Episode 322: American Gerbilo

This week Host Dave Bledsoe slips in the shower and winds up with his Jameson bottle in a very painful place. (Spilled all over the bathroom floor) On the show this week we examine that time people said Richard Gere put a gerbil in his butt because they were scared of gay people. (Richard Gere: not gay, much to disappointment of some gay men)

Along the way we use actual math and science to bust the myth of pumping a rock star’s stomach for semen. (He isn’t good at math, but it seems to check out) From there we dive into the details of why Richard Gere was chosen to be the gerbil host despite being a heterosexual sex symbol and dating a string of extrodinarily hot women.(Because straight men were feeling really inadequate) Then we examine the dark impulses that made this joke spread so far, so fast and persist for so long. (If you guess rampant homophobia, you win this pet gerbil!) Finally we look at how we evolved beyond the small minded homophobia of attacking gay men, into the small minded homophobia of attacking trans people. (We’ve come so far,so fast!)  

Our Sponsor this week is the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Rodents, who want you to keep a rodent in your heart, not your butthole. We open the show with a very bad answer on The Feud and close with Eddie Murphy explaining what you SHOULD put in your butt.

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Closing Music https://youtu.be/07P538K83iUWe are a proud member of the Seltzer Kings Podcast Network! http://seltzerkings.com/

Citations Needed: 

Richard Gere on Gere

https://ew.com/article/2012/08/31/richard-gere-gere/

A HIGHLY QUESTIONABLE CULTURAL HISTORY OF RICHARD GERE’S ASS GERBIL

https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/richard-gere-gerbil-incident-story-fact-check

At Last, Rod Stewart Breaks His Silence on Getting His Semen-Filled Stomach Pumped

https://gawker.com/5955202/at-last-rod-stewart-breaks-his-silence-on-getting-his-semen-filled-stomach-pumped

AIDS: homophobic and moralistic images of 1980s still haunt our view of HIV – that must change

https://theconversation.com/aids-homophobic-and-moralistic-images-of-1980s-still-haunt-our-view-of-hiv-that-must-change-106580

A Complete History Of Gerbiling So Far

https://www.theawl.com/2012/11/a-complete-history-of-gerbiling-so-far/

What Did We Get Stuck In Our Rectums Last Year?

https://defector.com/what-did-we-get-stuck-in-our-rectums-last-year/

Increasing trend in retained rectal foreign bodies

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5081549/

Has anybody ever stuffed a gerbil up his ass?

https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/savage-love-gerbil-stuffing/Content?oid=9073674

Uncited Additional Reading:

The Case of the Missing Gerbil

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1499810?read-now=1&refreqid=excelsior%3Acbc9f683cce30c5d67bba69af56b8e6e&seq=3#page_scan_tab_contents

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