R. Lee Ermey, the infamous drill instructor from Full Metal Jacket, has his own T.V. show, called Mail Call. I’ve seen it several times before, but I never really got into it. You see, its on regular cable T.V. so his speech is somewhat… toned down – and so we’re missing out on half the fun! There aren’t any grabastic pieces of amphibian shit on his show. There isn’t even any neck-shitting, no steers or queers either, and certainly no skull-fucking! About the worst thing I’ve heard him say on that show is “Maggot”… I guess some things are the same. He’s still not a bigot, for instance.
Ok, so that’s just a superficial complaint (and a nice excuse to link to some fun sound clips:P) and I happened to catch the back half of his show tonight, and I really enjoyed it. This season, his shows are being broadcast live from the Gulf, and from what I saw, they’re great. Because of his military background, he’s able to develop an instant rapport with the troops, and it shows. There is an effortless sense of mutual respect there that just can’t be faked. Its also nice to see the spotlight on our courageous and honorable fighting men and women. They’re doing a fantastic job over there, so far from home, and I’ll bet they really enjoyed this visit from Gunnery Sergeant Ermey…
At one point, a lucky marine was demonstrating their chemical protection gear and after everything was explained, R. Lee says that maybe we should get that marine out of the gear before he suffocates… “But not before you drop and give me 20!” (again, Ermey is more… respectful… than he used to be). The bundled marine instantly moved to start his assigned pushups – Ermey had to walk over and pat him on the shoulders and tell him he was joking. It was a great moment. HUA!
Apparently, Ermey’s going to be visiting all the military bases in the region (this episode was in Kuwait – I wonder if he ran into L.T. Smash…) so it should make for an interesting series… Check it out, maggot!