# merkin?  you must be kidding....

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/merkin-you-must-be-kidding/5606
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 28, 1999, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/merkin-you-must-be-kidding/5606 "1999-12-28T16:25:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![mouthbreather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)
#### Post date: [December 28, 1999, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/merkin-you-must-be-kidding/5606/1 "1999-12-28T16:25:00Z")

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A short while back, I heard someone make reference to a ‘merkin’ in a joke…not knowing what that was, I asked. He insisted that in the 14th and 15th century, women wore pubic wigs (called a ‘merkin’), and they were considered very stylish (???).

Can someone gimmie the dope on this?

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### Author: ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [December 28, 1999, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/merkin-you-must-be-kidding/5606/2 "1999-12-28T16:41:00Z")

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The All-Knowing One covered this:

[http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3\_232.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_232.html)

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### Author: ![mouthbreather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)
#### Post date: [December 28, 1999, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/merkin-you-must-be-kidding/5606/3 "1999-12-28T16:45:00Z")

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Thanks, Doc.

Think I’ll head to the after X-mas sale at Macy’s and see if I can pick one up.

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### Author: ![jmrspld](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a5b964/32.png) [@jmrspld](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jmrspld)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2001, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/merkin-you-must-be-kidding/5606/4 "2001-06-23T14:58:25Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by DrFidelius \*  
> \*\*The All-Knowing One covered this:
> 
> [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3\_232.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_232.html) \*\*

Now we can appreciate the very clever character name for the President of the United States, played by Peter Sellers in Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”. And that name is (was) “Merkin Muffley!”

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### Author: ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2001, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/merkin-you-must-be-kidding/5606/5 "2001-06-23T15:33:37Z")

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And let’s not forget Anthony Newley’s “Hieronymous Merkin” (as well as “Mercy Humpe”).

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### Author: ![Homer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df788c/32.png) [@Homer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homer)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2001, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/merkin-you-must-be-kidding/5606/6 "2001-06-24T06:09:37Z")

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I had a PolSci professor who was a political genius. I loved going head to head with him on a political issue. He was a thrill to argue with.

His name was Harry Mirken.

–Tim