Paul McCartney's GQ Interview

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About

Paul McCartney's GQ Interview refers to an interview with Sir Paul McCartney, formerly of The Beatles, in which he details aspects of his career and relates untold Beatles stories. Most notably, McCartney tells a story about how he and John Lennon and several others masturbated together until Lennon shouted "Winston Churchill" and spoiled the moment. The anecdote led to multiple jokes online, often taking the shape of masturbation puns on Beatles song titles.

Origin

On September 11th, 2018, GQ published an interview with Paul McCartney.^[1] In the interview, McCartney detailed aspects of his career, including what it was like working with Kanye West, and told stories about the Beatles' past. Of note, he related a story about how once he, John Lennon, and several others once masturbated together in a dark room, occasionally shouting names of attractive women to encourage each other, until Lennon shouted "Winston Churchill!"

"What it was," he explains after I have prompted him, "was over at John's house, and it was just a group of us. And instead of just getting roaring drunk and partying--I don't even know if we were staying over or anything--we were all just in these chairs, and the lights were out, and somebody started masturbating, so we all did."
There would be about five of them: McCartney, Lennon, and maybe three of Lennon's friends. As they each concentrated on their mission, anyone in the group was encouraged to shout out a name that would offer relevant inspiration.
"We were just, 'Brigitte Bardot!' 'Whoo!'" McCartney says, "and then everyone would thrash a bit more."
At least until one of them--the one you would perhaps expect--opted for disruption over stimulation.
"I think it was John sort of said, 'Winston Churchill!'" McCartney remembers, and acts out the aghast, stymied reactions.

Spread

After the article was published, Twitter users began making jokes about the anecdote by making puns on Beatles song titles. For example, Twitter user @pattymo made a joke about the Beatles song "Come Together," gaining over 2,600 retweets and 19,000 likes (shown below, left). User @camjwolf posted a list of Beatles songs "ruined" by the news, gaining over 70 retweets and 390 likes (shown below, right).

The following morning, the New York Post reported on the story with three separate masturbation puns on their front cover (shown below, left). Twitter user @papapishu pointed out that the Post added a fourth pun for their social media coverage, gaining 32 retweets and 161 likes (shown below, right).

The story and jokes were covered by several news outlets, including Twitter Moments,^[2] People Magazine,^[3] Global News^[4] and others.