Body Worlds--a Real Shocker

So this weekend I hung out with a bunch of naked people in various poses. And then I went with them to see the Body Worlds exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum.

Okay, no, my friends really aren’t nudists. Nor are they dead. I should have mentioned that part. The people in the exhibit are dead. They are also mostly skinless and very reminiscent of beef jerky. My friends are quite alive and wear clothing. Most of the time, unless they’re not telling me something.

I know, I shouldn’t talk about the dead like that. But at least I wasn’t the one who dared everyone in the group to go suck the &%k of one particular display. I was very respectful. I was also very creeped out.

These were the reverential thoughts I had / comments I made at various moments as I passed through the crowded exhibit:

“I wonder if my tattoo will look like that after I die?”

“I’ve never seen so much gray pubic hair in my life.”

“All the veins in our heads kind of look like a dish sponge.”

“My, that’s a large penis.”

“Oh, and that one’s much smaller.”

"Who thought it would be funny to put the hat on when his face is splayed open like that?"

“Isn’t our nasal cavity quite aesthetically pleasing? When it’s sliced open like that?”

“Maybe now S. will stop smoking. DUDE! Come look at this black lung! How much do you wanna smoke now? Am I right or am I right? Look, you can put your pack in that plastic receptacle right there—the one that’s clearly marked as such. That’s how powerful this exhibit is supposed to be.”

“That fingernail still has dirt under it.”

"Are they supposed to dangle that far?"

“Oh wow, that guy has red hair ... everywhere.”

Observing the internal organs of deceased people in various poses set us up for one of the most colorful evenings of bathroom humor I’ve had in a very long time. Probably because to poke fun at scary or taboo things (our mortality, all of the things that can go wrong with the human body, bodily functions / body parts we’re taught to feel shameful about, etc.) robs them of their power and make them easier to deal with.

Or maybe because it’s just hilarious when a man wears a t-shirt celebrating “The Shocker” (complete with corresponding hand—er, finger sign) and thinks it refers to some new band.