# Embarassingly obvious question about M\*A\*S\*H **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 18, 2016, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarassingly-obvious-question-about-m-a-s-h/760253 "2016-07-18T21:07:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarassingly-obvious-question-about-m-a-s-h/760253/1 "2016-07-18T21:07:25Z")
How do you pronounce the title? “Mash?” “M-A-S-H?” (spelled out?) ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarassingly-obvious-question-about-m-a-s-h/760253/2 "2016-07-18T21:09:56Z")
Like the word ‘mash’. I’ve never heard anyone use any other pronunciation. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarassingly-obvious-question-about-m-a-s-h/760253/3 "2016-07-18T21:15:14Z")
Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, to answer the second question. “Hawkeye” because his father only read one book. It’s a nickname, by the way. He’s Captain Benjamin Franklin Pierce. “Trapper John” because… oh, never mind. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarassingly-obvious-question-about-m-a-s-h/760253/4 "2016-07-18T21:17:59Z")
‘Mash’ as in "I will mash potatoes’. I’ve never heard anyone spell it out, including in commercials on tv or movie critics giving reviews. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarassingly-obvious-question-about-m-a-s-h/760253/5 "2016-07-18T21:21:51Z")
Thanks everyone! Or… T_H_A_N_K\*S 😃 ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarassingly-obvious-question-about-m-a-s-h/760253/6 "2016-07-18T21:31:54Z")
In the show itself, the characters often refer to their “MASH Unit” or “MASH 4077” pronouncing it like the verb to mash. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarassingly-obvious-question-about-m-a-s-h/760253/7 "2016-07-18T21:35:17Z")
Did H_Y_M_A_N K_A_P_L_A\*N serve there? > **[Hyman Kaplan](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyman_Kaplan)** > > Hyman Kaplan, or H\*Y\*M\*A\*N K\*A\*P\*L\*A\*N as he habitually signs himself, is a fictional character in a series of well-received humorous stories by Leo Rosten, published under the pseudonym "Leonard Q. Ross" in The New Yorker in the 1930s and later collected in two books, The Education of H\*Y\*M\*A\*N K\*A\*P\*L\*A\*N and The Return of H\*Y\*M\*A\*N K\*A\*P\*L\*A\*N. > Rosten noted that he was frequently asked if Mr Kaplan was his alter ego, and that he often felt it was the other way around. > The first collection (... ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarassingly-obvious-question-about-m-a-s-h/760253/8 "2016-07-18T21:38:53Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Did H_Y_M_A_N K_A_P_L_A\*N serve there?[URL=“[Hyman Kaplan - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyman_Kaplan)”] Dude. We’re _O_L_D_. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarassingly-obvious-question-about-m-a-s-h/760253/9 "2016-07-18T21:54:37Z")
Be thankful Hawkeye’s dad didn’t read “The Rape of the A_P_E!” Of course, that explanation makes no sense after it was revealed that his dad is a doctor. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarassingly-obvious-question-about-m-a-s-h/760253/10 "2016-07-18T21:57:25Z")
I remember a promotion on TV which Alan Alda did when the series was about to premier, in which, after pronouncing it “mash”, he made a play on the pronunciation: “‘M star, A star, S star, H’, like the all-star movie it’s based on”. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarassingly-obvious-question-about-m-a-s-h/760253/11 "2016-07-18T22:03:19Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Did H_Y_M_A_N K_A_P_L_A\*N serve there? > [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Dude. We’re _O_L_D_. I used to have an odd paperback collection of jokes, limericks, and humorous short stories. H_Y_M_A_N K_A_P_L_A\*N was involved. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarassingly-obvious-question-about-m-a-s-h/760253/12 "2016-07-18T22:08:21Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Did H_Y_M_A_N K_A_P_L_A\*N serve there? . . . You left out the three levels of underlining (and the colors. C’mon, man, BB code does colors!) (What can I say? My eye fell on it.) ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarassingly-obvious-question-about-m-a-s-h/760253/13 "2016-07-18T22:19:06Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Be thankful Hawkeye’s dad didn’t read “The Rape of the A_P_E!” > > Of course, that explanation makes no sense after it was revealed that his dad is a doctor. Not in the book. His dad was a lobsterman. He was also married, and I believe the series made allusions to his wife and children before they decided to make him a bachelor. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarassingly-obvious-question-about-m-a-s-h/760253/14 "2016-07-18T22:26:36Z")
Okay, someone hadda do it… **H** \*\*[SIZE=6][COLOR=Red]**[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=4][COLOR=YellowGreen]**_[/COLOR][/SIZE]Y[/FONT]__[/COLOR][/SIZE]__[SIZE=6][COLOR=Red]__[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=4][COLOR=YellowGreen]_**[/COLOR][/SIZE]M[/FONT]**[/COLOR][/SIZE]**[SIZE=6][COLOR=Red]**[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=4][COLOR=YellowGreen]_**[/COLOR][/SIZE]A[/FONT]**[/COLOR][/SIZE]__[SIZE=6][COLOR=Red]__[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=4][COLOR=YellowGreen]_**[/COLOR][/SIZE]N K[/FONT]**[/COLOR][/SIZE]**[SIZE=6][COLOR=Red]**[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=4][COLOR=YellowGreen]_**[/COLOR][/SIZE]A[/FONT]**[/COLOR][/SIZE]__[SIZE=6][COLOR=Red]__[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=4][COLOR=YellowGreen]_**[/COLOR][/SIZE]P[/FONT]**[/COLOR][/SIZE]**[SIZE=6][COLOR=Red]**[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=4][COLOR=YellowGreen]_**[/COLOR][/SIZE]L[/FONT]**[/COLOR][/SIZE]__[SIZE=6][COLOR=Red]__[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=4][COLOR=YellowGreen]__[/COLOR][/SIZE]AN [/FONT]_\*[/COLOR][/SIZE] Even if we can’t do the blue outlining and multiple underlining. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarassingly-obvious-question-about-m-a-s-h/760253/15 "2016-07-18T22:27:40Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Not in the book. His dad was a lobsterman. > > He was also married, and I believe the series made allusions to his wife and children before they decided to make him a bachelor. Spearchucker also appeared before the cut him. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarassingly-obvious-question-about-m-a-s-h/760253/16 "2016-07-18T22:50:07Z")
And Ugly John was in [del]an episode[/del] eleven episodes, according to IMDB. I haven’t read the books, but he was in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarassingly-obvious-question-about-m-a-s-h/760253/17 "2016-07-18T23:06:49Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Dude. We’re _O_L_D_. He was old news before the Korean War. Ain’t none of us here old enough to read him fresh in The New Yorker. I found the books in the library. Leo Rosten was brilliant. He should be remembered as much as Hemingway and Faulkner, but that particular strain of humor is too dated for today’s world. M_A_S\*H is the most fascinating case of what happens to a work as its audience broadens. The novel is much blacker humor than the movie which is much blacker humor than the TV show, although that was probably the blackest humor up to its time. Kind of amazing that it worked at all. Most black humor from that time never translated properly out of print. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarassingly-obvious-question-about-m-a-s-h/760253/18 "2016-07-19T00:30:23Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > He was old news before the Korean War. Ain’t none of us here old enough to read him fresh in The New Yorker. I found the books in the library. Leo Rosten was brilliant. He should be remembered as much as Hemingway and Faulkner, but that particular strain of humor is too dated for today’s world. Sad that his most famous line is usually attributed to W. C. Fields. Rosten wrote it _about_ Fields: “Anyone who hates dogs and babies can’t be all wrong.” ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarassingly-obvious-question-about-m-a-s-h/760253/19 "2016-07-19T05:47:57Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Sad that his most famous line is usually attributed to W. C. Fields. Rosten wrote it _about_ Fields: “Anyone who hates dogs and babies can’t be all wrong.” Rosten obviously never met Heinrich Himmler. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarassingly-obvious-question-about-m-a-s-h/760253/20 "2016-07-19T14:13:27Z")
Trivia note: The book was written by [W.C. Heinz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._C._Heinz), whom I remember mainly as a boxing writer/commentator. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embarassingly-obvious-question-about-m-a-s-h/760253.md?page=2)