Pee for enjoyment, not employment
October 9, 2016 1:16 PM Subscribe
I need positive, constructive references to peeing.
In the Xanth novels, the centaur tells a goddess or something that he kept a tree alive during a drought and she grants him a favor for it. Later, talking to his friend, he admits he had to pee somewhere and relieved himself on a tree regularly.
In the Mel Gibson movie We Were Soldiers, the artillery is overheating and they are out of water for cooling it down. The officer in charge pees on one of the guns and instructs others to do the same, thereby getting the artillery cooled off.
I have also read that if you are stung by a jelly fish, urinating on the sting will give you relief from the discomfort. (I have actually tried this and, IIRC, it worked.)
I am not interested in ugly "piss on you" references, like the scene from the book Shogun. I am also not looking for explicitly or implicitly sexual references.
Answers with links to video clips or other sources will be automatically best answered.
Thanks.
(Bonus points: It would be awesome if someone posted a link to the movie scene or clarified the details of my fuzzy memory of the incident in some Xanth novel. I will best answer AND favorite these answers.)
In the Xanth novels, the centaur tells a goddess or something that he kept a tree alive during a drought and she grants him a favor for it. Later, talking to his friend, he admits he had to pee somewhere and relieved himself on a tree regularly.
In the Mel Gibson movie We Were Soldiers, the artillery is overheating and they are out of water for cooling it down. The officer in charge pees on one of the guns and instructs others to do the same, thereby getting the artillery cooled off.
I have also read that if you are stung by a jelly fish, urinating on the sting will give you relief from the discomfort. (I have actually tried this and, IIRC, it worked.)
I am not interested in ugly "piss on you" references, like the scene from the book Shogun. I am also not looking for explicitly or implicitly sexual references.
Answers with links to video clips or other sources will be automatically best answered.
Thanks.
(Bonus points: It would be awesome if someone posted a link to the movie scene or clarified the details of my fuzzy memory of the incident in some Xanth novel. I will best answer AND favorite these answers.)
Best answer: There is a scene in the 1984 movie Red Dawn where the truck overheats while the Wolverines are being chased. They make one kid pee on the radiator to cool it down, which he does, and they can drive again. Sorry I couldn't find a clip.
posted by gideonfrog at 1:30 PM on October 9, 2016
posted by gideonfrog at 1:30 PM on October 9, 2016
Best answer: Maynard Smith got a medal for his heroic behavior during a WWII bombing mission part of which involved putting a fire out by urinating on it.
posted by w0mbat at 1:35 PM on October 9, 2016
posted by w0mbat at 1:35 PM on October 9, 2016
Best answer: Urine is good for citrus trees. There may even be a mild joke about this in My Big Fat Greek Wedding but I can't find reference to it - I'll have to re-watch.
posted by jrobin276 at 1:35 PM on October 9, 2016
posted by jrobin276 at 1:35 PM on October 9, 2016
Best answer: There's somewhat non-incidental peeing on a lemon tree in the movie The World's Fastest Indian. (The movie is about aging, living intensely, and land-speed records--not Native Americans or people born in India. I think the motorcycle make or model is an "Indian" or something.)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0412080/
posted by zeek321 at 1:41 PM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0412080/
posted by zeek321 at 1:41 PM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
Best answer: There was this Metafilter comment about butterflies a couple of months ago.
posted by dilettante at 1:56 PM on October 9, 2016
posted by dilettante at 1:56 PM on October 9, 2016
Best answer: Kevin Costner cleans/drinks his urine with a contraption in Waterworld.
posted by stoneandstar at 2:00 PM on October 9, 2016
posted by stoneandstar at 2:00 PM on October 9, 2016
Best answer: I feel like there was an answer in one of the perennial "help me find my cat" asks where someone mentioned something about the scent of the cat's owner's urine on an object could help get the cat to come back home.
Oh, here we go: Apparently, the smell of its owners' urine is one of the strongest associations that a cat makes with its home...
In case anyone was wondering, I tracked down that comment by searching "lost cat urine." Oh, the wonders of askmefi.
posted by litera scripta manet at 2:08 PM on October 9, 2016 [4 favorites]
Oh, here we go: Apparently, the smell of its owners' urine is one of the strongest associations that a cat makes with its home...
In case anyone was wondering, I tracked down that comment by searching "lost cat urine." Oh, the wonders of askmefi.
posted by litera scripta manet at 2:08 PM on October 9, 2016 [4 favorites]
Best answer: I was trying to find a reference to Romans collecting pee from public latrines to use in dyeworks, and found this whole list of pee-positivity
posted by fingersandtoes at 2:19 PM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by fingersandtoes at 2:19 PM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
Not sure if this fits, but I love the scene of Tom Hanks taking a super long pee in A League of their Own. Jack Nicholson does it in Wolf, but it's not very positive. In Doc Hollywood, MJ Fox and co-star go sprinkling their pee around in the woods to help save the deer from hunters.
posted by wwartorff at 2:19 PM on October 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by wwartorff at 2:19 PM on October 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
Best answer: The peeing-in-the-woods scene in Doc Hollywood, where the hero and the love interest dash around marking territory to discourage deer and thwart recreational deer hunters.
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:56 PM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:56 PM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I seem to remember a peeing-on-a-jellyfish-sting scene in one of the early episodes of Lost too.
posted by MsMolly at 2:59 PM on October 9, 2016
posted by MsMolly at 2:59 PM on October 9, 2016
Best answer: My mum used to make my Dad pee on her lemon tree regularly for the nitrogen or something. Not really a reference though but the lemons off the tree were amazing and almost the size of oranges.
posted by wwax at 3:28 PM on October 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by wwax at 3:28 PM on October 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
Best answer: There's an episode of Survivor where a guy gets stung or something and another contestant gladly pees on his wound.
posted by cyclopticgaze at 3:40 PM on October 9, 2016
posted by cyclopticgaze at 3:40 PM on October 9, 2016
Best answer: In "The Full Monty" near the beginning there's a fun scene with a woman showing off about being able to wee in a urinal...
In Brussels there is the celebrated Manneken Pis and the less well-known, fabulous Jeanneke Pis
In Lindsey Davis' first Falco book, "The Silver Pigs", Lenia the laundress insists on visitors adding to her vat of wee.
posted by runincircles at 3:41 PM on October 9, 2016
In Brussels there is the celebrated Manneken Pis and the less well-known, fabulous Jeanneke Pis
In Lindsey Davis' first Falco book, "The Silver Pigs", Lenia the laundress insists on visitors adding to her vat of wee.
posted by runincircles at 3:41 PM on October 9, 2016
Best answer: In a 2016 coming of age movie, "the fundamentals of caring", a teenage boy who uses a wheelchair has a wish to one day pee standing up.
posted by Maxwell_Smart at 4:06 PM on October 9, 2016
posted by Maxwell_Smart at 4:06 PM on October 9, 2016
There's a bit in Shanghai Noon where Jackie Chan demonstrated that a silk cloth moistened with urine can be used to bend a steel bar and escape jail.
Not sure of the Xanth thing but I do recall the "wild oats" thing; a man sows these oats and waters them with his pee, then when the oats are mature, a nymph grows out of them and she is bound to serve the man, "the fertilizer figure". Whether this is something you'd consider "positive" is up to you I guess. I vote creepy.
posted by The otter lady at 4:15 PM on October 9, 2016
Not sure of the Xanth thing but I do recall the "wild oats" thing; a man sows these oats and waters them with his pee, then when the oats are mature, a nymph grows out of them and she is bound to serve the man, "the fertilizer figure". Whether this is something you'd consider "positive" is up to you I guess. I vote creepy.
posted by The otter lady at 4:15 PM on October 9, 2016
Best answer: There's always It's a Privilege to Pee, from Urinetown, the Musical.
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 4:22 PM on October 9, 2016
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 4:22 PM on October 9, 2016
Best answer: In Gulliver's Travels, Gulliver determines that the little thimbles of water the Lilliputians provided him to put out a fire in the Empress' chambers aren't going to cut it, and instead opts to urinate on the blaze.
Also, there's a great scene in The Green Mile where Tom Hanks' character takes his first pee after having been miraculously cured of kidney stones. You can't really do peeing for enjoyment better than that!
posted by elected_potato at 4:41 PM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
Also, there's a great scene in The Green Mile where Tom Hanks' character takes his first pee after having been miraculously cured of kidney stones. You can't really do peeing for enjoyment better than that!
posted by elected_potato at 4:41 PM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
Not sure if personal anecdotes are welcome, but we've had a long hard journey potty training my 3 year-old. The one plus is that every time I pee I get to hear "Yay, Mama peed! Good job, Mama. You did it!"
posted by arrmatie at 4:47 PM on October 9, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by arrmatie at 4:47 PM on October 9, 2016 [9 favorites]
Best answer: How about "Potty Emergency" from Animaniacs? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDzM8PtKvCA is full one
posted by The otter lady at 6:00 PM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by The otter lady at 6:00 PM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
Emergency gas masks during WWI in the trenches were made by pissing on cloth and holding it over your mouth and nose. It was believed to sometimes be enough to get you out of the gas alive.
If you make a solar still in the desert, as well as tossing in any vegetation that contains moisture, you can urinate in the bottom of the still.
In ancient times/medieval times they tested for diabetes by tasting the patient's urine. If it was sweet they knew the poor patient was in trouble. They could also tell if the patient was in trouble if it was cloudy, etc.
There is a not very reliable bit of lore out there about the safe way to get high using amanita muscaria. It's easy to overdose on the mushrooms, so what you do is get someone else or a reindeer to eat the mushrooms and then you drink their urine. Processed by their kidneys the urine will contain just enough of the drug to get you happily hallucinating, but not enough to actually kill you.
Jackson Pollock is reputed to have drawn the original inspiration for his art from pissing contests in the snow with his older brothers.
posted by Jane the Brown at 9:28 PM on October 9, 2016
If you make a solar still in the desert, as well as tossing in any vegetation that contains moisture, you can urinate in the bottom of the still.
In ancient times/medieval times they tested for diabetes by tasting the patient's urine. If it was sweet they knew the poor patient was in trouble. They could also tell if the patient was in trouble if it was cloudy, etc.
There is a not very reliable bit of lore out there about the safe way to get high using amanita muscaria. It's easy to overdose on the mushrooms, so what you do is get someone else or a reindeer to eat the mushrooms and then you drink their urine. Processed by their kidneys the urine will contain just enough of the drug to get you happily hallucinating, but not enough to actually kill you.
Jackson Pollock is reputed to have drawn the original inspiration for his art from pissing contests in the snow with his older brothers.
posted by Jane the Brown at 9:28 PM on October 9, 2016
Best answer: I found this on tumblr and it illustrates the lemon tree/pee thing perfectly.
posted by zoetrope at 9:28 PM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by zoetrope at 9:28 PM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I believe there's a subplot in Neal Stephenson's The Confusion in which several of the characters collect urine to make phosphorus so that they can... use it to fight their way through a bandit-infested trade route, apparently? It's been a while since I read those books.
posted by sibilatorix at 9:48 PM on October 9, 2016
posted by sibilatorix at 9:48 PM on October 9, 2016
There's a scene in Outlander (the show, not the book) where Claire joins a group of women in a Highland village (I think the episode is "Rent") to make felt, and they explain how they use urine to dye it. They are all drinking lots so they can collect their own pee in a bucket, and Claire merrily takes her turn to contribute.
posted by tracicle at 1:24 AM on October 10, 2016
posted by tracicle at 1:24 AM on October 10, 2016
Best answer: In the Soviet-Ukranian film Земля (Zemlya / "Earth") made in 1930, the first tractor ever to be used in a village is being driven there, but stalls when the radiator runs dry. All of the men in the village courageously pee into it and disaster is averted by cooperation. The Wikipedia page has a link to the full film on Youtube and I believe this scene appears fairly early on.
In Jean Auel's The Clan of the Cave Bear / Earth's Children series of novels, the prehistoric human protagonists is introduced to a method of treating leather that involves storing urine until it develops into a bleaching agent, and is then used to soften the leather and make it a lighter color.
As other answers above have alluded to: as a free form of liquid fertilizer, properly-treated hygienised urine is an important sustainable agricultural resource in developing parts of the world.
posted by XMLicious at 3:58 AM on October 10, 2016
In Jean Auel's The Clan of the Cave Bear / Earth's Children series of novels, the prehistoric human protagonists is introduced to a method of treating leather that involves storing urine until it develops into a bleaching agent, and is then used to soften the leather and make it a lighter color.
As other answers above have alluded to: as a free form of liquid fertilizer, properly-treated hygienised urine is an important sustainable agricultural resource in developing parts of the world.
posted by XMLicious at 3:58 AM on October 10, 2016
More Kevin Costner whiz in Fandango - they pee in the radiator to help an overheated car - not pure enjoyment, but there's camaraderie.
Charles Martin Smith has a great scene in Never Cry Wolf where he drinks a bunch of tea and sings songs from Pirates of Penzance while running around his frozen camp peeing everywhere to mark his territory. Again, not pure enjoyment, but it is a fun, funny scene and he is clearly enjoying himself.
With Costner and CMS out of the way I am tempted to try and track down pee scenes for Sean Connery and Andy Garcia so we could have whole Untouchables urine supercut, but alas, duty calls. Not that kind of duty.
posted by dirtdirt at 7:12 AM on October 10, 2016
Charles Martin Smith has a great scene in Never Cry Wolf where he drinks a bunch of tea and sings songs from Pirates of Penzance while running around his frozen camp peeing everywhere to mark his territory. Again, not pure enjoyment, but it is a fun, funny scene and he is clearly enjoying himself.
With Costner and CMS out of the way I am tempted to try and track down pee scenes for Sean Connery and Andy Garcia so we could have whole Untouchables urine supercut, but alas, duty calls. Not that kind of duty.
posted by dirtdirt at 7:12 AM on October 10, 2016
Best answer: Along with the artillery story--in World War I a British machine gun unit was being used as, in effect, short-range artillery, to deny the Germans access to a particular small area. They did so by simply pouring long-range fire from their Vickers machine guns into the area. The gunners had to keep this up for 12 hours. Point was, the Vickers gun was water-cooled. By the end of the operation all the cooling water provided had gone up in steam and the gunners were re-filling the cooling water tanks with a more basic fluid.
Interesting discussion (for militaria nerds anyway) of the veracity of the story here.
posted by Logophiliac at 7:57 AM on October 10, 2016
Interesting discussion (for militaria nerds anyway) of the veracity of the story here.
posted by Logophiliac at 7:57 AM on October 10, 2016
Best answer: O What A Luxury
by Garrison Keillor
O what a luxury it be
What pleasure O what perfect bliss
So ordinary and yet chic
To pee to piss to take a leak
To feel your bladder just go free
And open like the Mighty Miss
And all your cares go down the creek
To pee to piss to take a leak
For gentlemen of great physique
Who can hold water for one week
For ladies who one quarter-cup
Of tea can fill completely up
For folks in urinalysis
For little kids just learning this
For Viennese or Swiss or Greek
For everyone it’s pretty great
To urinate.
Women are quite circumspect
But men can piss with great effect
With terrible hydraulic force
Can make a stream or change its course
Can put out fires or cigarettes
And sometimes, laying down our bets,
Late at night outside the bars
We like to aim up at the stars.
O yes for men its much more grand
Women sit or squat
We stand
And hold the fellow in our hand
And proudly watch the golden arc
Adjust the range and make our mark
On stones and posts for rival men
To smell and not come back again.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 11:00 AM on October 10, 2016 [3 favorites]
by Garrison Keillor
O what a luxury it be
What pleasure O what perfect bliss
So ordinary and yet chic
To pee to piss to take a leak
To feel your bladder just go free
And open like the Mighty Miss
And all your cares go down the creek
To pee to piss to take a leak
For gentlemen of great physique
Who can hold water for one week
For ladies who one quarter-cup
Of tea can fill completely up
For folks in urinalysis
For little kids just learning this
For Viennese or Swiss or Greek
For everyone it’s pretty great
To urinate.
Women are quite circumspect
But men can piss with great effect
With terrible hydraulic force
Can make a stream or change its course
Can put out fires or cigarettes
And sometimes, laying down our bets,
Late at night outside the bars
We like to aim up at the stars.
O yes for men its much more grand
Women sit or squat
We stand
And hold the fellow in our hand
And proudly watch the golden arc
Adjust the range and make our mark
On stones and posts for rival men
To smell and not come back again.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 11:00 AM on October 10, 2016 [3 favorites]
In the Modesty Blaise book "The Impossible Virgin," our heroes are being sniped at while holed up in a cave. They want to take the back way out but keep the snipers from realizing they're gone, so they use pee (uric acid) in a shallow pan with cotton wicks leading to cartridges standing on the wicks, which explode randomly. All goes well.
posted by MovableBookLady at 11:02 AM on October 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by MovableBookLady at 11:02 AM on October 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
I don't think it made it into the miniseries, but there's a scene in Roots where a young Chicken George is taught to pee on fighting roosters' wounds for the same reason as the above-referenced jellyfish sting.
There's the Simpsons episode where Bart drinks a lot of water on Christmas Eve so that having to pee will make him wake up early on Christmas morning.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:14 AM on October 10, 2016
There's the Simpsons episode where Bart drinks a lot of water on Christmas Eve so that having to pee will make him wake up early on Christmas morning.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:14 AM on October 10, 2016
Best answer: World War I. German forces introduced a novel form of combat now known as chemical warfare. [...] A German artillery barrage was followed by a cloud of yellow-green gas which crept toward the allied positions. The allies had not seen such a cloud before. [...] Canadians had two medical corps doctors present, Lieutenant Colonel (Dr) George Nasmith and Captain (Dr) FAC Scrmiger who would prove instrumental in responding to this chemical insult.
Dr Nasmith and Scrmiger, both experienced physicians, recognized the gas as chlorine. Dr Scrmiger’s immediate orders to his battalion included instructions to urinate on handkerchiefs, placing them over mouth/nose when encountering the gas cloud. The urine present in these crude masks caused the chlorine gas to crystallize, preventing pulmonary effects
posted by fings at 12:25 PM on October 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
Dr Nasmith and Scrmiger, both experienced physicians, recognized the gas as chlorine. Dr Scrmiger’s immediate orders to his battalion included instructions to urinate on handkerchiefs, placing them over mouth/nose when encountering the gas cloud. The urine present in these crude masks caused the chlorine gas to crystallize, preventing pulmonary effects
posted by fings at 12:25 PM on October 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I will briefly note some people are taking the title too literally. It was a signature I saw years ago on some forum. I never knew what the heck it meant, but it tickled me. It seemed close enough to what I was going for here, in spite of my ongoing bafflement as to what it is supposed to mean.
I am especially liking the information about peeing on trees and the use of urine as fertilizer in developing countries. But a lot of this is excellent and unexpected information.
Thanks.
posted by Michele in California at 5:02 PM on October 10, 2016
I am especially liking the information about peeing on trees and the use of urine as fertilizer in developing countries. But a lot of this is excellent and unexpected information.
Thanks.
posted by Michele in California at 5:02 PM on October 10, 2016
Best answer: That scene in Austin Powers where he wakes up from decades of cryosleep and goes for a pee.
posted by awfurby at 10:07 PM on October 10, 2016
posted by awfurby at 10:07 PM on October 10, 2016
I'm fuzzy on the details, but there's a definitely an episode in the HBO series Rome where some formidable cloth dyers are involved in a power grab for the city's urine, and it is clearly treated as a precious commodity.
posted by veery at 1:38 PM on October 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by veery at 1:38 PM on October 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
Best answer: In one of Jean M. Auel's Clan of The Cave Bear books, The Shelters of Stone, I think, the protagonist learns from an elder that the secret of making rare, highly prized white leather is to collect urine and leave it until it becomes ammonia, which can then be used to bleach skins. The white leather is later used for wedding clothing, signifying how exceptional Ayla is.
posted by Edna Million at 4:20 PM on October 12, 2016
posted by Edna Million at 4:20 PM on October 12, 2016
Best answer: They tested the idea of urine as a laundry product on MythBusters. If I remember correctly, they discovered it wasn't perfect but it was better than they thought it would be.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:32 PM on October 13, 2016
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:32 PM on October 13, 2016
Best answer: In Dan Brown's Deception Point, scientist Corky Marlinson pees on himself so the swarm of hammerhead sharks don't smell his blood and attack.
posted by The Almighty Mommy Goddess at 7:16 AM on October 17, 2016
posted by The Almighty Mommy Goddess at 7:16 AM on October 17, 2016
Best answer: There should be more information on urine as fertilizer (especially practical methods for collecting/storing/using it) in the Humanure Handbook, which can be downloaded free in PDF form.
posted by sibilatorix at 12:29 PM on October 17, 2016
posted by sibilatorix at 12:29 PM on October 17, 2016
Response by poster: Thanks all. I especially appreciate the info about peeingvon trees and pee as fertilizer.
posted by Michele in California at 12:43 PM on November 9, 2016
posted by Michele in California at 12:43 PM on November 9, 2016
Agriculture with urine IN SPAAAAACE post from the front page
posted by XMLicious at 12:54 PM on March 10, 2017
posted by XMLicious at 12:54 PM on March 10, 2017
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 1:22 PM on October 9, 2016