# Did Jack McCoy just say this? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 5, 2003, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jack-mccoy-just-say-this/179756 "2003-06-05T02:50:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jack-mccoy-just-say-this/179756/1 "2003-06-05T02:50:54Z")
I must be hearing this wrong, but it’s the L&O episode where the priest killed a drug dealer, and it sounds like Jack used the term “screw the pooch”- twice! Did Jack really say that? MY Jack? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jack-mccoy-just-say-this/179756/2 "2003-06-05T02:56:40Z")
Why are you so surprised? It doesn’t sound out of character for him, nor particularly surprising on network television. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jack-mccoy-just-say-this/179756/3 "2003-06-05T03:58:28Z")
He said it (I think) during cross-examination. To a priest. He’s usually a tad more eloquent. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jack-mccoy-just-say-this/179756/4 "2003-06-05T04:21:04Z")
Yep, he said it. I was as shocked when I first saw it as you are. ---
**Author:** ![schplebordnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@schplebordnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/schplebordnik)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jack-mccoy-just-say-this/179756/5 "2003-06-05T04:27:51Z")
Equating man-on-dog with what priests do! Send him to the pillory like Sen. Santorum! ---
**Author:** ![greenphan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c37758/32.png) [@greenphan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greenphan)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jack-mccoy-just-say-this/179756/6 "2003-06-05T04:28:40Z")
I think it’s very telling; isn’t he a former semi-hippie type, or at least one of those 60’s legal liberals? I mean, he rides a motorcycle. I think it makes sense for him to occasionally use such “colloquial” phrases. –greenphan ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jack-mccoy-just-say-this/179756/7 "2003-06-05T04:37:06Z")
I thought “screw the pooch” was a military colloquialism, kind of like “cluster fuck”? ---
**Author:** ![nebco9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@nebco9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nebco9)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jack-mccoy-just-say-this/179756/8 "2003-06-05T07:18:40Z")
The first I ever heard of the phrase was in the movie" **THE RIGHT STUFF**. It was in reference to Gus Grissom and the sinking of his spacecraft. It was meant to mean “screw up bad”. So it does seem to be a military phrase. I would like to know it’s origin though. ---
**Author:** ![Hobie\_the\_One](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e99b99/32.png) [@Hobie\_the\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hobie_the_One)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jack-mccoy-just-say-this/179756/9 "2003-06-05T14:23:42Z")
I always thought it was something along the lines of “messed up so badly I missed the wife and…” You get the idea. I heard him say it on L&O and never even noticed until you mentioned it. Last, in the book The Right Stuff isn’t the Gus Grissom chapter called, or doesn’t it mention “the unscrewable pooch?” Been a while since I read it. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jack-mccoy-just-say-this/179756/10 "2003-06-05T16:43:47Z")
Saw that episode last night. Thought it was kinda weak, overall. Did like the quote, however. * * * Fagjunk Theology: Not just for sodomite propagandists anymore. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-jack-mccoy-just-say-this/179756/11 "2003-06-05T16:57:13Z")
The first time this episode aired, a lengthy thread on [screw the pooch](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=161114) appeared, although I don’t believe a causal relationship was ever established.