Gerbilling
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, and (2) frightened animals are likely to bite.
In the mid-1980s an actor Richard Gere, claimedt hat he had to have a gerbil removed from his anus at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in California. Snopes writes,
Medical literature, which covers examples of items retrieved from patients' rectums in extreme detail, has only rarly recorded a case of an animal being removed from a patient, mostly due to 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."
- In the last verse of "Fack" by Eminem he raps about gerbilling, repeating the line Shove a gerbil in your ass through a tube several 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.
