# Circle Jerk!? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 30, 2002, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circle-jerk/100853 "2002-03-30T01:45:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circle-jerk/100853/41 "2014-07-18T02:33:01Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > All we ever did in high school was a car rally… 🙂 That’s like a circle jerk but with rimming, right? ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circle-jerk/100853/42 "2014-07-18T02:34:44Z")
> [@faithfool](#): > > Gotta say, having been in a rural area (east Texas) and graduating around the same time, there were never such shenanigans going on in my high school. If I go to my 30th year reunion, I’ll have to tell them they really missed out. It’s killing me that you’re referring to **Shag** ’s Lord of the Flies meets The Da Vinci Load high school experience as “shenanigans.” ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circle-jerk/100853/43 "2014-07-18T02:48:22Z")
> [@faithfool](#): > > Gotta say, having been in a rural area (east Texas) and graduating around the same time, there were never such shenanigans going on in my high school. If I go to my 30th year reunion, I’ll have to tell them they really missed out. They may have just taken some serious football coaching advise. Don’t blow your load before a game because you can’t waste the energy (yes, that is real advise that has been given to many high school players even if it is highly questionable). The competing theory is to masturbate before any sporting event so you will be more relaxed during the game (and maybe not stare at the Center’s ass so much and just concentrate on the game). My ex-wife swears that her high school football team in an affluent Boston suburb was well known for their ‘pre-game events’ which was basically a circle-jerk. She has many faults but lying has never been one of them. I don’t know if it is true or not because I wasn’t anywhere near there at the time in question but both her and her friends claim to have first and second-hand knowledge of it. These types of things generally aren’t advertised in the newspapers but I do believe they are more common than some of the more insulated types are led to believe. Teenage males do some really blatant sexual acts in front of each other and anyone else that cares to watch. It may be different today because everyone is so hyper-paranoid about _something_ but it has been true generally throughout history and sometimes much more explicit than anything than we are talking about here. Just because you didn’t get to watch didn’t mean that people aren’t doing it. Hell, I was a relative prude and I still witnessed all kinds of depraved things that wouldn’t sound good at all in a news story today. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circle-jerk/100853/44 "2014-07-18T02:56:59Z")
> [@simster](#): > > That has to be a cut and paste from somewhere - but damn if I’m going to go searching for it. He appears to be spamming it around the web, or so I said in my report. Whether it’s original to him or not, I’m not sure. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circle-jerk/100853/45 "2014-07-18T03:00:20Z")
Heard of them as a teenager but never heard of any happening in my neck of the woods. Getting together and jerking off would definitely have been taken as a gay thing, and that just wouldn’t fly in West Texas. I always figured them an Urban Myth. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circle-jerk/100853/46 "2014-07-18T03:18:08Z")
Allright youse guys, stop quoting that whole megillah, we got it already. > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Heard of them as a teenager but never heard of any happening in my neck of the woods. Getting together and jerking off would definitely have been taken as a gay thing, and that just wouldn’t fly in West Texas. I always figured them an Urban Myth. Yeah, similar where/when I grew up. Didn’t even have a specific name for it. ---
**Author:** ![Inna\_Minnit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Inna\_Minnit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inna_Minnit)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circle-jerk/100853/47 "2014-07-18T05:21:01Z")
> [@simster](#): > > That has to be a cut and paste from somewhere - but damn if I’m going to go searching for it. [Indeed it is.](http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=902680&p=1269878151&viewfull=1#post1269878151) ---
**Author:** ![Inna\_Minnit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Inna\_Minnit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inna_Minnit)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circle-jerk/100853/48 "2014-07-18T05:29:36Z")
[Also on Malayasia Yahoo Questions.](https://malaysia.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20140717051737AAWgIuk). Weird. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circle-jerk/100853/49 "2014-07-18T09:57:57Z")
**BudweiserBob** , you’ve got _spunk._ mmm ---
**Author:** ![dba\_Fred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c37758/32.png) [@dba\_Fred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dba_Fred)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circle-jerk/100853/50 "2014-07-18T11:17:29Z")
[“Mary Tyler Moore: Love Is All Around (#1.1)” (1970)](http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0029527/quotes) Lou Grant: You know what, you’ve got spunk! Mary Richards: Well, yes… Lou Grant: I _hate_ spunk! ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circle-jerk/100853/51 "2014-07-18T11:43:10Z")
Count me as another who has heard the term ‘circle jerk’ but thought it fictional. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circle-jerk/100853/52 "2014-07-18T13:38:44Z")
> [@Strainger](#): > > We have much to learn from them. Boy, I’ll say! I can’t wait to invite my friends over for our first handstoot. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circle-jerk/100853/53 "2014-07-18T14:30:11Z")
I had heard the term, but I always assumed (and still do) that it was an urban legen like cow tipping; everyone’s heard of it, no one has done it. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circle-jerk/100853/54 "2014-07-18T15:38:56Z")
Perhaps this is a generational thing? I actually know of two celebrities who confessed to participating in this activity: Tom Baker (of Doctor Who fame) and, believe it or not, [Paul McCartney](http://specialsections.absoluteelsewhere.net/LennonLoreLegacy/oh_calcutta.html). No doubt there are others; those are the ones I happen to know about. I wonder if it was more common in a time when homosexuality was basically a verboten subject, and so the fear of being perceived as gay maybe wasn’t as strong, because no one who wasn’t gay really thought about it or understood it. Prior to encountering these stories, I figured the circle jerk was a myth too. Such a thing would have been completely beyond the pale where I grew up. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circle-jerk/100853/55 "2014-07-18T16:00:41Z")
> [@Nonsuch](#): > > Perhaps this is a generational thing? I actually know of two celebrities who confessed to participating in this activity: Tom Baker (of Doctor Who fame) and, believe it or not, [Paul McCartney](http://specialsections.absoluteelsewhere.net/LennonLoreLegacy/oh_calcutta.html). No doubt there are others; those are the ones I happen to know about. I wonder if it was more common in a time when homosexuality was basically a verboten subject, and so the fear of being perceived as gay maybe wasn’t as strong, because no one who wasn’t gay really thought about it or understood it. > > Prior to encountering these stories, I figured the circle jerk was a myth too. Such a thing would have been completely beyond the pale where I grew up. Wasn’t some level of homosexual practice commonplace in British all-male boarding schools of the 20th century? It seemed to be regarded as expected and not gay, kind of like prison. Christopher Hitchens was quite explicit about this in his memoir. I still have to give a big :dubious: to reports of rural American boys in the 80s and 90s giving each other handjobs before every football game. Louisiana should never have let Tom of Finland open all those charter schools. Sure, the boys learned discipline, but… ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circle-jerk/100853/56 "2014-07-18T17:25:46Z")
I went to a rural school, too. For young boys, pussy was _the_ coin of the realm. It was proof that you were moving from boy to man. Jerking off was admitting you were failing at this. Homosexuality was admitting failure. Homosexuality was no more tolerated than standing on a milking stool and putting the blocks to old Bossie. And the only guys who got it were these three, in ranking of effortlessness: 1. Guys with hot cars and a steady supply of drugs (but he only got one girl who would make him her boyfriend: switching to another girl was impossible without much drama and upheaval). 2. Foreign exchange students: In & Out & exotic. 3. Football players. Unlike (1.) girls didn’t have to fight their folks to date them. In fact, parents would encourage girls to date them, and get them set up on the pill. Fucking a football player gave a girl status like nothing else could. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circle-jerk/100853/57 "2014-07-18T17:30:11Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Not far from it. After the school burned down my senior year because of arson, … Is jizz flammable? ‘Cause that school coulda been sittin’ an a real powder keg1 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circle-jerk/100853/58 "2014-07-18T17:40:25Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Is jizz flammable? ‘Cause that school coulda been sittin’ an a real powder keg1 Friction. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circle-jerk/100853/59 "2014-07-18T18:02:50Z")
The last thing I or any of my high school classmates would ever have considered, for any reason, was to not only masturbate in front of each other, but to jerk each other off. No fucking way, no fucking how. And although I know the term, I assumed that outside of the occasional gay male sex party, the “circle jerk” was an urban legend. Like unicorns, Sasquatch, and women’s orgasms. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2014, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circle-jerk/100853/60 "2014-07-18T18:27:00Z")
Yeah, when I was of that age, none of us would have even admitted to jerking off. We were too busy having sex with our girlfriends who all lived in Canada, but who we saw every summer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circle-jerk/100853.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circle-jerk/100853.md?page=4)