# Mermaids don't have knees! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 30, 2005, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mermaids-dont-have-knees/319176 "2005-08-30T00:26:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mermaids-dont-have-knees/319176/21 "2005-08-30T03:10:31Z")
> [@cruel butterfly](#): > > [Cite.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6522575&postcount=19) Oh, that takes me back. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mermaids-dont-have-knees/319176/22 "2005-08-30T05:25:36Z")
Gentlemen, please! There’s only one way we can solve this for sure… We must find, capture, and dissect a mermaid to examine it’s musculature and skeletal structure. Actually, we should make that _several_ mermaids, to compare against each other. (I’d hate to find out, years later, that the only one we bothered to catch was just a freak or something.) ::silence, crickets:: Oh fine, sure, be like that. You know, that’s the same sniveling anti-science attitude that killed my Unicorn vivisection research. I hope you’re happy. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mermaids-dont-have-knees/319176/23 "2005-08-30T05:35:17Z")
> [@Manduck](#): > > Wow, that mermaid has an enormous ass! Do mermaids have asses? 😕 Some do. Ever see Bette Midler in **Divine Madness**? ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mermaids-dont-have-knees/319176/24 "2005-08-30T05:44:54Z")
> [@wolf in second hand clothing](#): > > Fry: Why couldn’t she be the other type of mermaid? With the fish part on top, and the lady part on the bottom? No one would ever admit to finding such a beastie. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mermaids-dont-have-knees/319176/25 "2005-08-30T05:47:59Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > And fish tails are always vertical, while those bastards keep drawing the mermaid tales horizontal! Won’t someone think of the scientific accuracy?? Okay, she’s half-woman/half-porpoise. Happy now? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mermaids-dont-have-knees/319176/26 "2005-08-30T09:07:12Z")
> [@Robot Arm](#): > > Okay, she’s half-woman/half-porpoise. Happy now? 1. Mermaids are mammals. 2. Mermaids fight ALL the time. 3. The purpose of the mermaid is to flip out and kill people. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mermaids-dont-have-knees/319176/27 "2005-08-30T09:16:31Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Oh, that takes me back. Just like that time when he talked about mermaids having knees. > [@cruel butterfly](#): > > They aren’t so much “knees” really. If a mermaid is half-human/half-fish, then we have to assume that the being possesses all the attributes of each of its parts in, well, each of its parts. The pose that the mermaid is assuming in the linked picture represents a pose that any human female would assume if she were being photographed for a sexy spread. Therefore, the human half of her has overtaken the anatomical limitations of her fish half. And the time I fought the Giant Chicken. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mermaids-dont-have-knees/319176/28 "2005-08-30T09:32:06Z")
> [@Giant\_Spongess](#): > > Pictures of mermaids with knees drive me crazy. There’s absolutely no reason for mermaids to have knees, except that people like [this doof](http://www.daviddelamare.com/images/bathl.jpg) can’t do it any other way. > > Rargh! Considering what they’ll probably be doing out of water I imagine the knees come in quite handy. I wonder if the term “mermaid” brings up more bad art in an image search then any other term. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mermaids-dont-have-knees/319176/29 "2005-08-30T11:08:11Z")
> [@Fern Forest](#): > > I wonder if the term “mermaid” brings up more bad art in an image search then any other term. Dead heat with “unicorn”, I betcha. You’d have to go some to beat [this one](http://www.daviddelamare.com/images/illusl.jpg), though. But at least it answers my mermaid/ass question. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mermaids-dont-have-knees/319176/30 "2005-08-30T11:21:48Z")
Speaking of things mermaids don’t have, my all time favourite Aussie slang term is **mermaid**. Truckies used to use it for transport inspectors who set up temporary weighing stations to ensure that trucks weren’t overloaded. They were called **mermaids** because they were useless cunts with scales. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mermaids-dont-have-knees/319176/31 "2005-08-30T11:32:50Z")
> [@wolf in second hand clothing](#): > > Fry: Why couldn’t she be the other type of mermaid? With the fish part on top, and the lady part on the bottom? That ain’t a Mermaid! That’s a typical resident of Innsmouth, Mass. 😉😃 ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mermaids-dont-have-knees/319176/32 "2005-08-30T12:02:08Z")
> [@Manduck](#): > > Wow, that mermaid has an enormous ass! Do mermaids have asses? 😕 They’ve tried to have asses, but the donkey keeps drowning. Do mermaids have vaginas? I mean, where to baby mermaids come from or is it just a lesbian fish community that spontaneously reproduce? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mermaids-dont-have-knees/319176/33 "2005-08-30T12:05:50Z")
As long as actresses insist on having knees, so will mermaids depicted by them. In art, mermaids vasry. Really old prints often show mermaids with split tails. One Playboy cartoon from the 1970s showed a mermaid whose tail began at the top of her legs, giving her both a vagina and an ass. In Jack Chalker’s G.O.D. series, the mermaid has a porpoise tail, with horizontal flukes and no scales. One erotic cartoonist depicts mermaids with removable tails, with knees (and vaginas and ass) underneath. They’re imaginary creatures. You’re only limited by your imagination. ---
**Author:** ![Pixisis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@Pixisis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixisis)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mermaids-dont-have-knees/319176/34 "2005-08-30T13:30:25Z")
In the Museum am Markt in Karlsruhe Germany there is a two tailed mermaid who doesn’t get scaley until just below the knees. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mermaids-dont-have-knees/319176/35 "2005-08-30T13:41:30Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Oh, that takes me back. God I hope not. ---
**Author:** ![Bewildebeest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@Bewildebeest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bewildebeest)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mermaids-dont-have-knees/319176/36 "2005-08-30T14:16:29Z")
The [mermaid](http://hjem.get2net.dk/OSJ_INDEX/hybenrose/havfruen/eng/) in Copenhagen has knees. I’d regard that is definitive. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mermaids-dont-have-knees/319176/37 "2005-08-30T14:30:03Z")
> [@Shirley Ujest](#): > > Do mermaids have vaginas? > > I mean, where to baby mermaids come from or is it just a lesbian fish community that spontaneously reproduce? Their fish tails turn into human legs, perfectly capable of human-style reproduction, when dry. What, you never saw that mermaid documentary, “Splash”? ---
**Author:** ![Bewildebeest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@Bewildebeest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bewildebeest)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mermaids-dont-have-knees/319176/38 "2005-08-30T14:34:50Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > Their fish tails turn into human legs, perfectly capable of human-style reproduction, when dry. What, you never saw that mermaid documentary, “Splash”? Kind of like [grunion?](http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mrd/grnindx3.html). That must be something to see! ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mermaids-dont-have-knees/319176/39 "2005-08-30T14:38:50Z")
> [@](#): > > That must be something to see! Daryl Hannah’s legs are _[definitely_ something to see. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mermaids-dont-have-knees/319176/40 "2005-08-30T14:55:58Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > Gentlemen, please! There’s only one way we can solve this for sure… > > We must find, capture, and dissect a mermaid to examine it’s musculature and skeletal structure. Swim, Ariel! Swim for your life! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mermaids-dont-have-knees/319176.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mermaids-dont-have-knees/319176.md?page=3)