Pissing Match

A pissing match: two or more men compete by urinating. The person who manages to force out a jet of urine over the longest distance wins. I thought it was the greatest height.

In a metaphorical sense, it is a discussion of two competing philosophies or schools of thought.

See also PissingContest.

Medical students are rumoured to play a similar game called "bladder tennis", which required two catheters and a length of hose.

I've always felt strange hearing this phrase, being without the equipment to carry out such a match and (thankfully) having never witnessed such a thing. There just isn't an analogous experience for women/girls, far as I can tell. By the way, is this what the sinister-looking Calvin decal is doing on the back of pickup trucks--challenging other drivers to a match?

"It's possible, but rather difficult, for girls, as my cabin mates and I discovered at Girl Scout camp after 5th grade. We had a nightly pissing contest from the front porch of our cabin. "--A FemaleFormerPissingContestantWishingToRemainAnonymous.

I think the decal is just a depiction of a small form of vandalism. I've never engaged in or seen a (literal) PissingMatch, and certainly never saw the decal that way. --A Male Wiki'er

The Calvin decal is used to show dislike/disapproval for whatever subject is under the urine stream. EG: Drivers of one brand name pickup truck applying a version with the truck maker's competition. I've always thought that a version with "Copyright Infringers" would be the most appropriate, as the image is an unapproved ripoff of the Bill Watterson's CalvinAndHobbes work.

The Idea of a PissingMatch goes at least as far back as Eighteenth Century. It appears in a poem called "The Dunciad" by Alexander Pope. Different literary critics try to see who can outmatch the other. --Imlac

The Idea of a PissingMatch is based on the age-old connection between sexual imagery and dominance. This is shared widely across primates. See Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors ISBN 0345384725 by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan for more. --Tilly

{It might be based more on wolves that define their territories using urine as markers. I don't think it is necessarily sexual when a wolf pisses on another pissy area to define his territory and dominate the other wolf that pissed before him.}

See: HolyWar

CategoryIdiom