Gerbilling
Gerbilling also known as gerbil stuffing 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, and (2) frightened animals are likely to bite.
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.
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 stars in a gerbilling movie.
- Male Pornstar Thomas O'neill is rumoured to have gerbilled in his home movies. with fellow pornstar Mike Strawbridge
- Pittsburgh indie band Truth in Advertising references the legend during the chorus of their song, "Richard," on their 2005 album, "Inconsequential Background Music."
