Military humor
Military humor is humor based on stereotypes of military life. Military humor portrays a wide range of characters and situations in the armed forces. It comes in a wide array of cultures and tastes, making use of burlesque, cartoons, comic strips, double entendre, exaggeration, jokes, parody, gallows humor, pranks, ridicule and sarcasm. Military humor often comes in the form of military jokes or "barracks jokes". Military slang, in any language, is also full of humorous expressions; the term "fart sack" is military slang for a sleeping bag. Barrack humor also often makes use of dysphemism, such as the  widespread usage of "shit on a shingle" for chipped beef. Certain military expressions, like friendly fire, are a frequent source of satirical humor. Notable cartoonists of military humor include Bill Mauldin, Dave Breger, George Baker, Shel Silverstein and Vernon Grant. Comic strips. The best-known comic strip about military life is Mort Walker's long-run "Beetle Bailey", set in a United States Army military post where a number of inept characters are stationed. Also notable are George Baker's "Sad Sack" and Dave Breger's "Private Breger". When Roy Crane created the "Buz Sawyer" Sunday strip, he put the  emphasis not on Sawyer but on his comedic sidekick Sweeney. "Half Hitch", Hank Ketcham's strip of Navy humor, was distributed by King Features Syndicate from 1970 to 1975. Maximillian Uriarte's "Terminal Lance" began in 2010 and continues to run online and in the "Marine Corps Times". Military humor in comic books includes the "All Select Comics" comic book feature "Jeep Jones" by Chic Stone. Films. Among the oldest military comedies in film are the Flagg and Quirt films. Comedy films about World War II include "Buck Privates" (1941), "Stalag 17" (1953), "Mr. Roberts" (1955), "Kelly's Heroes" (1970 ) and "Catch-22" (1970). The film "Forrest Gump" (1994) offers a glimpse of military humor when portraying Gump as a soldier in training and later fighting in Vietnam. Television. Some comedies, like the "Don't Call Me Charlie!" (1962–63) TV series (about a young veterinarian drafted into the Army and stationed in Paris), are totally devoted to the military theme. The fourth series of the British sitcom "Blackadder", known as "Blackadder Goes Forth", revolves around the life of Edmund Blackadder in the trenches of World War I. Books. Notable books include Shel Silverstein's "Grab Your Socks" (1956), Jaroslav Hašek's  The Good Soldier Švejk (1923) and "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller. "Reader's Digest"'s "Humor in Uniform" (1963) is a collection of short true anecdotes depicting amusing experiences in the armed forces. In 1941, according to editor Harold Hersey, there were about 350 Army camp newspapers. Three years later, when they had expanded to "hundreds and hundreds", he compiled his collection of camp newspapers cartoons, "More G.I. Laughs" (1944). In 2002, Hyperion published "Kilroy Was Here: The Best American Humor from World War II" by Charles Osgood. "Publishers Weekly" reviewed: Magazines. Widely circulated on military bases during the 1950s, "Charley  Jones Laugh Book" was an outgrowth of earlier military humor publications. During World War II, Jones sold "Latrine Gazette" on Army bases, so successful that he recycled the material into another publication, "HEADliners", aimed at Navy men, and then launched "Charley Jones Laugh Book" as a nationally distributed magazine in 1943. "Captain Billy's Whiz Bang" began in a similar fashion after World War I. Humour in the former South African Defence Force. Military humour in the South African Defence Force (SADF) was to be found less in jokes than in humorous expressions and comments. It is sometimes difficult to  express their force, since most of it is in Afrikaans, and the play on words does not always translate into English without explanation. SADF humour can be very vulgar, but is never blasphemous. It often comes from the mouths of Instructor Corporals addressing trainees: Plays on words were also popular, for example: Like any other army, there were also standard slang terms for equipment and uniforms: The various corps had humorously insulting names for each other. Amongst others: There were also soft-covered cartoon books satirizing army life. An example is one based on the old SADF adage, “There are  only two sizes in the SADF; too big and too small.” It shows a squad of new recruits, all wearing uniforms and boots far too big or small. In the middle is a soldier with perfectly fitting gear. The Corporal is shouting at him: “What’s the matter with you, soldier? How come everything fits so perfectly?” Brazil in World War II. The Brazilian dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas was known for its unwillingness to get more deeply involved in the Allied war effort. By early 1943 a popular saying was: "It's more likely for a snake to smoke a  pipe, than for the BEF to go the front and fight." (""Mais fácil uma cobra fumar um cachimbo, do que a FEB embarcar para o combate.""). Before the FEB entered combat, the expression "a cobra vai fumar" ("the snake will smoke") was often used in Brazil in a context similar to "when pigs fly". As a result, the soldiers of the FEB called themselves "Cobras Fumantes" (literally, "Smoking Snakes") and wore a divisional shoulder patch that showed a snake smoking a pipe. It was also common for Brazilian soldiers to write on their mortars, "The Snake is smoking ..." ("A cobra  está fumando..."). After the war the meaning was reversed, signifying that something will definitively happen and in a furious and aggressive way. With that second meaning the use of the expression "a cobra vai fumar" has been retained in Brazilian Portuguese until the present, although few of the younger generations realize the origin of the expression.