions.

A satirical antiwar novel written by Creator/JosephHeller and published in 1961, ''Catch-22'' focuses on Yossarian, a USAAF bombardier on the Italian Front during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, who would very much like to ''not'' be on the Italian Front during World War II. It is considered one of the greatest books of the 20th century and at the same time is often [[BlackComedy gut-bustingly funny]].

** Milo Minderbinder, a ruthless profiteer, but one who does attempt to protect Yossarian from the very bureaucracy that he feeds. He even aids Yossarian in his mission to rescue Nately's prostitute's young sister [[spoiler: only to abruptly depart upon hearing of yet another new business opportunity]].

** Orr is Swedish for "grouse", a bird known as a poor flyer. [[spoiler: After his last crash, he escapes to Sweden.]]

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Milo. He'd be one of the novel's more reprehensible characters (quite an achievement) if you could define him by human morality at all. He views things less in terms of "good vs. bad" and more in terms of "profitable vs. unprofitable" -- that is to say, not only does he believe that anything which is good for the free market is good, but he doesn't comprehend how anything that's good for the free market could ''possibly'' be bad. What's especially horrifying is that this attitude becomes the prevailing attitude of the army and the entire American administration: [[spoiler: when Milo contracts with the Germans to bomb his own airfield, and is subsequently court martialled for treason, he gets away with it by convincing the court that it would be wrong to punish him because he was just being a good capitalist, and capitalism made America great. What clinches this argument is the sheer size of the profit Milo made on the deal, which convinces the investigating committee that it's fine to kill American personnel if to do so will make a profit.]]

** According to [[CloudCuckooLander Orr]], Appleby has "flies in his eyes", this being why he cannot see things as they really are. Appleby cannot see that he has flies in his eyes, because they impair his vision. Were there no flies in his eyes, he would be able to see whether there were flies in his eyes, but there would be no flies to see, and anytime there were, he would be unable to see them on account of the flies in his eyes. [[spoiler:(Given the revelation at the end that Orr is more in touch with reality than he seems, he was likely speaking metaphorically, but the logic still applies- Appleby cannot see that he cannot see things clearly because he cannot see things clearly.)]]

* DeniedFoodAsPunishment: Captain Black's Great Loyalty Oath Crusade required that soldiers sign loyalty oaths, recite the pledge of allegiance, and sing the national anthem numerous times before being allowed to eat - and then do it some more to get access to the condiments. People who didn't (or who weren't allowed to because the Captain didn't like them) were not allowed to be served at the mess. [[spoiler:Eventually Major ---- de Coverly pulls rank and forces him to stop.]]

* FauxAffablyEvil: Aarfy, a rotund, absentminded, childishly-naive college boy, who has a strong sense of principles, is nostalgic about his fraternity days, and constantly smokes his pipe. He's also a [[spoiler: sociopathic social climber, a serial rapist, and a murderer.]] At one point, he even goes so far as [[spoiler: fondly recounting the kidnapping, gang rape, and robbing of two high school girls by him and his frat brothers]] to Nately. [[EvilCannotComprehendGood He seems to believe sincerely that Nately will respect this.]]

** General Peckem spends the entire book trying to get bomber units transferred to his command in Special Services so he can have authority over General Dreedle. This eventually occurs after Peckem takes over Dreedle's command. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, this now means that he is now subservient to General Scheisskopf.]]

-->'''Chief White Halfoat''': Racial prejudice is a terrible thing, Yossarian. It really is. It's a terrible thing to treat a decent, loyal Indian like a nigger, kike, wop or spic.

** The Old Man in the Brothel. He proves how Italy will win the war because ''it is so weak''

* KnightInSourArmor: Despite Yossarian's bravado and seeming lackadaisical nature, he's actually incredibly upset about all the brutality, callousness and corruption of the military. Special mention goes to Dunbar, who was portrayed as a guy who wanted to prolong his life as long as possible by being as boring as possible, and later [[spoiler: got so upset at the unnecessary bombing of an Italian village that he intentionally missed the target but also started getting riled up at the stupid and pointless orders of his superior officers]].

** The thing Orr did to make a whore hit him repeatedly with her shoe is presented as this, complete with numerous UnReveal[=s=]. Subverted when [[spoiler: Yossarian finally works it out in the last few pages. "Because he was paying her to, that's why!" He was trying to get hurt badly enough to stay out of combat; when it didn't work, he faked his last crash and made his way to Sweden.]]

* OhCrap: General Peckem (and just about all the top military brass) have one when they realize [[spoiler: Scheisskopf, a CloudCuckoolander PointyHairedBoss, has been promoted to authority over them--and wants them all to march in parades.]]

* ReassignmentBackfire: General Peckem keeps trying to get combat operations transferred under his command in Special Services. However, when he is reassigned to General Dreedle's position, he finds that this has occured. However, since his former second in command is now head of Special Services, [[spoiler: Scheisskopf is promoted to Lieutenant General]] and, thus, is now Peckem's superior.

** The brass at Yossarian's camp initially put on educational seminars for the men, but annoyed at having to actually answer questions, decide to limit the sessions to those men who would never ask questions to begin with. Then they scrap the sessions altogether--how are you supposed to teach students who don't ask question?

* DadaHorror: The novel and its various "Catch-22" situations become less and less funny as the narrative progresses, [[spoiler:culminating with Aarfy raping and murdering a girl through applying "Catch-22" logic to his sexual approach.]]

This novel originated the expression "catch-22" to describe a no-win situation or a double bind. The number 22 itself has no actual significance and seems to have been chosen arbitrarily. The original title was ''Catch-18'', and that didn't have any significance, either. It was changed so as to avoid confusion with Leon Uris' ''Mila 18'', which was published shortly beforehand.

A satirical antiwar novel written by Creator/JosephHeller and published in 1961, ''Catch-22'' focuses on Yossarian, a USAAF bombardier on the Italian Front during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, who would very much like to ''not'' be on the Italian Front during World War II. It is considered one of the greatest books of the Twentieth Century and at the same time is often [[BlackComedy gut-bustingly funny]].

This novel originated the expression "catch-22" to describe a no-win situation or a double bind. The number 22 itself has no actual significance and seems to have been chosen arbitrarily. The original title was ''Catch-18'', and that didn't have any significance either. It was changed so as to avoid confusion with Leon Uris' ''Mila 18'', which was published shortly beforehand.

** According to [[CloudCuckooLander Orr]], Appleby has "flies in his eyes", this being why he cannot see things as they really are. Appleby cannot see that he has flies in his eyes, because they impair his vision. Were there no flies in his eyes, he would be able to see whether there were flies in his eyes, but there would be no flies to see, and anytime there were, he would be unable to see them on account of the flies in his eyes. [[spoiler:(Given the revelation at the end that Orr is more in touch with reality than he seems, he was likely speaking metaphorically, but the logic still applies- Appleby cannot see that he cannot see things clearly because he cannot see things clearly.]]