# Urinal Etiquette **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 23, 2004, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-etiquette/256562 "2004-07-23T19:16:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2004, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-etiquette/256562/41 "2004-07-24T16:09:35Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > \*\*Actually, you should chill out…at Hofbrauhaus in Munich, they have this huge trough and hundreds of dudes fight to get near it and the peni is a peein’ as far as the eye can see… Wow, I was there, but never had to go use the bathroom. They had a rule against 16 and 17-year olds drinking beer 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2004, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-etiquette/256562/42 "2004-07-24T18:40:52Z")
> [@SolGrundy](#): > > Yeah, I like that. Because as any gay guy will tell you, there’s just _nothing_ sexier than watching a guy take a piss. > > Seriously, was that just a throwaway comment, or do straight guys really think that homos are just waiting to side up next to them at a urinal and take a nice long look? Are these guys desperately wishing that they had access to women’s bathrooms, so they could stand over the stall door and watch some fine young thing sitting down and doing her business? What, is watersports really _that_ unusual an interest? Um, this friend of mine . . . yeah, a friend . . . has a casual interest in it. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2004, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-etiquette/256562/43 "2004-07-24T18:44:11Z")
What is a poofter? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2004, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-etiquette/256562/44 "2004-07-24T18:50:12Z")
Rule #0 - **No Talking**. Seriously, that needs to be first on any list. No conversation is so important that it can’t wait while the snakes are being drained. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2004, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-etiquette/256562/45 "2004-07-25T04:00:04Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > What is a poofter? Serious Q? Monty Python etymology suggests it’s use primarily by Australian philosophy professors as a perjorative term for homosexual. See also “poove.” ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2004, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-etiquette/256562/46 "2004-07-25T04:18:29Z")
My first trough experience was shoulder-to-shoulder at Wrigley Field. Apparently a trough full of urine wasn’t disgusting enough - so someone had to vomit in there. Watching a wad of vomit sail down a urine river was enough to gross out my eight year old self. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2004, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-etiquette/256562/47 "2004-07-25T05:36:51Z")
> [@pervert](#): > > One should never ask questions around here if one is not willing to be directed to a web site with pictures containing the answer. ;( > I think there may be some misunderstanding. In the stadia that I am familiar with, the “trough” is really just a tiled wall with a slightly recessed drain and a pipe feeding water along it continuously. You mean like this? [trough](http://www.urinal.net/dodgerstadium/)😃 Though, for those who haven’t been to [Urinal.net](http://Urinal.net), yet, that’s one of the less scary installations. (Look at the women’s urinals for an idea of scary…) ---
**Author:** ![BooBoo316](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e0b2c6/32.png) [@BooBoo316](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BooBoo316)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2004, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-etiquette/256562/48 "2004-07-25T05:38:16Z")
> [@Algernon](#): > > And not only are the troughs being used at these crowded sporting events, often there are guys pissing in the sinks too. To the best of my knowledge, there are no etiquette rules for sink pissing… Nonsense, I can think of three right now: 1. No more than two men to a bowl. 2. Eyes front! Note: placement of mirrors can make this rule somewhat awkward. 3. No splashing. ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2004, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-etiquette/256562/49 "2004-07-25T05:46:16Z")
> [@Excalibre](#): > > What, is watersports really _that_ unusual an interest? > > Um, this friend of mine . . . yeah, a friend . . . has a casual interest in it. Err, no. Whatever floats your “friend’s” boat is fine, as long as it’s between consenting adults. Different strokes, and all that. So to speak. But what we’re talking about is guys going into a public bathroom to take a piss, not to put themselves up for exhibition. And then others who “like seeing nekkid people” (as **Ludovic** put it) so much that they take advantage of that to get off on it. That’s not a case of being tolerant of unusual sexual practices; that’s just not cool, period. And it’s not cool to assume that all gay guys are checking other guys out in bathrooms, either. I know I don’t like guys (gay or straight) looking at me when I’m doing my business, so I sure as hell wouldn’t want to check anyone else out. ---
**Author:** ![zippyh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/839c29/32.png) [@zippyh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zippyh)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2004, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-etiquette/256562/50 "2004-07-25T19:08:05Z")
> [@sengle](#): > > I don’t know if it’s still there, but the mens room at the University of Hawaii’s swimming pool used to have this wierd ambiguous circular trough thing. We’d walk in there sometimes, and guys would urinate into it, and other times, people would use it to wash their hands. Most of us just never understood the thing and avoid using it at all costs. Before it became the Key Arena, the Seattle Center Coliseum used to have some sinks like that. They had foot operated faucets. There are some of those ambiguous sinks in the men’s rooms in some of the older Boeing factory buildings. Oh, and here’s a link to the world’s longest urinal, or so they claim. [http://www.longesturinal.com/newstretched9.htm](http://www.longesturinal.com/newstretched9.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2004, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-etiquette/256562/51 "2004-07-25T20:19:40Z")
> [@sengle](#): > > I don’t know if it’s still there, but the mens room at the University of Hawaii’s swimming pool used to have this wierd ambiguous circular trough thing. We’d walk in there sometimes, and guys would urinate into it, and other times, people would use it to wash their hands. Most of us just never understood the thing and avoid using it at all costs. As **Zippyh** mentioned, those are sinks for handwashing. They had those at my elementary school – in the girls’ bathroom with the pink doors. They’re definitely NOT intended as urinals. The soap dispenser is a big clue. (Though perhaps the one you saw didn’t have one.) IIRC they are called Bradley Sinks or Bradley Fountains. They were used (maybe still are) in industrial and institutional settings like factories or schools. There’s a diagram [here.](http://www.huskybrand.com/factory-bradley.asp) In the diagram, the soap dispenser attachments sits on top of the yellow cylindar thing. I have not seen them in more modern buidlings. The reason I know what they’re called is because I have a friend with a strange phobia about them. I’ve seen them mostly in industrial settings when I take photos of abandoned factories ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2004, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-etiquette/256562/52 "2004-07-25T20:30:13Z")
Hey, they [still make them](http://www.bradleycorp.com/prodinfo/fixtures/washfountn/2508.htm)! And they are still kinda creepy. I can see how a guy would think he was supposed to piddle in it. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2004, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-etiquette/256562/53 "2004-07-25T20:42:57Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > The trough concept strikes me as something of an antiquity. I prefer a little privacy, even in public places. In a TV interview, maybe Johnny Carson, John Wayne said he finally had to use a stall to piss in public restrooms. He would be standing there minding his business and the guy next to him would turn to face him in amazement saying, “Why, YOU’RE JOHN WAYNE!!!” while thouroghly wetting down his (Wayne’s) pants leg and shoes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-etiquette/256562.md?page=2)