In MASH, a drug was portrayed that did strange thing to a marine’s urine. In Episode 20 of Season 10, Sons and Bowlers, the Marines are gloating over beating the unit the 4077th, again, at football and basketball. Klinger has the idea that they could maybe beat the Marines at bowling. So, Colonel Potter and B.J. lead a MASH bowling team in a grudge match against the Marines. To make a long story short, the marines bring in a ringer, Marty Urbancic, a nationally ranked bowling pro. B.J. and Charles give him a mickey of “methelyne blue,” which did something strange to his urine. Is the blue pee drug in MASH real?
The Story of the Blue Pee
First, the story. When wounded arrive, Col. Potter asks Pitts, the marine leader to help out. After surgery is done, Charles and B.J. talk about how tired they are while Urbancic, the bowling pro, is there with them. They offer to give each other a “pep pill” so they can make it through the rest of the bowling match. Urbancic asks for a pep pill too. The two “reluctantly” agree to give him one, warning him about how strong the pills are.
Klinger scolds them for helping the competition but they tell Klinger, laughing, that those pills will do nothing for pep but will only turn a person’s pee blue. The pills are methylene blue. Later, Urbancic runs to BJ and Charles and tells them, in a panic, that he is “turning blue inside.”
They “diagnose” him and tell him that he must, at all costs, avoid bending over for any reason and it would then pass in a little while. Since Urbancic can’t bend over, he can’t bowl very well. With the help of Urbancic attempting to bowl without bending over, and MASH’s own ringer, Margaret, the unit finally achieves victory over the marines.
The Blue Pee Drug in MASH Is Real
Methylthioninium chloride, commonly called methylene blue, is used as a dye and as a medication. As a medication, it is mainly used to treat methemoglobinemia, a rare blood disorder that affects how red blood cells deliver oxygen throughout your body. In the past, it was used to treat cyanide poisoning and urinary tract infections, but it is not used for either today.
Methylene blue is also used as a dye for various reasons in medical treatment. It is not usually ingested but is injected into a vein. When ingested, it can cause headache, nausea, and vomiting. And, yes, it can cause urine to change colors. When interacting with the yellow color of pee, it turns the pee a blue-green or blue color. It also causes fecal discoloration.
In fact, methylene blue has been used as a placebo for this very reason. Doctors would give their patients a methylene blue pill and tell them that when their urine turned blue, it was a sign the medication was working. As a placebo in a controlled clinical trial this would not work and it makes it difficult to study the compound for medical uses, as those subjects getting the true blue in the study will know they are not just getting a sugar pill!
It may have been knowledge of this use of methylene blue that caused the writers to use it in the MASH episode.
You May Know Marty Urbancic as Piney Winston
Marine Sergeant Marty Urbancic was played by William Lucking. You may know him now as Piermont “Piney” Winston of Sons of Anarchy. He was the father of Harry ‘Opie’ Winston and and co-founded the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club. Lucking also starred in The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972) and The Rundown (2003). He also played Col. Lynch in the first season of The A-Team, in 1983.
