Wanting to spice up his life, Radar enrols in a correspondence writing course... with questionable results. Hawkeye and B.J. pretend to have a fight in order to cheer up Frank on his birthday.
Your attention please, cadre of fellow miracle medical mortals! Corporal O'Reilly must compose a treatment on the subject of the following literary devices:
- Becoming the Mask: BJ and Hawkeye start out the episode pretending to be in a fight in order to entertain Frank, since Frank's misery on his birthday was making him even more horrible to be around than usual. The Hulu and DVD version of the episode show that the fake "fight" progressed to an actual fight over the course of episode. The two reconcile for real in the end when Radar's words remind them how much they really do care about each other.
- Birthday Episode: For Frank Burns.
- Black Comedy Rape: Klinger rushes to the front to find Communist soldiers (who are surrendering in droves) to capture. What he didn't count on was their being so sex-starved that they don't look too closely at anyone wearing a dress. He returns with his clothing shredded.
- Comically Missing the Point: Frank's story about Timmy, the neighbourhood boy in the wheelchair who accidentally rolled into Frank's father's car. As far as Frank was concerned, the only damage done was a scratch to the paintwork - any injury to Timmy being no big deal because he came from a wealthy family.
- Feud Episode: Hawkeye and B.J. pull this to entertain Frank on his less than pleasant birthday. It soon borders on the real thing when Hawkeye takes some of B.J.'s remarks too personally.
- Fly in the Soup: Frank assumes the tapioca he's eating has raisins in it. He is not thrilled to learn they were flies.
- Purple Prose: Radar attempts this while writing his duty logs according to his writing lessons. His questionable choice of vocabulary and sentence structure renders them Stylistic Suck.
- Self-Immolation: Klinger tries to get out of the army by threatening to do this, pouring gasoline on himself and nearly striking a match before Potter stops him. Then Potter realizes his "gasoline" isn't.
- Series Continuity Error:
- Frank's birthday is suddenly in the summer, despite season 1's "For Want of a Boot" establishing it as being in the winter.
- In his letter to his mother, Radar asks her to pass on his love to his nephews, but Radar has always been an only child.
- Shout-Out: The episode's title alludes to a long-running Reader's Digest magazine feature called "The Most Unforgettable Character I've Ever Met".
- Stage Magician: In The Tag, Radar has switched from writing to magic tricks. It doesn't end well for Frank's watch.
- Voiceover Letter: Radar narrates his writing efforts in this manner.
- Write What You Know: An In-Universe variation. Potter's advice to Radar essentially boils down to this. Hawkeye similarly tries to encourage Radar to write about something he feels strongly about, like Iowa or his Uncle Ed.
