who shot John

English

Etymology

First attested in the 1860s as a game among students at British military academies; in later use, chiefly US.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

who shot John (uncountable)

1. (idiomatic) Long and involved explanation, finger-pointing, or assignment of credit or blame.
   • 1972, Dean Burch, Speech Before NCTA.:

     I haven't been in on any of the sessions, I don't intend to get directly involved, and I'm not going to engage in any speculation about "who shot John".

   • 1979, Mr. Morris, quoted in Reauthorization of programs under the Justice System Improvement Act of 1979 : hearing before the Subcommittee on Crime of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, United States General Printing Office, page 17,

     I really do not think it is appropriate to come up here and present to this committee or to the Congress the "who shot John" processes by which the President makes decisions.

   • 1980, Leonard S Janofsky, “On the Roads to Regulatory Reform”, in American Bar Association Journal:

     A great number of the most important questions presented to our regulatory agencies have nothing to do with "who shot John."

   • 1985, JT O'Reilly, LABOR LAW COLLOQUIUM: The First Anniversary of the Ohio Public Sector Collective Bargaining Law:

     ... Adjudication procedures are great for "who shot John" questions, but not for the great mass of policy issues which will come before the Board in its first few years.

   • 1984, Hearing on H.R. 4805 ... and H.R. 425 ... Before the Investigations Subcommittee on the Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives, Ninety-eighth Congress, Second Session, August 1, 1984, volume 5, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Armed Services. Subcommittee on Investigations, page 17:

     It is hard to go back and do a who shot John and determine who is responsible for the procedures that are in effect today.

   • 1986 December 21, William Safire, "On Language", New York Times, Sect. 6, pg. 6:

     NOBODY REALLY cares who shot John.
     
     That's because who shot John is inherently dismissive, always used in the sense of a question that the speaker is not about to answer because it involves loathsome finger-pointing, unworthy of the fair-minded.

   • 1987 May 13, Ms. Gradison, quoted in The Clayton Act Amendments of 1987 (railroad antitrust immunity) : hearing before the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Monopolies, and Business Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, United States General Printing Office, page 88,

     Senator DeConcini. You may not be able to comment on some pending cases, but I am aware of an Arizona electric case filed in 1981 which is still pending.

     Ms. Gradision. Yes, sir. And I thought that might come up, so I brought the who-shot-John on it.

   • 1995, M Shipley, “Family Mediation in Tennessee”, in University of Memphis Law Review:

     I called the attorneys to the bench and said, "You know I'm not interested in who shot John in this divorce. What matters is reaching a decision that will work for these people and their children.

   • 2004, Thomas Friedman, quoted in International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East Staff, Role of Civil Society in Promoting a Just And Lasting Peace in the Middle East: An Israeli-Palestinian Dialogue, United Nations Publications, →ISBN, page 67,

     That was the intervening event. I raise that not to start this whole who-shot-John-first, but to say that if we are going to talk about these events, we have to talk about them in the full and complete context.

   • 2009, J Bravin, “Justice Stevens Renders an Opinion on Who Wrote Shakespeare's Plays”, in Wall Street Journal:

     To her, however, the authorship evidence is inconclusive. Besides, "coming off a college education in postmodern literary theory, I was mildly troubled by the 'who-shot-John?' interest in who the real Shakespeare was," she says. "My view is that the work stands on own."

2. (idiomatic) Nonsense; rubbish.
   • 1917 April, Hal B. Stroup, “letter”, in The Bricklayer, mason and plasterer, volume 20, Bricklayers, Masons, and Plasterers International Union of America, page 25:

     This "Who-Shot-John" stuff about "Love thine enemy" is all very pretty, but I would rather have a little regard and do a good turn for a man that has proved himself my friend by having stuck to the organization that has raised my wages and thereby making It possible for me to give my family more of the necessities of life.

   • 2016, Charles B. Dew, The Making of a Racist: A Southerner Reflects on Family, History, and the Slave Trade:

     He never raised the topic of religion, but if it did happen to come up, he would promptly close the conversation by dismissing the entire subject as “a bunch of who shot John".

   • 1972, Anthony Wolk, “Linguistic and social bias in the American Heritage Dictionary”, in College English:

     Because in school all they tell you is a bunch of "Who Shot John."

3. (idiomatic) Something bad; a mess.
   • 2008, Theresa Renee White, Media as Pedagogy and Socializing Agent:

     "I don't know why you wanna run around looking like Who Shot John," exclaims Monica's mother, played by Alfre Woodard. These words may seem a bit harsh, but they were supposedly said with a loving sentiment.

   • 2012, Cattina C. Coleman, To Have, To Hold, and To Never Let Go:

     I know this topic goes both ways because there are women who also fall short in this area and need to douche on a regular basis with the way they are running around smelling like “who shot John”. However, the topic is on you men […]

4. (Southern US) Liquor, especially illegally made.
   • 1932, B Crawford, “Piney Ridge, Virginia”, in The Virginia Quarterly Review:

     Red Mammy, the proprietress, bootlegs a horrendous brew known as "Who Shot John?"

Synonyms

• (illegal liquor): hooch, moonshine

Hypernyms

• (illegal liquor): bootleg

Related terms

• who-hit-John

See also

• blame game