# New Penn & Teller Bullshit tonight: Circumcision **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 26, 2005, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-penn-teller-bullshit-tonight-circumcision/301096 "2005-04-26T00:31:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-penn-teller-bullshit-tonight-circumcision/301096/41 "2005-04-27T06:19:36Z")
> [@gobear](#): > > Sorry, but I have in my peregrinations come across some funky uncut wangs, and thus they didn’t get a chance to come across me. I picked up one guy in New Orleans whose dick STANK to the point I thought I was going to heave. I made my excuses and ran! In my experience, few cut guys wash well enough to get the smegmatic aroma out. Maybe every uncut guy here is a paragon of cleanliness, but I haven’t slept with you. > > And what an odd subject to be one of my last posts here. A tragedy. _Really_. ---
**Author:** ![CapnPitt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/edb3f5/32.png) [@CapnPitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CapnPitt)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-penn-teller-bullshit-tonight-circumcision/301096/42 "2005-04-27T13:05:12Z")
> [@Duderdude2](#): > > Wouldn’t it make more sense if you were the person that I originally quoted? a joke…he was making a joke. And really, aren’t there bigger issues to worry about in the world than circumcision? As I stated earlier, I don’t have an opinion on this because I couldn’t possibly care less. What’s annoying is the shrieking about how horrible circumcision is. Loss of a foreskin is not loss of a body part. It’s asinine to compare them. Circumcision does not reduce or eliminate the function of the penis. Is it medically necessary, no. Should it be done, it depends on your family. Because battle lines have been drawn over this topic, the rhetoric is waaay overheated. There’s no winning. If you’re against circumcision, you’re a cultural imperialist. If you’re for circumcision, you’re a butchering bastard who loves nothing more than to mutilate an infant. Despite what many believe, there are moral and ethical decisions that are best left to families and individuals and shouldn’t be played out in the court of public opinion. ---
**Author:** ![CapnPitt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/edb3f5/32.png) [@CapnPitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CapnPitt)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-penn-teller-bullshit-tonight-circumcision/301096/43 "2005-04-27T13:09:17Z")
> [@don Jaime](#): > > Bit ironic for Penn. He writes glowingly of scarifications in _How to Play in Traffic_. (He calls it a “tattoo of blood” and brags Lou Reed wrote a song about his own scarification.) Circumcision’s an extreme version, and raises the issue of whether a parent should be able to do this to a child, but it is related to Penn’s favorite body art. I think Penn would say that scarification is a free choice made by an independent adult. Circumcision is a choice made by someone other than the individual. Therefore, there’d be no irony. However, he did seem awfully mocking of the guy who chose to be circumcised as an adult as part of his conversion to Judaism. But I suspect that was supposed to be more for entertainment value than part of the argument. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-penn-teller-bullshit-tonight-circumcision/301096/44 "2005-04-27T13:28:19Z")
The word for the day is SMEGMATIC ---
**Author:** ![Duderdude2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cdc98d/32.png) [@Duderdude2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duderdude2)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-penn-teller-bullshit-tonight-circumcision/301096/45 "2005-04-27T15:11:59Z")
> [@CapnPitt](#): > > a joke…he was making a joke. I thought jokes were supposed tobe funny. > [@CapnPitt](#): > > And really, aren’t there bigger issues to worry about in the world than circumcision There are always bigger issues to tackle. In the grand scheme of things, gay marriage is a trivial issue, yet many consider that to be very important. Just because you don’t take an issue seriously doesn’t mean it isn’t important. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-penn-teller-bullshit-tonight-circumcision/301096/46 "2005-04-27T15:16:17Z")
I liked it. Well timed swearing, funny jokes and a bit of information. The fact that I agree with the premise of the show helped as well. I’m going to have to go look for all the other shows now. Any emails that help me in my quest would be greatly appreciated. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Priam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/77aa72/32.png) [@Priam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Priam)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-penn-teller-bullshit-tonight-circumcision/301096/47 "2005-04-27T15:25:38Z")
> [@Duderdude2](#): > > Wouldn’t it make more sense if you were the person that I originally quoted? Wouldn’t it make more sense if you allowed people to relieve your ignorance about where the joke came from? (PS: See _Airplane_ the movie.) ---
**Author:** ![Duderdude2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cdc98d/32.png) [@Duderdude2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duderdude2)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-penn-teller-bullshit-tonight-circumcision/301096/48 "2005-04-27T15:32:20Z")
> [@Priam](#): > > Wouldn’t it make more sense if you allowed people to relieve your ignorance about where the joke came from? > > (PS: See _Airplane_ the movie.) So every time someone quotes a movie in a thread of absolutely no relevance, I should automatically know its source, lest I appear ignorant? Sorry, I have better things to do with my time than catch up on popular movie quotes. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![CapnPitt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/edb3f5/32.png) [@CapnPitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CapnPitt)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-penn-teller-bullshit-tonight-circumcision/301096/49 "2005-04-27T15:40:18Z")
> [@Duderdude2](#): > > I thought jokes were supposed tobe funny. > > There are always bigger issues to tackle. In the grand scheme of things, gay marriage is a trivial issue, yet many consider that to be very important. > > Just because you don’t take an issue seriously doesn’t mean it isn’t important. Wasn’t my joke…just explaining. You’re absolutely right about always having bigger issues to tackle (at least the overwhelming percentage of the time). I take it seriously, I just think it’s unimportant. I wouldn’t have responded to you if I didn’t take it seriously. I just think this is a great example of where we (and I definitely include myself) as a society lack nuance in our arguments. Everything is an either/or proposition, rather than existing on a continuum. I think that people hurt their arguments by shrieking them and demonizing/idiotofying the opposition (and I’m not saying you did this, but the anti-circ people on the show struck me that way). ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-penn-teller-bullshit-tonight-circumcision/301096/50 "2005-04-27T16:05:04Z")
I love threads about circumcision, because I find it obscurely satisfying to know that so many people are so passionatly interested in my dingus. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-penn-teller-bullshit-tonight-circumcision/301096/51 "2005-04-27T16:23:45Z")
> [@Mockingbird](#): > > > [@gobear](#): > > > > And what an odd subject to be one of my last posts here. > > A tragedy. > > _Really_. Indeed. Reconsider? Please? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Jervoise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jervoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jervoise)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-penn-teller-bullshit-tonight-circumcision/301096/52 "2005-04-27T16:52:52Z")
> [@singular1](#): > > [slight hijack] Has anyone seen Puppetry of the Penis? I would imagine those guys are uncut - more versatility, and they’re Austrailian, so that would be default.[/highjack] Not the default. The circumcision rate in Australia is currently low, but circumcision was once the norm. Accordingly, most young Australian males are uncut, but older Aussie men are quite likely to be cut. (Personally, I’ve never seen an Australian-born man in his 30s or older with an intact foreskin (and, uhhh, I’ve seen quite a few Australian penes.)) ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-penn-teller-bullshit-tonight-circumcision/301096/53 "2005-04-27T17:27:11Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I love threads about circumcision, because I find it obscurely satisfying to know that so many people are so passionatly interested in my dingus. Well God certainly was interested. Anyone happen to have a link to a picture of a whole specimen? Googling for other guys’ dicks isn’t on my list of things to do myself…but one does wonder what exactly got lopped off his weeny. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-penn-teller-bullshit-tonight-circumcision/301096.md?page=2)