I’ve been a Jules Feiffer fan for as long as I can remember. To my 1960s teenage mind, his cartoons and animations put him squarely in that olympian world of hip, intellectual Greenwich Village. He was in a pantheon that included comics like Mort Sahl, Lenny Bruce and Nichols and May, and publications like the Village Voice and the New York Review of Books (although, at the time, my own reading tended more toward Mad Magazine and the comic strip Pogo.)

So my attention was easily caught the other day when someone posted a YouTube video of a Feiffer animation from back in the day: “Munro” was created from the book of the same name, which Feiffer published in 1953, soon after finishing his own stint in the U.S. Army. It was fresh, imaginative, poked fun at the military, and helped get Feiffer noticed as a talented, creative spirit.

Notably, however, what made “Munro” stand out at that time was that it was fresh and imaginative – not that it poked fun at the military.  In the 1950s and 1960s, lots of people were poking fun at the military. There were syndicated cartoon strips like “Sad Sack” and “Beetle Baily”; movies such as “No Time for Sergeants” and “Operation Petticoat”; TV shows like “Sargeant Bilko,” “McHale’s Navy,” and hit movies that became TV shows, like “M.A.S.H.”

But then came Vietnam. Military ineptitude no longer seemed so humorous, except in the dark and bitter way, captured in works like “Catch-22.”  More important still was the end of the draft. Suddenly, millions of ordinary Americans no longer had to endure the bureaucratic bullshit and enforced conformity of military life as a rite of passage.

The debate over ending the draft was loud and long. There were arguments about fairness, efficiency, and morality. One thing I don’t recall anyone arguing was that, without a draft, nobody would satirize or make fun of the military.

But that’s what happened.

Americans argue today about whether military spending is too high or low; whether women, gay or trans people should serve in combat; whether U.S. armed forces should be used for “nation building”; and over a host of other military-related issues.

But who makes fun of the Pentagon? Where are the comically inept generals, craven careerist junior officers, overbearing drill sergeants and sad-sack grunts? Where are the funny characters who used to fill our screens and comic strips?

Gone. Now it’s “Thank you for your service” and Support Our Troops.  Even liberals are unwilling to say anything that might make them look anti-military. Feiffer’s cartoon is from a different world. I’m not sure young people today would even find it funny.

So here’s a suggestion, for a film-studies course, or a movie festival: Movies that make fun of the military. What would you include?