How many times have you heard someone use "MacGyver" as a verb? Today, one of my co-workers was talking about how her ice maker in her freezer is broken, and that she had to "MacGyver" it. She thought something was wrong when she saw my blush and my huge grin!

Occasionally...but mostly from me...

Ha- cool! Of course, if there's a MacGyver mention at my work, it'll probably be from me!

The only time I ever heard a MacGyver mention at my work was when someone recognized the theme playing as the ring tone on my phone.

Didn't happen all that often, but it did happen.

I thought it was something I came up with a few months ago. I was talking with my wife about fixing something and I said I had to "Macgyver it." I hadn't watched the show much growing up, but knew he was the kind of guy (and a kind guy too) that could have gotten Gilligan off that island with a handful of sand, a coconut and half a dozen palm fronds (and he would only use the coconut as a snack ). Anyway, it just seemed right to use as a verb, an homage to the character who used his mind over mindless weapons.


Flash forward to a couple months later at the local library, and found the series on DVD. Watched a few seasons with my son and now the whole family is hooked!

Kev

I rarely hear it used as a verb any more, or even a noun -- it was more common 10 years ago. But just last month at work someone (other than myself!) made a reference to MacGyver when we had a plumber ask for a paper clip. (And yes, MChick, I snorted and blushed; don't know what my co-worker thought about that!)

My full post about it is here.

The verb 'macgyver' has replaced 'jury-rig' and other non-PC references to improvizational repairs in the warehouse where I work. I'm proud to take credit for this!

.... if fact, I'm smug about it!

Congrats!

I'm puzzled as to why you call "jury rig" a non-PC reference, though. It has nothing to do with rigging a jury; it originated as a nautical term. The word "jury" comes from the term "jury mast", a temporary contraption (probably invented by a 17th-century MacGyver) that has no etymological relationship to a bunch of people sitting in judgement.

*raises hand* ex girlfriend of true grit redneck here. He said other non PC reference.

Don't think I could post it here even if I was so inclined.

*nods knowingly*

My sympathies . . . !!!

Perhaps the term is actually supposed to be 'jerry-rig'--a sideswipe at German-made automobiles left over from the WWII era, but around here, the Kansas accent is pretty darn thick... as is the redneck-ism!

((((German Friends)))) please take no offense!

I prefer to use 'macgyvering'

My OED thinks that "jerry-rig" was derived from "jury-rig", with the help of some linguistic DNA stolen from "jerry-built". It seems to be WWII vintage, which makes it a few centuries newer than "jury-rig".

The irony is that now, German manufacture is more likely to be a watchword for exceptionally well made items, to the point of being overengineered.

I can't take no offense (yep, learnt that "double no-thing" by reading the short story "Brokeback Mountain", pretty cool, hu? ) since I have no idea what you are talking about.

Would appreciate an explanation in private, though

I've heard it used a couple of times and occasionally use it myself...what's funny is that sometimes I'll tell the teens in my Sunday School class about some dillemma I found myself in or something and usually there's one who will say something smart like "Did you have to MacGyver it?"

You actually know that it is written in the official Air Force Handbook that you have to "macgyver" something if you don't have the right tools? They found out when they were shooting the Stargate scene where all are jumping from a plane. Somebody showed them the handbook.

And one of the colonels that helped them this day had the name Jack O'Neill and never had heard of the other one actually...

Hubby used to use the phrase "MacGyver" when he was a mechanic and didn't have the right tool. I've not used it, but when I hear someone us it, I have to laugh...

I just don't like it when the FBI uses it. The use it to refer to a hand-made bomb.

I know--that irritates me, too. It's like people who have never seen the show make this assumption that all MacGyver ever does is make bombs.

I used it last weekend when my friends locked their keys in their truck. They borrowed my SAK and used it to pull the rubber window strip away from the glass to slide a wire down into the door to try to pop the lock.

I commented, "I thought you were going to go MacGyver and pick the lock". My friends were not amused. Funny, some people just don't have a sense of humor when things go wrong.

I've read the verb "to MacGyver" once, but I can't remember exactly where. I think it was in Lemony Snicket's "Series of Unfortunate Events".

In German I've never heard the word, as I've hardly ever heard anyone mention MacGyver at all.

But I'll give it a try and introduce the word into the German language . Should work

Tut mir leid, dass ich zu spät komme. Mein Auspuff war kaputt und ich musste erst einen Ersatz macgyvern.

Was just thinking of my German profs

There are some people around in other forums who have seen the show and who also think that MacGyver is most?/only? famous for building a bomb out of anything. I really hate these stupid jokes like "MacGyver could build a bomb out of a book and a paper clip" by now. There are sites where you can read hundreds of lines like that. Just concerning the bomb thing.

Whoops, just remembered that in The Simpsons "RDA" mentioned that too:

(from www.rdascrapbook.com)

But it was meant as a compliment, wasn't it ?

you would think that if someone where going to talk about a show, or use it as an example for something, they would at least find out a bit about the show to make sure they had the information right...

Apparently common sense is a thing of the past.

That takes too much time and effort. It's much easier to just go with the given word that's passed down as fact rather than to verify such word-of-mouth type information before passing it on to someone else. This is why we have reference librarians!

Though you have to admit- if anyone could build a homemade bomb out of ordinary items- it would be MacGyver.

(And though it's true he set up some explosions throughout the show- he never and never would use it to hurt anyone. I think he spent just as much if not more time defusing bombs than creating explosions- and note I said explosions, not necessarily bombs.)

Last year (or has this already been longer? Time slips so fast!) when they discovered the guys that wanted to do these bombs at British planes by mixing some ordinary stuff they were allowed on board finally together to make an explosion - first thought when I heard about that was: "Oh my god, they watched too much 'MacGyver'".

I mean, do you see the possibility, that they could have gotten the idea from the show? I would be so sad to know that was true. What must have the producers, what must have Rick thought about this whole mess? Would they feel somehow responsible?

Hey- I just saw a really cool MacGyver reference at work the other day. (Totally unintended of course, but it was still hilarious.)
I was working on designing a calendar for a senior citizen home and one of their events was just too funny! (And this a bolded special event, by the way.)

Happy Hour with Jack Dalton!

Seriously, I'm not making this up. Wow- Jack would certainly be the most appropriate character on MacGyver to have happy hour with!

Ha ha! That's perfect!

A "round" of trouble for everyone!

LOL! Can I come and crash the party? My favorite MacGyver character by far. When we select an episode to watch as a family, invariably it's going to be a Jack one.

Kev

It happened to me one time. A classmate fixed the silver screen in the classroom. It was attached to the ceiling and you had to pull it down so you could watch a movie or something. But it was broken and would stay down. So my classmate took a chair and put trough the handle so it would stay down. After that he said that he had "MacGyvered" it.