Critical Accommodations: Washington, Hollywood, and the World War II Housing Shortage

• Published in: Journal of American culture (Malden, Mass.) Mass.), 2007-12, Vol.30 (4), p.417-433
• Main Author: Krutnik, Frank
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: American literature; Benny, Jack (Benjamin Kubelsky) (1894-1974); Dos Passos, John (1896-1970); Hotels & motels; Humor; Jewish Americans; Juvenile delinquency; Living conditions; Minority & ethnic groups; Motion pictures; Space shuttle; World War II
• ISSN: 1542-7331; 1542-734X
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1542-734X.2007.00619.x

Notable examples include joking cycles devoted to such diverse topics as the Poles (or Irish, or other ethnic groups), dead babies, elephants, light bulbs, dumb blondes, Helen Keller, Princess Diana, Jewish American princesses, and numerous disasters (the Challenger space shuttle crash, Chernobyl, 9/11).2 As Joseph Boskin puts it, the joke cycle can "serve as a cultural barometer of issues and changes that have confronted people," while at the same time highlighting "the role of humor as resistance and reconciliation-an ameliorating factor in healing fractures in society" (Boskin 7). With the exception of The More the Merrier, which she applauds, Jones condemns the housing crisis comedies (Government Girl, So This is Washington, Standing Room Only, The Doughgirls, etc.) because, though "harmless enough as fare for American audiences . . . for audiences abroad which were unfamiliar with the American scene and unable to distinguish between what represented burlesque and what reality, these films gave a volatile and highly uncomplimentary picture of our wartime capital" (Jones 10).