Where do male porn stars get their stamina?

A STAFF REPORT FROM THE STRAIGHT DOPE SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD

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Dear Straight Dope: I’ve got a somewhat perverse question that’s been nagging me for a while now. Let me just cut to the chase: how is that porn stars can keep “working” for so long? Climaxes for men in these films seem to take an unnaturally long time to occur, if they ever do. I realize that (most) pornography is supposed to be about the act of sex, not its end, but I’ve always been curious about the why and how of the male porn star’s seemingly limitless stamina. A Curious College Student in Florida

SDStaff Euty replies:

Ah, my friend, you’ve been misled as have so many others by the magic of Hollywood. Because when you get right down to it, porn is created in exactly the same way that any other movie is. None of the action is filmed in real time — it’s filmed in sections and then spliced together in the editing room. The action may have been filmed over the course of a day, or even a few days with rest breaks in between. There are actually employees in the porn business called “fluffers” whose job it is to get the boys erect again so they can go back to work.

And work it is. Most porn actors report that they don’t get a lot of sexual enjoyment from what they do but consider it acting in the same sense that what John Gielgud does is acting. Sorry to put that image in your mind, but it’s true.

Anyway, after all the filming is complete, the film is then spliced together with all evidence of diminishing ardor snipped away to make it appear as if the lady is in constant heat and the guy can stay pumped indefinitely. Which he probably can’t. Not like some of us.

In other news, Ian Holm doesn’t really disappear in The Fellowship of the Ring and despite what you might have seen in Independence Day the White House is still standing.

SDStaff Euty, Straight Dope Science Advisory Board

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