# Biggus Dickus
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggus-dickus/468175
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 16, 2008, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggus-dickus/468175 "2008-10-16T10:17:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@scumbat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scumbat)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2008, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggus-dickus/468175/1 "2008-10-16T10:17:52Z")
Did Pilate really have a friend named Biggus Dickus? Or did Monty Python get it wrong?
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### Author:  [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2008, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggus-dickus/468175/2 "2008-10-16T10:21:17Z")
> [@scumbat](#):
>
> Did Pilate really have a friend named Biggus Dickus? Or did Monty Python get it wrong?
Uhhh…no.
As for the movie itself, Python absolutely got it right. 🆒
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### Author:  [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2008, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggus-dickus/468175/3 "2008-10-16T11:14:53Z")
> [@KGS](#):
>
> Uhhh…no.
Not so fast.
[This article](http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Bigus_Dickus) claims otherwise. The authors assert that Dickus, in addition to his friendship with Pilate, was famed throughout Rome for his speeches outside the Senate House known as _Biggus Dickus Ejaculationus_.
The above source has proved invaluable to me many times during the course of my research into Roman history, even though it is totally content-free.
Please do not come into GQ and pour cold water on an OP without providing a spurious cite, like I always do.
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### Author:  [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2008, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggus-dickus/468175/4 "2008-10-16T11:46:22Z")
> [@Chez\_Guevara](#):
>
> Please do not come into GQ and pour cold water on an OP without providing a spurious cite, like I always do.
Duly noted. 😉
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2008, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggus-dickus/468175/5 "2008-10-16T12:06:11Z")
Just to be factual, for a second, giving characters ludicrous names, often describing their personalities, was perfectly within the bounds of Roman Drama. So in Plautus you have _Miles Gloriosus_ – “The Bragging Soldier”, who got an entire play named after him. (Later, Larry Gelbart used the name for one of the characters in **A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum**. He also took the name _Pseudolus_ – “Liar” – from another play to use as his main character, played in the movie by Zero Mostel)
I’m not familar with anyone with as risque a name as a latin equivalent of “Large Penis”, but in Plautus’ \*Menaechmi[/i there is a Pseudolus-like roguish main character named _Peniculus_, which means, literally “Sponge”. The name is appropriate because a sponge was used to wipe down the table after meals, getting all the crumbs – and Peniculus is basically a professional full-time dinner guest, a parasite. As one of the commentators on the play has gleefully pointed out, though, the Romans also used sponges as toilet paper.
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### Author:  [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2008, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggus-dickus/468175/6 "2008-10-16T12:13:21Z")
He’s not the Messiah - he’s a very naughty boy!
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### Author:  [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2008, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggus-dickus/468175/7 "2008-10-16T12:22:33Z")
That’s nothing, in the Greek tragedy _Testicles In Ye Sacke of Rome_, our hero Testicles, aided by his pack of Trusty Trojans, penetrates deep into the bowels of mystery to solve the disappearance of the Vestal Virgins.
It’s enough to make a Venetian blind!
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### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2008, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggus-dickus/468175/8 "2008-10-16T12:44:18Z")
That’s pronounced ‘Tes-ti-clees,’ right?
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### Author:  [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2008, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggus-dickus/468175/9 "2008-10-16T12:49:34Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> Just to be factual, for a second, giving characters ludicrous names, often describing their personalities, was perfectly within the bounds of Roman Drama. So in Plautus you have _Miles Gloriosus_ – “The Bragging Soldier”, who got an entire play named after him. (Later, Larry Gelbart used the name for one of the characters in **A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum**. He also took the name _Pseudolus_ – “Liar” – from another play to use as his main character, played in the movie by Zero Mostel)
>
> I’m not familar with anyone with as risque a name as a latin equivalent of “Large Penis”, but in Plautus’ \*Menaechmi[/i there is a Pseudolus-like roguish main character named _Peniculus_, which means, literally “Sponge”. The name is appropriate because a sponge was used to wipe down the table after meals, getting all the crumbs – and Peniculus is basically a professional full-time dinner guest, a parasite. As one of the commentators on the play has gleefully pointed out, though, the Romans also used sponges as toilet paper.
And Cicero means ‘pea’, which is a nickname that stuck with some ancestor of the Cicero we know as a result of the warts in that ancestor’s face.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2008, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggus-dickus/468175/10 "2008-10-16T12:59:35Z")
_Biggus Dickus_ is most certainly a fake name.
_Incontinentia Buttocks_, however, is absolutely genuine.
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### Author:  [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2008, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggus-dickus/468175/11 "2008-10-16T13:15:07Z")
> [@scumbat](#):
>
> Did Pilate really have a friend named Biggus Dickus? Or did Monty Python get it wrong?
That name will either get you a lot of dates or a lot of insults. 😉
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### Author:  [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2008, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggus-dickus/468175/12 "2008-10-16T13:31:52Z")
No discussion on this topic can be complete without a link to the [Wikipedia “Latin profanity” site](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_profanity).
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### Author:  [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2008, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggus-dickus/468175/13 "2008-10-16T14:20:22Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#):
>
> _Biggus Dickus_ is most certainly a fake name.
>
> _Incontinentia Buttocks_, however, is absolutely genuine.
😕 I always heawd it as “Incontinentia _Buckets_,” as in uwinawy incontinence. I suppose the weading of this line depends on whethew we imagine Biggus Dickus as the sowt of man who pwefews pwodding his lady the nowmal way ow buggewing hew…?
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### Author:  [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2008, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggus-dickus/468175/14 "2008-10-16T14:53:53Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#):
>
> That’s pronounced ‘Tes-ti-clees,’ right?
I’m sure he would swell up…
…with pride, you are correct sir!
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2008, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggus-dickus/468175/15 "2008-10-16T15:51:48Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Biggus Dickus is most certainly a fake name.
>
> Incontinentia Buttocks, however, is absolutely genuine.
What about Wudolf the Wed-nosed Weindeer?
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### Author:  [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2008, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggus-dickus/468175/16 "2008-10-16T15:54:48Z")
> [@Svejk\_1](#):
>
> And Cicero means ‘pea’, which is a nickname that stuck with some ancestor of the Cicero we know as a result of the warts in that ancestor’s face.
Very minor nitpick: “chickpea.” “Pea” was the family name of another of Rome’s great families, Piso, one of whom was Cicero’s sworn enemy. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2008, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggus-dickus/468175/17 "2008-10-16T16:04:17Z")
> [@The\_Scrivener](#):
>
> 😕 I always heawd it as “Incontinentia _Buckets_,” as in uwinawy incontinence. I suppose the weading of this line depends on whethew we imagine Biggus Dickus as the sowt of man who pwefews pwodding his lady the nowmal way ow buggewing hew…?
:: raises a patrician eyebrow ::
Awe you… _wagging me?_
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### Author:  [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2008, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggus-dickus/468175/18 "2008-10-16T16:04:27Z")
I find this whole convewsation wisible.
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### Author:  [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2008, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggus-dickus/468175/19 "2008-10-16T16:35:41Z")
The best part of this, is that I really am Brian.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2008, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggus-dickus/468175/20 "2008-10-16T16:39:36Z")
No, I’m Brian, and so is my wife!
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