Topical quote about the blood supply to the brain and other organs (Robin Williams 1995)

[Garson O'Toole]

The recent series of stories concerning the sexual behavior of
politicians prompted a question about the following quotation
discussed by some television news commentators:

God gives men a brain and a penis, and only enough blood to run one at a time.

I told the questioner that I might be able to find the date of the
earliest appearance for her but the creator would probably remain
anonymous. However, a version of the joke can be traced to the
comedian Robin Williams who uttered it while he was a guest on the
Tonight show. He also used it in his stand-up comedy routine.

Williams definitely popularized the saying, and the preponderance of
current evidence indicates that he crafted it because his name is
attached to the earliest citations that I have located in 1995. The
phrase was notable enough to appear on a list of "Unforgettable
Quotations of 1995". Here are two 1995 cites and a 1996 cite:

Cite: 1995 November 24, Entertainment Weekly EW.com, Sound Bites: TV's
funniest lines the week of November 24, 1995, Publishing group: Time,
Inc. (Accessed website ew.com 2011 June 11)

''God gave us a penis and a brain, but only enough blood to run one at
a time.'' - Robin Williams on The Tonight Show

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,299711,00.html


Cite: 1995 December 31, Chicago Tribune, The Way We Word Unforgettable
Quotations of 1995, Compiled by Larry Engelmann, Page 18, Chicago,
Illinois. (ProQuest)

"God gave us a penis and a brain, but only enough blood to run one at a time."
Actor Robin Williams


In 1996 another comedian, Judy Carter, wrote a version of the saying
that is gender-neutral:

Cite: 1996, The Homo Handbook by Judy Carter, Page 99, Fireside: Simon
and Schuster, New York. (Google Books preview)

I sometimes think that Big Bertha gave us enough blood to operate our
brains or our genitalia, but not both, or certainly not both at the
same time. So when we get turned on, the blood runs out of our brains,
making us stupid.

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