It seems to me that I first heard “johnson” as a slang term for “penis” sometime in the early to mid 80’s. Anybody know the origin? First popularized as an African American usage, but, beyond that, I don’t know.
A quick search turns up a couple of statements that it comes from the sixties, when LBJ was president. People, particularly African Americans, thought Johnson was a dick, started using his last name as a synonym, and the usage stuck. Can anybody confirm or deny?
From etymonline.com
Wasn’t it from Miami Vice - Don Johnson? Well, that’s when it became popular anyways…
You claim LBJ, the president who signed the Civil Rights Act, and used his influence in Congress to get it passed, was disliked by African-Americans? So why did African-Americans vote so heavily for LBJ, and continue to vote solidly democratic up to the current day?
I’d sure like to see some cite for this claim, because I really don’t believe it.
Precisely why I was suspicious of it, and asking. I didn’t say I believed it - I was just quoting it.
Johnson to mean penis in American English is cited multiply long before Lyndon became President.
Since a term like that isn’t exactly something you use in polite society every day, it doesn’t appear in the average newspaper prior to the 1980’s.
But it pre-dated Lyndon by a bunch.
It wouldn’t make sense to pin the tail on Andrew Johnson either. He was Lincoln’s vice president.
While I completely agree that Andrew Johnson is not the origin of the term “johnson” on etymological grounds, I’d like to point out that just because he was Lincoln’s VP doesn’t mean that his policies were quite similar to Lincoln’s. Johnson vetoed major Reconstruction laws passed by the Republican Congress, such as the Freedmen’s Bureau Act and the Civil Rights Act, and tried to block Congress’s plans for a swift Reconstruction in the South.
Johnson was the only Southern senator who didn’t leave when the South seceded, and many of his major votes before the Civil War did anger the plantation owners, but he was, nonetheless, the only sitting Southern Senator. This geographic and sociocultural fact, more than any political stance, was why he was chosen for VP.
Many felt that he was obstructing policies Lincoln’s administration would have instituted, and that he was otherwise biased towards the former authorities and practices of the Deep South. It doesn’t matter if these beliefs were factually justified. They would have been ample cause to coin a verbal insult
I just don’t think that “johnson” was one of them. Perhaps the insults that did float around just didn’t survive.
Speaking of LBJ and penises:
Is it true that he pulled his dick out in a staff meeting and said something along the lines of “Yea but I bet Mao’s got nuthing like this.”
Well, what if I start calling mine a Bush?
K.C.. I’d assume that’s false until someone cites it 
.
Actually I did a little searching after I asked and found many references to, if not the specific circumstance, the generally exhibitionist behavior. Regarding a bio of LBJ:
Had to clear my google search bar cache after that search. 
Dick not Don.
How about based on a man that sired 100-300 children?
Sir William Johnson
Also in colloquial usage, John = toilet. I keep seeing portable toilets advertised as “rent-a-john”. Don’t know why the John family name is so maligned though. It is an old name, and some ancient John must have done something that really pissed off a lot of people.
Why John (Thomas)? Why Willy, Dick, Percy, or any other common man’s name, for that matter? Is there ultimately any difference in origin between any of the names?
Also Jakes; plain Jack, on the other hand, is a sailor.
Alternative official song for the thread: the Fuzztones’ “Johnson In A Headlock”.
She put my johnson in a headlock
And now you know that ain’t right
She’s got me goin’ off half-cocked, in the middle of the night
Robert Cano’s biographies of Johnson,described several incidents like this. Lyndon was always very fond of showing his Johnson.