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Your Favorite McCoy 'Insult' Said To Spock

McCoy's racist (speciesist?) comments towards Spock should have been replicated in the other series. Tuvok I believe could bear The Doctor (he bore Neelix) but T'pol would snap I'm sure.
 
From The Tholian Web

McCoy: ... I just can't believe that you would want Jim's command. But you must know that if you get us out of this situation, they'll pin a medal on your chest and give you command of the Enterprise.
Spock: Doctor, I AM in command of the Enterprise.
McCoy: I would like to remedy that situation.
 
I love this exchange. More of an attempt at condescension than an insult. It dint work out too well. The smirk from Kirk and look on McCoy's face is priceless.

MCCOY: A teddy bear.
SPOCK: Not precisely, Doctor. On Vulcan, the teddy bears are alive, and they have six-inch fangs.
 
McCoy's racist (speciesist?) comments towards Spock should have been replicated in the other series. Tuvok I believe could bear The Doctor (he bore Neelix) but T'pol would snap I'm sure.

They tried that with Pulaski and Data, only difference was that by then the idea of one guy getting constant racist barbs thrown at him wasn't quite so acceptable.
 
His insults always rubbed me the wrong way. In the enlightened 23rd century no one would dare make an insult out of a persons ethnic traits if they were human so why is it ok to do so with a Vulcan. His cracks abouts Spocks ears and blood colour (yes I spell colour with a U I am Canadian) always came across as racists and out of place.
This has been said before, but it bears repeating: Spock and McCoy, in spite of their occasional bickering, were genuine friends who liked and respected one another. They could toss insults back and forth without anyone getting their knickers in a twist.

And that's why the Pulaski/Data thing was different: Pulaski was actually, deliberately being mean to Data - she was taking advantage of an innocent being who couldn't fight back. There was none of the friendly give-and-take like with Spock and McCoy.
 
And on a lighter note, I give you this exchange from "Requiem for Methuselah":
MCCOY: [whistling] Saurian brandy, one hundred years old. Jim?
KIRK: Please.
MCCOY: Mr. Spock, I know you won't have one. Heaven forbid those mathematically perfect brainwaves be corrupted by this all-too-human vice.
SPOCK: Thank you, Doctor, I will have a brandy.
[Kirk and McCoy look at each other in amazement]
MCCOY: [to Kirk] Do you think the two of us can handle a drunk Vulcan? Once alcohol hits that green blood...
Poor Spock--he just can't win!
 
And on a lighter note, I give you this exchange from "Requiem for Methuselah":
MCCOY: [whistling] Saurian brandy, one hundred years old. Jim?
KIRK: Please.
MCCOY: Mr. Spock, I know you won't have one. Heaven forbid those mathematically perfect brainwaves be corrupted by this all-too-human vice.
SPOCK: Thank you, Doctor, I will have a brandy.
[Kirk and McCoy look at each other in amazement]
MCCOY: [to Kirk] Do you think the two of us can handle a drunk Vulcan? Once alcohol hits that green blood...
Poor Spock--he just can't win!

Only at 3 dimensional chess.
 
His insults always rubbed me the wrong way. In the enlightened 23rd century no one would dare make an insult out of a persons ethnic traits if they were human so why is it ok to do so with a Vulcan. His cracks abouts Spocks ears and blood colour (yes I spell colour with a U I am Canadian) always came across as racists and out of place.

I've heard this before and I think it's limited by 21st century foolishness. We are rapidly losing the ability to communicate without accidentally insulting or offending someone somewhere, even if not our intended audience. I think based on what the characters themselves have said that anyone hearing such things as "green blooded hobgoblin" from McCoy would know it's not true prejudice or specism because those things are in the past. These people just don't do that anymore. How many times did anyone on Star Trek act toward someone else in a prejudicial manner besides Stiles reaction after learning Vulcans and Romulans look exactly the same?

Abraham Lincoln referred to Uhura as something I'm not allowed to post and she didn't get upset or angry or start a protest or anything, she accepted it because words can't hurt her. I hope that becomes the reality someday, but I'm not expecting to live to see it.


I think these from The Galileo Seven are good. Not sure if I'd say favorite, though, but very good ones.

MCCOY: Mister Spock, remind me to tell you that I'm sick and tired of your logic.
SPOCK: That is a most illogical attitude.

SCOTT: Mister Spock, you said a while ago that there were always alternatives.
SPOCK: Did l? I may have been mistaken.
MCCOY: Well, at least I lived long enough to hear that.
 
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His insults always rubbed me the wrong way. In the enlightened 23rd century no one would dare make an insult out of a persons ethnic traits if they were human so why is it ok to do so with a Vulcan. His cracks abouts Spocks ears and blood colour (yes I spell colour with a U I am Canadian) always came across as racists and out of place.

I've heard this before and I think it's limited by 21st century foolishness. We are rapidly losing the ability to communicate without accidentally insulting or offending someone somewhere, even if not our intended audience. I think based on what the characters themselves have said that anyone hearing such things as "green blooded hobgoblin" from McCoy would know it's not true prejudice or specism because those things are in the past. These people just don't do that anymore. How many times did anyone on Star Trek act toward someone else in a prejudicial manner besides Stiles reaction after learning Vulcans and Romulans look exactly the same?

Abraham Lincoln referred to Uhura as something I'm not allowed to post and she didn't get upset or angry or start a protest or anything, she accepted it because words can't hurt her. I hope that becomes the reality someday, but I'm not expecting to live to see it.

Great post and thoughts. I dream that we could live in that ideal world and have never understood the bigotry and racism that exists in the world over what seem like some pittances. I won't live to see it and doubt the human race ever fully gets there but even the small steps are better than none or moving backwards.
 
Abraham Lincoln referred to Uhura as something I'm not allowed to post and she didn't get upset or angry or start a protest or anything, she accepted it because words can't hurt her.

And because Lincoln obviously didn't say that word with any kind of ill intent, and she knew it.
 
His insults always rubbed me the wrong way. In the enlightened 23rd century no one would dare make an insult out of a persons ethnic traits if they were human so why is it ok to do so with a Vulcan. His cracks abouts Spocks ears and blood colour (yes I spell colour with a U I am Canadian) always came across as racists and out of place.

I've heard this before and I think it's limited by 21st century foolishness. We are rapidly losing the ability to communicate without accidentally insulting or offending someone somewhere, even if not our intended audience. I think based on what the characters themselves have said that anyone hearing such things as "green blooded hobgoblin" from McCoy would know it's not true prejudice or specism because those things are in the past. These people just don't do that anymore. How many times did anyone on Star Trek act toward someone else in a prejudicial manner besides Stiles reaction after learning Vulcans and Romulans look exactly the same?

Abraham Lincoln referred to Uhura as something I'm not allowed to post and she didn't get upset or angry or start a protest or anything, she accepted it because words can't hurt her. I hope that becomes the reality someday, but I'm not expecting to live to see it.

Great post and thoughts. I dream that we could live in that ideal world and have never understood the bigotry and racism that exists in the world over what seem like some pittances.

Agreed, and Marsden is absolutely right. People get "offended" FAR too much these days. If this nonsense keeps up, pretty soon we won't be able to say hello to each other without some over-sensitive pinhead reacting negatively.
 
I can't imagine a guy going up to an African co-worker and saying stuff like "You dark-skinned son of a bitch!" as something friendly.
 
What everyone seems to forget is that McCoy is the yin to Spock's yang. Spock is frequently dissing human behavior and emotions. As such Spock's hardly an innocent victim. That's why it works with Spock/Bones and it doesn't work with Pulaski/Data, because in the latter case it's all one-sided.
 
It doesn't help that pretty much everyone is ragging on Humans all the time as being violent savages and all that, but other Aliens are excused for their own attitudes and failings. As such, the series sides more with Spock than McCoy.
 
Indeed, the thing to keep in mind about TOS is that this isn't TNG-era Trek, in which humans were portrayed as being morally superior to just about everybody. In TOS, humanity had come along from where it was in the 1960s, but was still imperfect and struggling to rise above its barbaric history...and Spock represented the viewpoint of an ostensibly "superior" alien race that observed humanity with a critical eye. It's a different dynamic when the representative of humanity is getting in digs at a representative of an ostensibly superior race.
 
And despite the various aliens seen having plenty of flaws of their own, they are often ignored so more swipes can be taken at Humanity's expense.

Spock goes on about illogical humans, but you don't see him mentioning Klingon brutality or Romulan viciousness, etc. He acts like they're all an okay bunch EXCEPT for Humans. To say nothing of how Vulcans used to be worse than Humans ever were.
 
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