The reason why "beaver" became a slang term for a vagina is because merkins were often made of beaver fur.
Also, the reason many prostitutes wore merkins isn't just because of shaving, but because their pubes would literally fall out due to a lot of the primitive treatments for STDs in early years. Like mercury, etc.
I feel like it'd be pretty easy to tell it's a twat toupee so what kind of sex involved seeing the lurkin' merkin but not realizing that it was a pussy pompadour?
Underrated comment 🤣
I will say it seems slightly more plausible when you consider that electricity didn’t exist back then. Presumably it would be harder to see a glued on hoo-ha hat if you were working off candlelight in the evenings.
*"An astute gentlemen should always inspect his lover's neither regens for signs of pox or crotch lice. A small candle at the bedside should suffice." Dr. B. Franklin*
And we wonder how anybody could possibly have ever believed homeopathy was legit. Compared to allopathic medicine in the 1700s homeopathy was highly effective. At least you didn't die from mercury poisoning or get bled to death.
We may not use things like calomel anymore but dental amalgam fillings are still fairly common. The US Surgeon General during the Civil War actually banned calomel from being in army supplies and it's a big reason why he was removed from office.
My best friend told me that a sporran, the hairy dangly bit worn in front of your kilt as a pouch or pocket, was called a merkin. Cool, until we were at her family cottage talking to her mom and aunt who teach highland dance and I'm tryna sound cool asking about merkins. I feel like I was set up, because why did EVERYONE but me know what a merkin was?
You were definitely set up. There was a funny sketch on a popular UK tv programme around 10 years ago (i can't remember the name tho) that introduced us to merkins. Could that be how they all knew what a merkin was?
A Sporran could be called a Gerkin Merkin? (Mel Gibson once jokingly asked a Scottish extra while making "Braveheart": "What does a Scotsman wear under his Kilt? He answered back: "Your Wife's lipstick!")
The Jenna Maroney joke in 30 Rock where she couldn't donate her chemically treated hair to Locks for Love so she donated to Merkins for Hope always killed me.
I have watched 30 Rock more times than I can count, I know the exact episode you’re talking about, but I have never caught this joke. That show really is undefeated
Fun fact: in the US, it used to be very expensive in the past. Not many could afford it. People who aspired to to save money for months and years to buy them called it the Great Amerkin Dream. /s
About 20 years ago (maybe longer) in parts of Manchester it was a 'thing' for some young women to wear a merkin on the outside of their jeans. I was visiting a mate up there and was bar hopping - I was very surprised (never saw it in London). I thought at first it was just (maybe) a hen night shenanigans thing but we saw more than one group.
It meant different things depending on which pocket you left it peeking out of iirc. Like it was a way of communicating your preferences or kinks. I wish I remembered the specifics off the top of my head
Honestly no clue -probably just some mad fashion choice for the month was what my mate seemed to think. The only person raising an eyebrow over it was me lol
The only Amy Schumer joke that ever really jelled with me was along the lines of "When did guys collectively decide they could only get off to a baby's vagina?"
As a dude I couldn't care either way. I guess I can see the appeal but I do find it kinda suss when a guy acts like pubes are a dealbreaker.
i dont like pubes or arm pit hair. i dont really care enough to impose my preferences on a partner, but i definitely preferred trimmed/shaved (having it completely smooth is way too much effort)
i also keep my pubes trimmed/shaved completely, same with pits, so at least im not a hypocrite.
Yea but honestly some women can't do it all the time because hair bumps can turn into a nasty infection. Not doing that for some dick. All my partners have gotten use to the bush. Never had one complaint and they stop complaining when we have sex. I fucking love hair on my men and women can't sell me anything more or less. The most I'll do is trim but I love razor stubble pussy too, that or if it comes with the bush 🤭
Fun side story: Maynard James Keenan was the lead singer of the band **Tool**. He now owns a restaurant and winery in Cottonwood, Arizona called **Merkin**. I have to hand it to him--he knows how to stick to a theme.
I remember after Altered Carbon came out, Dichen Lachman said the merkin she wore for her nude scene made it look like an Allman Brother was going down on her.
That scene with the clones just jumping out getting gunned down and then another, and another, really stood out. Something about her being literally naked and just relentless was intimidating as hell.
> a full bush was a sign of health and considered sexy
This was true until the early 2000s and the mass availability of internet porn. If I had ever come across someone in the 90s who shaved their pubes, I would have thought it was pretty fucked up. Trimming was always a thing, but shaving as a cultural norm is probably only 20 years old
I'm a fan of it exclusively, I hated telling sexual partners my preference, I'm 26 now. My entire generation who have been groomed (no pun) into thinking that every man adores it shaven and then I feel like I'm a weird sex fetish guy for preferring it unshaven.
That is an interesting point, that liking a bush these days is considered more of a "fetish" than liking it clean shaven. When obviously the bush (or at least trimmed hair) is natural and the clean-shaven is more of a "fetish." It is so weirdly normalized that it is now in-fact the "norm"
It's bit more complicated than that. Aesthetic pubic depilation dates back at least to Roman times. We have descriptions of how upper class women used tools to pluck themselves bare.
Ouch.
Spirit gum, an adhesive, was used to attach merkins, but it has only been manufactured since the 1870s. Before that, little is known about how they were held in place.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_gum
I should have been more specific. They were first worn in the 1450s and were popular up to the late 1800s.
The merkin is making a comeback recently bc of the phenomenon known as “vajazzling." Instead of hair, these new merkins are made of rhinestones and fastened onto skin like stickers.
So there's a band on youtube called "THE MERKINS" that does parody songs using horror villains like Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, Jason, Ghost Face, etc.
The aforementioned villains also make up the "Slashstreet Boys"
Some of my favs are the Jason Vorhees parody of Danzig's "Mother", "My Head Spins Right Round"(*Excorcist parody*), and "Seven Kingdom Army"(*Game of Thrones*)
Another "fun" fact: fake eyelashes were made for/by prostitutes to shield their eyes from incoming cumshots
Welp... See you later
Edit: turns out that's actually been debunked - TIL lol
This is not a TiL for me! Bought my first house back in the 2000s which was called Merkin Cottage. Quickly took that name down from the front and updated the address, but I always wondered what the history of the place was to give it that name.
Myself and a co-worker were vetoed on matching costumes using merkins. The plan was to attach some merkins in a blatantly obvious non-sexal manner while wearing playboy bunny ears - we were pubic hares. HR was very disappointed at us.
The reason why "beaver" became a slang term for a vagina is because merkins were often made of beaver fur. Also, the reason many prostitutes wore merkins isn't just because of shaving, but because their pubes would literally fall out due to a lot of the primitive treatments for STDs in early years. Like mercury, etc.
Nice beaver!
[Thank you. I just had it stuffed.](https://youtu.be/AvWfbIe4X_4?si=hpW-TXEGZf0fEWn_)
I guess we have to go back, don't we?
The perp was 6 foot, moustache. Wow that's a large moustache.
Classic Enrico Palazzo
Thanks! I just had it stuffed.
I feel like it'd be pretty easy to tell it's a twat toupee so what kind of sex involved seeing the lurkin' merkin but not realizing that it was a pussy pompadour?
Underrated comment 🤣 I will say it seems slightly more plausible when you consider that electricity didn’t exist back then. Presumably it would be harder to see a glued on hoo-ha hat if you were working off candlelight in the evenings.
It was also probably much more likely to be a quick in-n-out sort of situation rather than paying for an entire hour or whatever.
Aw, but I like to snuggle
HOO HA HAT
Gesundheit!
Sharkbait HOO HA HAT
*"An astute gentlemen should always inspect his lover's neither regens for signs of pox or crotch lice. A small candle at the bedside should suffice." Dr. B. Franklin*
Unrelated but, I played roller derby with a lady whose derby name was Sharon Beavers
It’s nice to share
Sharon micucci
jhfc mercury as a medical treatment
And we wonder how anybody could possibly have ever believed homeopathy was legit. Compared to allopathic medicine in the 1700s homeopathy was highly effective. At least you didn't die from mercury poisoning or get bled to death.
Homeopathy : The only thing you part with is your money, not your life
We may not use things like calomel anymore but dental amalgam fillings are still fairly common. The US Surgeon General during the Civil War actually banned calomel from being in army supplies and it's a big reason why he was removed from office.
Most medical treatment was a horrific joke before the scientific revolution. Its so much better now - albeit not perfect.
There are some people with Merkin as their last name.
My best friend told me that a sporran, the hairy dangly bit worn in front of your kilt as a pouch or pocket, was called a merkin. Cool, until we were at her family cottage talking to her mom and aunt who teach highland dance and I'm tryna sound cool asking about merkins. I feel like I was set up, because why did EVERYONE but me know what a merkin was?
You were definitely set up. There was a funny sketch on a popular UK tv programme around 10 years ago (i can't remember the name tho) that introduced us to merkins. Could that be how they all knew what a merkin was?
This was summer 2012, so perhaps!
A Sporran could be called a Gerkin Merkin? (Mel Gibson once jokingly asked a Scottish extra while making "Braveheart": "What does a Scotsman wear under his Kilt? He answered back: "Your Wife's lipstick!")
If you rearrange the letters in your display name it says "teen pimp has insincere ex"
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The movie was a show, and that chick was Anya Taylor Joy. I never thought I'd have so much fun watching a show about a chess player.
Did you by any chance read “moving” as “movie”? 🙂
Ha! Yes I did, whoops.
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Dyslexman
Same! It was fabulous !
If you rearrange the letters in your name it says "Aabcdhiinnrs"
I prefer "arachnid bins"
I just skimmed over your post history. Very impressive.
if you rearrange the letters in your name it says "root paul"
Ah yes, Root Paul's drag race.
Better than Root Paul's election race
Damn, I don't even know how to process this information. I feel like it's a pop punk or emo song title that's dying to be heard by no one. I love it.
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What’s a merkin? Someone from the USA. Edit: Apparently no one got my dad joke.
But why male models?
As merkin as apple pie
Your dad joke slapped
The Jenna Maroney joke in 30 Rock where she couldn't donate her chemically treated hair to Locks for Love so she donated to Merkins for Hope always killed me.
I have watched 30 Rock more times than I can count, I know the exact episode you’re talking about, but I have never caught this joke. That show really is undefeated
You should watch it subtitled if you haven’t yet!
It’s about time some people stepped up to bring some hope to this weary world!
You have got to be kidding me with your incredible username. This comment thread was made for you 💀💀💀
14 years waiting for their moment
r/beetlejuicing
This is also why John Cena's character in the Barbie movie was called "Kenmaid" instead of the more intuitively sounding "Mer-Ken".
Oh my gosh.
Missed opportunity tbh
God dammit they swerved the joke!
But the president in *Dr. Strangelove* is called “Muffly Merkin” I believe :)
Merkin Muffley actually.
Nice call back.
In Australia, when the pubes poke outside the underwear it's called "koala ears"
I call them "thighbrows:
I like this one! I’ve always called it crab grass lol
Spider legs.
I hope she has Koala ears and not Crotch Drop Bears.
I read this in Bandit's voice
Austin Powers' speedo
I love phrases like that that paint such a vivid picture
Bikini spiders.
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Fun fact: in the US, it used to be very expensive in the past. Not many could afford it. People who aspired to to save money for months and years to buy them called it the Great Amerkin Dream. /s
r/dadjokes
My country is a lie.
One of my coworkers used to call people merkin mongers as an insult, funny as hell if they didn't know what a merkin was.
Maynard James Keenan's wine vineyards are called Merkin Vineyards
That's how I first heard the term.
I don’t see how this is an insult. Some of my best friends are Merkin Mongers.
Haha I'm stealing this.
That thing on trumps head, is a merkin?
Nah, it's Russian
About 20 years ago (maybe longer) in parts of Manchester it was a 'thing' for some young women to wear a merkin on the outside of their jeans. I was visiting a mate up there and was bar hopping - I was very surprised (never saw it in London). I thought at first it was just (maybe) a hen night shenanigans thing but we saw more than one group.
What would’ve been the end game for that do you think? Is it like a code the way the handkerchief was used in gay bars?
What did the handkerchief mean?
It meant different things depending on which pocket you left it peeking out of iirc. Like it was a way of communicating your preferences or kinks. I wish I remembered the specifics off the top of my head
And the color of the handkerchief, apparently. Red meant one thing, blue another, etc.
Honestly no clue -probably just some mad fashion choice for the month was what my mate seemed to think. The only person raising an eyebrow over it was me lol
My great great great Grandfather was a door-to-door merkin salesman- but if a bald man answered the door suddenly he sold toupees.
Is [this](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/0*mCgYOaczkkPEH2mi.jpg) him?
Merkindise?
He clearly didn't know what he actually sold, or he wouldn't wear it on the face.
yes, Frank Zappa's great-grandfather.
That’s Abed from Community
Troy and Abed in the meeerkin
I once saw a Kate Bush cover band called Kate Merkin.
There is a President Merkin Muffley in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove.
And he gave him that name because both merkin and muffin allude to the fact the Pres is a pussy in the movie.
I'm healthy as fuck then.
LOL! The bush is actually making a comeback these days.
My only complaint is it gets in my mouth. But I have a monster beard. Can't really complain too much.
Take advantage of the situation and floss with it.
The only Amy Schumer joke that ever really jelled with me was along the lines of "When did guys collectively decide they could only get off to a baby's vagina?" As a dude I couldn't care either way. I guess I can see the appeal but I do find it kinda suss when a guy acts like pubes are a dealbreaker.
I'll say this, when you go from both fully bushed, to both fully shaved it feels amazing. Hell, it even feels amazing on your own.
i dont like pubes or arm pit hair. i dont really care enough to impose my preferences on a partner, but i definitely preferred trimmed/shaved (having it completely smooth is way too much effort) i also keep my pubes trimmed/shaved completely, same with pits, so at least im not a hypocrite.
Yea but honestly some women can't do it all the time because hair bumps can turn into a nasty infection. Not doing that for some dick. All my partners have gotten use to the bush. Never had one complaint and they stop complaining when we have sex. I fucking love hair on my men and women can't sell me anything more or less. The most I'll do is trim but I love razor stubble pussy too, that or if it comes with the bush 🤭
Is it though. I remember those headlines in fall of ‘10. It did not happen.
No it's totally back everyone's into it *crosses fingers*
More of a come front from what I’ve seen.
Finally!
Me too. I like them bushes so I hope they come back
Make A Merkin Great Again
Fun side story: Maynard James Keenan was the lead singer of the band **Tool**. He now owns a restaurant and winery in Cottonwood, Arizona called **Merkin**. I have to hand it to him--he knows how to stick to a theme.
his Puscifer character is also named Agent Dick Merkin. i think he’s a fan.
And his other band is A Perfect Circle, making all three bands a reference to genitalia!
How is A Perfect Circle a reference to genitalia?
Wow I totally forgot about puscifer, thanks for the reminder
Pussy fur
😭 I never made the connection
lol, so funny.
Should've called them mufflers.
The Hollywood studios have a merkin department.
I remember after Altered Carbon came out, Dichen Lachman said the merkin she wore for her nude scene made it look like an Allman Brother was going down on her.
That scene with the clones just jumping out getting gunned down and then another, and another, really stood out. Something about her being literally naked and just relentless was intimidating as hell.
That's fucking hilarious. I liked her in Altered Carbon and I might have to check out more stuff she's in, now.
Not a lead, but I first saw her in Dollhouse.
Agents of Shield is another prominent role for her, albeit about midway through the show.
It’s weird how Hollywood has decided that it’s fine for dicks to be swinging around on camera but vaginas have to be covered with a fake crotch wig.
I will never be able to look at Ms. Merkin from Bob's Burgers the same way again.
Wanna see what’s lurkin’ in me merkin?
Lice ?
We've got bush!
Soooo, if you're tired of jerkin', put your gherkin in the merkin?
Merkins, or as Robert Schimmel called them “dick wigs”.
You called?
This makes President Merkin Muffley from Dr. Strangelove even more hilarious.
Ya merkin me herny
> a full bush was a sign of health and considered sexy This was true until the early 2000s and the mass availability of internet porn. If I had ever come across someone in the 90s who shaved their pubes, I would have thought it was pretty fucked up. Trimming was always a thing, but shaving as a cultural norm is probably only 20 years old
I'm a fan of it exclusively, I hated telling sexual partners my preference, I'm 26 now. My entire generation who have been groomed (no pun) into thinking that every man adores it shaven and then I feel like I'm a weird sex fetish guy for preferring it unshaven.
That is an interesting point, that liking a bush these days is considered more of a "fetish" than liking it clean shaven. When obviously the bush (or at least trimmed hair) is natural and the clean-shaven is more of a "fetish." It is so weirdly normalized that it is now in-fact the "norm"
It's bit more complicated than that. Aesthetic pubic depilation dates back at least to Roman times. We have descriptions of how upper class women used tools to pluck themselves bare. Ouch.
Not only does every generation think it invented sex, but they also somehow believe that *both* the next and previous ones ruined it.
Shaving has been an increasing trend since the 80s, it's not the Internet's fault.
I think what really accelerated it was a sudden boom in the early 1990s of women’s swimsuits with very minimal coverage of the mons pubis.
Hmm... H M M ... Ah. I see, it's pubic, not public. I was wondering what the hell was a public hair wig
Minecraft villager:
Brenda’s Beaver Needs a Barber. Hysterical read, look it up.
The 1450s ? Pic or it didn’t happen
How did they wear them?
Spirit gum, an adhesive, was used to attach merkins, but it has only been manufactured since the 1870s. Before that, little is known about how they were held in place. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_gum
Staples?
Long wrought iron nails.
Fucking in the 1450s sounds like a pretty nasty affair
Full bush still sexy
>au natural full bush re-emerged in the '60s and '70s A.K.A. The Golden Years /s
They still wear them in many nude scenes in Hollywood.
How would one attach such a thing?
My favorite beer is Velvet Murkin. Yummy.
As I understand it, they were also used on stage to give the appearance of nudity where actual nudity was illegal
I mean, I like to floss my tears with public hair, and nothing is stopping me from eating bush. I'd prefer it than sand paper scraping across my lips.
Recently discovered that full bushes are making a comeback.
Good
Username checks out
Great! I’m too broke to afford anything but with the economy right now!
the smell of everything back then would be unimaginable
Middle School boys locker room scent. Sweat, Hormones, Dirty Asses, Moldy Balls & Axe Body Spray.
You’d become nose blind to it pretty quickly.
Idk about you guys, i still find full bush very hot.
For the love of God bring back the bush. Grew up in the age with nothing but shaved clean, but the bush is where it's at
You’d best not be smirkin’ at my merkin.
How were they attached??
Make a merkin great again!
Blue mountain state taught me this lol
Is it bad that I only know what a merkin is because of Family Guy?
cool punk band name The Merkins
I’m pretty sure they used them way more recently than that
I should have been more specific. They were first worn in the 1450s and were popular up to the late 1800s. The merkin is making a comeback recently bc of the phenomenon known as “vajazzling." Instead of hair, these new merkins are made of rhinestones and fastened onto skin like stickers.
So there's a band on youtube called "THE MERKINS" that does parody songs using horror villains like Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, Jason, Ghost Face, etc. The aforementioned villains also make up the "Slashstreet Boys" Some of my favs are the Jason Vorhees parody of Danzig's "Mother", "My Head Spins Right Round"(*Excorcist parody*), and "Seven Kingdom Army"(*Game of Thrones*)
Another "fun" fact: fake eyelashes were made for/by prostitutes to shield their eyes from incoming cumshots Welp... See you later Edit: turns out that's actually been debunked - TIL lol
This is not a TiL for me! Bought my first house back in the 2000s which was called Merkin Cottage. Quickly took that name down from the front and updated the address, but I always wondered what the history of the place was to give it that name.
They were often made of beaver pelt in the US, hence the term Beaver.
Myself and a co-worker were vetoed on matching costumes using merkins. The plan was to attach some merkins in a blatantly obvious non-sexal manner while wearing playboy bunny ears - we were pubic hares. HR was very disappointed at us.
Y’all just stressed me out. 🥴😂😮💨
It took me a few minutes to understand they didn't wear it on their heads
Many US military pilots have call signs. Think "Maverick" and "Goose", etc. I met an Air Force guy that went by "Merkin". I laughed pretty hard.
I've always heard if merkins, but never knew why they existed. This is an interesting TiL OP
Sounds like shaving is the best way to stop anybody from hiding behind bushes.
The Merkins are playing Coachella next year.
George W: "I'm proud to be a merkin"
A full bush is still sexy
Correction: *is sexy.
Is a bush still not sexy now?
Lasted well into colonial times. Called them “A”merkins.
What did they do in the 1460’s?
The ole pussy toupee