Review of The Great American Mug

. . . the main function of American barber shops was the preservation and perpetuation of dirty jokes, THE GREAT AMERICAN MUG reveals. Hair trimming ran a distant second priority behind the vital need to preserve and pass along All-American "Blue Humor." The public school boards of yesteryear never had any controversies about "The Talk" being delivered in 8th Grade Biology Class, because it was assumed that the Birds and the Breeze were "old derby" by that late developmental stage to any well-groomed young whippersnapper. But by the time MUG was shot in the mid-1940's times were a-changing for the worse. Notice the absence of anyone under the age of 50 in this documentary. Though Naturalist periodicals such as Play Guy and Fluster were kept on the children's rack in the waiting room to educate the boys pushing double digits about nozzles and spigots through the 1980's, Hugh and Larry eventually grew too blasé for even the kindergarten crowd. Meanwhile, LEAVE IT TO BEAVER moms began personally bringing their young lads into the previously sacrosanct male inner sanctum, killing off the telling of ribald tales (and taking the last remaining ounce of fun out of the magazines). Now little dudes lacking high-speed internet connections in their bedrooms are entering college without even knowing which end is up.