# Dillinger’s or anyone’s penis **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [January 18, 2019, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dillinger-s-or-anyone-s-penis/827971 "2019-01-18T09:51:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lulu8360](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Lulu8360](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lulu8360)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2019, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dillinger-s-or-anyone-s-penis/827971/1 "2019-01-18T09:51:34Z")
* * * All this claptrap about the oversized penises of dead men being preserved after death is ridiculous. I’m a Registered Nurse. All men’s penises shrivel up upon death, just as live men’s penises shrivel up when it’s cold. All men’s penises look to be the same size when they’re dead and if it’s cut off and preserved, no matter the size in life, it would look pretty much the same—a small lump of flesh. You can’t judge the size of a penis if it isn’t erect. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2019, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dillinger-s-or-anyone-s-penis/827971/2 "2019-01-18T12:47:50Z")
Not men who were executed by hanging: > [@](#): > > “Men subjected to capital punishment by hanging and laboratory animals sacrificed with cervical dislocation have terminal erections. The implication is that either central inhibition of erection is released and erection created or that a sudden massive spinal cord stimulus generates an erectile response. There is ample experimental and clinical evidence to support the former supposition.” > **[Boner Of An Executed 18th-Century Man Goes On Display](https://www.iflscience.com/boner-of-an-executed-18thcentury-man-goes-on-display-42456)** > > Boner Of An Executed 18th-Century Man Goes On Display ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2019, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dillinger-s-or-anyone-s-penis/827971/3 "2019-01-18T14:15:52Z")
I don’t know. What did King Saul want with 200 Philistine foreskins? I mean, why not just chop the whole dick off the corpse? Wouldn’t that be easier? ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2019, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dillinger-s-or-anyone-s-penis/827971/4 "2019-01-18T18:37:15Z")
I have no experience with the penises of dead men but as a gay man who has seen a good number of penises I have to say your last sentence **Lulu8360** , isn’t exactly correct. I can assure you I have personal experience with a handful of male organs that were impressive in size even when flaccid. Most are “growers not showers” as the saying goes but not always. There are multiple accounts in The Comedians by Kliph Nesterhoff recounting different people who saw Milton Berle’s infamously large penis. The stories typically recount Berle unzipping and it “flopping” out of his trousers. Flopping is not a term I would imagine using to describe the typical flaccid penis. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2019, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dillinger-s-or-anyone-s-penis/827971/5 "2019-01-18T19:39:20Z")
> [@Lulu8360](#): > > All this claptrap about the oversized penises of dead men being preserved after death is ridiculous. I’m a Registered Nurse. All men’s penises shrivel up upon death, just as live men’s penises shrivel up when it’s cold. Not sure I’d want to wind up on your hospital ward. 🙂 Those two opening lines of your post are candidates for the Straight Dope Top Ten Of All Time. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2019, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dillinger-s-or-anyone-s-penis/827971/6 "2019-01-18T22:53:36Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Not men who were executed by hanging: > [Boner Of An Executed 18th-Century Man Goes On Display | IFLScience](https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/boner-of-an-executed-18thcentury-man-goes-on-display/) I’ve heard that when paramedics arrive at the scene of an accident, this is one thing they look for in male victims - that it may be indicative of a spinal cord injury. Unfortunately, if that’s the case, it’s often the last “natural” one he ever has. Penises also plump up and enlarge in embalmed bodies. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2019, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dillinger-s-or-anyone-s-penis/827971/7 "2019-01-19T17:09:14Z")
As told in the book Live From New York: When Milton Berle hosted Saturday Night Live, writer Alan Zweibel aasked to see his famous penis. Berle unzipped and laid it on Zweibel’s desk, looking "like a life size pepperoni (Zweibel’s words)… Gilda Radner walked in on this scene, said “Excuse me” and walked out. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2019, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dillinger-s-or-anyone-s-penis/827971/8 "2019-01-19T18:17:11Z")
[I think this place bears mentioning…](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_Phallological_Museum) ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2019, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dillinger-s-or-anyone-s-penis/827971/9 "2019-01-19T19:40:09Z")
Then there’s the old joke about Milton Berle and Forrest Tucker. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2019, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dillinger-s-or-anyone-s-penis/827971/10 "2019-01-19T20:59:24Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > [I think this place bears mentioning…](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_Phallological_Museum) I just sent that to Atlas Obscura. Could you imagine what Dave Barry could have done with a place like this?!?!? ---
**Author:** ![tim-n-va](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim-n-va/32/3001_2.png) [@tim-n-va](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim-n-va)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2019, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dillinger-s-or-anyone-s-penis/827971/11 "2019-01-19T22:02:43Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > [I think this place bears mentioning…](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_Phallological_Museum) I visited there last summer. It is a small museum but it grows on you. The human specimens on display were not impressive. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2019, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dillinger-s-or-anyone-s-penis/827971/12 "2019-01-19T22:46:32Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > I don’t know. What did King Saul want with 200 Philistine foreskins? Make a wallet that becomes a suitcase when you rub it? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2019, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dillinger-s-or-anyone-s-penis/827971/13 "2019-01-19T23:03:30Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > Then there’s the old joke about Milton Berle and Forrest Tucker. Is that the one that involves putting? ---
**Author:** ![I.Dunno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9f8e36/32.png) [@I.Dunno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I.Dunno)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2019, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dillinger-s-or-anyone-s-penis/827971/14 "2019-01-20T02:06:49Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Is that the one that involves putting? From what I’ve read, it involves a bet and Jackie Gleason. The putting thing is a different gag.