Before there was a certain wizard, there were the original Potterisms from Colonel Sherman T. Potter. These usually came in the form of unusual expressions and exclamations a response to what was happening at the 4077th Mash. At other times, the Potterisms would be in the form of paradoxical statements which contained nuggets of profound folk advise for his subordinates. So characteristic were these expressions that wherever the Mash crew needed to impersonate him on the phone, they also needed to insert their own Potterisms to sound believable.