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I saw this sentence while I was watching the 17th episode (Season 8) of Modern Family.

Bulldog drooled courses through his jowls.

I was really confused about its meaning. To give you a bit of its context:

Phill and Clair are reading an email that's sent from a university to inform their son Luke of their admission decision. This university is Phill's alma mater and its mascot is likely to be a bulldog, for Phill says:

Clair, I am as anxious as you are to find out if he's gonna be a Bulldog like his old man.

However, it turns out that Luke is not admitted. Phill's dumbfounded as he says:

What? He's a legacy! Bulldog drooled courses through his jowls!

I know what each of the words in this sentence means, but this sentence just doesn't make sense to me.

How can someone drool "courses" (which either means meals or a series of lessons) through his jowls?

Em.
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Jocelyn Liu
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2 Answers2

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I haven't watched the episode in question, but I'm pretty sure you misheard the quote and that Phil actually says:

Bulldog drool courses through his jowls!

"Bulldog drool" means the drool (or saliva) of a bulldog, which is a breed of dog. It is also common in many schools and universities to use that school's mascot as a demonym, so that "a Bulldog" is a person who attends or attended that particular university.

"To course through (something)" refers to a fluid traveling through a channel, and a common expression is "to course through one's veins" which is a metaphorical way of describing a person's personality. "… courses through his jowls" adapts this expression to continue the metaphor of a salivating dog.

Taken together, the quote is a metaphor suggesting that Luke has all the personality characteristics that one would expect in "a Bulldog," a student at the university or an alumnus. The image of the salivating dog carries a connotation that some of those personality characteristics are aggressive in nature.

choster
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TypeIA
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  • It makes so much sense now. Thanks for the explanation:). – Jocelyn Liu Oct 11 '19 at 08:39
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    I agree with most of this, but having drool coursing through your jowls is not a common expression and need not refer to any attributes of salivating dogs. Rather, it is likely a play on the familiar cliché on having certain blood coursing through his veins, for humorous effect. – choster Oct 11 '19 at 15:50
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    @choster isn't that exactly what I said? – TypeIA Oct 11 '19 at 16:35
  • Given the context of this sitcom, aggressiveness is probably what Phil was going for, but to the viewer it’s more likely intended to suggest clumsiness instead — neither bulldogs nor saliva conjure up connotations of assertiveness. – Konrad Rudolph Oct 11 '19 at 17:43
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    the well-known school whose students are called Bulldogs is Yale University. – Barmar Oct 11 '19 at 18:40
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    @choster I don't see where "drool coursing through your jowls" was referred to as a "common expression". Since bulldogs (the dog breed) are commonly known to have large jowls and salivate profusely, yes, the adaptation of the expression is indeed continuing the metaphor. – Doktor J Oct 11 '19 at 19:23
  • @JocelynLiu: I'd suggest turning on subtitles to double-check what you heard if it doesn't make sense. I'm a native English speaker (Canadian) with good hearing in general, but sometimes not every work is perfectly clear so I like to have subs. Some shows more than others; dramas more often have quiet or mumbled dialogue. But in general it's nice to have subs available in case there's a word or phrase that I wonder if I misheard. – Peter Cordes Oct 12 '19 at 00:04
  • Not having seen the show in question I can't ascertain the veracity of the quote, but I definitely agree with the "blood coursing through his veins" interpretation. – Draco18s no longer trusts SE Oct 12 '19 at 00:57
  • This link to someone's (tran)script agrees with "drool" correction: https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/view_episode_scripts.php?tv-show=modern-family&episode=s08e17 – TripeHound Oct 12 '19 at 13:37
  • @PeterCordes Although, from my limited viewing of subtitles, they often aren't cannonical... sometimes they are shortened slightly; some are auto-generated with varying degrees of success. – TripeHound Oct 12 '19 at 13:42
  • @TripeHound: Yes, but it's definitely worth trying, especially for a big-budget scripted + pre-recorded TV show or movie which usually have good quality subtitles. Shows that air live, like Saturday Night Live, have human-written closed captions with best-effort in real time, and don't go back and re-caption for youtube. So they can be a mess if the captioner fumbles their keyboard or something. But yes even "good" subtitles simplify speech phrasing. In this case though, it's a punchline that I'd expect to be there verbatim, or at least the important words. – Peter Cordes Oct 12 '19 at 13:49
  • (And yeah, machine-generated text->speech subs on Youtube are usually very poor quality. And even human-written subtitles sometimes get a word wrong. Sometimes it seems like the subtitler doesn't follow the TV show and doesn't know what the characters are really talking about. Like they subtitle a name that's part of the lore of the show as a pair of words that it kind of sounds like. But more often subs are good for scripted TV / movies.) – Peter Cordes Oct 12 '19 at 13:51
  • @DoktorJ I believe that choster is merely answering the unasked question of whether this is a common expression since it seems so unusual. But as choster said this is sort of a play on the more common expression of "blood coursing through your veins" – Cave Johnson Oct 12 '19 at 16:29
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    @KodosJohnson Which, again, is exactly what I said, so I'm confused why it's being rehashed. – TypeIA Oct 12 '19 at 16:42
  • For the most part I don't agree with the criticisms of this answer. At most one could complain that while explaining how "jowls" is substituted for "veins," you did not mention "blood" at all (and so could not point out that it is replaced by "drool"). – David K Oct 13 '19 at 05:23
  • @TypeIA You're not wrong. It's pretty much the same as what you said in your answer. I like your answer and upvoted it. But I guess I just like the wording that choster used. That it's a play on the expression of blood coursing through one's veins. It's just a very minor thing, your answer is still fine. – Cave Johnson Oct 14 '19 at 16:30
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Without context it's a nonsensical statement, but, given the narrative, this can be read as:

Bulldog showed an excessive pleasure in devouring classes.

drooled definition:

make an excessive and obvious show of pleasure or desire. "he was drooling over your photo on the inside cover"

but what does "courses" mean? dictionary.com shows:

'a direction or route taken or to be taken. the path, route, or channel along which anything moves: the course of a stream.'

but that's not the meaning here. Here courses means classes, as in "taking" a class, or using this lingo, a "course" at college or university:

In higher education in Canada, Nigeria and the United States, a course is a unit of teaching that typically lasts one academic term, is led by one or more instructors (teachers or professors), and has a fixed roster of students.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Course_(education)

I would add that Bulldog devoured, chewed through, course material. It's a play on words. As above, "so-and-so is a bulldog in this course" would be the more straightforward usage. It's turned around by the addition of jowels -- which emphasizes the eating or devouring of "courses".

Yes, typically a "course" might mean a meal -- and that's the allusion or pun. But the meaning is "class", or maybe even not far from a "course" of antibiotics.

It's a play on words several times over.

Thufir
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  • the downvote is curious to me, as, quite obviously, "course" here means academic units of teaching.. – Thufir Oct 12 '19 at 18:26
  • There's no hyphen in "nonsense". The word already means "the opposite of sense" so sticking a hyphen in it doesn't do anything except jar. – David Richerby Oct 12 '19 at 19:23
  • I'm afraid this is a severe misinterpretation of a misquote. – TypeIA Oct 13 '19 at 03:46
  • well, @TypeIA what's the correct quote then? – Thufir Oct 13 '19 at 04:35
  • You can scroll up and read my answer above. – TypeIA Oct 13 '19 at 05:21
  • be that as it may, @TypeIA, I'd bet money that the question as asked is correct -- not that I watch the show. – Thufir Oct 13 '19 at 06:06
  • The correct quote (starting around 5:58 in the episode) is, in reaction to finding out his son didn't get accepted to his alma mater, "What? He's a legacy! Bulldog drool courses through his jowls!". You don't explain how the "through his jowls" part fits with your explanation, and its presence breaks your explanation. – Doktor J Oct 15 '19 at 15:32
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    A much more self-evident explanation is, as stated in TypeIA's answer, that it's a play on the common expression " blood courses through his veins", e.g. "royal blood courses through his veins"; however since the school's mascot is a bulldog -- a dog known for its large jowls and excessive slobbering -- the wordplay is, "Bulldog drool courses through his jowls", as in the saliva of a bulldog is in his cheeks/lips. – Doktor J Oct 15 '19 at 15:34