Can't Help

Sally Forth from today is about how bad movies are. No comment there, but I would like to look at Hilary's line in the last panel. The picture's a bit small (the link is better), but the line is:

"Man, Hollywood can't help pump out the greatness, huh?"

This isn't right - at least, not for the joke to work.

Usually, "can't help" takes a participial complement when the subject is the same: Hollywood can't help pumping out the greatness. The structure in the cartoon - the bare form- isn't wrong; it just doesn't mean the right thing. Hollywood can't help pump out the greatness means that someone is in fact pumping out greatness, but Hollywood can't help. (The 'to infinitive' can also be used here: can't help to pump out.)

Another way to express this using the bare form is to add a "but": Hollywood can't help but pump out the greatness. This, like the participial, says that Hollywood is pumping out greatness and can't prevent itself from doing so.

And that line is funny, given the set up. That Hollywood cannot produce greatness is just a bland summary of the preceding panes