'Putting the Glee in Gleason' prostate humor contest
By Howard Wolinsky
Who says prostate cancer isn’t funny--at least sometimes? Even advanced prostate cancer.
Jokesters, including Bard AI, entered more than 50 one-liner, shaggy dogs, cartoons, limericks and othe bits—we even play blue-- in the first-ever “Putting the Glee in Gleason” prostate comedy contest.
TheActiveSurveillor.com is grateful for all the entries and good humor (not the ice cream--many of us avoid dairy, right)--and attempts at humor. Jokes are in eye of the beholder. Did Jerry Lewis say that?
(TheActiveSurveillor.com apologizes for the delay in announcing the winners. Stuff came up.)
Committee members Howard Wolinsky, TAS editor and Gleason 6 patient, and Jim-Bob Williams, the humor therapist and Gleason 6 patient from West Virginia, finally are ready to deliver.
So on with the show.
Why a Gleason humor award?
Two “Great Ones” were Gleasons: (1) Dr. Donald Gleason, the pathologist who developed the Gleason score for prostate cancer more than 50 years ago, and (2) of course the late, great comedian and actor Jackie Gleason, who died from colon cancer. Here is a mock-up of our awards certificate—suitable for framing—contains images of Dr. Gleason and The Great One, and a Gleason 6.
In part, we aim to make fun of the Gleason score used to measure aggressiveness of prostate cancer based on a pathology slide of the patient’s prostate.
But humor is found throughout this treadmill, especially digital rectal exams. Talk about rimshots.
It’s tough--and subjective--judging humor. Nevertheless, all decisions are final. So no griping, OK? All decisions are final. And that’s final.
First off, the winners in the professional category:
--AnCan Foundation nominated Sir Billy Connolly’s over-the top stand-up “Prostate exam.”
--TheActiveSurveillor.com nominated Danny DeVito, playing the urologist, and Michael Douglas, playing the patient, in “The Kominsky Method,” capturing the inherent hilarity of a digital rectal exam in this segment entitled, “You complete me.”
Don’t miss them. These classics are now in “The Prostate Humor Hall of Fame.”
Appropriately enough for this crowd, we’ll dribble out the winners throughout 2024. We’ll publish winners in a “Joke of The Month” published in TheActiveSurveillor.com starting below.
Winners will receive swag donated by AnCan Foundation, Active Surveillance Patients International, Prostate Canada Support Canada, and the Walnut Foundation in Toronto.
(Prostate bling and swag.)
Also books. Special thanks to authors who donated signed copies of their books: Dr. Mark Scholz, of Prostate Cancer Research Institute, author of “Invasion of the Prostate Snatchers”--love the title; Ericka Johnson, Swedish researcher and author of “A CULTURAL BIOGRAPHY OF THE PROSTATE: and Jim Doilney, who with his friend Rick Barrow, wrote a fascinating prostate cancer biography and travelogue, “Riding the Scalpel.”
Thanks to I Heart Guts, which produces plush doll prostates and other swag, such as prostate lapel pins and prostate keychains. They also produce hearts, livers, kidneys, you name it. I Heart “I Heart Guts.” www.iheartguts.com
https://iheartguts.com/cdn/shop/files/prostate-plush-square-HD1080p_1800x1800.gif?v=1693596750
Charles Metzger, MD, a retired urologist, who moderates the Prostate Forum of Orange County, has a catalogue of prostate shtick. He is our first physician winner in the “Putting The Glee in Gleason” prostate humor contest. He keeps a virtual vault of prostate jokes he uses in PowerPoints.
A Metzger entry: An old man goes to the urology office. The receptionist says, “We need a urine specimen, a stool specimen, and a semen specimen” The man is quite hard of hearing and looks at his wife, he asks her “What did she say.” The wife calmly replies: “She says to give her your underwear.”
Rimshot, please.
As an individual who stumbled into AS simply because my doctor in the UK (I was living there 10 years ago) only gave me one choice to eliminate the Gleason 6 cancer - and that was incontinence and impotence. I shuddered at the option, and all these years later, I’m still on AS. So, I’m always very interested in what you have to say, sir. Great job, keep it up. "
Alan Willison
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