The Genius that is House, MD [Guest Post]

Phil Thompson lives in Avondale, Arizona and offers us up this great article about the show House. Hang on, because this one is extremely well researched and written! He is on MySpace too.

“…Teardrop on the fire, feathers on my breath…”

If the title credits theme song (Massive Attack’s “Teardrop”) should include any lyrics, it should be these few. A teardrop on a fire represents not only an insignificant effort to fix a problem, but the frustration of your futility (hence the tears) Also, there’s a medical reference there: Before the great advances of medical technology, doctors would place a feather over the mouth of a patient to see if they were still alive. If the feather did not move, it was determined that the patient was dead. (Side note: the vocals were recorded after the singer learned that her boyfriend, Jeff Buckley, had drowned. Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah” was used in the Season 2 premiere.) Also, if you really read into the title credits (as a genius would) you would notice the pictures of anatomy accompanying each actor/actress, Jennifer Morrison being the exception. This may also be a statement about her character being inconsistent–the writers admit that they have trouble with her character.

It’s no wonder that Mensa places House, M.D. among the top 10 smartest shows of all time. But I have to disagree with their reasoning for doing so: “…it’s high level type of show; it’s the personality that makes it a winner, plus it deals with science.”

Of course, the writers seem to love being subtle in their genius, placing references and one-liners deep in the context of each episode for those fans of a higher intellect to understand. There have been many bloggers uncovering some of the more obvious references (Stacy’s reference to Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward, among many others). A self-proclaimed elitist among House fans as well as a self-proclaimed genius, I wanted to share a few of the treasures I’ve uncovered… All without mentioning Sherlock Holmes.

Consider the episode titles. Yes, some of them are simple and basic. “Humpty Dumpty” was about a patient who fell and could not be completely fixed. “Skin Deep” is about a patient who is not what (s)he appears to be. “Insensitive” is about a patient who can’t feel pain. The list goes on, but consider all of the other titles catered to the higher IQ: “The Socratic Method” and “Occam’s Razor” are obvious choices; “TB or Not TB” is a plain-as-day reference to Shakespear’s “Hamlet” (the actual line is from dialogue in which Hamlet contemplates suicide, but decides that the “dread of something after death” is unknown and not worth the risk, and he’d rather “suffer the slings and arrows” of the living life.) But how about “Cane and Able?” I wonder how many fans understood the second meaning to the double entendre–the patient living with two sets of DNA in different parts of his body, one killing the other. (Speaking of titles, I think “Human Error” could have easily been called, “House vs. God: The Re-match.”)

Let’s take a look into some of the episodes and the possible historical references:

• “Needle in a Haystack” could have easily originated from the story of Sherwood Anderson (author of Winesburg, Ohio), who died in 1931 after swallowing a toothpick.
• In “97 Seconds,” House has a near-death experience. In a conversation about the afterlife, House says, “Misery is better than nothing.” While some may have simply passed this on as an existential thing to say, I was reminded of a similar quote from Nobel Prize winner William Faulkner: “Between grief and nothing I will take grief.” That Hamlet reference makes even more sense now!
• In “You Don’t Want To Know,” the patient had lupus. In this episode, we got the first big hint that Thirteen may have Huntington’s Disease, since her mother had it. Consider Flannery O’Connor, author of A Good Man is Hard to Find, who, like the patient, had lupus. Similar to Thirteen, she got it from her father. (I do suppose this is a reach, but a reach worth mentioning, at least.)
• “Half Wit” is the episode faturing Dave Matthews, playing Patrick, a 35-year old piano-playing savant. His character is much like the late great “Blind” Tom Wiggins, who could play any song after only hearing it once, and after hearing the beginning of a song would finish playing it. (House and Patrick play “I Don’t Like Mondays” together, which feature these interesting lyrics: “And the lesson today is how to die/And then the bullhorn crackles/And the captain crackles/With the problems and the how’s and why’s/And he can see no reasons/’Cause there are no reasons What reason do you need to die?”)

Of course, it should be said that House himself is to be considered a genius. This may seem obvious to some of you (it takes one to know one,) but it wasn’t obvious to one patient, who didn’t seem to understand that real genuises (from Van Gogh to Mark Twain To Einstein) don’t often care for his appearance. When he berated House for this, House replied, “I’m wearing a rumpled shirt, and forgot to brush my hair this week. You’ve got athlete’s foot in your nose… I’m ready to be judged.”

Richard Feyman, one of the 20th century’s greatest physicists, had such a simple approach solving problems. It was once said that he invented the “Feynman Problem Solving Algorithm,” which goes like this: 1–Write down the problem. 2–Think really hard. 3–Write down the solution. Hmm… Differential diagnosis, anyone?

The Princteon-Plainsborough Teaching Hospital is set in Princton, New Jersey. Interesting choise of setting, considering the fact that Einstein moved to Princeton when he moved to America and lived there until he died. Also interesting: The view of the hospital that we see in the show isn’t an actual hospital, but a part of the Princeton University campus–where Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, went to school.

Well, folks, I hope I’ve helped you increase your IQ a few points. I hope that you can join the ranks of those who take time to appreciate your education and use it to catch more than just the funny quips. And of course, when shopping for DVDs this August 19th, I hope you do what a genius does when choosing a car: Go green!

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