Gerbilling
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gerbilling also known as gerbil stuffing or gerbil shooting is the supposed sexual practice of inserting small animals, usually gerbils but also mice and hamsters, into the rectum; the idea being that the animals would "nose around" and stimulate the prostate as in anal sex. Despite apparently widespread public belief and persistent rumours, especially in the 1980s, no verified medical evidence of gerbilling exists; its status is that of an urban legend.
Gerbilling also has an alternate meaning, associated with monowheels, referring to when the rider loses his normal position in the bottom of the wheel and instead spins around the inside uncontrollably. This sense is derived from gerbil wheels.
According to the Urban Legends Reference Pages (Snopes):
| “ | The notion of gerbilling (not necessarily restricted to homosexuals — the insertion of items into the rectum for purposes of autoeroticism is practiced by heterosexuals as well) appears to be pure invention, a tale fabricated to demonstrate the depravity with which "faggots" allegedly pursue sexual pleasure. | ” |
The lack of medical evidence for gerbilling is not surprising when one considers that (1) rodents have claws, (2) frightened animals are likely to bite, and (3) rodents can be quite large.
In the mid-1980s a rumour began about actor Richard Gere, claiming that he had to have a gerbil removed from his anus at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in California. Snopes writes,
| “ | The rumour's spread was aided by an anonymous prankster who, not long after the film Pretty Woman led to a tremendous increase in Gere's popularity, flooded fax machines in Hollywood with a phony "press release" purportedly issued by the Association for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, claiming that Gere had "abused" a gerbil. But, as a reporter from The National Enquirer found when he attempted to track down the gerbil story, there were no facts to be had. | ” |
Former Philadelphia newscaster Jerry Penacoli was also a victim of similar rumors in the 1980s. In the early 1990s a fake United Press International story appeared on the Internet (sometimes also falsely attributed to the Los Angeles Times) detailing a supposed press conference at a hospital where a gay couple were taken to emergency after a session of gerbilling. Neither UPI nor the LA Times ever published a news article about these fictitious events (the full "press release" can be seen on Snopes). Nonetheless, recordings exist of radio stations covering the "story", including a memorable recording dubbed "Armageddon!" in which Robert D. Raiford (the commentator on the John Boy & Billy "Big Show") goes into near-hysterical laughter as he tries to read out the press release.
Medical literature, which covers examples of items retrieved from patients' rectums in extreme detail, has never recorded a case of an animal being removed from a patient, nor of damage inflicted on a patient's insides due to rectal insertion of an animal.
[edit] Pop Culture
Apart from the aforementioned South Park episode, the legend was also mentioned in the 2000 film Cecil B. Demented, where in porn-star Cherish(Alicia Witt) stars in a gerbilling movie.
- Pittsburgh indie band Truth in Advertising references the legend during the chorus of their song, "Richard," on their 2005 album, "Inconsequential Background Music."
- In the last verse of "Fack" by Eminem he raps about gerbilling, repeating the line Shove a gerbil in your ass through a tube four times.
- Half way through "Electric six's "Gaybar video a gerbil is shown running through a plastic tube.
- In a hidden track at the end of Robbie Williams' Escapology album, in a list of things he idly thinks about when bored, Williams includes 'Is the Richard Gere gerbil story true?'
- Roddy Bottum, keyboardist for the rock group Faith No More, would describe gerbil stuffing in graphic detail to shocked interviewers.
- The comical minstrel Stephen Lynch published a song entitled "Gerbil", wherein he sang of a fictitious misadventure about this particular phenomenon.
- JoeCartoon.com has published an animation featuring a gerbilling Bill Clinton.
- On the Family Guy TV series Peter in an episode has a flash back to Easter at Richard Gere's house. While there Gere continues to tell Peter to "find" the hidden easter egg which is right in front of him. However Peter keeps claiming that it is up Gere's butt. Later a rodent runs out of Gere's pants leg and then back up.
- In a recent Daily Show piece by Rob Riggle discussing the pros and cons of cloning cattle for better beef, Riggle asks a natural food activist (who is opposed to cloning cattle for food) if the activist would have a problem with a gerbil bred to be hairless and without claws. The activist launches into a discussion of how cruel that would be and that the animal would only be used for sexual gratification. A shocked Riggle asks the activist to what he is referring, and the activist replies in half sentences about Richard Gere and asks why Riggle brought up the subject. Riggle corrects him, asserting that the activist actually brought up the sexual topic.
