A Slice Of History: John & Lorena Bobbitt On 'Ridiculous Romance'

On the new podcast Ridiculous Romance, real-life married couple Eli and Diana Banks tackle the most interesting, weird, wacky relationships through history. This is no sappy Hallmark podcast; instead, they sift through the timeline to find stories about the transgender empress of Ancient Rome, the woman who married the Berlin Wall, the polyamorous triad that created Wonder Woman, and the interracial couple who were the first people to claim to be abducted by aliens, and recount them in a lively, engaging way. On this episode, they get into the memorable 1993 story of John and Lorena Bobbitt, when Lorena, pushed to her limit by John’s alleged sexual assault, picked up a kitchen knife and changed both their lives forever.

The details of the infamous dismemberment are fully explored (including humorous details like the Big Bite box from 7/11 the police used to transport the organ to the hospital, or John’s high five to the urologist on the operating table), but the real meat (har har) happens after the headlines. Lorena went back to her maiden name, avoided attention, and eventually started a nonprofit foundation dedicated to ending spousal abuse and marital rape. But John took every opportunity to capitalize off the fame his injury had won him, doing everything from selling kitchen knives to wrestling Joey Buttafuoco in a celebrity WWE match to starring in pornographic films produced by the notorious Ron Jeremy – all the while popping in and out of jail on domestic violence charges.

At some point, everyone but John knew his fifteen minutes were over, but he kept persevering. His erratic career results in “a real who’s who of America’s dirtbags,” Eli jokes, creating unlikely mash-ups like Mark Hamill and Daniel Carver, the Grand Dragon of the Georgia KKK, or Flava Flav and Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Plus, the woman who married John for only a week and then published a book about it, his search for buried treasure in the Rockies, his con artist best friend, and much more; get the entire wild story of John and Lorena Bobbitt (complete with “scholarly, Library of Congress-style jokes”) on this episode of Ridiculous Romance.

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