Learn English – more polite idiom for “comparing whose penis is larger”

idioms

I've heard of the general expression of "let's not compare whose penis is larger" and thought it was a common expression but a quick search on the internet yields no results…

The underlying meaning of this "supposed" idiom points to the wasted time when two parties meet and instead of solving the problem, the two parties continually compare whose whatever is bigger. Eventually, one party might give up and say this idiom pointing to the idea that instead of stroking each others' egos, they could forego their differences and their pride to actually work together to solve a problem.

I recently searched it up wondering if there was a more polite idiom to use, but I could not find an idiom of similar meaning.

My questions are therefore:

  1. Am I imagining this idiom up out of my personal experiences or is there a related idiom similar in meaning that I have unintentionally paraphrased?
  2. If this idiom, God forbid, does actually exist; is there perhaps a more polite version of this idiom?

Many thanks for your time!

Best Answer

Credit to user576 for their comment.

I've searched the web for "let's not compare whose penis is larger" and got no results, which led me to believe it's not really idiomatic. If you cut it down to "whose penis is larger" you get 717 results, compared to almost 1400 if you search for "whose penis is bigger", which really sounds more natural.

There is, however, a vulgar equivalent to "let's not compare whose penis is bigger", namely, "let's stop this pissing contest".

A pissing contest is any argument that just goes back and forth between two individuals but never gets resolved. - The Urban Dicionary

from Wikipedia — A pissing contest, or pissing match, is a game in which participants compete to see who can urinate the highest, the farthest, or the most accurately. Although the practice is often associated with adolescent boys, women have been known to play the game, and there are literary depictions of adults competing in it. Since the 1940s the term has been used as a slang idiomatic phrase describing contests that are "futile or purposeless", especially if waged in a "conspicuously aggressive manner". As a metaphor it is used figuratively to characterise ego-driven battling in a pejorative or facetious manner that is often considered vulgar. The image of two people urinating on each other has also been offered as a source of the phrase.

  • The conversation between the two men was merely a pissing contest, both were trying to impress the attractive woman standing nearby with their wit and intelligence.

Urban Dictionary's crowdsourced definition describes the term as being used figuratively "to refer to a meaningless though nonetheless entertaining act in which people try to outdo one another in any way." Comments found there also describe pissing contests as literal competition "in which two or more people, usually (but not exclusively) male, urinate with the intention of producing the stream with the greatest distance."The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English separates its definition of "pissing match" (a conflict involving "unpleasantries") from "pissing contest" (a conflict with negative attacks made by both sides). For "pissing contest" it offers a different image from other reference works: "From the graphic if vulgar image of two men urinating on each other". Both phrases are said to originate in the United States.

Your second question is about a less vulgar way to phrase the same idea. I couldn't find an idiom for it and I therefore suggest "Let's stop this pointless, meaningless or purposeless discussion".

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