| 12-25-1965 | "Survival of the Fattest" |
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From
start-to-finish, Max is thoroughly dominated by WOmen in the episode. While
offered in the spirit of comedy, what's presented is many a masochistic man's
ultimate fantasy: drugged unconscious, only to awaken trapped in a room with three physically-superior Gorgeous
Amazons who torture and abuse him... The black costuming and blondeness of Mary Jack
suggests the writers were influenced by
Honey West, taking the idea of a
Strong WOman to an absurd extreme... Whereas Honey Judo-flips & Karate Chops,
Mary Jack can straight punch-out a guy... Not just a physical wonder, she's also
mentally superior to Max, as the 3 Stooges routine in "Who Done It" is repeated
with the Femme Fatale switching the drugged drink to KO the man who thinks he's
outsmarted the gal... Imagine this: it's
Christmas day in 1965 and some little boy just got his Maxwell Smart decoder kit
from Santa and after Christmas dinner he sits down in front of the TV to watch
his hero be completely humiliated by and subjugated to the Power of
Femininity... This show's a spoof, but you wonder how much the boy's
laughing... And what he might dream of for years to come... Would you believe: Dominatrixes?
(that was going to be
your next guess?)
Dennis Dun writes: "It would also be interesting to know how differently boy-children of the 90s and thereafter are with respect to the expectation, "Women are weaker than men and that's all there is to it." Case in point: my recollection of the "Mary Jack Armstrong" episode of GET SMART, which I saw at the tender age of 10 when it debuted in 1965. I had seen the announcement for the episode in TV Guide, but I thought the ad had to be a mistake, because it had claimed that "Mary Jack" was "the strongest KAOS agent of all" or words to that effect. Obviously TV Guide was wrong: a woman couldn't be the strongest! I can't say that I think that was my "first" encounter with feminine superiority, which moment I've never precisely pinned down-- but suffice to say, "Survival of the Fattest" still remains a major landmark in this long, strange trip I've been on all these years."
Karen Steele as the indomitable Mary Jack...
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MaryJack: "Do you know
what I do to men who annoy me?"
Max: "You ignore them and hope they go away?"
MaryJack: "I kill them..."
Max: "That was going to be my next guess..."
Tania Lemani as "Carla," first teases the fat king...
Then tortures him into skinniness...
As Get Smart generally spoofed other sources, it's fairly obvious the inspiration for this episode was The Man From UNCLE's "Girls of Nazarone..." Both episodes feature a work-out room where a man is bound to an exercise bike...