Following are two quotes — both are perspectives from doctors. One is from Dr. Ishiro Serizawa, a scientist in the movie, “Godzilla: King of the Monsters,” and the other is from my dermatologist :

“This is a real S.O.B. It’s in there, waiting to surface again. It will never be completely gone.”

“Sometimes the only way to heal our wounds is to make peace with ourselves.”

It’s completely obvious that the first quote is my dermatologist describing the particular kind of basal cell carcinoma in and on my nose. The second quote is wisdom from the post-Hiroshima Godzilla scientist.

On April 12, I underwent complex Mohs surgery on my nose to remove the “real S.O.B.” cancer. To allay the trauma of 11 shots to numb my nose and 22 stitches to close up my nose, I embarked on an epic healing process: I watched one after the other the movies, “Kong: Skull Island” (2017), “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” (2019), and “Godzilla vs. Kong” (2021).

Most readers might immediately surmise that I was desperate to escape reality. Although this may have been my initial strategy, I soon discovered that real S.O.B. monsters, safely hidden where you can’t see them, can rise again to vie for supremacy, leaving humanity’s very existence — not to mention, my nose — hanging in the balance. I also discovered that the Hollywood King Kong/Godzilla franchises are preposterously entertaining. Watching these movies left me — and my nose — in stitches.

Let’s begin with the King Kong/Godzilla premises:

• “Kong: Skull Island”: an evil, washed-up monster chaser/billionaire convinces the U.S. government to fund a trip to an unexplored island. Chaos and death ensue. Humanity hangs in the balance.
• “Godzilla: King of the Monsters”: an evil billionaire eco-terrorist gets his hands on a powerful bio-acoustics generator which triggers a worldwide awakening of monsters in the Hollow Earth, including the mighty Godzilla, who collides with Mothra (huge moth), Rodan (huge pteranodon) and the three-headed King Ghidorah. Chaos and death ensue. Humanity hangs in the balance.

• “Godzilla vs. Kong”: an evil billionaire builds a robot Godzilla to take on the actual fearsome Godzilla and the mighty Kong. Chaos and death ensue. Humanity hangs in the balance.

Next, the King Kong/Godzilla character tropes:

• The evil billionaire — see above.
• The well-meaning scientist representing a minority demographic — typically an Asian male, though sometimes an American female with a precocious daughter who knows precisely how to operate the bio-acoustics generator it took decades for her mother to perfect.
• The comedy relief/court jester/conspiracy theorist/podcaster — Always. An. African. American.
• The hapless intern/soldier/tech nerd — whose last words are something like, “Doctor — I think you need to take a closer look at this” or “We just got taken down by a monkey the size of a building. Yeah, that was an unconventional encounter.”
• The Samuel L. Jackson, “I’m-going-to-kill-this-mother-f*cker” military leader who takes his last breath believing he has killed the MF only to see the MF rise again and squash the living bejesus out of him.
• The 8-year-old deaf, innocent, last-known-survivor-of-an-ancient-tribe who is the only living thing on the ENTIRE planet who can communicate with monsters. Assuming that Kong knows sign language, she pleads with him (subtitled): “Godzilla. Not. Enemy. Please . . . be careful.”

Finally, more unforgettable last words:

• “He came for food, or fight or something more intimate.” [Hapless intern about to discover the intimacy of death.]
• “We are the cause. We are the infection. But like all living organisms, the earth unleashed a fever to fight this infection.” [Well-meaning female scientist filled with regret for the hell she has unwittingly unleashed.]
• “Goodbye, old friend.” [Scientist to Godzilla as he detonates a nuclear bomb thingy to recharge his “old friend” and is himself incinerated in the process.]
• “Godzilla’s radiation is reaching critical mass. Six seconds until Godzilla blows.” [For God’s sake, this entire movie blows.]
• “Kong bows to no one.” [Lesson learned too late for an evil billionaire.]
• “No one can keep the reins on Kong.” [Lesson learned too late for ANOTHER evil billionaire.]
• “These are dangerous times.” [Seriously, this is a line from “Godzilla vs. Kong”.]

SPOILER ALERT: Neither Godzilla nor King Kong die in any of these films. In fact, they appear to dance together cheek to cheek or snout to snout (I didn’t see any stitches on either one) before Godzilla disappears once again into the ocean — no doubt headed to Hollywood — and King Kong roars and beats his chest to warn viewers that a sequel is in the works.

Humanity hangs in the balance.