# Penis in the popcorn. Ever happen for real? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 12, 2003, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-in-the-popcorn-ever-happen-for-real/212897 "2003-11-12T20:43:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [May 4, 2024, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-in-the-popcorn-ever-happen-for-real/212897/21 "2024-05-04T05:02:12Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Woman: “Well, yes, but this one’s eating my popcorn!” That seems to be the classic punchline that doesn’t even need the setup, and it’s been used that way in two movies that I know of. In _Men in Black_, Tommy Lee Jones zaps Will Smith with the neuralizer. When he comes to his sense, they’re sitting in a restaurant, Jones is laughing hysterically (apparently right in the middle of telling a great joke) and that’s the punchline. Similarly in _The Sting_. After his big score early in the movie, Robert Redford goes to see his girlfriend who’s performing in a burlesque show. When he arrives, a comic is on stage in the middle of his act, and that’s the punchline we get to hear. I got to quote Eve; it’s been too long. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2024, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-in-the-popcorn-ever-happen-for-real/212897/22 "2024-05-04T05:12:51Z")
I had a boyfriend who told me about having done it with a previous girlfriend. He told me in 1978, so pre-Diner. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2024, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-in-the-popcorn-ever-happen-for-real/212897/23 "2024-05-04T05:49:07Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > a movie in my youth (“Diner” perhaps?) The scene where this happens in the 1982 American film _Diner_ is [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vujNcE\_43Qg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vujNcE_43Qg). In the comments section on that YouTube video, someone suggests that the scene was copied from the 1980 French movie _La Boum_. The scene in that movie where the same thing happens is [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl-8OXJX0J8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl-8OXJX0J8). There’s just one problem with that suggestion. Although _La Boum_ was released in France in 1980, according to the IMDb entry on that movie, it wasn’t released in the U.S. until 1983. So if Barry Levinson, the director and writer of _Diner_, copied it from _La Boum_, he would have had to have seen it on a visit to France (or one of the other countries where it was released before he wrote _Diner_). ---
**Author:** ![Nyvaak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Nyvaak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nyvaak)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2024, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-in-the-popcorn-ever-happen-for-real/212897/24 "2024-05-04T05:58:59Z")
As a matter of dating the legend, I heard of it being done (by a friend of a friend, naturally) during my first summer at Boy Scout camp. Camp was concurrent with the Woodstock Festival (and less than 20 miles away) which puts it as early as August 1969. Are there earlier references? ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2024, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-in-the-popcorn-ever-happen-for-real/212897/25 "2024-05-04T06:07:55Z")
Does it sound _more_ or _less_ plausible than a [Dick in a Box](https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-fc-2461&ei=UTF-8&hsimp=yhs-2461&hspart=fc¶m1=7¶m2=eJwti0EOgjAQRa8yS00MTIdSS9l6AreERa0VGwolgMF4eodoZvPe%2F3%2B6cG%2Fq9noRiKRRNad2ZK%2BqSjPulSASVLC4X84UJkZSiEZrJOOFMppFltoZS%2BfCkHClkfqxjzufeP1aGF%2BWaUifEKPNywzhsIXxnrYFxhUEZlgDB0rW8FbyCHaaot%2F8rQ9rXhbnrFBw6J%2FrEE8QQ%2B%2Bh865PR3DPOQ0%2BFyQz3A8W%2B7Bz%2BL98ASs%2BQSw%3D&p=dick+in+a+box+snl+episode&type=fc_AC934C13286_s58_g_e_d122123_n9998_c999#id=1&vid=297bcf8d33d9c37e8640876e68b70e41&action=click) ? ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2024, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-in-the-popcorn-ever-happen-for-real/212897/26 "2024-05-04T07:05:19Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > See, I heard it a loooong time ago (pre-_Diner_) as a slightly different joke: > > Guy smuggles his pet duck into the movies, tucked down his pants. Gets into the theater, unzips, duck sticks his head out to watch movie. Woman next to him goes, “Omigod, that is disgusting!” Guy: “What’s the matter, lady, ain’t you never seen one of these before?” Woman: “Well, yes, but this one’s eating my popcorn!” > > So my guess is, no, it never happened, it’s based on an old dirty joke. This must be the dirty joke that Tommy Lee Jones told to Will Smith in _Men in Black,_ but we only saw the tail end of it because Smith had been neuralyzed. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2024, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-in-the-popcorn-ever-happen-for-real/212897/27 "2024-05-04T07:11:33Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > I had a boyfriend who told me about having done it with a previous girlfriend. He told me in 1978, so pre-Diner. Most people claim urban legends as happing to a friend of a friend, or even to a friend. It’s interesting when they claim to have personally experienced or did it. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2024, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-in-the-popcorn-ever-happen-for-real/212897/28 "2024-05-04T10:35:25Z")
Why would anyone be surprised that someone did it? It’s not outlandish or difficult. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2024, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-in-the-popcorn-ever-happen-for-real/212897/29 "2024-05-04T11:20:09Z")
If it looks like an urban legend, walks like an urban legens and quakes like an urban legend . . . ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2024, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-in-the-popcorn-ever-happen-for-real/212897/30 "2024-05-04T11:27:06Z")
Urban Legends are things that are implausible. Do you really think that no teen boy has ever stuck his wiener through the bottom of a box of popcorn (when that box had a pre-made opening exactly over said wiener)? ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2024, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-in-the-popcorn-ever-happen-for-real/212897/31 "2024-05-04T13:47:54Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Urban Legends are things that are implausible. No they’re most definitely not. That’s why people continue to think they actually happened to a friend of a friend. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2024, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-in-the-popcorn-ever-happen-for-real/212897/32 "2024-05-04T14:56:24Z")
If they’re not implausible, there’s no reason to think it didn’t happen. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2024, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-in-the-popcorn-ever-happen-for-real/212897/33 "2024-05-04T15:02:24Z")
So you’re confident that not one guy has ever stuck his dick into the open slot at the bottom of a popcorn box, ever. Right. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2024, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-in-the-popcorn-ever-happen-for-real/212897/34 "2024-05-04T15:19:06Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Thank you. I have been waiting for 20 years… I’ve been checking daily for the punchline. Finally I can rest. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2024, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-in-the-popcorn-ever-happen-for-real/212897/35 "2024-05-04T15:31:25Z")
That’s…not right. ULs all sound possible, otherwise they wouldn’t go viral. And yet… ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2024, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-in-the-popcorn-ever-happen-for-real/212897/36 "2024-05-04T15:33:03Z")
May I say this is one of the more satisfying revivals of a 20 year old thread. Welcome to the community, @Stevie1501 ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2024, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-in-the-popcorn-ever-happen-for-real/212897/37 "2024-05-04T15:48:35Z")
@needscoffee Sticking one’s pecker up through a popcorn box/bowl of hot salty imitation butter, to my imagination, is not that difficult but yes it is outlandish. ---
**Author:** ![Wolf333](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf333/32/3460_2.png) [@Wolf333](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolf333)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2024, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-in-the-popcorn-ever-happen-for-real/212897/38 "2024-05-04T16:12:31Z")
The title of this thread fits perfectly into The Smiths “Girlfriend In A Coma.” _Penis in the popcorn, I know, I know it’s serious…_ ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2024, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-in-the-popcorn-ever-happen-for-real/212897/39 "2024-05-04T16:36:00Z")
We have multiple people in this thread saying not just that a friend of a friend did it, or that a friend did it, but that they, personally, did it. Besides which, it’s like Rule 34: For any given sexual thing you can think of, someone, somewhere has tried it. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2024, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-in-the-popcorn-ever-happen-for-real/212897/40 "2024-05-04T16:57:32Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > That’s…not right. ULs all sound possible, otherwise they wouldn’t go viral. So not true. Many/most have outsized elements like a murderer with a hook for a hand looking for cars on Lover’s Lane, gang signs flashing headlights before they kill you, kidnapping toddlers from stores by hiding them in a stack of tires/cutting off their long hair in the restroom, Slenderman, winning a million bucks by sending chain emails, cats stealing the breath from a baby, choking a baby to death by place a few grains of rice in the back of their throat, etc. There’s no way to “prove” the movie theater popcorn box trick without calling in a news crew to film it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-in-the-popcorn-ever-happen-for-real/212897.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penis-in-the-popcorn-ever-happen-for-real/212897.md?page=3)