One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Thug Notes Summary & Analysis 

We missed you so much Sparky. Sweets, welcome back.

Normally I don't recommend watching the movie that's based on the book but Jack Nicholsons performance was incredible

How could they cut such a thought-provoking scene from the movie? Every villain needs a scene where their huge boobs are flopping around during a fight. Darth Vader? Big tits, now he's more compelling. Jaws? You see cleavage poking out of the water and you're terrified. Terminator? "I need your boots, your clothes, and something to cover up my huge teetees."

07:00 Mac did it for the homies. It's symbolized when he can finally escape easily and sees the blood on the nurse coming out of Billies room. Mac did not hesitate to check out his homie before escaping. Also it seemed to show how he has developed as a person, setting his own priorities aside for someone he used to regard as just a crazy person and actually committing to the hard work instead of the easy way out. That's how I saw that scene at least.

I was once threatened with sedation for asking if we could change the television channel in the quiet voice you'd expect of somebody thrown in there for attempting suicide. That was the time I even got a slot in a psych ward. They're underfunded across the states and nobody wants to talk about it.

7:38 "Have we really broken out of the crooked institutions, or are we all living in a bigger institution?" I felt this part so damn much.

Flowers For Algernon PLEASE

Now this, this is how you do notes. Not some boring ass monotone voice the entire time, but genuinely appealing animation and commentary.

I like it when something is so out there that even the thug says, "No, really! That's in the book!"

I'm currently working on getting my first book published, and I hope to see it appear on Thug Notes one day.

Some funny things about this book, the first chapter is written in the present tense , but the rest is written in the past tense. Remember" it's the truth even if it didn't happen"

you should make a Thug Notes episode on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms

I really miss Chief's perspective. I know why they couldn't do it, with all the hallucinating and stuff, but I honestly came to love Chief's character and backstory, and just how he views the world in general, which we didn't get to see as much

Speaking of “popping a pill” to solve problems, I was actually in a mental ward a couple of times (depression). After seeing the movie version of this book, I kind of realized that it felt the same. The psychiatrist at the hospital I stayed in didn’t seem to care about us actually feeling better. He just prescribed pills until one made us at least be able to fake being better (in fact, I remember the first time I went I thought I was fine, but realized it was because I didn’t know how to use what I learned in the hospital in the outside world, and just eventually spiraled back down again. Not to mention the medication he prescribed to me wasn’t supposed to be taken by people in my age group at the time. My actual psychiatrist freaked out about it and was scared I became addicted to it). When you learn about how psychological disorders used to be treated, you kind of realize it hasn’t changed much :/

The bit about popping pills to fix a problem really hits home. I love this channel. This is wonderful.

It is about DAme time I have a book report due. MEN!!!

I miss this guy.

"Are we living in just a BIGGER institution?" Outstanding Sparky Sweets. Your concluding thoughts near the end of the video were superb. Keep up the great work, Wisecrack.

As someone who takes pills in a vain attempt to be functional and has done a small amount of time ... We definitely know better. But we're not perfect and some people act like we are, and that to the detriment to us all.

I really enjoyed this episode on 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' it's a very good analysis. However, I believe something crucial you forgot to point out is that "Chief" Bromden is in the psychiatric hospital for a reason. When we read his point of view we come to understand Chief Bromden suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and we sometimes read him hallucinating. He believes society is controlled by a large, mechanized system which he calls "The Combine." This makes him a very unreliable narrator. Just like Chief Bromden we can't know for sure if the things he sees and experiences are real. I do believe nurse Ratched ruled the ward with an iron fist, however Chief Bromden believes nurse Ratched to be an agent of "The Combine" and demonizes her probably a lot.

"Damn! He dead." Sparky's catchphrase.

love this series!

I really loved this episode. Glad to see my favorite thug bookworm return. Also how much money do I need to pay for the Red Rising book to be covered?

I woke up this morning, and thought, Man I wonder when the next ep of Thug notes is commin out? I love this universe.

Louise Fletcher really did deserve her Oscar for Nurse Ratchet.

Yo they got a Netflix series focused on nurse Ratched now, it kinda slaps

Please do Anne of Green Gables.

this is one of my favorite books of all time. if you haven't read it, pick it up. Also pick up Slaughterhouses 5. you won't be disappointed. And this is my first time here. I'm loving this series! :)

Please do their eyes where watching God 😭😭👌🏾

Loved this book! Especially the story of how the chief became who he is.

The book is way more intense than the movie.

Yo, thug notes should cover On The Road by Jack Kerouac

How have you not done Flowers for Algernon? PLEASE do Flowers for Algernon!!

CANDIDE BY VOLTAIRE PLEASEEEEEE

Ok, hold up, hear me out. It's been awhile since I've read this, and I know that the way Nurse R is presented is utterly reprehensible, and I'm not arguing that everything she does is right, but isn't how she's presented also sexist? Her authority is constantly presented as a fixation on power that bordered on the fetishistic - would a male doctor have been presented in the same way, or would we, the reader, have to knowledge that she works in a fucking PSYCH ward with adult male patients that 1) out number her 2) are probably much stronger than she is 3) are, with the exception of the protagonist, actually CRAZY. News flash : people in a psych ward probably don't really have a great grasp on reality or what's good for them, they might NEED someone to force them to go to therapy or take pills to get their ass back on track (speaking as someone who's dealt with depression in the past I can say that there are honestly days where I needed a bit of bullying just to get out of bed). Instead she's presented as a monster just for doing her job in a tough environment. Plus, everything about her is presented through an unreliable, MALE narrator. Just look at the way she's constantly sexualized in the narration as another way of undermining her power. I don't know, the older I get, and the more professional work spaces I move in as a woman, the more I begin to wonder how the story would look from Nurse R's point of view.

Bring back Thug Notes! Do "All The King's Men" please.

Yay, another Thug Notes video! Think you could do I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream?

Finally at last I'm sick of Jared, Sparky sweets all the way

tried reading the book and hated it , watched this cause i have an essay due in a week and now i’m interested in trying to read it again lmfao. keep up the good work!

do john miltons paradise lost

This channel is possibly the greatest idea ever

Ya boy, Sparky Sweets, PhD., back at it! Another great video, Wisecrack.

One of the few series that gets my automatic thumbs up as soon as the video opens :)

please do Like Water For Chocolate and The Prophet by kahlil gibran

Thug Notes on Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams.

Finallyyyyy

I would greatly enjoy seeing a Thug Notes on: Breakfast of Champions East of Eden Shantaram 1Q84

I understand that these sorts of institutions are super-problematic, one of my significant issues with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is that there are people with genuine, severe mental disorders which can't simply be treated by being taken out and told they're free and can do what they want. Now, the authoritarian treatment of Ratched isn't going to work either but there's a lack of nuance in the message and I feel this nuance is really important as someone with moderate-severe social anxiety who gets regular panic attacks, I do need the treatment I'm getting for it (though that's not currently medicated though I wish it were from the people I know who do have medicine for their anxiety) and I'm not going to be cured by some guy just taking me out and forcing me to do things, what that'll actually do is give me a series of severe panic attacks and make me feel like shit. If anybody wants an interesting and more nuanced approach to the issues of mental health, the film Lunacy by Jan Svankmajer brilliantly portrays the flaws in both the liberal and authoritarian systems and how difficult it is to treat mental health, especially with considerations of what should be considered a mental health issue and what is being socially abnormal but happy with that (further note, it's actually also very easy to convince oneself, when mentally ill, that it is "just you" and that you are happy with how things are because you're afraid to get treated so there's a problem with the critique as well in that it can cause further problems and delays in treatment for those who do genuinely need it).

This review made me feel some kind of way that ain't good. Time to take my pills again! PEACE

I can't explain with words how much I appreciate these videos. I wish school had been like this. You are doing a real service to all humankind.

Basically the best series on RU-vid :D Even better than After Hours

I’m writing a story where a woman busts out of a birthing center in the society trying to preserve Black women

When the Game of Thrones series is finished you guys should do like an episode for each characters story lol.

I always kinda wrote this Thug Notes series as just your filler series, but I gave it a chance with this one and man it's a lot better then I expected! Defs going to watch more now!

You should make an episode on The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain; welcome back.

closed and opened this video 3 times and didn't got an ad, good thing you got sponsors n patreon the videos are legit

"It's in the book man" Sparky Sweets 2017

Mr. Notes: it's interesting you mention how nowadays (in the future), we are told you can pop a pill to correct any abnormalities, when George Lucas warned us about a future of medicating society into passivity with THX1138.

Damn it Sweets! My class just finished our unit about this last week!....still love ur vids. Keep up the awesome work! :)

This was a great birthday present. Also can you please do Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

This will hopefully save my ass. I'm doing a last minute essay on this book and I don't remember a damn thing.

Thug notes is awesome

I've just finished reading it and I can safely say that this book is the best thing I have ever read. Never has a book made me laugh so hard and cry so much.

I think I saw a movie of this once. It all sounds familiar.

How come ThugNotes doesn't do classics of black literature? Richard Wright, James Baldwin etc.

YES I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU GUYS TO DO THIS BOOK!

Speak the truth brother, stigma still goin strong aint it

Do Harry potter and the philosopher's stone!!!!!

Good to see a new thug notes! It's always good to hear an entertaining and thoughtful video! The only problem I have is that you depicted labotomy incorrectly. labotomys are done iether though the eye sockets or thigh a small hole that has been drilled through the skull; not using a long cut along the forehead.

I would love to see Colour Out of Space.

I loved jack nicholson but watching the movie without having any previous knowledge of the story I had no idea what was going on

I like both the movie and book

There is one MAJOR point of the book though that the video completely ignores- CHIEF IS AN UNRELIABLE NARRATOR! - We see early in the book how his interpretation of events around him are questionable and gives indications that what we are actually seeing, from his internal point of view, may not be the actual reality, and we see chief hallucinate at least once. As such, we need to remember that all description of Nurse Ratched is from the point of view of someone with a mental condition, and one huge question the book raises is whether his interpretation of Ratched and her actions is actually real - One major point raised by the book come up during the fishing trip, which happens after Ratched mentions how the patients cannot function in normal society outside, and so need to stay inside, AND THE BOOK 100% AGREES WITH RATCHED, when the patients go outside and the experience is MISERABLE for them, exactly because Murphy did not stop to consider that these people may be in the asylum for a reason, and things get out of hand while on the trip, and Murphy himself also gets frustrated with having to babysit them, especially when they get into trouble with people outside, because of their mental condition and how they act based on that mental condition. - It's one of the reasons i consider the movie to be the WORST book adaptation of all time, because it whitewashes the narrative and dumbs it down, by making it seem like Murphy is in the right and Ratched was in the wrong, whereas the book has a much more nuanched approach. and takes time to show exactly how Murphy's irresponsible behaviour is hurting the patients, and it paints Ratched as an evil person, even though she is shown several times to have more consideration for the well-being of the patients than Murphy has, as she actually considers what they can and cannot do, but Murphy never takes THEIR NEEDS into consideration, and instead stays focused on what HE wants.

YES! Thug Notes is my favourite :D

Great episode, you gotta do 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' now!

I challenge you to make one about The Dream of the Red Chamber.

Hey Dr. Sparky, can you do Persuasion by Jane Austen? Please and thank you.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF SAMURAI JACK!

Found this after watching rachet on Netflix

Could you please do an episode on Perfume by Patrick Suskind?

I doubt it bc I've been watching since the early days and haven't seen it, but have you done The Bell Jar? People talk a lot of crap about it bc of its reputation of being the essential "young, white feminist who feels sad sometimes" book, but, as a woman with my own mental (and social) issues, it really got to me, and i'd love to see an analysis on it. It's been a good few years since I read it.

When are you guys going to do the Green Mile by Stephen King

I always wondered if Chief killing Murphy suggested that we need to rebel. The system will always win, but it's better to try and fail than not try at all.

I love thug notes!!!!!

Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

Infinite Jest? DO IT!!!!!!!

Thank you for breaking these books down. I really appreciate it, because half of these 'classics' can be pretty dry, and themes not always understandable. Thank you 💖

YES THUG NOTES IS BACK FOOL

I read this book in college something like 25 years ago. I had a serious bought of the flu at the time so pretty much everything was a dream. So just imagine how surreal things got for me during the passages about the Air Force using fog machines.

I CRIED AT THE END OF THE MOVIE :((((

I passed my lit class cuz of this dude. Thanks bro ❤️

best episode ever

I believe there has been progress, for certain, but that doesn't mean the mental health field isn't a complete mess.

we need more sci-fi books!

Do Time Machine by H.G Wells

ohhh that boat trip was really a good part of the book. It was definitely nice to see our characters break out of the norm.

ThugNotes Life!

Damn! AT last! We miss you Sparky Sweets, PhD!=)

Please tell me that this is somehow a movie.

Hey can you make a video about "the Circle"? The movie's comin out soon