Circumcision is frequently used in popular culture as a means of comedy relief when discussing a potentially embarrassing subject. Additionally, circumcision and the Jewish Bris ceremony have been recently shown on several programs. Below you will find a few examples of circumcision in movies, television, radio and other items reflecting popular culture.
I saw "Meet the Fockers" and they had a part where the prospective in-laws meet and they are showing off their photo album to the bride and her parents. They show off one picture where the groom to be is being circumcised. They discuss styles and even have his dried foreskin, its fumbled and lands in the soup. the groom to be is not pleased.
Parody on the Franklin Mint and their 'historic foreskin collection'.
http://dave.tv/MediaPlayer.aspx?contentItemId=89284
Recently, the "Ike's Wee Wee" eposide of South Park aired. The show educated many boys who were routinely circumcised at birth and were unaware of their own infant circumcision and served as an impetus to open a dialog between parents/children, as well as between peers (both male and female). Not only did the show promote a discussion of circumcision, but also of religious beliefs and their importance. My own son, 13 years old, commented that he agreed with the dad on South Park "Were just going to snip it. It makes your penis look bigger". Of course, by the end of the program all of the boys on South Park are wanting to schedule their own bris. My son reports several conversations with friends about this episode. All but one of his friends were circumcised at birth, and were unaware of it. My son knows of his circumcision and was able to help 'clarify' the matter for the others. The only uncircumcised boy said he felt like Cartman (a character on the show) who wished he was having a bris of his own.
Download these South Park sound clips!
| Bris - Kyle learns about ritual circumcision from his dad. | Circum - The boys learn about circumcision and begin scheduling their own. | The Bris - Ike is finally bris'd while the boys and family watch on with pride. |
Today's award for cutting-edge advertising goes to a pair of New York rabbis who advertise their circumcision services on refrigerator magnets. According to New York magazine, Rabbi Yehoshua Krohn's magnets display a dove, a yarmulke-wearing infant and the number for his toll-free Bris Line - (800) BABY-BOY. Another magnetized rabbi, David Kedmi, says of his refrigerator trinkets: +ACI-You never know where they'll end up. Even if people think they may not need the number when they take it, they never know if it might come in handy!
Learning Channel Airs Live Bris
Unlike the "Queer as Folk" fake bris scene, no one walked away from this one.
The Learning Channel (TLC - American Cable TV), which has a weekly show called
"Trauma - Life in the E.R." - i.e. real life taping of Emergency Room activity
and the life and work of the doctors and the patients & families, recently began
a new show called "Code Blue", which is what you can guess: the most severely
injured.
Last night, they showed what I believe was the first of yet a new show, exact
name which I forgot, "Birth and Delivery". It must have been "boys night out"
because of the ten or so babies born, none were girls.
One was a typical birth, no big deal. Another was 26-week twin premies, both
boys, and although touch and go, they did make it to term and go home. And there
were others.
The obvious question came to mind: since there were so many boys, would
circumcision be brought up. They did me one better: the mother or mother-in-law
of the first boy on the show appeared very Jewish but who knew? Then it was
revealed she had escaped the Holocaust.
After a break, they said how that boy's family is about to engage in a 3,000-yr
old tradition, then "dad" told the reporter about the "bris" and the "mohel",
and how he trusted "this gentlemen" totally. Then the fact that the boy
was going to be circumcised during this ceremony was stated; the actual
circumcision was filmed -- just the 2 seconds (literally) when the mohel slid
the scalpel along the foreskin. The boy was silent up to that point, then he let
out a bit of a scream, the mohel quickly placed the foreskin off to his side,
pushed the foreskin up over the glans and peeled something with his finger (I
guess a mucosal layer?). The baby screeched just once more, with
less intensity. Next, the new baby was all dressed up in his blanket, being
passed around, apparently not in any pain, sleeping it off, and the relatives
all rejoicing.
Anyone who has any doubts about how a newborn circumcision should be done would
be convinced to hire a mohel, Jewish or not... as Christian doctors in the
hospitals today generally ask the mohels affiliated with their hospital, for
their own newborn sons.
Regards,
Brian RIC
The movie is called "Europa, Europa" and featured the German actor Marco Hofschneider who portrayed a Polish Jewish boy named Soloman Perl. Circumcision is a central theme in the movie, showing the young boy's bris as a new born, the Nazi occupation of Poland, his separation from his family and finally being taken in my a German military unit and it's commanding officer who eventually sends the boy back to Germany to live with his wife where he is enrolled in a posh school for Hitler Youth. All through this, he is constantly terrified that someone will see him naked and discover he's circumcised and Jewish and not an Aryan hero of the fatherland. At this school he even tries to tie the remains of his long severed foreskin forward over his glans with rather disastrous results.
In an interview, Hofschneider said the part was originally cast with his brother in the role but that production was delayed and by the time it began, his brother was too old. He said that he was surprised to get the role because he is not circumcised and that in the film, the contructed a prosthesis of a circumcised penis to wear over his foreskin to make him appear circumcised and that they had to make a number of the prosthetic devices before they found one which would be satisfactory. Since it would have been by far more simple to just retract his foreskin and, if necessary, keep it retracted with some tape or spirit gum, it is logical to conclude that either Hofshneider was unable to retract his foreskin or, if he was able, keeping it retracted was uncomfortable or painful and possibly induce paraphimosis. Since it is a German film, dealing with this type of a situation wouldn't be as unusual or surprising as it would say in the US.
Here are some vid captures from the film which has been out on video tape for some time, both in the original German and also subtitled in English.
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Married With Children
Episode 812: Just A Little Off The Top
<Al had surgery>
Doctor: " There is some good news. He is alive."
Peg: " How alive? Can he walk? Can he talk? Will he ever be able to work again?"
Doctor: " He's a shoe salesman, Mrs. Bundy. We could replace his brain with a sock full of popcorn and he'd still be able to work."
Al: < to Kelly>"A word of warning. Anyone who says 'What's up' goes down. It wasn't fuuny when the doctor asked it. It wasn't funny when the nurse asked it. And it certainly wasn't funny when your mother asked it."
Peg: " Then again...I've been asking for years."
Kelly: " So how's your...ah, back?"
Al: " Fine. Not that they did anything to it. For some odd reason, I feel less concerned about it. Peg, would you have any idea why I'd feel less concerned about it?"
Kelly: " I do. I do."
Al: " Pumpkin?"
Kelly: " Because you're in so much pain from the circumcision."
Al: " Correct. And while we're on that subject. Does anyone know why such a wacky thing happened to daddy in the first place?
Kelly: " Because mommy made you go to the hospital."
Al: " Close, sweetheart. Mommy married daddy first then made him go to the hospital."
Al: " Did you know that daddy's nurse was a fat woman who used to come into the shoe store? I say 'used to' because her patronage fell off because one day she asked for something to make her feet look smaller and I said 'Try your ass.' She remembered and we laughed. The she picked up a cathetar the size of a boa constrictor."
<Al has a flowery dressing gown on and the kids look at him>
Al: " What?"
Kelly: " Exactly how much did they cut off?"
Ally McBeal TV Show
In a recent episode of Ally McBeal the girls are in a sculpting class with a nude male model. The teacher asks the model to put his robe on, and called in the next model. One of the girls asks the first model to stay because she "had not circumcised him yet". (laughter is heard). The second model disrobed and the rest of the show dealt with his large size and not mention of his circ status. TV is coming of age.
Howard Stern Radio Shows
Howard and his female co-host were discussing a photo book which was recently issued, and banned from some states. Howard and his co-host noted, that all of the children in the book appear as young teens, or younger, and they made a point of noting that all of the boys were uncircumcised. To this, they both kept noting through the segment that none were circumcised. Neither host were in favor of the uncut penis and couldn't seem to fathom that these boys still had their foreskins.
Howard Stern et all continued their condemnation of foreskin when they talked with Luke Perry (from TV's Beverly Hills, 90210) on May 7, 1998. Luke's a regular caller to the show, but had not before let everyone know he was not circumcised yet. They ask Luke where he grew up and he states in Ohio.
Howard: So, are you circumcised?
Luke: In the farm… uhh… hold on a second
Robin: They do circumcise people in Ohio, don't they?
Howard: So are you circumcised, Luke?
Luke: Uh…No, I'm not.
Howard & Robin: (unison, surprised) You're not?
Howard: He's not… he's not circumcised. I'm telling ya...
Luke: No I'm not.
Howard: Yeah. Do girls get scared of it when they see it?
Luke: No
Howard: They don't?
Luke: You know what the trick is? Have them bring a friend along. If they get afraid, then there's someone they can grab onto. (Trying to change the subject)
Howard: Are you sorry that you weren't circumcised?
Luke: Never had any complaints (misunderstood question)
Howard: Did you ever have any problems with it, like it hurt or got infected? (laughing)
Luke: I'm good, no. I have troble fitting it into tight pants, but that's it. (trying to change subject to size)
Conversation continues for some time, with Howard asking things like "does it get infected" "wouldn't you rather have 'convertible', how wife reacted, was she freaked out, did he 'warn' her first, sound effects of women screaming. Luke indicated he felt it was "very hippyish, very European" to have a foreskin and also stated that "so is not shaving your armpits if you're a woman, and that's no good." Luke also mentioned that his "business penis" (erect) looks about the same as a circumcised penis, so his wife really didn't notice on their first time together. Luke was born and raised in Ohio, as was the CIRCLIST founder/editor. Don't they circumcised boys in Ohio? Seems like a valid question! : ) Since Luke doesn't think being "very hippyish" is very good, perhaps he is considering the dance with Mr. Gomco!
Absolutely Fabulous
Today I had the opportunity to watch the last episode of "Absolutely
Fabulous". The girls go skiing. One says to the other "have you seen any movie
stars?" "None" comes the reply from Patsy. "How about any crown
heads?" asks Adina, referring to royalty. "It's hard to
tell with thick snow pants on" Patsy replies, obviously referring to the
outline of a flared circumcised glans. (Audience laughs) As you may know,
Patsy is a bit of slut and is always thinking of sex.
Later in the show, they are searching for a church for Adina's daughter's wedding.
After looking at several churches, the mother says to her daughter "I really
liked that last one. It was very pretty, don't you think?" The daughter replies
"Mom, it was a Jewish Synagog". "Really" Adina says... "what's
wrong with that? isn't he circumcised?" The line is not followed up with
anything relevant to your interests. I'm told this last bit was removed from the broadcast
version in the US.
Rugrats (Cartoon) Movie
Today my teen son returned from taking his younger brother (5 years old) to the new Rugrats Movie. He tells me that the movie contains a scene early on where a young (presumably female) baby says to another in the hospital nursery "they cut my cord", looking at her bellybutton. The boy in the next bassinet looks down his diaper and says "you should see what they cut on me". Tonight, the guys in our family talked about circumcision and why it's good for boys and is done routinely in the USA and many other countries.
The following was sent to CIRCLIST with a note that this is the logo for a pop band. Apparently the LUCKY boys in the band had tight trims!
Jokes
A handsome young lad went into the hospital for some minor surgery, and the day after the procedure a friend stopped by to see how the guy was doing.
His friend was amazed at the number of nurses who entered the room in short intervals with refreshments, offers to fluff his pillows, make the bed, give back rubs, etc.
"Why all the attention?" the friend asked, "You look fine to me."
"I know!" grinned the patient. "But the nurses kind of formed a little fan club when they all heard that my circumcision required twenty-seven stitches."
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A teacher noticed that a little boy at the back of the class was squirming
around, scratching his crotch, and not paying attention. She went back to find
out what was going on. He was quite embarrassed and whispered that he had just
recently been circumcised and he was quite itchy. The teacher told him to go
down to the principal's office. He was to telephone his mother and ask her what
he should do about it. He did it and returned to his class. Suddenly, there was
a commotion at
the back of the room. She went back to investigate only to find him sitting at
his desk with his weenie hanging out. "I thought I told you to call your mom!"
she said. "I did," he said, "And she told me that if I could stick it out till
noon, she'd come and pick me up from school.
US Troop Perplexed by British Foreskins
by J.R. Hunt
BASRA, Iraq — In the battlefield, they consider themselves brothers. They've fought together. Slept in foxholes together. They come from different parts of the world but they've shared a common bond for more than 200 years. American G.I.s and British soldiers have formed a cameraderie in the deserts of Iraq not seen in more than a half century. But when they were recently forced to shower together, American forces noticed some big differences with their British counterparts. Differences that at first threatened that unique friendship.
The conversation varied slightly as it played itself repeatedly in makeshift showers all over the Persian Gulf.
"Hey bro, your penis looks kind of weird."
"Aye mate, that's called a foreskin."
"A what?"
"A foreskin. I'm uncircumcised. It's rather common in Europe."
"Dude, you should get that fixed."
The questions soon turned to teasing, to which the Brits were unaccustomed. Word got around the barracks that the British troops were "different."
"Bloody right we were pissed with all the pointing and name-calling," said Capt. Simon Brody, a member of the Royale Air Corps. "We tried to find common ground with a game of football, but when we were organized by 'shirts and skins,' we really horribly ostracized by the Yanks."
When British troops realized that Iraqis and other Muslim men are also circumcised, they came to the conclusion they had, perhaps, the only foreskins in the entire Gulf region. "We suddenly became self-conscious," explained one British commander who asked to remain anonymous. "It became impossible for our men to fight with those things flapping around in the wind."
"We felt so ugly. It was as if the entire world was not paying attention to our brave soldiers and just focusing on our bits and pieces. It was awful."
As a gesture of goodwill, U.S Army medics and Jewish Chaplains will now offer free "battlefield circumcisions" to British soldiers on a volunteer basis. It is one more way to show the bond between Americans and British could not be broken.
"We're truly excited about our new Americanized penises," Lee said. "It's fucking brilliant."
(From the http://www.bobfromaccounting.com/ website, which is a humorous online publication.)
Circumcision Brings Longer Life!
A French Canadian doctor, Dr Télord, has produced a new study which contradicts a study made previously by his English Canadian alter-ego: Dr. Taylor.
Dr Télord's study was conducted on a large representative sample of one dead male body aged 87. The conclusions are outstanding:
Circumcision brings about many health benefits , including better cardiovascular system, generally lower body fat levels, stronger right arm muscles, better body heat control all of which bring about a longer life. (This, on top of the localised health benefits with reduced problem of the genito-urinary tract).
Men who are not circumcised get far less health benefits because daily masturbation does not last long enough to exercise the cardio vascular system and does not require the right arm muscles to work hard to pull the skin up.
Circumcised males generally have longer lasting masturbation sessions which end up being more intense from the point of view of the cardio vascular system. This gives the heart better exercise, and gets the body into a much higher metabolic rate, generating much heat which result in the sweat glands kicking into action to help regulate the body's heat. This is helped by greater muscle activity in the right arm which must use much more force to move the tight skin of the penis.
(The uncircumcised need not use any force to slide the skin up/down).
And because the orgasm peaks at a slower pace, the body stays at an extremely high metabolic rate for a longer period. In racing terms, the uncircumcised simply takes a quick step to orgasm whereas the circumcised male runs a 100m sprint with slowly increasing speed during the process until culmination at the finish line. So while the actual moment of culmination may be the same between circumcised and uncircumcised, the circumcised male will have achieved greater workout of his whole body in the process.
Because the circumcised male must be able to maintain higher metabolic rate for a longer period in order to reach his daily orgasm, this bring about much greater sustained health benefits.
Furthermore, this higher metabolic rate also exercises the lungs to a greater extend than in the uncircumcised.
This higher exercise and cardio vascular workout also burns off excess fat. And because this is generally done after dinner, before going to bed, this helps reduce sugar levels during sleep and thus reduce transformation of sugars into fat and/or help convert fat into sugars.
As a result, circumcised males tend to have less body fat levels than their uncircumcised counterparts.
Another aspect which helps maintain higher metabolic rate is the contact of the bare glans against underwear during daytime. This substantially increases the number of times the male thinks about sex throughout the day. As a result of constantly increased sexual awareness/thoughts, the male tends to maintain higher metabolic rate compared to his uncircumcised counterpart who may not be thinking about sex as often, especially since during the day, all he can look forwards to is the awful smell of his penis whenever he urinates and draws back the foreskin.
Because the circumcised male knows instinctively that his penis is always ready to be shown to a potential partner without any fears of bad smells or bad looks, this higher confidence level also brings about increased sexual thoughts resulting in increased metabolic rate.
Dr Télord has also concluded from his extensive study that one reason the circumcised penis tends to look larger when flaccid is the fact that the circumcised male thinks about sex more often during the day and thus the frequent onsets of erections tend to maintain the penis at a larger state and over time, this becomes its normal flaccid size.
The cardio-vascular benefits are undeniable says Dr Télord who also suggest to the people who haven't yet realised that this message is not for real that their urologist may have excised their sense of humour instead of/alongside their prepuce.
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