# My father is a tomato! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 28, 2006, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-father-is-a-tomato/341963 "2006-01-28T06:46:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-father-is-a-tomato/341963/1 "2006-01-28T06:46:54Z")
I just got [Léolo](http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0104782/) on DVD. The title character, Léolo, fantasizes that his mother was impregnated by a tomato contaminated with semen. Is that really possible? Have women gotten pregnant by coming into contact with semen contaminated objects? ---
**Author:** ![Catalyst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@Catalyst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catalyst)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-father-is-a-tomato/341963/2 "2006-01-28T07:27:47Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > I just got [Léolo](http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0104782/) on DVD. The title character, Léolo, fantasizes that his mother was impregnated by a tomato contaminated with semen. Is that really possible? Have women gotten pregnant by coming into contact with semen contaminated objects? What exactly was she doing with this tomato? ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-father-is-a-tomato/341963/3 "2006-01-28T07:37:30Z")
More importantly, was the tomato over 16 years old, and did it give consent?? ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-father-is-a-tomato/341963/4 "2006-01-28T08:23:10Z")
As long as the ejaculatory fluid stays liquid – anything can happen, I guess. But the tomato, **kambuckta** , would certainly not have been of age. Unless it was one of [these.](http://markhadley.co.uk/archives/tomatoise/) ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-father-is-a-tomato/341963/5 "2006-01-28T09:04:45Z")
The classic example of such a claim is the “magic bullet.” At least one young woman who found herself in the family way around the time of the Civil War claimed that a bullet wounded a soldier in a most unfortunate manner, then carried his sperm into her, resulting in pregnancy. _Mythbusters_ did a segment on this last season and concluded that it was wildly improbable. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-father-is-a-tomato/341963/6 "2006-01-28T16:09:20Z")
When I was in high school, one of the popular rumors was that a girl in my school got pregnant and claimed she’d never had sex, but had been nailed by errant sperm in a public swimming pool. The girl actually did get pregnant, but the rest of the story seems really unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-father-is-a-tomato/341963/7 "2006-01-28T16:23:24Z")
I would expect that a tomato would be far too acid for sperm to survive in. If, however, there was semen on the surface of the tomato and the tomato’s skin was unbroken, and a woman rubbed the tomato on her genitalia, it might be possible for pregnancy to take place. If the semen came into contact with the juice of the tomato, then probably not. Now, if you somehow got semen on a carrot or a zucchini, the scenario might be more plausible . . . > [@AskNott](#): > > When I was in high school, one of the popular rumors was that a girl in my school got pregnant and claimed she’d never had sex, but had been nailed by errant sperm in a public swimming pool. The girl actually did get pregnant, but the rest of the story seems really unlikely. I recall a similar story from many years ago which led to _Esquire_ magazine (I thnk) naming a swimming pool in Sydney, Australia, as “Father of the Year.” The chlorine in the pool would probably kill the sperm. Even in an unchlorinated pool, the volume of water would make this wildly improbable unless dozens of guys were in the habit of masturbating in the water every day. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-father-is-a-tomato/341963/8 "2006-01-28T16:32:42Z")
A little googling shows that the pH of tomato juice is about 4.1 (fairly acid), while sperm prefer an alkaline pH of 7.0-8.5. They begin to die below a pH of 6.9, at a rate that increases with lower pH. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-father-is-a-tomato/341963/9 "2006-01-28T17:24:25Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > If, however, there was semen on the surface of the tomato and… I know guys who like tomatoes, but I don’t know anyone who actually LOVES tomatoes. ---
**Author:** ![Whifton\_Polekitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/97f17d/32.png) [@Whifton\_Polekitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whifton_Polekitty)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-father-is-a-tomato/341963/10 "2006-01-28T17:26:36Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > The chlorine in the pool would probably kill the sperm. Even in an unchlorinated pool, the volume of water would make this wildly improbable unless dozens of guys were in the habit of masturbating in the water every day. I am never… going swimming… AGAIN. Seriously, I recall a new story many years ago that posited the following scenario: 1. Underage girl, er, performs oral minstrations on male. 2. Both parties are caught by a larger, presumably older individual related to said girl. 3. They both get knifed (the family that slays together, stays together!) 4. Subsequently, the girl gets pregnant due to leakage from stomach wound to now-damaged fertile uterus. 5. Doctors said they knew she was a virgin because she had an usuaually thick hymen still intact. Now, frankly any reasonable soul would find this to be utter horse-bollocks, but hey, the Noosepapers printed it so IT MUST BE TRUUUUUUE!!! Feh. hearty googling comes up with many interesting things on related subjects, but none are this story. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-father-is-a-tomato/341963/11 "2006-01-28T17:41:37Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > The classic example of such a claim is the “magic bullet.” At least one young woman who found herself in the family way around the time of the Civil War claimed that a bullet wounded a soldier in a most unfortunate manner, then carried his sperm into her, resulting in pregnancy. _Mythbusters_ did a segment on this last season and concluded that it was wildly improbable. The story has been known to be a hoax from the beginning. In 1874, a friend of a medical journal editor sent in the story under an assumed name as a prank, and the editor–knowing it wasn’t true–published it. Two weeks later, the editor revealed the joke, but that didn’t stop the story from taking on a life of its own. [http://www.snopes.com/pregnant/bullet.asp](http://www.snopes.com/pregnant/bullet.asp) ---
**Author:** ![Susie\_Derkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47774/32.png) [@Susie\_Derkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susie_Derkins)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-father-is-a-tomato/341963/12 "2006-01-28T18:07:54Z")
> [@CC](#): > > I know guys who like tomatoes, but I don’t know anyone who actually LOVES tomatoes. That’s so funny…I’d forgotten until _just now_ that I went to high school with a guy whose nickname was " 'Mater "\*. The rumor was that…well, I’m sure you can all figure out what the rumor was. \*Yes, I am Southern. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2006, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-father-is-a-tomato/341963/13 "2006-01-28T21:12:54Z")
> [@Catalyst](#): > > What exactly was she doing with this tomato? She fell on a cart of tomatos.