Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Culture

The 7 Most Famous Uses of ‘Schlong’ Before Donald Trump

Donald Trump’s use of the term “schlonged” may have been the most recent example of a Yiddish curse hitting the mainstream. But it’s hardly the first. In fact, the term schlong has been swinging around pop culture for quite a while. Here are seven of the most noteworthy uses of the (rather unpleasant) term:

1969 Philip Roth, “Portnoy’s Complaint”

“His schlong brings to mind the fire hoses coiled along the corridors at school.”

1982: Peter O’Toole playing the role of Alan Swann in “My Favorite Year”

“My dear fellow, what I choose to do with my schlong is my business.”

1990: James Ellroy, “L.A. Confidential”

“My God to be so nimble and so hung, like Heifetz on the fiddle with his schlong that dog is.”

1995: “Beavis and Butthead”

Butthead: “Beavis, you’re gonna keep talking about loogies and I’m gonna be too busy swinging around my gigantic schlong.

1998: Linda Tripp to Monica Lewinsky (transcript):

“The worst thing here to me, I have to say to you, I know — because I know the whole history — I know how devastating terrible, and I would be the cause of being devastatingly terrible for him to know that you told. That’s my biggest problem with this whole thing, and that’s why I want out of it. Not because I admire him because right now I think he is a schlong, not because I’m an enemy of the administration because I don’t think i am, it’s because I can’t bear the pain and anguish and, frankly, I don’t know what you would do. And I have that on my conscience, too, forever.”

2006 Phyllis Diller, from her memoir “Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse.”

“In an instant, some decrepit guy parked himself a couple of seats away (and) pulled out his shlong.”

2011 New York Post headline about Anthony Weiner:

“WEINER’S SWAN SCHLONG; HEAT’S ON TO QUIT AS PENIS PIC HITS THE ‘NET

2013 New York Daily News Headline (also about Anthony Weiner):

“G’BYE, SO SCHLONG: Voters give Weiner stiff rebuke”

Follow Adam Langer Twitter @Adam_Langer

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.