Dr. Strangelove
Dr.
Strangelove is a person who displays disturbing enthusiasm for nuclear weapons or military catastrophe, from the title character of Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film *Dr.
Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb*.
The wheelchair-bound ex-Nazi scientist advises the president during an accidental nuclear crisis while struggling to suppress his arm from giving a Nazi salute.
The term characterizes someone whose technical expertise about destruction seems to override normal human fear of it: The Pentagon's Dr. Strangeloves are gaming out tactical nuclear strikes again.
- black comedyHumor from taboo subjects
- Cold WarProlonged East-West standoff
- satireMockery exposing vice
- B-52Heavy strategic bomber
Peter Sellers · George C. Scott · screenplay · cinematography · Columbia Pictures · 1964 · dark humor · absurdist
Weapon destroying everything automatically
- bombExplosive device or disaster
- falloutPost-blast atmospheric particles
- deterrencePrevention via threatened consequences
- mutually assured destructionReciprocal nuclear annihilation threat
ICBM · warhead · missile · radiation · annihilation · apocalypse · megaton · retaliation
Seated conveyance for mobility-impaired
- NaziGerman fascist party member
- scientistOne who studies nature
- mad scientistDeranged researcher archetype
- German accentTeutonic speech markers
Satirical imitation
- ironyMeaning opposite to words
- absurdityWildly illogical quality
- mockeryScornful ridicule or travesty
- dark comedyComedy treating grim topics lightly
political satire · social commentary · farce · gallows humor · ridicule · brinksmanship · hawkishness · jingoism
U.S. military headquarters
- bomberExplosive-delivery aircraft or saboteur
- fluoridationAdding tooth-strengthening compound to water
- commandAuthoritative instruction given
- defenseProtection against harm
Kubrick
- black comedyHumor from taboo subjects
- Cold WarProlonged East-West standoff
- satireMockery exposing vice
Peter Sellers · George C. Scott · B-52 · screenplay · cinematography · Columbia Pictures · 1964 · dark humor · absurdist · ensemble cast
doomsday machine
Weapon destroying everything automatically
- bombExplosive device or disaster
- falloutPost-blast atmospheric particles
- deterrencePrevention via threatened consequences
mutually assured destruction · ICBM · warhead · missile · radiation · annihilation · apocalypse · megaton · retaliation · first strike
wheelchair
Seated conveyance for mobility-impaired
- NaziGerman fascist party member
- scientistOne who studies nature
- mad scientistDeranged researcher archetype
parody
Satirical imitation
dark comedy · political satire · social commentary · farce · gallows humor · ridicule · brinksmanship · hawkishness · jingoism · lunacy
Pentagon
U.S. military headquarters
- bomberExplosive-delivery aircraft or saboteur
- fluoridationAdding tooth-strengthening compound to water
- commandAuthoritative instruction given
- 60s CinemaThe Graduate, Easy Rider, Bonnie and Clyde, Lawrence of Arabia, Mary Poppins
- Mad Scientistmad scientist, secret lab, lab coat, laboratory, evil genius
- Mad Scientistsmad scientist, Dr. Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll, Dr. Moreau, Frankenstein
- American SatireThe Onion, Saturday Night Live, SNL, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report
- war humormilitary humor, MASH, Catch-22, Beetle Bailey, war comics
- War SatireCatch-22, MASH, The Great Dictator, Slaughterhouse-Five, Jojo Rabbit
Dr. StrangeloveHenry Kissinger
love, strange, lovely, loving, loved, stranger, lovers, strangely, strangeness