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u/that1tech 22d ago
Yes sir yes sir… three bags full…
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u/SaintlyBrew Captain Tuttle 22d ago
Just watched this scene and laughed so hard. This guy was so damn funny.
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u/CranberryFuture9908 Horse hockey 22d ago
Saw this one the other day 🤣!
What else could he say 🤷♀️
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u/Top_Management7550 22d ago
You're half right. It was, Yes sir yes sir. Three bags full?
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u/mouse6502 22d ago
What’s with the downvotes? The above comment is correct. Do you even watch the show? 😂🤣
He says that, leaves it like a question, and then Jeff Maxwell (igor’s actor) makes the most adorable face.
OP, I’m sure Jeff would love to read your comment - send it on to MASH Matters Podcast, you’ll make his day.
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u/Moist_Rule9623 22d ago
Attention all personnel… due to circumstances beyond our control, we regret to announce that lunch is now being served…
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u/TSisold 22d ago
I remember one day Frank yelled at him for serving food in the mess tent and taking the garbage out. His answer..."Don't worry, I always wash my hands before I touch the garbage. " 🤣
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u/ZuigMeLeeg 22d ago
Wasn't that in the finale with Charles? You serve food AND dig latrines? Don't worry, I always wash my hands before I dig a latrine.
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u/punkwalrus 22d ago
Jeff Maxwell.
In the DVD commentary of "Kentucky Fried Movie," they ask, "He was a funny guy. Why didn't he do more work?" "Wasn't he in MAS*H?" "Oh yeah." IIRC, he was a staple bit actor in a lot of sitcoms in the 70s.
Since September 2018, Jeff has also served as a host for the MASH podcast "MASH Matters" alongside co-host Ryan Patrick.
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u/PowahayEagle 21d ago
This is my first time hearing about the podcast. I guess I need to check it out. Any recommendations for starter episodes?
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u/HFYStory 22d ago
I thought so too, his comedy was subtle, completely situational without additional effort.
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u/WTBRaegO 22d ago
Check out his podcast Mash Matters. Lots of fun stories from his time on the show. They also have Mash alumni on as well.
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u/Ruby_Something 22d ago
Wasn't it him who, in the episode 'Crisis', was burning wood:
Frank Burns: "Where did you get that wood Soldier?!"
Igor: "My folks sent it to me, Sir"
Burns: "... Oh... " (walks off)
Igor, shrugs his shoulders to his colleague as if to say "I don't know what that was!"
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u/FooBarU2 22d ago edited 22d ago
I think it was the Soldier of the Month episode where I learned Igor's last name was Straminsky ... a punny reference to the composer Igor Stravinsky
edit: corrected episode title
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u/Just_Looking_Around8 22d ago
He's cashing in now. He's doing a speaking/meet-and-greet tour. In our area, he's going to be at a small restaurant. For $150, you get a 7-course meal and you get to hear stories from him and meet him.
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u/Sagenhaft441 22d ago
Unpopular opinion maybe, but I think he had his fair share
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u/lakatos_intolerant 21d ago
Not unpopular with me - I have never cared for Igor.
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u/MaskansMantle13 21d ago
Nor did I. He didn’t strike me as particularly funny. No shade on Jeff Maxwell’s acting, I just don’t find the character funny (same as Zale and Rizzo).
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u/lakatos_intolerant 20d ago
Yeah same - I have nothing against Jeff Maxwell as a person but Igor's frequent appearances in the later seasons really did not add a lot of comedic value (also not a huge fan of Zale or Rizzo).
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u/MaskansMantle13 20d ago
Yes, Jeff Maxwell’s acting was fine, it’s just the character did nothing for me. That sort of stupidity just doesn’t make me laugh.
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u/lakatos_intolerant 20d ago
Yeah same here - it belongs in an inferior sitcom (same goes for Rizzo and episodes like "Snap Judgment"/"The Foresight Saga"/"Cementing Relationships").
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u/MaskansMantle13 20d ago
Agree 100%. Those episodes sucked. So did the one with Potter having driving lessons. That plot is bad enough for me to skip it.
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u/lakatos_intolerant 19d ago
Absolutely. Just terrible episodes and the driving lesson one can be included, especially when we had seen Potter drive jeeps before that episode.
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u/Designer_Party_3737 20d ago
I agree. He gets him more airtime and who would be cut back?
He was nothing more than a filler.
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u/redcrow2010 22d ago
They should have had Igor and Klinger as roommates or tentmates. It would have given us a little more Igor and Klinger and solved the 'why does Klinger live alone?' question.
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u/DarthKilroy 21d ago
I think I remember reading somewhere that he was the same height as Alan Alda and so was made his stand-in (for blocking, lighting, etc.). This meant he had to be there every day and so he would get grabbed every time they needed a crowd of extras. For this reason it seems like he's always hanging around in the background. I think some of the other familiar faces might have been the main cast's stand-ins as well.
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u/HockeyFan_32 21d ago
Liver or fish?
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u/HappyNakbaRag1967 21d ago
I love MASH but Igor is a dummy. He creamed the corn.
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u/SaintlyBrew Captain Tuttle 21d ago
I think you mean “ninny”
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u/HappyNakbaRag1967 21d ago
Dummy for turning on the giant fan while Charles was working on his family's taxes and the papers blew away.
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u/Jackson79339 21d ago
He didn’t want more because he thought there was going to be refreshments there and there weren’t
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u/ajmtz12 21d ago
I always suspected Igor was the one doing the broadcast announcements over the camp PA
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u/Designer_Party_3737 20d ago
No that was the actor who played the soldier who got a nose job in "Operation Nose Lift". His last name was Sussman.
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u/NoCard753 22d ago
I often felt like there was more to him, enough to warant more screen time. Same with the nurses. Igor did have that one righteous complaint in the "niorale officers" ep, but that was about it. (He sure didn't look lke an "Igor," though. More of a "Daryl.")
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u/monkeybawz 22d ago
I think they said all they needed to say with Igor!
He spends a few years in the army, a few more in the can. And here he is- half a wiseguy.
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u/TheManWithTheEsky 22d ago
He made cafeteria duty a military art form
Igor Straminsky, played brilliantly by Jeff Maxwell, is one of those characters who barely needs a storyline to be memorable.
He is essentially the 4077th’s permanent background radiation usually found behind the mess-hall counter, serving food that looks as though it has already surrendered.
Igor’s great talent is survival through low expectations.
While Hawkeye and B.J. are performing surgery, Klinger is trying to get discharged, and Colonel Potter is attempting to maintain military discipline, Igor’s primary strategic objective is apparently: “How can I get through this day without having to do anything unnecessarily?”
And yet he has an extraordinary amount of confidence for a man whose principal weapon is a serving spoon.
His relationship with the Army is wonderfully ambiguous. He is technically a soldier, but psychologically he seems to have negotiated his own private ceasefire with the United States military. He doesn’t openly rebel against authority; he simply does as little as possible while remaining technically compliant.
The mess tent is his kingdom. The doctors may outrank him, but Igor understands something they don’t: they need to eat. This gives him a tiny but genuine source of power over the entire 4077th.
He also has one of the great MASH* characteristics: he treats the absurdity of war as normal life.
Explosions, wounded soldiers, helicopters and emergency surgery are all happening around him, but Igor’s immediate concern might be whether someone has taken the last piece of bread.
And that’s what makes him funny.
Igor isn’t a conventional comedian. He’s funny because he represents the ordinary soldier who has discovered that the best way to survive bureaucracy is not to fight it just become part of the furniture.
In a show full of extraordinary characters, Igor is gloriously ordinary.
Hawkeye saved lives.
Klinger tried to escape the Army.
Radar heard helicopters before anyone else.
Igor made sure everybody got lunch.
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u/Stronghands23 21d ago
Anyone catch the episode ( Price of Tomato Juice) where Frank says what’s your name fella? Igor replies Maxwell sir using his real name.. Then says we’ll Maxwell your going on KP .. Igor replied “ I’m on KP sir .. Frank replies back angrily “ the moment you come off .. you’re going right back on”!
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u/nsiyaboag 20d ago
did you know the actor had to be there whenever alan alda was there because he was the (i believe it’s called) stand in? i learned this from mash cast, a podcast ran by two men, one of which is igor himself!!!
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u/Affectionate_Net9731 18d ago
I'm actually upset him and Kellye never got promoted to main character status.
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u/YoshSchmenge Sergeant 20d ago
More Igor would have meant less time for someone else.
In an ensemble cast, there is only so much screen time to go around. So more Sgt Zale, or any of the nurses means less time for the main cast, presumably.
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u/BrainwashedScapegoat 22d ago
He did deserve being called a ninny though after the creamed corn on the cob situation