Major Major Major Major

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Major Major Major Major is a 31-year-old fictional character in the 1961 novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. He has the surname Major, and at birth his father gave him the given name Major, and the middle name Major (despite informing the child's mother that he had named the boy 'Caleb' in accordance with her wishes; she only discovers Major Major Major's real first and middle names when his birth certificate is required for him to enter kindergarten). The novel explains this was a joke on his father's part, and notes that it is not a particularly funny one.

Inducted during World War II, he is promoted from Private to Major while still in boot camp, without attending the Officers Training Corps or any advance warning at all. This is caused by an IBM machine with a "sense of humor almost as keen as his father's". A recurring joke in the book is that he bears a striking resemblance to Henry Fonda, even to the point of some people thinking that he is in fact Henry Fonda.

During the novel, it is revealed that he can never be promoted nor demoted, because the army has only one Major Major Major Major and Ex-PFC Wintergreen does not intend to let this change.

Major Major was also promoted to squadron commander after his predecessor, Major Duluth, was killed in action. It is this event that causes Major Major to become a recluse: he stops eating meals at the mess hall, he avoids all his duties by forging false names to correspondence requiring his signature, and he enters his office by scooting along a ditch, then jumping through a window.

Upon discovering that forging false names (like Washington Irving and Irving Washington) to official correspondence would considerably decrease his workload, Major Major began to sign every document with those two names. This caused a duo of CID men (who were not working together, and were in fact trying to kill each other) to begin an investigation as to the identity of the forger. Because Yossarian once censored an enlisted man's letter and attached the group chaplain's name to it, the CID men believed that said chaplain was intercepting Major Major's correspondence and forging signatures onto them. This investigation eventually leads to the chaplain's arrest and trial.

His father, mentioned briefly in the novel, is one of the richest alfalfa farmers in his community. He receives a farm subsidy for every crop of alfalfa that he does not grow with his farmland and uses this money to buy more land to not grow alfalfa on. He believes that receiving money for not producing something is divinely ordained. Ironically, he preaches the proverb "You reap what you sow." He would leap out of bed at noon each day, to ensure that the chores were not being done.

Maj. Major M. Major and his father both reinforce the novel's theme that bureaucracy is absurd. His character also stands in contrast to the other authority-figure characters in the book who relish their power and use the bureaucratic system and the law of Catch-22 to maintain and/or try to increase their power over others. Major Major's character shows how an indifferent bureacratic system can place someone in a position of authority who is both unwilling and unable to handle the position, but is powerless to do anything about it but to try to hide (as shown by Major's using the window to enter and leave his office and not signing his real name to documents). Major Major doesn't want to be compared with Henry Fonda or be in a position of authority. He just wants live a "normal" life by mitigating the damage from his ridiculous name and trying to fit-in with others, but, the bureaucratic system won't let him. It's yet another Catch-22.

Major Major was portrayed by Bob Newhart in Mike Nichols' 1970 film adaptation of the novel.