Summer Penis

Submission 6,303

About

Summer Penis refers to a supposed phenomenon that makes men's penises appear larger during summer months due to the warmer weather. Since Mel Magazine wrote about the phenomenon in 2018, it has become a popular subject for jokes in the summers since.

Origin

On July 10th, 2018, MEL Magazine^[1] published an article looking into the supposed "summer penis," a phenomenon which makes a man's penis appear larger in summer months due to the warmer weather. The article features anecdotal evidence from men who agree that their flaccid penises appear larger in warmer temperatures. It also features a quote from Orlando urologist Jamin Brahmbhatt, who confirms the "summer penis" is a matter of appearance, not actual growth.

"Summer or winter, your penis size should remain the same. When it’s cold outside, your body does try to maintain its internal heat, and therefore things may appear to be more contracted. When it’s cold outside, blood vessels near the skin contract to maintain the internal heat. However, this type of body heat regulation should not affect the overall size of your penis."

Urologist Dudley Danoff states:

"The warmer the ambient environment, the more the blood vessels dilate, and the warmth allowing vasodilation increases blood flow. So if we think of the penis as these two sausage casings that fill with blood, and the one channel that carries the urine, then the sausage casing will swell and expand to its genetic limit depending on the volume of blood. The increased blood flow will increase, and the corpora [the erectile tissue] will be expanded, and the penis will be ‘larger.’ But I don’t think it holds true in the flaccid state. There would be no explanation for that."

Spread

After MEL's article, other publications began to write about the "Summer Penis," including People,^[2] Daily Mail^[3] and Men's Health.^[4] This also led to a surge of jokes related to "summer penis." For example, user @unclenatie^[5] posted a lyric-parody of "Summer Lovin'" from Grease (shown below, left). User @intothecrevasse tweeted, "If you can't handle me at my winter penis, you sure as hell don't deserve me at my summer penis" (shown below, right).

However, jokes about "summer penis" reached their peak in 2020, as another round of articles about the phenomenon spread on Twitter. For example, Twitter user @Bowsnonk tweeted a lyric parody (shown below, left). Justin Whang made a joke about putting one's penis near a flame in order to grow it (shown below, right).