A patient has a (surgical) foreskin restoration. A
doctor becomes interested and rings to ask the
patient's parents why he was circumcised*. The
patient's father hangs up on him.
St Elsewhere
(US)
Shown in 1991
The hospital is approached by a local TV station that
wants to air a series of one-minute medical
information segments in their local news program, once
per week. Dr. Victor Erlich (Ed Begley Jr.) is chosen
for the job, and everyone wonders what he will choose
for the topic of his first segment, but it's a secret
right up to the minute of the live broadcast. Everyone
at the TV studio (and everyone back at the hospital
who are watching it live) are shocked and appalled to
see that the bumbling Erlich has chosen circumcision
as his topic. Erlich himself seems to be the only one
who is oblivious to the fact that it is terribly
inappropriate.
Victor presents the standard arguments, that
circumcision is not painful,
it promotes good hygiene,
but some people just don't like it (he doesn't say
why). He comments that some people believe that having
a boy's penis look like
his fathers' helps promote male bonding between
them, or words to that effect. He wraps up his speech
by saying if you choose not to have your baby boy
circumcised you should pay extra
attention to cleanliness so he doesn't get a
"teeny weenie infection."
The stunned newscasters take a moment to collect
their composure and then go on with the broadcast. The
people back at the hospital think only a buffoon like
Victor Erlich would choose such a distasteful subject
for television at an hour when people are eating
dinner.
The TV station decides to cancel any future segments.
Victor doesn't understand why, commenting that he
thinks he did a really good job.
The
contrast between the UK and US versions is striking:
the UK doctor asks a father why his baby son was
circumcised, the US doctor tells parents why they
should be. All the focus is on the taste of talking
about it at mealtime, none on the baby's feelings or
rights.
Scott & Bailey
UK
Detective
drama set in Manchester: Season 4, Ep 4, first
broadcast October 1, 2014
The team are discussing how to identify a suspect in
a recent murder. At 39'39"
Detective Chief Inspector Gill Murray
(Amelia Bullmore): Other than that, all we have by
way of a photograph is - [hangs up picture]
the bloke she was with on the night she was killed,
sent her a selfie of his meat and two veg. ...
Detective Constable Rachel Bailey (Suranne
Jones): ... what say we ask James to give us a
picture? Of his penis. ... that one in that picture
is clearly circumcised, and not a huge proportion of
men are. So, if we got James to give us a picture,
we could tell at a glance if it was a match.
DCI Gill Murray: ...unless there's something
very distinctive about it, one's very much
like another I'm afraid. It's a bit like an ear
impression, they're not that unique.
Underlining
that genitally cut men are now rare in the UK.
Scrubs
January 2, 2003, Season 2: Episode 11 - My Sex Buddy
Official
summary:
Carla is flattered when Mr. and Mrs. Marrick (Don
Tiffany and Stacy Barnhisel) ask her opinion on
having their newborn son circumcised. Even though
doctors and nurses aren't supposed to offer their
own opinions, or give more than a general answer
about anything, Carla advocates for not doing the
procedure. When word gets back to Dr. Kelso, he
tries to convince the parents that they should have
it done.
Nurse Carla Espinosa (Judy Reyes) and Dr John
"J.D." Dorian (Zach Braff) are in a hospital room
with a (bearded, overweight) father, mother, and
newborn baby boy.
Nurse Carla: He's beautiful.
Father: I was wondering about circumcision.
Dr. Dorian: Well, you're a little old, ah,
but I do have a roommate who's a surgeon, he owes me
a favor, I could -
Nurse Carla: They're talking about their
son, Bambi.
Dr. Dorian: Oh, well, now, see, that
we're set up for.
Mother: Actually, we wanted to know how you
felt about it, Carla.
Nurse Carla: Me?
Dr. Dorian (voice over): Don't get me
wrong, Carla loves her patients. But she also loves
how much they love her.
Nurse Carla: To be honest, I'm not a big
fan. I mean, I've always wondered what the kid would
say if it were up to him.
Cut toBaby: You wanna do what
now? I just got this thing.
Nurse Carla: There
are really no medical advantages to circumcision.
Mother:
and Father:
I told you. And you wanted to slice into
his manhood,
to pluck his fruit …
I'm not talking about medical. I'm talking
about personal.
Dr. Dorian (voice over): That's just
great.
Chief of medicine, Dr. Bob Kelso (Ken Jenkins), is
meeting with the new parents in their room. Dr.
Dorian is observing from the doorway.
Mother: Father:
Well, you've always said you felt
insufficient.
Dr. Kelso, my wife simply won't listen to
reason.
Dr. Kelso: Mr. Merrick, even if your son
isn't circumcised, he will still look like you.
'Course, he'll have to put on a couple hundred
pounds. I'm kidding. You're a dashing man. Just
dashing. Have you modeled?
Dr. Dorian leaves the doorway and confers with
Nurse Carla.
Nurse Carla: Are they still going at it?
Dr. Dorian: Nah, Kelso calmed them down. I
think we're okay.
Nurse Carla: We're not okay.
Dr. Dorian: What are you talking about? (Notices
Dr. Kelso glowering over his shoulder.) Oh.
Dr. Kelso: Does this name tag say "Chief of
Medicine"?
Dr. Dorian:Ah, yes, sir.
Dr. Kelso: Funny, because that couple back
there thought it said, "Hi, I'm Bob, ask me about
your baby's Johnson". Dammit, in my hospital, we do
not go out on a limb with our opinions.
Nurse Carla: So, what, if a patient has
questions in your hospital you just ignore them?
Dr. Kelso: Look, stay away from definite
answers. Leave yourself some wiggle room. Say things
like "We'll do what we can," or "We'll get back to
you on that," or "Hell, I don't know."
Dr. Dorian: Couldn't think of a third one,
sir?
Dr. Kelso: That was the third one. (aside)
Assface.
(The
topic of circumcision does not recur in the 30-minute
episode. It is unclear whether baby is circumcised.
While it is good to see the lack of medical benefits
spelt out and "to look
like me" justly ridiculed, and wonderful to hear
the baby given a point of view, the mother's only
reasons for leaving the baby intact are emotive.)
Dr. Perry Cox (John C McGinley) and his wife have a
son, under a year, and in one of their boistrous
conversations, they are fighting because he feels she
has more say over their son than he has. He says
"You're going to have to be the one to tell him why
Daddy's wee-wee doesn't have a turtleneck like his."
His wife tells him to get over it.
A patient is told he has phimosis
- "a hardening of the foreskin. As part of your
treatment, you'll be asked to masturbate five times a
week."
Phimosis is not a hardening of the foreskin. They
seem to be confusing it with Balanitis
Xerotica
Obliterans (BXO), for which the treatment
certainly does not involve cutting down on
masturbation....
In surgery: Laverne asks, "I thought this patient was
Jewish?"
Chris Turk (Donald Faison) confirms that he is.
Laverne explains that he is "uncircumcised".
Turk pulls a face. [This is both unprofessional and unlikely -
even in the US, a doctor will have encountered
plenty of intact penises]
Dr. Todd "The Todd" Quinlan (Robert Maschio) comes in
and says that his appendicitis patient doesn't have an
appendix. This means that the patients have been
swapped.
Todd sees the patient's penis and shouts, "Whoa! What
is going on here?!"
[presumably
implying
he knows the patient is Jewish and assumes all Jews
are circumcised]
We
are back to "Circumcision is Jewish" and "The
foreskin is disgusting"
Seinfeld
Season 5, Episode 69, (1992-3) The Bris
Seinfeld is invited to be the godfather to Myra and
Stan's baby.
Elaine: ... So, anyway, what exactly
is involved in being a Godparent?
Jerry: (A LA DON CORLEONE)
Elaine, don't ever ask me about my
business!.... (SHEEPISH) "Godfather."
Myra: Nothing really.
Stan: The most important thing is to
help with the bris.
[The scriptwriters
are confusing the godfather with the
sendak.]
Kramer: Well, so was sacrificing
virgins to appease the gods, but we don't do
that anymore.
Jerry: Well, maybe we should.
...
Elaine: Have you ever seen one?
Jerry: You mean that wasn't -
Elaine: Yeah.
[The fact that the
penis has to be mentioned so indirectly
helps circumcision to be perpetuated.]
Jerry: No.. you?
Elaine: Ya.
Jerry: What'd you think?
Elaine: (SHAKES HER HEAD)
No...
Jerry: Not good?
Elaine: No, had no face, no
personality, very dull.
[laughter]
It was like a Martian.
[applause] [This
has been widely quoted as if Elaine
were a real person, not a character
whose words were written by (cut) men,
and "she" is quite wrong: an intact
penis, with its dramatically changing
appearance, has much more personality
than a cut one.]
But hey, that's me.
[Imagine the
outcry if she described black skin or
frizzy hair in such terms!]
Jerry: Hey.
Crazy Kramer (Michael Richards) believes genetic
engineers are creating "pigmen" in the hospital. [This serves to undermine
everything sensible he says against circumcision.]
Elaine: ...could you do me a favor,
could you tape the rest of the pigmen and
the women who love them discussion and I'll
listen to it next time I'm here. I've got to
find a Mohel. [Viewed
objectively,
which is more outlandish?]
Kramer: You should call this off,
Elaine. It's a barbaric ritual.
Elaine: Perhaps one day when the
pigmen roam free it will be stopped. Until
then, off with their heads. [-
suggesting she has very little idea what
is actually involved.]
ELAINE LEAVES.
George: But Kramer, isn't it a
question of hygiene?
Kramer: Oh, that's a myth. Besides,
you know, it makes sex
more pleasurable.
George: Yeah. So how does that help
me?
Jerry:(TO George) Hey
George, have you ever seen one?
George: Yeah, my roommate in
college.
Jerry: So what'd you think?
George: I got used to it.
At the Bris:
ANGLE ON: KRAMER AND MYRA. SHE IS
SOBBING.
Kramer: We're not talking about a
manicure here. Don't believe them when they
tell you it doesn't hurt. It hurts bad. It
hurts really bad. Imagine, this will be his
first memory. Of someone yanking the hat off
his little man. I know you love your baby,
but what kind of perverts would stand idly
by while a stranger rips the cover off his
9-iron and then serve a catered lunch?
MYRA RUNS AWAY, SOBBING
Kramer (cont'd): She'll be okay. HE
SLINKS AWAY. ELAINE ANGRILY CONFRONTS
Kramer.
Elaine: What's wrong with you?
Kramer : Me? What's wrong
with you?! How can you let this go
on?
Elaine: Hey have you ever seen one
of those?
Kramer: No.
Elaine: Well I have and believe me
it's no picnic.
Kramer: Oh, how bad could it be?
{omitted...}
Elaine: (TO GATHERING)
Alright. Has anybody here ever seen one?
Man: One what?
Elaine: ... you know
Man: I have.
Woman: I have.
Elaine: And?
All:(SHAKE THEIR HEADS) No...
George: I got used to it.
{...omitted}
Kirt 33 November 5, 2009
at 3:45 pm on The
Spearhead
... As an ‘intact’ Canadian, I
was shocked to learn that
circumcision is the norm in the
US. Remember that Seinfeld episode
where they are discussing
circumcision? I didn’t get the
jokes when I was younger. Someone
on the show asks, ‘So, have you
ever seen one that… wasn’t…?’ And
I used to be like, ‘Umm… what does
he mean, have you ever seen one
that “wasn’t”? I’ve never seen one
that was!’
Chuck Ross November 5,
2009 at 4:26 pm
kirt33:
re: “Seinfeld”
as a huge fan of the show, I
remember feeling bad when I
watched that episode. The kicker
was Elaine’s wrinkled nose and
terse, disapproving head-shake. I
felt weird that I was uncirc when
I became sexually active and such.
I figured they’d never seen one
before, and most of them hadn’t.
I’m over the angst now though.
The Mohel arrives. He proves to be nervous, neurotic,
and shaky: when Elaine leaves a wineglass at the edge
of a table he lectures her about the danger of it
falling, breaking and people later getting cut, going
on to his hands and knees before the guests to
demonstrate what might happen.
KRAMER DASHES INTO THE BEDROOM AND
RELUCTANTLY BRINGS OUT THE BABY. BEFORE HE
HANDS IT OVER, HE HAS SECOND THOUGHTS. HE
GRIPS THE BABY TIGHTLY.
Kramer: I can't let you do this.
(AD-LIB) Kramer!
EVERYONE MOVES TOWARD HIM.
Kramer.: I can't let you do this!
PEOPLE GRAB HIM, TRYING TO PRY THE BABY
AWAY FROM HIM. THERE IS A STRUGGLE.
ALL: (AD LIB) Let go of the baby!
Kramer!
Kramer: No! No! I won't!
THEY FINALLY YANK THE BABY AWAY FROM THE
DISTRAUGHT KRAMER. [As performed, Kramer
does one of his legs-up falls and lets go
of the baby, the father catches it and
passes it to Seinfeld]
The Mohel is ignorant of the religious basis of
circumcision and no prayers are shown. He regrets not
having been a butcher like his brother. ("And, cows
have no families. You make a mistake with a cow, you
move on with your life...") He cuts Seinfeld's finger
during the bris. Both accuse the other of flinching. Baby is circumcised. On the
way to hospital Seinfeld (as if unaware of his own
circumcision) complains: "Stitches? I've never had
stitches. I'll be deformed. I can't live with that. It
goes against my whole personality. It's not me!".
Elaine: How's the baby?
Stan: The baby's fine. There's
nothing wrong with the baby.
Myra: The circumcision went fine.
Mohel: Thank god the flincher didn't
harm the baby. [The
irony
of this remark is apparently
unintentional.]
Stan and Myra make Kramer godfather for his concern.
Kramer
"How can you let this go on?"
In his closing stand-up routine, Seinfeld says "For
every job, there's someone willing to do it. He
elaborates with reference to doctors specialising in
unpopular parts of the anatomy.
A
top Israeli rabbi was injured in a
circumcision accident.
Rabbi
Yosef Shalom Eliashiv, leader of the
powerful Lithuanian religious movement,
served as godfather at a Jerusalem brit
Wednesday but suffered a deep cut to his
hand, apparently when the mohel slipped.
The
97-year-old sage received stitches and was
declared well. The
baby was unharmed.
News
of the accident had stirred anxiety
throughout the fervently Orthodox
community at Elisahiv's fate.
Participants
at the brit agreed not to publish the
mohel's name for fear of harming his
business. He was widely assumed to have
been nervous because of the eminent
Eliashiv's presence.
Season 3, episode 38 (1991-1992) The Letter.
Elaine skips a bris in order to watch a baseball
game.
Elaine: I could've been at my boss'
son's bris right now.
George: (amused) You're supposed to
do that?
Elaine: (shrugs) Yeah. (beat) What
makes you think anyone would want to go to a
circumcision?
George: I'd rather go to a hanging.
7th Heaven
Matt (Barry Watson), 21, eldest of the seven children
of Eric Camden (Stephen Collins), a Protestant
minister and his wife Annie (Catherine Hicks), has
secretly married a Jewish girl, Sarah Glass (Sarah
Madison), whose father is a Rabbi (Richard Lewis).
Matt's whole family, includng the youngest, Ruthie
(Mackenzie Rosman), wise beyond her years and funny,
goes to his "fiancée" Sarah's parents' house for a
Sabbath dinner to get acquainted. There they discuss
Jewish practices.
Ruthie: What is it with this circumcision
thing? (Everyone gags on their food; there are
snickers all around the table.)
Annie (embarrassed): Ruthie!
Rabbi: Annie, it's OK. It's always a good time
for knowledge. By the way, Ruthie, you should know
that circumcision isn't only done
by the Jews. But for Jews,
it's called a bris, and it came from a covenant - a
promise - that Abraham made with God to show that he
and his descendents would continue to honour Him
through Judaism.
Ruthie (with a disgusted look): I just
wondered what made Him think of that - circumcision?!
(The Rabbi smiles and laughs but says nothing. End
of scene.)
Ruthie's
incredulity
is well-founded because the Rabbi's explanation
explains nothing. He fails to mention that not only
do others than Jews circumcise, but most USAmerican
boy babies are circumcised, and not
all Jewish boy babies are.
Matt announces he's considering conversion for
marriage.
Ruthie (to Matt): So, does this mean
you're going to have to get circumcised? (Much
sputtering at the table again)
Matt: Ruthie, I - my - it's none of your
business!
Old Dog, New Tricks (with the running theme, can men
be changed?) [In New Zealand, it was broadcast as
"Old Dogs, New Dicks"]
Charlotte goes to bed with Mike for the first time.
C: Oh! You're... It's... M: Uncircumcised. Is that okay? C: No! Sure... Of course it is.
Narrator: It was not okay. The only uncut
version of anything Charlotte had ever seen was the
original Gone With The Wind.
C (to friends): There was so much
skin. It was like a Shar-Pei!
(left)
a
Shar-Pei and (right, to the same scale) a foreskin.
The same comparison is used in Nip/Tuck
F1: You've never seen an uncircumcised one? C: I'm from Connecticut! F2: Reminder; you're dating the guy, not the
penis. C: Aesthetics are important to me. F1: It's not what it looks like, it's what
they can do with it. C: Well, I don't need one that can make its
own carrying case! F3: Personally, I
love an uncircumcised dick. It's like a
Tootsie-Pop: hard on the outside, with a delicious
surprise inside.*
(94KB .wav file) C: I don't like surprises. I like it all out
there where I can see it. F4: Same here. I'm sorry, it is not normal. F2: Well, actually it is, something
like 85 percent of men aren't circumcised.* C: Great! Now
they're taking over the world! F2: Honey, it's a penis, not Godzilla.
(116KB .wav file) F3: Hey, if 85 percent aren't circumcised,
that means, I've only slept with 15 percent of the
population, tops. F2: Why, you're practically a virgin. C: You know, he's a nice WASPy guy; what went
wrong? F1: Well, maybe his parents were hippies and
just didn't believe in it. C: I am so circumcising my kids. F1: I think you can pay people to do that
now. C: I don't ever want to know there's a woman
out there calling my son a Shar-Pei. F3: All I'm saying is uncut men are the
best.... F1: They try harder. F3: ...I should know. I've slept with five of
them. C: Out of how many? F2: Infinity?
Later:
M: What happened last night, you're not the
first woman to react that way, I've gotten that most
of my life. C: Really? M: Yeah. And I've decided to do something
about it. I've been uncomfortable for too long, so -
I'm getting circumcised.
[Gypsy violins start] C: Can you do that? M: Well, yeah, I mean, it hurts, and it takes
a long time to heal, but - but I'm willing to do
that, I want to feel good about making love. C: But that is so - sweet.
Mike gets circumcised.
It was extremely painful ("On a scale of one to five,
I'd give it a 72.") and is again when he gets an
erection.
Narrator: A week later, Charlotte finally
got her chance to break in her new merchandise.
[Zipper] C: [Gasps] M: What do you think? C: It's perfect. (In
fact it would still be swollen and bruised.) Narrator: It was like her birthday and
Christmas rolled into one. M: You realise this makes me a virgin? C: I'll be gentle.
Later, when Charlotte starts to make plans for them
together:
M: I don't think I'm ready for this to be,
y'know, like a big thing. ... I just feel like I
can't be tied down. There's a whole new me
happening, I feel like I should get out there and
share it. C: You wanna share your penis? M: Well... yeah! I mean I feel like I owe it
to myself to take the doggie out for a walk around
the block, y'know? Narrator: Charlotte never saw Mike again. She
realised you could take the Shar-Pei out of the
penis, but you could never take the dog out of the
man.
The above sequence conveys a variety of anti-intact
prejudice.
The woman who prefers intact men is the slut.
Intact men are only good lovers because they (know
they are inferior and therefore) try harder.
Charlotte is going to circumcise any sons to
conform to the prejucides of hypothetical future
women, on the assumption that they will all think as
she does.
Mike's "feeling good about making love" depends on
him fitting others' expectations.
What the man might prefer, how missing part of his
penis might affect his sex life - or hers - are not
addressed. It is not clear how far the scriptwriters'
tongues were in their cheeks when they wrote of intact
men not being "normal", or "what went wrong" when
Mike's parents left him intact, but that might go over
the heads of most of the audience.
Sure, it's only a comedy - but would a TV sitcom that
featured men discussing the modifying of women's
anatomy in the same terms ("to break in his new
merchandise"), or white people decrying the aesthetics
of black skin or kinky hair, ever reach the screen?
A correspondent has gone to the trouble of editing
the script and changing the sexes, coming up with
lines like:
C: Oh! You're… It's… M: Not infibulated. Is that okay?
C (to friends): It was so loose. It
was like jello! F1: You've never .... an uncut one? C: I'm from Sudan!
F3: Personally, I like natural vaginas.
Their labia are like doors to a hidden world. C: I don't like surprises. I like it all out
there where I can see it. F4: Same here. I'm sorry, it is not normal.
C: You know, she seems like a good
submissive girl; what went wrong? F1: Well, maybe her parents were Americanized
and just didn't believe in it. C: I am so infibulating my girls.
M: What happened last night, you're not the
first man to react that way, I've gotten that most
of my life. C: Really? M: Yeah. And I've decided to do something
about it. I've been uncomfortable for too long, so -
I'm getting infibulated.
[ceremonial music starts]
Significantly less than 85 percent of men
in the world are intact, since 16 percent are
Muslim.)
A full moon is shown rising at 2am (they always
rise at sundown.).
In another episode, they hold a bris for the baby boy
of Charlotte York and her Jewish husband, but there is
no serious discussion. (According to Orthodoxy, if she
is not Jewish, nor is the baby.)
Shameless
(US version)
Season
3, episode 9: "Frank the Plumber".
A somewhat heated conversation between Kevin
(Steve Howey), Veronica (Shanola Hampton) and Fiona
(Emmy Rossum). Kevin and Veronica have been arguing
over whether or not to circumcise if they have a boy
(they're not pregnant yet).
Veronica: [Kevin]'s just mad because someone
cut off the tip of his penis when he was a baby." Fiona (interrupting flippantly, putting
on lipstick): "If it is a boy you gotta
circumcise ... I mean have you ever seen one that's
uncut? You don't know what's going on up in there. It
does not make you wanna go downtown. You want your kid
to get his share o' head, right?" Kevin: (to Veronica) You see! Thank
you!.
(Veronica looks at Fiona dejectedly and Fiona
realizes she has hurt her.) Fiona (with a guilty look): Or not?
Crap! Sorry!
In the previous episode Sheila and her new boyfriend
Jody kidnapped her grandson from the hospital before her
daughter Karen could give him up for adoption. (Karen
tried to sell him.)
In this episode, Sheila and Jody are changing the baby's
diaper. Jody is trying to remove the hospital idenitity
bracelet from the baby's ankle.
Sheila: You're an angel. A blessing. My
little Kung Pow blessing. Jody: Hmm. Gotta figure out how to get this
security thing off. Sheila: What a big, beautiful, panda-Pooh Bear
boy you are. (gasps) Oh, look. He's still got
his little dingy-ding skin. Should we get him
circumcised? Jody: Hell, no. Let that extra derma ride.
[Jody has appeared naked in an earlier episode and is
circumcised.]
(Later, they discuss what to name him.)
Jody (holding a knife to remove the ankle
bracelet): Hm... it's pretty tight. I don't want
to slip and cut his leg off. Sheila: Well, you could clip his ankle bracelet
and his foreskin at the same time.
Baby is not circumcised,
but the message is "circumcision is trivial".
Later that same episode, Kevin complains about
looking fat:
Veronica : Geez, you sound like a woman.
Maybe it's because someone cut off part of your
manhood when you were too young to defend yourself.
Fiona then calls Veronica to ask a favor and Veronica
agrees, if Fiona will go to www.dontcutitoff.org. (The
site redirects to Warner Bros.)
Veronica: I'm serious Fiona, go to that
website and see if you still stand by your 'I want my
son to get his share of head' argument.
Fiona is at work, but visits the site anyway and sees
pictures of “circumcisions gone wrong” and is horrified.
However, she is seen looking at them, and called into
the boss’ office for having “porn” at her desk. She
explains to the boss – a young, good-looking guy who is
obviously smitten with her
Fiona (babbling): It wasn’t really
porn. It was pictures of penises, but from a
circumcision website. See, friends of mine are trying
for a baby and I had said a thing about how they
should circumcise the baby so girls would be more
likely to wanna ... (holds an imaginary penis to
her mouth) ... uh, with their mouths ... not on
the baby of course ... “ Boss: (looking awkward, scratching his head)
Right ... Fiona: I mean, when he’s a grownup ... (covers
her mouth) Shit. Am I fired? Boss: (tries to recover, shifts in his chair):
No, you’re ... ahem. Sorry. My silence here is not so
much about disapproval as it is trying to find a way
to participate in this conversation that won’t leave
me vulnerable to a lawsuit. Because I would like to
say that I am a little shocked to learn that, um ...
you know, circumcision or lack thereof, would affect a
woman’s willingness to ... ahem ... I can’t say that.
I can’t say anything, really. I’ve said too much
already. I’m sorry. Please don’t sue me. Fiona: I’m sorry. Please don’t fire me.
Kevin eventually has a baby boy with Veronica’s
mother, but there is no mention of whether he is
circumcised or not. Kevin and Veronica later have twin
girls.
Same
season, a later episode.
Veronica is adamant she will not circumcise any baby
boy.
Fiona tells her "You have to. It's so dirty."
Kevin says there is nothing wrong with being
circumcised.
Veronica emails Fiona a bunch of details about
complications etc., and it is implied that Fiona
changes her mind and circumcises.
Season 7, episode 1, "Hiraeth", first broadcast
October 2, 2016 (Showtime)
Dominique (Jaylen Barron), girlfriend of 16-year
old Carl Gallagher (Ethan Kutkosky) says the
reason she doesn’t want to go down on him is “...your
thing? It’s kind of weird. It has all this extra skin. .
. and . . . it kind of freaks me out.”
Later that day, he’s in the boys’ bathroom and he tries
looking around at other boys, but he’s caught. Another
boy sees him looking and smiles and raises his eyebrows.
Carl looks away angrily.
When he gets home from school, he asks his three
brothers if they are circumcised; they all are, only
Carl is not. His asks his gay brother Ian (Cameron
Monaghan) about the penises he has seen and he replies
that “most, not all” are circumcised; it’s not a big
deal, but you have to keep it clean.
Carl: Do you wash it thoroughly? Like, scrub
it every day? Ian: I guess so. Lip, the eldest (Jeremy Allen White)
: You keep that puppy squared away, you
shouldn’t have any problems. Ian: Yeah, there’s nothing worse than heading
down south and getting a whiff of some moldy foreskin
that smells like a homeless guy’s shoes. Carl (sticks his hand down his pants, then
smells it): I think I’m gonna hit the shower.
He goes to consult his vagrant father (William H. Macy)
who is recovering from a month-long coma:
Carl (kicking his father, asleep on the
floor): Hey, why aren't I circumcised? Frank: Whunh? Carl: Now I have to get it done. Frank: Why the Hell would you want to do
that? Carl: Because of my girl... Frank: [It's better] not to be
circumcised. More feeling in the old puppy when you
don't get its tail bobbed. Self-lubricating, too.
Hey, be a champ, go get my wheelchair in the
yard. Carl: Are you circumcised? Frank: I am. I didn't have any say in the
matter. I was only hours old when they cut into my
manhood. Carl: It hurt? Frank: I cried like a baby.
Frank tells him he will be "just fine." Carl is
unconvinced. In the end, he digs up (literally) his
savings to pay $1500 for a prepuce excision. The doctor
dangles it above him after cutting it off!.
Season 7, Episode 2 "Swipe, Fuck, Leave" first
broadcast October 2, 2016
Carl is recovering from his surgery and tells his
brothers that he can’t have an erection for 72 hours
or he’ll pop his stitches. His brothers wonder how a
16-year old boy can keep from getting an erection that
long and he says “eyes on the prize, my brother.” The
“prize” is “a blowie from Dominique.” His brothers
argue, however, that no chick is worth cutting your
dick for. When Carl gets too school, he learns that
Dominique has told virtually everyone about the
surgery and Carl is subjected to harsh teasing. Other
boys call him “tranny” and “freak.”
As the episode continues, not getting an erection
proves to be too difficult for a 16-year old boy,
because several times throughout the episode he pops
his stitches and must return to the doctor for more
stitches. The doctor warns him about not having much
skin left and suggests that he think about “hairy
balls” or watch Ted Cruz on C-SPAN in order to avoid
erections.
On his third visit back to the doctor, the doctor
tells him he can barely find any skin that hasn’t been
torn to sew back together and that if it happens again
he “may have no choice but to turn that thing into a
vagina.” His brothers later see his penis and are
horrified at the “mangled mess.” They tell him again
that he “shouldn’t have gotten that stupid
circumcision.”
Carl angrily tells them “I already feel like enough of
a freak being the only Gallagher who’s not
circumcised.” Later that day, his brothers give him a
“jumbo dose of thorazine” to help him get through the
72 hour period. It works and the episode ends with
Dominique giving him his “prize.”
Season 7, Episode 3, "Home Sweet Homeless Shelter"
first broadcast October 9, 2016
Carl finds out that Dominque has gonorrhea. Carl
thinks he gave it to her and accuses the doctor of
giving it to him during the circumcision. Carl doesn’t
understand why Dominique has stopped talking to him
and he tries to apologize to her but she blows him
off. He tells her “I cut the tip of my dick off for
you.” He later finds out that he doesn’t have it
himself; Dominique has been cheating on him.
Season 7, Episode 6, "The Defenestration of
Frank", first broadcast November 6, 2016
Carl confronts Dominique and her new boyfriend and the
new boyfriend says “Wait! [Is this] Carl the dude that
trimmed his dick? Damn, I wouldn’t let anyone within
ten feet of my junk with a knife.”
Carl, surprised, asks “You’re not circumcised?”
The new boyfriend responds “Hell, no!”
Carl looks at Dominique. She shrugs and says “I don’t
mind it anymore.”
Carl says to the new boyfriend, “You know she’s got
gonorrhea, right?”
Mixed messages: the horrors of circumcision, but
also the myth of “scrubbing” being needed, and
that all women are horrified by an intact male.
The Shield
Season
3, episode 30, production code 5012-03-304. 'Streaks
and Tips'
Vic has a bet with the decoy squad, the loser to
streak through the office. Someone asks him if he is
cut or uncut. He wins the bet, so we don't find out.
The
question might be irrelevant, unless we are coming
from the position that "the foreskin is disgusting"
and onlookers ought not to be exposed to one.
Shortland St
(New Zealand)
Over a series of episodes, a patient presents for
foreskin restoration (only surgery is considered) and
turns out to be a wimp and a no-hoper. A young man
(played by Martin Henderson), influenced by him,
briefly considers restoration, but is tricked into
changing his mind, by a doctor who - abandoning his
ethics completely and lying through his teeth -
proposes to perform it immediately without anaesthetic
using huge and comic instruments, a rare descent of
the show into farce. Circumcision is criticised, but
restorers more so.
The Simple Life
Season
2: Road Trip. A "reality" series in which two
pampered airheads, Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie,
forsake their wealth and accept internships on the
US east coast.
At the dinner table with the Cash Family:
Eldest son: What's the funniest thing you
guys ever seen on the road?
Paris: The nudist beach - it's hillarious!
Nicole: Yeah, and some of the guys were
uncircumcised, and it was fuckin' disgusting.
Paris: OK, Nicole, that was too much
information. (Both girls laugh, the Cash family
is silent.)
The Simpsons
(cartoon)
Season
3, Episode 6, "Like Father, Like Clown"
First broadcast October 24, 1991
Krusty the Clown (voiced by Dan Castellaneta)
(finally) fulfills a promise to have dinner with the
Simpsons, during which he reveals his Jewish heritage,
and his estrangement from his father, who expected him
to follow in his footsteps by becoming a Rabbi. Seeing
how distraught he is, Bart and Lisa set out to
reconcile Krusty with his father.
They confront Rabbi Krustofsky while he is performing
a circumcision. Krustofsky makes a comment like, "I'm
still not convinced, and this is hardly the time or
place to discuss it!"
-
presumably only because it is delicate and solemn,
not because it would be ironical for a man to
discuss his relationship with his own son while
cutting a baby's genitals on behalf of the baby's
father.
Episode 1506 EABF01 SI-1501, "Today I am A Clown"
first broadcast December 7, 2003
Krusty the Clown (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) finds
he is missing from the Jewish Walk of Fame and learns
it is because he never had a Bar Mitzvah, so he
reunites with his father (a rabbi) and sets about
having a belated one.
In a pre-Bar Mitzvah interview, asked if he was
circumcised, Krusty replies, "Yeah, and then some."
Later, on his TV show, Krusty says, "I'm going to
impart our traditions the way our people have done for
centuries - through animation". He shows an "Itchy
& Scratchy" cartoon (a regular feature of his
shows, consisting entirely of outrageous gratuitous
violence, at which Bart and Lisa Simpson always laugh
uproariously).
Title (in psuedo-Hebrew lettering while Klezmer
music plays):
A BRISS BEFORE
DYING
[Image of Scratchy the cat in a yamulka holding a
scalpel chasing Itchy the mouse]
Itchy as a baby lies on a table in front of
Scratchy, in a room with a Menorah, while several
Jewish mice watch.
Scratchy: Baruch Ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melech
Ha'Olom
(Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the
Universe.)
Boreh -
(Creator -) [the beginning of a generic blessing, as
over food etc.]
(He holds up a flashing scalpel).
Itchy reacts, then jumps up on Scratchy's head and
pulls out his eyes. Scratchy swings the scalpel and
cuts off his own ears. Itchy jumps down on
Scratchy's nose, and Scratchy cuts that off. Itchy
escapes by jumping on Scratchy's right shoulder and
Scratchy cuts off his own right arm (with his left
hand). Scratchy then successively (and very quickly)
cuts through his own chest, thighs, calves, tail and
tie, finally cutting off his left arm, and collapses
in a heap. Itchy picks the heap up and puts it
through a mincer. The eyes come out blinking.
Itchy forms the mincemat on to a tube, pokes it
into a fire and blows it into a goblet (with eyes
that still blink). He wraps it in a napkin, steps on
it and shouts "Mazel Tov!" (A reference to the
ceremonial breaking of a glass at a Jewish wedding.
"Mazel Tov" [literally "good luck"] corresponds to
"Congratulations!") The other mice applaud.
The End
The whole cartoon lasts 30 seconds. Itchy
is not circumcised.
Krusty: That's what I believe now.
This
revenge fantasy might apply equally to any man's
view of his circumcision. The message must be among
the most Intactivist ever screened on US television.
It's not mentioned again. Santa's Little Helper
proves such a hit at the nursing home that they leave
him overnight and presumably don't take him to the v e
t, but it's not clear what, if anything, happens to
Bart. (This is an exceptionally cruel episode, even of
The Simpsons, with references to hanging,
suicide, repeated shooting with nailguns, knocking out
with a mallet, and a prolonged sequence of Homer
getting electroshock for giving wrong answers to Dr
Hibbert's trick questions.)
This
is a big letdown after the promise of Krusty's
exposé. The best that can be extracted from this is
a weak linkage between circumcision and castration.
Apart from that, it seems to be saying that
circumcision is trivial.
(season finale)
Bart is kicked out of Springfield Primary School and
Homer and Marge send him to a Catholic school. Bart is
about to take his first communion. Marge, Rev. Lovejoy
and Ned Flanders confer.
Ned: Once they seal the deal, there's no
turning back. It's like the Jews with their (makes
"scissors" gesture with two fingers)
snippety-snip.
As usual, circumcision is presented as purely Jewish.
Ned's ignorance (or ignoring) of gentile circumcision
is doubly odd in the light of the earlier episode.
Homer's
ignorance of how males come to be "cut" or "uncut"
at the heart of the joke is parallel to the implicit
assumption of many adults in circumcising societies
that "men are either circumcised or not" as if it
were a given, a variant present at birth.
(The
word "dude" has come a long way from its origins:
dude /du:d, dju:d/ n. & v. slang (orig. US).L19.
[Prob. f. G dial. = fool (cf. LG dudenkop stupid
head’).]
A n. 1 A fastidious, aesthetic person; a dandy, a
fop. [Almost "a pansy"] slang. L19.
2 A holiday-maker in the western US, esp. one who
holidays on a ranch; a tenderfoot. L19.
Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
[Now,
to
Homer, by way of "admirable man", L20, it means
"male".])
Six Feet Under
(2nd season)
Older brother Nate and girlfriend Brenda are going to
a (woman) Rabbi for pre-marriage counseling.
Younger brother David: Are you thinking of
converting? Nate: Why not? I'm already circumcised.
This
ground-breaking
show grants that having to get circumcised would be
a hardship. It avoids the twin pitfalls of "Only
Jews are circumcised" and "All men are circumcised"
(but not "All Jews are
circumcised"), but for the sake of a
gratuitous reference to circumcision (it can't be
news to David), it falls into the trap of presenting
a conversion of convenience as unproblematic.
Skins (UK)
Drama series following a group of teenagers in
Bristol, South West England, through the two years of
secondary school. Plot lines explore issues such as
dysfunctional families, eating disorders, adolescent
sexuality, substance abuse and death.
Rich (Alexander Arnold) approaches "the Angel of
Death" (Scarlett Sabet) in the school library:
(1:05)
Richard: Hello. (Silence.)
I'm Richard Hardbeck. How are you? (Silence. She
slams her book shut.)
Um, OK, so ... What sort of music are you into? (Silence.)
What do you like to do for fun? (Silence.)
Listen, do you - do you wanna come out for a drink
with me?
Angel: No.
(Loud music starts. He turns away, then turns back.)
Richard: No, actually, why not?
Angel: Why not?
Richard: Yeah.
Angel: Because I'm too pretty for you.
Because you're weird-looking. Because I can smell
your pants from here. But mostly - because I would
rather rim the shit-smeared arsehole of a dead horse
with AIDS than even consider the possibility of
touching your wiry, gangrenous, vile, inadequate,
half-circumcised, horrifically smelly, pubescent
dick! OK?
In the
(British) context, "circumcised" would have been bad,
and "half-circumcised" implies "even worse".
Season
7, Episode 4 "Pure" (First aired on 22/07/2013)
Cassie Ainsworth, accompanied by her co-worker,
Jakob, visits her father Marcus and her younger
brother, Reuben in their home in Wales. Cassie, Jakob
and Reuben sit around the table as Marcus prepares a
meal. He places some sausages (presumably pork) onto
Jakob's plate.
Jakob: (awkwardly) I don't think I
can eat these. It's the, uh, Jewish thing. Reuben: Did they cut your willy off? Jakob: No, just a...tiny little bit. Reuben: I'm not Jewish, am I, Dad? Marcus: No! You're six!
The
effect of circumcision is minimised (as it doubtless
was to Jakob). The non sequitur is unexplained.
Episode 204: Ike's Wee-Wee, first broadcast May 20,
1998
Ike, adopted, is to be belatedly circumcised because
"All Jewish kids have circumstitions",
which
horrifies the other kids: their reaction
(38 KB .wav file - here is the text)
is appropriate, and they smuggle him away to Canada.
They substitute a dummy, which ... convinces his
parents he is dead. The kids take pity on them and
they go to Nebraska and find him.
He is told, "We're just going to snip it. It'll make
it look bigger." Because he is Canadian, the mohel
produces a pair of snippers in the form of a maple
leaf.
A stranger appears who says he never misses a bris. Ike is circumcised. He says
"Ouch", gets up as if nothing had happened, and all
the others want to be circumcised.
Since
Ike's birth parents are not Jewish, he is not Jewish
and need not be circumcised. This episode was
reportedly written by one producer to comfort the
other when his son was being circumcised.
The word "circumstition"
was first coined by the author of these pages in
1996 or 7, and had a permanent presence on the WWW
some time after October 1998, but the "South Park"
scriptwriters probably coined it independently - an
idea whose time had come.
Several
webpages describe this as the funniest South Park
episode, and generally stress the other plot (about
the school counsellor being sacked). Matt
Heffernan's
South Park page summarises the episode without
ever mentioning that the circumcision takes place.
Episode 1205, "Eek! A Penis!" First
broadcast, April 9, 2008
Mrs. Garrison (formerly Mr. Garrison) regrets her sex
change operation and wants to return to being a man.
She sees on the news that scientists are able to grow
a human ear onto the back of a mouse. Using all of her
money and some of her male DNA, the scientists are
able to grow a new penis for Garrison on to a mouse.
It is shown throughout as already
circumcised. (If this is because Mr Garrison had
been circumcised as a baby, it would be an example of
Larmarkism, the discredited theory that acquired
characteristics can be inherited.)
Reality
show set in Charleston. Season 4, Episode ? "From Here
to Paternity" First broadcast June 6, 2016
Thomas Ravenel ("T-Rav"), whose relationship with
Kathryn Dannis was shaky until she became pregnant,
announces that his son, St Julien Rembert Ravenel, will
be left intact. His friend Shep Rose thinks the boy will
be teased in high school gym classes. [He refers to "chopping
off 40% of your foreskin" but can only mean 40% of
penile skin.]
With
the rate around 55% and falling, St Julien will be
far from alone in the gym. He's more likely to be
teased for his name.
Stargate SG1
Cult science fiction series. Series 8,
episode 809, "Sacrifices"
Teal’c (Christopher Judge), a Jaffa (former slave
race), is talking to his son Rya’c (Neil Denis) after
Rya’c's wedding:
Kar’yn, Master Bra’tac, Rya’c
TEAL’C: You have chosen the location for
your shim’owa very well.
RYA’C: Master Bra’tac said this is where you
took my mother.
TEAL’C (smiling): Indeed. Rya’c. (Rya’c
turns and faces him.) I can think of no better
mate for you than Kar’yn, and I am certain your
mother would have felt the same.
RYA’C: Thank you. (He puts his hand on
Teal’c’s shoulder. Teal’c reciprocates, then they
hug.)
TEAL’C (once they have broken the embrace):
Before your departure, there is a matter that bears
discussion.
RYA’C: Father, I am aware of the ways
between a man and a woman.
TEAL’C: Good. Then you are prepared for the
Rite of Or’nok. (Rya’c looks horrified.)
RYA’C: Surely it is not still expected?
TEAL’C (looking very serious): On the
first eve of shim’owa. My advice is that the knife
be as sharp as possible.
RYA’C (staring at him in dread):
Perhaps Kar’yn is right. Not all of the old
traditions are worth holding on to.
(Teal’c looks at his son seriously for a moment,
then his face breaks into a grin.)
TEAL’C: Indeed.
Teal’c
(They start to walk down the corridor again.)
RYA’C: What of you and Ishta?
TEAL’C: What of us?
RYA’C: Well, your relationship would be much
easier if you’d both admit you are in love. For us
all.
TEAL’C: Perhaps one day – when I am as wise
as you are.
Commentators
infer that the Rite of Or’nok is circumcision of the
groom, perhaps perfomed by the bride. Teal’c's final
comment implies he never liked doing it, and is glad
Rya’c is giving it up. Rya’c is
not circumcised - or Or’nokised.
Jerri Blank (Amy Sedaris) has been giving a baby boy
to take care of for health class. After one sleepness
night of watching the baby, she abandons it on a local
playground so that she can hang out with her friends.
Teachers Chuck Noblet (Stephen Colbert) and Geoffrey
Jellineck (Paul Dinello) find the baby and report
Jerri to the principal. The following day, Principal
Blackman (Greg Hollimon) and Coach Wolf (Sarah Thyre)
tell Jerri that she is deep trouble for what she has
done.
Jerri: Why? It's still alive and has a full
head of hair. Principal: Jerri, that's not the point. Jerri: Is this because I circumcised it?
The baby is given back to Jerri so that she may
complete the assignment, but she tries to sell him on
the black market. After pinning the attempted crime on
her new class partner Tammi Littlenut (Maria Thayer),
she returns the baby to Coach Wolf. Principal Blackman
tells Jerri that she must be "exceptionally unfit for
motherhood."
Since
it is not conceivable that she circumcised the baby,
either the show's makers have no idea how serious
circumcision is (medically as well as ethically), or
she does, and is making a joke so stupid it is
ignored.
Strong Medicine
Parents from a Middle Eastern country bring their
early-teenage daughter in to Rittenhouse Hospital to
have her circumcised, saying "She'll be a social
outcast", "She'll never find a husband", etc. if it
isn't done.
The girl doesn't want it done, and the two doctors,
Dr Dana Stowe (a Harvard-educated surgeon directing
research studies, played by Janine Turner) and Dr
Luisa Delgado (a major character, played by Rosa
Blasi), do their best to talk the family out of it,
saying how it's an outrage, mutilation, dangerous,
etc.
The parents leave the hospital without checking out,
apparently planning to have it done clandestinely in
the US or elsewhere.
The two doctors discuss the matter:
Dr Stowe: You know, there's really not much
difference between this and what we do to little
boys in the U.S. [or words to that effect]
Janine
Turner
(Dr Stowe)
Dr Delgado: Well, I had Marc [her teenage
son] circumcised, but I didn't cut his whole penis
off.
...discounting
what
Dr
Stowe said, as if anything short of cutting his whole
penis off was acceptable. As usual, the implication is
that if (and it's a big "if") FGM
is always worse than MGM, then MGM must be all right.
In one of the side stories, parents of a newborn
argue over whether or not they should circumcise their
son. The mother wants to but the father says no. The
receptionist, Lana, breaks the deadlock, telling them
it's not how it looks, it's what a man does with it.
Implying
that appearance is the only consideration
Ten Secrets and Spoilers From the Creator
of Suburgatory
By Josef Adalian
... ABC's off-kilter family comedy starring
Jane Levy and Jeremy Sisto as New York City
expatriates attempting to survive in the
land of SUVs and big box stores. ... we
checked in with creator and showrunner Emily
Kapnek ...
Fred (Chris Parnell) has a penis
phobia.
Not all penises, mind you. He's afraid of
uncircumcised members only. This fun fact
will be revealed in an upcoming episode in
which Dallas (Cheryl Hines) introduces Fred
to a new friend of hers. "It sends Fred into
a cold sweat when he hears [the new pal] is
all natural," Kapnek says. "Why does it
bother him? I'm not sure." Also, if you're
wondering just why the married Dallas would
know the condition of another man's member,
all we can say is that it relates to a major
(and yet very logical) plot twist coming up
early next year. (Tonight's episode offers a
clue.)
That apparently refers to this scene:
Fred and another woman are playing croquet. Dallas
comes onto the green arm-in-arm with a tall blond man,
saying,
Dallas: Hi Fred, this is [Sven]. He's from
Iceland. He's uncircumcised!
(Fred drops his mallet, but Sven has already
reached out and grasped his hand. Fred withdraws
it as if unclean. His friend produces a spraycan
of foam that she sprays on his hand, and he rubs
his hands vigorously together.)
Voice over: Having the wrong partner can
really put you off your game.
This is so gratuitous it may perhaps be a
self-parody.
Switched
at Birth
Series 5, Episode 3, "Surprise" first broadcast
February 14, 2017
(Gentile) Toby Kennish (Lucas Grabeel) and (Jewish)
Lily Summers (Rahel Shenton) return from London with
plans to marry in the Kennish family's back yard
Toby mentions to Lily that they skipped out on "that
ceremony where they chop of the baby's foreskin" for
their son.
Clearly,
neither took the ceremony very seriously. No mention
of "medical" genital cutting.
That '70s
Show
Comedy about a group of teenage friends in 1970s
Wisconsin, mainly set in the Foman basement. Eric
Foman (Topher Grace) is the love interest of Donna
Pinciotti (Laura Prepon) who lives next door. "Kiss
of
Death" Season 2, Episode 20, first broadcast
March 30, 2000.
After Eric is caught out lying about running over
Donna's cat, Donna says that they should have no more
secrets. Eric admits that in the first grade, he used
to call her "Donna Pinch-my-buttie." Donna admits that
she was the first one to call him "Eric Foreskin."
Eric doesn't laugh, and points out that the name
stuck.
Since it is a play on his name, this need not refer
to his actual status.
30 Rock
Sitcom
about a fictional TV show of the same name produced
at 30 Rockerfeller Plaza, New York. Season 2,
Episode 206, first aired November 15, 2007
Kenneth (Jack McBrayer): "We Parcell's are
neither wealthy nor circumcised but we are proud."
Implying
that circumcision is associated with wealth but only
exceptionally with pride. ("Circumcised" could also
be a metonym for "Jewish".)
Thirty-something
Episode
63 (or 401 - 4th series, 1st episode) "prelude to a
bris"
[The extraordinary title
suggests a gentle piece of music - and gives
away the outcome.]
(Written and directed by Richard Kramer)
first broadcast September 25, 1990
With a black screen we hear gentile Hope Steadman
(Mel Harris) giving birth to Leo. At home, her Jewish
husband Michael (Ken Olin) tells her they must decide
about a bris.
Michael's mother, Barbara (Barbara Barrie), comes to
visit and unexpectedly brings her new lover, Ben
Teitleman (Alan King). Michael doesn't get on with
Ben.
Everyone pesters Michael about the bris, giving him
advice on what kind of mohel
to get. They all go to a science museum and have
little conversations while walking through a model of
a heart. The men and women then separately discuss
circumcision, the men while jogging, the women in the
kitchen.
Michael tries to talk to Hope about whether they
should have a bris or not, and she finally expresses
doubt that they should have one at all, since
Michael's religion doesn't seem to mean much to him.
A rabbi (Philip Sterling) visits Michael, who quickly
figures out that Ben sent him, but manages to stay
civil while ushering him out.
Hope and Barbara talk about the pros and cons, which
leads to Hope sniffling a little, wondering if the
circumcision will hurt Leo, asking what the meaning of
the ceremony would be for them and the baby.
Michael tells Ben bluntly that it was out of line to
send a rabbi without asking first.
Michael and Hope argue bitterly about Ben's role, and
how Michael is uncomfortable with his own Jewishness.
Hope asks what the ceremony would mean for all of
them.
Michael wonders what makes someone a real Jew. Ben
tells him that he is one anyway, practicing or not,
and he must decide whether he will "break the chain."
[Notice that these two ideas
are contradictory.] Michael imagines
Leo approaching his thirteenth birthday - Leo (Joshua
Smith) is neither interested in his family's past or
in having a bar mitzvah.
Hope tells Michael that she's worked it out for
herself (unlike him) and that she wants their son to
be a "part of something." [...by
having part of something taken from him...]
They decide to go ahead with the bris.
At the bris, Gary has been selected (as sendak) to
hold the child and seems nervous about it. Ben shows
up suddenly and Michael makes a quick switch, asking
Ben to hold Leo instead.
Leo is circumcised.
The
parents' discussion is almost entirely about their
feelings, and apart from a brief reference to the
pain, involves Leo only symbolically.
Till Death Us Do Part (UK)
BBC comedy (1965 - 1975) Alf Garnett (Warren
Mitchell) is racist, sexist and anti-Semitic,
skewering those prejudices.
Alf Garnett: It's yer Jews, i'n'it ...
getting their tribal mutilations on the N[ational
]H[ealth ]S[ervice].
His daughter Rita (Una Stubbs) (laughs
disdainfully): It's not mutilation.
Mitchell said in an interview he had his son
circumcised only to please his (Jewish) father.
'Til Death
Sitcom (based on the above) about a long-married
couple [he's a goof, she's a nag, very similar to Married
with
Children] (with newlyweds next door) Season 3,
Circumdecision (Episode 6, 10/8/08) (To
view, click on TV Shows (at left), 'Til Death,
Circumdecision)
Kenny (J.B.Smoove) freaks out after losing his swim
trunks at a water park and his new girlfriend notices
he isn't circumcised. When he decides to go under the
knife, Joy (Joely Fisher) is impressed by his efforts
to please a girl he hardly knows and badgers Eddie
(Brad Garrett) to accompany her to six weeks of
musicals in the park. Eddie loathes musicals and bets
on them with Joy that Kenny will not go through with
it. He takes Kenny to a bris so he can see what
circumcision looks like. The baby's screams turn Eddie
against the idea. His ex-wife Tina says she wanted him
to be circumcised for years, but when he rings her,
she dumps him. He eventually decides to be circumcised
(reason not given) and Eddie forces him to go to the
musicals with them, where Eddie refuses to co-operate
with a singer performing "If I were a Rich Man" from Fiddler
on the Roof.
The show has a total of 19 negative
references to the foreskin and positive or
trivialising references to circumcision, but only 5
of the reverse kind:
1
2'0”
Kenny: She saw something that didn't
quite work for her.
2
2'15”
Kenny (confessionally): I'm
not circumcised!
3
2'27”
Eddie: That's funny, most guys have
to apologise after sex, you have to
apologise before.
4
4'57”
Eddie: I'm cute as a button down
there.
5
5'46”
Joy: Just because Kenny is going to
pimp his ride...
6
6'41”
Kenny's friend 1: I can't believe
you' not taken care of down there.[
[What a sick euphemism for what
circumcision
actually entails!]]
That's disgustin'!
7
6'45”
Kenny's friend 2: I saw a [intact]
man at the gym once. I almost passed out.
1
6'48”
Kenny's friend 3: Leave Kenny
alone. It's not that gross. [A
very weak defence]
8
6'50”
Kenny's friend 2: Why are you
getting' all defensive? We're just tryin' -
Ohh (they all shrink back)
2
6'56”
Kenny's friend 3: That's right [I'm
intact]. And the women love it.
9
7'20”
Kenny: [After I'm circumcised] I'm
going to nude beaches, make love with the
lights on, I'm gonna get a pair of jeans
with a zipper. [Like
a circumcised penis never gets caught in
a zipper...]
10
8'20”
Kenny's other friend: No, I don't
have to sit down to pee. [The
unheard
- and preposterous - jibe implies
effeminacy.]
11
9'26”
Eddie (to rabbi): I need you to
stall the pss pss. [Not
even
a euphemism]
12
11'47”
Kenny (at Bris): This is the
most beautiful thing I have ever been part
of. I wanna go next.
3
11'59”
(Baby screams) Kenny: Oh
hell, no!
13
12'47”
Kenny: The picnic is off because
there's no circumcision. Nobody's doin'
nothin' nice for nobody.
4
13'22”
Kenny: You shoulda seen what they
did to little Ziff! He was just a baby!
14
14'32”
Tina (Eddie's ex-wife): I've been
askin' him for years to take his junk to the
tailors'.
15
14'43”
Joy: He chickened out.
16
14'52”
Tina: Hmph! Well that's too bad.
Because that, and somethin' in his wallet
beside stamps and condoms, might get him a
second chance at this.
17
15'17”
Joy: If you get a little - procedure
done there's a certain lady who might be
interested in gettin' with yuh, sexually.
18
15'27”
Joy: Tina would give you another
shot if you did this thing.
19
16'47”
Kenny: I'm doing this for a sweet
little girl who loves me for what I am -
well, for 99% of what I am.
5
18'32”
Eddie: You're the reason I'm here.
You're going to suffer right along with me.
An' let me tell you, this is going to hurt
only slightly less than what you're getting
done on Monday.
The effect of this kind of steady drizzle of
anti-intact propaganda on a young intact man can only
be imagined.
Truth Be
Told
Friday
night NBC sitcom, Oct. 30, 2015
A clown at a 6 year old’s birthday party has a
costume malfunction. Shocked, the parents hustle their
children away. A Jewish father (wearing a yarmulke)
says, “It’s okay kids, he’s circumcised.” (laughter)
Subtext:
cutting makes adult genitals less obscene. A mirror
example is in Augusten Burroughs' book "Sellevision"
21 Up
(MTV)
UK
documentary. "Born in the USSR"
A Kazakh Muslim man tells how he caused an uproar in
his village when he kicked his circumciser in the
face, because he didn't want it and he knew it would
hurt.
What
he does not tell is how he was then presumably held
down by several men and circumcised by force.
Two And A
Half Men
Episode 9.18, The War Against Gingivitis
After several references in the episode to oral sex;
Lindsey: Evelyn, Alan tells me you do a lot
of traveling
Evelyn: Yes, I love it; the
classical architecture, the exotic cuisine, the
uncircumcised men. (pause) Although, one
could make a case that falls under exotic cuisine.
It is also progress that US TV sitcoms let it be
known that not all men are circumcised.
2 Broke
Girls
Comedy,
Series
3, Episode 13 first broadcast December 16, 2013 "And
the French Kiss"
Official summary: After Caroline [Channing, played by
Beth Behrs] has an incredible make-out session with
Max's pastry school teacher, Chef Nicholas (recurring
guest star GILLES MARINI), Caroline finds out
something that makes her wish it never happened.
Caroline gropes Nicholas and is relieved to find he's
not "wearing a floppy beret".
Subtext:
A
prejudice against foreskins and the men with them is
normal. Gilles
Marini is in fact intact.
Two Pints of
Lager and a Packet of Crisps
(UK)
Comedy
about five friends in the north of England
Jonny (Ralf Little)declares he is a Jew, to which his
girlfriend Janet (Sheridan Smith) tells him he is
talking rubbish because he eats bacon and he likes to
put marbles up his foreskin.
Implying
all Jews are genitally cut.
Ugly Americans
(Adult cartoon)
Mark Lilly (voice: Matt Oberg) is a young man in the
Department of Integration in an alternate New York. He
works with former wizard Leonard Powers (voice: Randy
Pearlstein). They encounter the xenophobic Frank
Grimes (voice: Larry Murphy) in a corridor.
Grimes (pushing Mark against a wall):
Ya know what makes me sick? ... What makes me sick
is him, (making a "gay" gesture with his fingers)
getting all gay with the immigrants.
Mark: What did they ever do to you, anyway?
Grimes (indicating his ring finger):
You see that? (Taking the false finger off with a
"Pop!" like a cork) No, you don't. Lost it in
a Restilian riot. (Pulling up his trouser leg to
reveal a large bite from his knee) No kneecap.
Thanks very much Mr Werewolf. (Unzipping his fly
[revealing darkness]) My foreskin was bitten
off by a creature - (he reaches in: cut to
shocked expressions of his onlookers) and I
don't even know what it was!
It is a plus that losing his foreskin is listed among
negatives.
Undeclared
Season
1, Episode 12 "Truth or Dare", first broadcast 29
January 2002
American college student Marshall Nesbitt (Timm
Sharp) and his British roommate Lloyd Haythe (Charlie
Hunnam) compete in a game of Truth-or-Dare with
friends Lizzie and Rachel. Marshall exits his room
holding a ruler and announces his penis size.
Marshall: Six.
The scene cuts to Lloyd:
Lloyd: Six and a half. No mohel, no mohel.
Marshall takes back the ruler and heads back to
his room.
Marshall: Give me five minutes. Five minutes. (Lizzie
and Rachel giggle.)
Implying
circumcision shortens the penis, but "Only Jews
circumcise."
Undressed
(MTV)
[Official
summary] Nice-guy Brett and his new girlfriend Shay
are ready to go all the way. But when things start
heating up and Shay pulls down his boxers, she
realizes he's uncircumcised. Dismayed, Shay takes
off, leaving Brett heartbroken. He's determined to
win her back and will do anything…including going
under the knife. Will he really go through with it?
And is Shay worth self-mutilation?
And what about that sexy co-ed, who loves her men au
naturel?
Shay tells her boyfriend Brett (Wole Parks) she wants
him to be circumcised.
At first he agrees, to please her. Her friends and
his all tell him not to do it. The girls tell Shay not
to make him, because they can't be sure they will like
it. Annie (Rachelle Lafevbre) shows Brett what
circumcision is like using a banana. She says she had
never seen "one" before and asks if she can see his.
He shows her - in the interest of science, of course -
and she is very impressed, saying how beautiful it is.
She then wants to touch it, and they have sex -
again, purely for science...
Brett's roommate tells him not to do it and asks what
if he finds out that sex isn't any good circumcised.
He replies that he'll do it for Shay anyway. The
roommate says she will just find something else she
doesn't like. Brett agrees that's a risk, and they
cook up a plan to test the theory.
In the next episode, Brett is in bed with the covers
drawn up to his waist. Shay is beside him on top of
the covers. She says, "You did it. You got
circumcised?" He tells her he did, but it was no big
deal, because now with lasers they can just "beam the
foreskin off". She falls for it, and is happy he had
done it for her.
When Brett reaches for a condom, Shay sees a mole on
his back and says he has to get that removed before
she will have sex with him.
He says, "The problem is not my foreskin..." She
agrees, "It's me." She just told him to get
circumcised in an effort to get out of the
relationship. Brett says no matter what he did it
wouldn't be enough for her.
Brett starts dating Annie.
This
is progress. No-one gets
circumcised - and the summary uses the m-word!
Unexpected
(TLC)
Episode
5
(Ticking Clocks) first broadcast December 11, 2017
Official summary "...takes a raw look at three teenage
pregnancies and the effects it has on their families
as everyone prepares for the arrival of the babies."
James, 17, and Lilly, 16, are having a girl. Darlene,
43, is James’ mother. Brittany, 18, James’ sister, has
just had a boy. They’re all eating at a restaurant
(with two other sisters).
Brittany: Oh, he got circumcised today. He
was NOT happy.
James: He got what?!?
Brittany: Circumcised.
James: Like what dogs get?
Brittany (to Darlene): Did you get
him [James] circumcised?
Darlene: Yeah, they all got circumcised. [as though she had nothing to
do with it]
James: What is that!?
Brittany: When they cut the skin off your…
penis. … The extra skin.
James: Extra skin?
Brittany: Foreskin. Oh my gosh, brother.
Darlene: He didn’t read up on nothing, he
don’t know nothing.
James: Foreskin?
Brittany: Yes.
James: That’s a disease?
Brittany: No! Every boy is born with it. You
have to get it cut, or you could keep it. But, if
you keep it, it’s more of a
risk of infection cause dirt grows under your skin.
I can’t believe you don’t know that, and you’re a
boy. Get your life together.
Darlene: If you don’t know what that means,
you didn’t pay attention in Health class, either.
James: I barely went to Health class.
Darlene: That’s why you’re in the
predicament you’re in. We tried to tell you.
Brittany: Good thing you didn’t have a boy.
In
2017, this is unusually simplistic,
self-contradictory ("Every boy is born with ...
extra skin") and wrong.
Veep
Season 6, Episode 6, "Qatar", first broadcast May 21,
2017
Senator Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) has been
Vice-President and President, and is now jealous of
her successor, the first elected woman president.
By the time Selina arrives at the human rights
conference, she has been convinced by her jet-setting
Qatari fling (Usman Ally) to soft-pedal her anti-FGM
speech, lest it endanger one of his upcoming business
deals ... And so Selina stands at the podium, thinking
not of the plight of women in the developing world but
of her reputation and the other yachts her lover can
buy. “Women’s rights are human rights,” she parrots,
as she improvises that male circumcision has benefits,
and so “female circumcision” must too. In true Veep
fashion, the warlord still deems her speech too
critical, leaving her with no boyfriend, no standing,
and no integrity.
She might have done better to have taken
an absolute religious freedom position, as the
Hasids of New York have so far successfully done
to stave off any regulation of metzitzah
b'peh, and in California any regulation of
male genital cutting at all.
Series
6, Episode 8, "Judge", first broadcast June 11, 2017
Congressman Jonah Ryan (Timothy SImons), butt of many
jokes, is engaged to Jewish princess Shawnee Tanz
(Mary Holland), daughter of one of his supporters.
In a government office, Jonah has been lobbying for
some legislative changes. He has been granted several
of these, but the final one, to end daylight saving,
gets this response:
Official: I cannot do that. That is an
impossible request.
Jonah: Why? Because I'm Jewish?
Official: Excuse me?
Ken: He's not Jewish yet m'am.
Jonah: Yeah but I have only two months left
of those jiffy Jew classes then after that it's snip, snip, snip and as an
almost Jew I will not stand by with this almost
anti-Semitism.
Official: Why don't you take it up with the
anti-Defamation League?
Jonah: What the fuck is that? [Underlining
his ignorance of things Jewish, and hence the
insincerity of his conversion.]
Episode 9, "A Woman First", first broadcast June 18,
2017
A brief exchange between Jonah and Shawnee after her
father has threatened to cut her off, as he is no
longer supporting Jonah.
Shawnee: We're moving the wedding up, just
as soon as you finish your conversion (making a
gesture towards his crotch).
(Later in a hospital room - Jonah is in bed
recovering)
Jonah: Am I Jewish?
Dr Walcott (Abby McBride): Your
circumcision was a success, Mr Ryan. If you notice
any swelling, let me know, and no erections for 6
weeks.
Jonah: Well I don't know how I'm not going
to get hard, talking about my hog with a hot shishka
nurse. [Referring to his
"hog" may also unline his distance from Judaism]
Dr Walcott: It's shiksa and I'm your doctor. [That she knows Yiddish better
than Jonah does suggests she is Jewish (and
hence not a shiksa)]
...
Shawnee: How you doing?
Jonah: I don't know, babe. So far, being
Jewish really sucks. Will you hand me one of those
ice packs please?
Shawnee: Here you go, sweetie. At least your
dick won't smell like donkey pussy.
[A typical gratuitous anti-foreskin swipe]
Jonah: Oh God - I told you that was expired
lube. [A hollow retort,
since expired lube does not smell, and while he
was intact he would not have needed lube]
Shawnee: Oh, and there is someone here to
see you.
(Jonah's uncle Jeff enters to berate Jonah on
his incompetence, and to announce that he will be
taking Jonah off the New Hampshire congressional
ticket. Shawnee asks Jonah if he can do that, and
Jonah admits he can. Shawnee suddenly says she
wants to slow things down between them, then
admits that she now wants to dump him.)
Shawnee: I've been doubtful for a little
while.
Jonah: What do you mean a little while? What
the fuck does that mean? Is it before or after I
scheduled surgery to cut my dick off so you could
marry me?
(Jeff is laughing hysterically throughout.
Shawnee says "Sorry," and leaves with Jeff. Jonah
reaches for some lotion, puts it on his hand and
reaches under the sheet. When he touches himself,
he shrieks in pain.
Messages:
"All and only Jews are cut." "Adult (but not infant)
male genital cutting is exquisitely painful." In
fact, both are.
The Venture Brothers
(Animated)
Official summary: Hank [Christopher McCulloch] and
Dean [Michael Sinterniklaas] Venture, with their
father Doctor [Thaddius] Venture [James Urbaniak]
and faithful bodyguard Brock Samson, go on wild
adventures facing megalomaniacs, zombies, and
suspicious ninjas, all for the glory of adventure.
Or something like that.
Hank and Dean Venture are relatively identical
twins, only born six minutes apart, who live for the
thrill of adventure. Their dated vocabulary and
high-pitched voices are intentionally annoying,
especially to their father ...
Unofficial
summary:
The Venture brothers ... are ... teenaged idiots who
think, act and talk like it's the sixties (though it
takes place in the present). ... Dr. Venture ...
[really can't] stand them.
Dean: Hank! I had my pubes shaved. I'm gonna
put them under the pillow for the tooth fairy! Hank: Did the doctor see that creepy dog dork
of yours? Dr. Venture: Hank, don't brag to your brother
about your circumcision
Another
gratuitous swipe at the intact penis and the men who
have one, apparently just intended to gross the
audience out.
Episode
8: Ice Station - Impossible!
Dr Venture (trudging through snow,
complaining about the cold): Oh great - I think
my foreskin just broke off.
Trivialising.
Season
3, Episode: 6, "Dr. Quymn, Medicine Woman" First
Aired: July 6, 2008
In the Amazon, the Ventures meet Dr. Tara Quymn,
with her identical twin daughters, Nancy and Drew. She
takes them to the village of a tribe that has been
attacked by a creature called a " wereodile".
Hank becomes infatuated with Nancy and Drew, but
they become infatuated with Dean, and try to
seduce him, to no avail. Hank inadvertantly helps
defeat the wereodile and is "rewarded" by the natives
with a warrior circumcision that makes him ill.
Realizing that Dean is still intact, Nancy and Drew
are immediately disgusted by him.
In
the first season, Hank was circumcised, but his
clone, activated in Season 2, was intact up until
this episode. The writers just can't seem to find
enough opportunities to say "the foreskin is
disgusting".
Waiting
for the Boatman
(UK Radio)
BBC.
First broadcast 16 March 2012. Official summary: The
painter Mario Minniti (David Tennant) has travelled to
Naples to seek out his old friend and former mentor
Caravaggio. But on arrival, the great painter is
nowhere to be found. In a bid to track him down, Mario
retraces Caravaggio's last known movements. His search
reveals a life lived dangerously. By Stephen Wakelam
In the church of Santa Maria della Sanita, Minniti
learns there is a picture of Jesus' circumcision by
Caravaggio:
Minniti (aside): And when eight days
were accomplished for the circumcising of the child,
his name was called Jesus, which was so named of the
angel, before he was conceived in the womb.
Sr Pierra: It's here, the side chapel. It
will be moved here into the main body of the church,
finally.
Minniti (aside): A ladder, and a
couple of boxes to stand on.
Sr Pierra: The way he painted, things -
figures - seem to emerge.
Minniti (aside): Dark ground and a
cluster of shapes. One figure at the top, more or
less complete. An old man, hands raised. (to Sr
Pierra) Simeon?
Sr Pierra: Yes.
Minniti(aside): The Virgin at the
centre was a pink base, no more than the rough
shape, with an oval of pale ground, waiting for the
Christ child. Another figure, a few rapid brush
strokes, browns and greys, was leaning in. An eye.
Half a face, in profile, near centre of the canvas.
(to Sr Pierra) Who's the one- the, the eye,
leaning in to the child - the High Priest?
Sr Pierra: He inclined to his being a rabbi,
a mohel with scalpel or knife? "The
Executioner", he called him. What he understood was
the theology of the picture. The first of the wounds
our Lord suffered. There would be blood, under the
knife. We agreed that it would be explicit.
Minniti: He would enjoy that.
Sr Pierra: "The Nativity with the Knife", he
called it.
Minniti learns that Caravaggio has been killed on
the way to Rome, and goes back to the church:
Minniti (aside): The Circumcision. It
was hard to see him making much of the subject. A
nativity with a knife. The knife, glinting, would be
at the dead centre of the canvas, the focus. A
week-old Christ child, unsuspecting of the pain, and
blood under the knife, a sort of small-scale
execution, and the executioner, the rabbi, that eye,
half a face.
Minitti learns from Caravaggio's former lover,
"Cecco", (Francesco Boneri) that Caravaggio had been
blinded in one eye by three attackers, two holding
him down while one slashed his face. Cecco says his
heart was no longer in the painting.
Minitti: A Circumcision....
Cecco: He'd got plans for it.
Minitti: He wasn't working from models....
Cecco: Nope. From his mind's eye. Memory.
His hands were shaking. Look, what do you notice
about the eye? The rabbi, the one who's doing the
circumcision? The executioner, he called it.
Minniti: Looks as if he'd started with the
eye and was working outwards.
It
was completed in 1612 by Giovan Vincenzo Forli and a commentator says "it is
impossible to discern Caravaggio's original
intentions" but it is entirely plausible from the
way he painted intact males - and if he portrayed
the mohel as blind - that Caravaggio deplored
circumcision.
Waking the Dead
(UK)
Forensic
drama, BBC1 TV (Series 7, Pieta, Part 1)
A young war crime victim may have been a Muslim.
Forensic pathologist Dr Eve Lockhart (Tara FitzGerald)
says he could not be, because he was not circumcised.
Peter Boyd (Trevor Eve) is told that Muslim boys are
circumcised when they are 8 years old - as soon as
they can read the Qu'ran. He responds that it would
hardly be an incentive to learn.
Eve replies, "On the contrary, it's an important rite
of passage from boyhood into manhood."
The
age actually varies regionally. Both of the last two
statements could be true, but Eve's non sequitur
discounts Boyd's realistic appreciation of the pain
involved.
Dave Gold (Michael Rapaport) is discussing with a
male co-worker that his wife Hillary (Anita Barone),
wants to have a fourth child. The co-worker suggests
he have a vasectomy, which he refers to as
"snip-snip".
Dave ...I'm Jewish. One 'snip-snip' down
there was enough for a lifetime. (Canned laughter)
Implying
that all (and only) Jews are circumcised, but at
least suggesting that genital operations are in
general undesirable. The word 'circumcision' is,
typically, avoided.
Thirteen-year-old Mike Gold (Dean Collins) wants to
have a bar mitzvah, and in preparing for it, becomes
ultra-Jewish, including learning Hebrew even though
it's "a new age synagogue and the rabbi says God
doesn’t care what language you do it in." The rabbi
says, "The three most important days in a man's life
are his bris, his
bar mitzvah and his marriage..." The parents point out
that he didn't have a bris but was instead circumcised
in hospital. Dave says something like "Yeah... we
don't want 'm walking around with a turtle neck..." (applause)
The rabbi says the only way for him to have a bar
mitzvah is to have a 'ceremonial bris' [hatifat dam
berit] first, in which his penis is pricked to
draw some blood. Mike changes his mind about having a
bar mitzvah.
...
suggesting that if he had had any choice, he would
have refused to be circumcised too.
Unsuprisingly,
the
programmes writers are confused: Mike's mother Vicky
is a practising Catholic, so if Dave is Orthodox,
Mike is not Jewish. If, on the other hand they are
Reform, Mike is not obliged to undergo hatifat
dam berit.
Brothers
Shawn and Marlon Wayans play brothers Shawn and
Marlon Williams
Marlon is suing his older brother Shawn. Shawn is
cross-examining him:
Shawn: And when you were born, who came to
the hospital and gave you their favorite blanket?
Marlon: I don't know. I was only a day old
and still in pain from my circumcision.
Seems
to assume circumcision is automatic. Though it
emphasises the pain, it also trivialises it by making
it the focus of a joke.
Weeds
Adult
soap opera. Series 5, Episode 8, A Distinctive Horn,
first broadcast 27 July 2009
A baby is born to Nancy Botwin (Mary Louise Parker)
and Esteban Reyes (Demián Bichir), a Mexican
politician, who refuses to have his name on the birth
certificate. So she turns to her Jewish brother-in-law
Andy (Justin Kirk), to put his name instead. He
agrees, but while changing the baby, he says,
Andy: Woah! Bun's still on hotdog.
Nancy: Oh right. I'll take care of that.
Next checkup.
Andy: No no no no. A bris,
with a mohel and
a rabbi, bagels and whitefish. Those are my demands.
Nancy: Demands?
Andy: That's right, because I'm the papa. (Klezma
music starts and continues into the next scene.)
I'm the papa. Tradition.
Nancy: Oy.
Cut to Andy still holding the baby, but now at
the bris. A glimpse of the operation.
Silas (Hunter Parrish): Who are all those
people?
Shane (Alexander Gould): The Rabbi brought
them. Apparently you need ten Jews to watch him lose
his dickhead or it's not official.
Baby is circumcised
He cries fretfully but does not shriek. Andy
winces.
Rabbi: That's it. Mazel Tov! Let's name the
baby.
The supper. The rabbi sits by the boys.
Silas: Nice work rabbi.
Rabbi: Why thank you. I've been at it a long
time
Shane: What d'you practise on?
Rabbi: Goyim.
Shane: It's a barbaric ritual.
Rabbi (gravely): It's a sign of a
covenant, between our people and God.
Shane: It decreases pleasure.
Rabbi: Paid for my summer house. Excuse me.
(He makes his escape.)
In a sub-plot, Silas' drug-dealing colleague Doug
agrees to let entrepreneur Dean slam Doug's dick [sic]
in a desk drawer in return for some marijuana, saying
"If I'm hard, it won't be so bad." At the crucial
moment we cut to a shop next door and see the people's
reactions to his screams. The parallels between the
two themes is not noted.
Note
the assumption that baby must be
circumcised. Shane's comments are a sign of the
times.
Season
4 Episode 64405
PAST AND PRESENTS
written by Tracy Poust & Jon Kinnally
first broadcast October 4, 2001
Karen (Megan Mullally) buys Grace (Debra Messing)'s
boyfriend Nathan (guest star Woody Harrelson) a
motorcycle. Grace is ashamed of her own small present.
GRACE: Uh, well, that's just - that's just
really - that's part one of my present, and wait till
you see part two. You're just gonna- You're gonna-
Aah! Um, not - not today. It's a Jewish thing. You
know how we like to stretch out the gifts.
NATHAN: Oh, you Jews are great - except for
that circumcision thing.
Grace laughs nervously and the scene ends.
As
if only Jews are circumcised - but it is progress
that Nathan doesn't like it.
Workin' Moms Canada
Comedy.
Season 5, Episode 5, Mother Knows Breast, first
broadcast March 16, 2021
Kate Foster (Catherine Reitman) and Maya Bronte(
Aiza Ntibarikure )'s sons Charlie (Mason or Nolan
Gahan) and Axe (uncredited) are urinating against a
fence, watched by their mothers.
Charlie: Axe's has a hat. Maya: A hat? (the mothers look at
each other) Both mothers (catching on):
Ooohh. Kate: He means uncircumcised. This
one's all you, we're in Jewish waters now. M hm, so
Charlie, Jewish boys don't have hats. Oh, don't be sad,
it's because, because you're one of the Chosen People,
huh, chosen by God. Maya: Oh woho, hey. You're chosen too,
Axe, Yours has a hat because we don't believe in genital
mutilation. (Kate is startled.) Kate: O-kay. Ouch.
It's
unusual in using the m-word, especially to a child
and so brutally.
Three
hypotheticals
1. A prediction:
The X-Files
A mysterious sickness strikes a remote village. It
turns out that the local GP refused to circumcise any
babies. Scully is skeptical but Mulder organises a
mass circumcision. The plague vanishes. The citizens
rejoice and Mulder is invited to the next village to
be Master of Ceremonies at another mass circumcision,
where nothing goes wrong and nobody feels any pain.
One of the boys (probably one of the bullies, Martin
Munz or Jimbo Jones) is circumcised and comes back
boasting about it. The other bullies sneer at anyone
who is not. Bart wants to be "circle-sized" too. Homer
defends Bart's wish, saying "A boy should look like
his father." Marge imagines Bart looking like Homer
(on the couch drinking Duff, burping), growls
"Rrrrrrrrrr." Homer says, "If it's good enough for
them, it's good enough for my son. It's not as
if they're going to cut part off his pee-pee
or something." Bart repeats this remark to Lisa. Lisa
whispers in his ear, "Well, actually, Bart...." Bart
screams "Noooooo!" with tongue waggling. Bart
is not circumcised.
Unfortunately:
"There
are weekly fan-written Simpsons scripts posted
on the Internet. I can't read them - I will be
accused later on down the line of having stolen
somebody's idea. But I love the idea of it."
- Matt Groening in "Wired" Feb 1999
And sadly:
This
month, [Larry] Doyle, the proud father of a newborn
son, Benjamin, discusses perhaps the most important
issue he has faced as a dad.
"The big question, I suppose, is did we circumcise
the child?" says Doyle, who writes for The Simpsons
and is a former editor at New York and Spy.
"Yes, we did, and it looked like it hurt a lot. But
after they brought him back, my son looked me in the
eyes and said, 'Thank you, Daddy.' I don't know if
that means anything."
- Esquire, June 1999
Yes, Larry, it means you're a dickhead.
The Simpsonsdid treat circumcision
negatively in an episode
broadcast on December 7, 2003, then somewhat trivially
in an episode broadcast in May
2005. Doyle is no longer mentioned as a writer for The
Simpsons.
3.
Another wish:
Futurama
After drinking Slurm (the most addictive soft drink
in the Universe), Leela overcomes her usual repugnance
and goes to bed with Fry. But she suddenly leaps out
of bed, calling him a freak. He consults Dr Zoidberg
who finds (luckily the wall chart his consults happens
to be for male humans) that part of his penis is
missing. Consulting a very dusty book (Fry has to show
him how to open it), he discovers that circumcision
ended in the year 2008. Fry is devastated, but Bender
offers to retore his foreskin by stretching. Fry
declines but is so touched by the offer that he
forgets his woes.
"The Cyber House Rules": a real episode
Leela goes to a reunion of her Orphanarium, where she
was teased for having only one eye and had a crush on
handsome, bland Adlai. She is still teased, but Adlai is
now a doctor who specialises in facial surgery. Bender
adopts 12 of the orphans for the sake of their stipends,
including one who has an ear on her forehead. Fry
especially is adamant that Leela should stay as she is,
but Adlai implants a (non-functional) second eye in
Leela, making her happy to be like everyone else. She
and Adlai decide to adopt the little girl, who is being
teased as Leela was:
ADLAI: Oh well, if you really want that one, I can
give her an operation to make her acceptable.
LEELA: She doesn't need an operation! She's fine the
way she is!
ADLAI: Oh, and I suppose you were all right the way you
were?
LEELA: Damn right I was!
And she demands that Adlai remove her own extra eye.