55 thoughts on “The great toilet paper debate: the answer!”

  1. This is uncanny. I was literally just thinking about toilet paper rolls and Diana. Last year, I remember taking on Diana’s under preference, as a personal experiment. I’ve since been going with the under orientation, and now the over orientation feels weird, though I put it in over a few minutes ago. The cats. I was thinking of the cats.

      1. Well Diana, from the video, it looks like you’re on the worng side of the debate. 🙂

        Interesting series of videos, though, I liked the one on ‘paper towns’ – non-existent localities mapmakers put on maps as traps for unauthorised copying.

        cr

        1. The video only presents that weak patent evidence again. It says nothing new but it is correct in that my way looks neater.

          1. Exactly how is it “neater”?

            I remember one time my (dear, wonderful) wife read in some home decorating book that books are to be organized by color and size, so they look nicer.

            My reply was, sure, that’s OK if you don’t plan on actually ever reading the books. If they are simply props. In which case, why bother with real books? Get fake ones for your shelves!

            http://www.aliexpress.com/item/2015-new-coffee-bar-Decoration-fake-book-Furniture-fancy-Paperboard-Photography-props-Ornate-Display-Modern-Simple/32597223612.html?spm=2114.40010308.4.19.nTYZyx

            Do I value function? Yes.

            One of the first things I do when invited to someone’s home for the first time is check out their books. (We have far too many … we’re in the process of giving them away to our local library.)

          2. It’s neater because you don’t see the end. That is why I like the under.

  2. Of course, all the psychological and sociological stuff was nothing but Babel, and completely wrong.

    I am disappointed though. The Royals get it fan folded but still have to do it themselves.

    1. I think it is lose lose for the rich. No matter how much wealth one has, one is likely to have to wipe one’s own ass and even if one did not do it oneself someone else is unlikely to achieve the same success. (And I find bidets to be unsuccessful by themselves.)

    2. So there should be a job title of royal ass-wiper? Perhaps there’s a guild.

  3. We solved this problem at our house by getting a tp holder that holds the roll vertically.

    Given a conventional holder, over is the only acceptable answer.

      1. That depends whether you’re in Northern or Southern Hemisphere.

        cr

  4. No more TP problems since I had my Japanese electronic toilet installed. The problem now is where to store the remote control; horizontally on a shelf or vertically on a wall holder?

    1. Japanese electronic toilet: Is that the one that prints out all your sugar levels and vital data as soon you take a piss?

    2. You mean the Japanese haven’t got a mind-control version? Yet?

  5. As an RVer (and an older person and a liberal and… well, whatever!),I always go for over. With under, you can’t find the end of the roll without feeling for it, and that leads to contamination. If you can actually see the end, on an under roll, that’s because it’s hanging long enough to lie against the wall. Anyone want to venture a guess over how much toilet bowl splash has hit that wall during years worth of normal flushing? Yech!

    1. But given where your hand goes once it’s got the TP, contact with a contaminated wall is a minor matter. In for a penny, in for a pound.

      😉

  6. Of the thousands of questions that Ann Landers answered, I noticed only one. The TP should be hung so the decorative pattern shows best.

    1. That was always my argument. However, we no longer have decorative patterns.

  7. Grasping facility is one of the reasons Under is superior. It doesn’t wind up tearing off the top like with Over, then requiring a search for the damn end.

    And germs? I guess that’s a concern for people who don’t wash their hands afterwards.

    I think a lot of this depends on what kind of holder you have, tho, how far away it is, etc.

    1. If you’re looking for the end, just roll the damn thing a bit. In any case, it’s the prissy under orientation that’s always hiding the end. Because of the normal activity of gravity, the end can’t hide between the roll and the wall when installed overly correctly, but can, if installed underly correctly.

      If we ever visit a planet in which gravity pushes out rather than pulls in (viz. inflation theory), then maybe the asswipe should lie the other way.

      Of course, there is another end involved here too, but the fine or the crude points of human anatomy should not be the butt of humour here (or even humor, for that matter).

    3. About those germs… You have a, well, let’s call it an “outie”, while I have an “innie”, and my “innie” actually continues inward to open right into the peritoneal space. Along the way, infection can lead to sterility or worse, scarring and ectopic pregnancies than can end in a brutally painful pregnancy death for the mother to be. Germs that make it into the peritoneum, though, can do worse, with a less anticipated/preventable, and far more excruciatingly painful and slow death due to peritonitis.

      So, with respect for all women out there, germs matter even before hands are washed.

  8. When using the over position, the end of the roll is certainly not always hanging down (due to static electricity, the self-adhering of paper fibers?). If you want to find the free end, you tend to slap downward on the roll which, I would think, puts more stress on the TP bracket and how it’s mounted on the wall. Doing the same slap upwards (roll on in under position) is usually gentler and less likely to loosen the TP bracket over time.

    I grew up in a family of overs, but just like losing their Methodist religion, I outgrew their over-teaching and have become a militant under and a militant atheist. And proud of it.

    1. +1 for your wisdom. It’s is easy to see the end of the roll with the under position as it’s there hanging behind like always.

  9. I’m proud to stand with the conservative working class. On this, that is.

  10. The narrator seems to have misrepresented the figures, saying that most middle aged people prefer it under, when in fact it was 61% in favour of over.

  12. I liked Southwest Airlines answer to the passenger complaint. “What were you doing upside down in our toilet?”

    A definite win.

    cr

  16. A search of the previous post on this topic shows I did not post this before.

    This is clearly the one question in life over which one can say in polite company with impunity “I don’t give a crap”.

  17. Until now, I’ve been quite neutral in this, though I generally go for the Over orientation. It’s now occurred to me that Over is best for folks who don’t have full dexterity of their hands or have poor eyesight. So public washrooms with standard paper holders should do the Over thing.

    Question: what’s with fancy washrooms where there’s a bathroom attendant handing you a cloth or paper towel after you wash up? I find it so weird as opposed to ‘attentive and pampering’. Is one supposed to leave a tip for this service?

    1. Of course! Many public toilets in Europe have attendants who not only give you towels but they also clean the toilets as well. Sometimes the tips are the only income they get for this service.

      1. I just want my privacy and to be left alone in the loo. For that little time upon the throne in a public washroom, I don’t need a royal attendant.

        I remember in Mexico, on a side tour somewhere, we even had to buy sheets of TP from an attendant! Don’t know if they still do that.

        2. The stalls usually have doors, you know. And the attendant usually stands at the entrance to the washroom except when they’re cleaning it.

          cr

  18. The softer side of TP is usually the “outside-of-the-roll” surface, because of the way the paper is made. When unrolling a length of paper and tearing it off, gravity pulls down the center of the length creating a “U” of paper, which we then fold or wad before using. Thus the floor-facing side of the U becomes the side of paper applied to our bum. When hanging over-the-top, the rougher side of paper becomes the side used against your bum. And when hanging under, the softer side goes against your bum. Your choice.

    1. Are you saying that you can determine the orientation of the TP during its manufacture simply by rubbing it on your ass? That’s incredible. I bet you are VERY picky about underwear.

  20. Seems like a good spot for this joke:

    I once saw this guy on a bridge, about to jump to his death. I said, “don’t do it!”

    He said, “Nobody loves me!”

    I said, “God loves you!”

    He replied, “Yes, I guess.”

    I asked, “Are you a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim … ?”

    He said, “A Christian.”

    I said, “Me too! Protestant or Catholic?”

    He said, “Protestant.”

    I said, “Me too! What denomination?”

    He said, “Baptist.”

    I said, “Me too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?”

    He said, “Northern Baptist.”

    I said, “Me too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?”

    He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist.”

    I said, “Me too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?”

    He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region.”

    I said, “Me too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879 or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?”

    He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.”

    I said, “Die, Heretic!” and I pushed him off the bridge!

    1. Given recent posts on plagiarism, I think it’s only fair that correct attribution is applied here.

      The joke was written by Emo Phillips

  21. I think JeremyP’s Law applies here.

    JeremyP’s Law states “whenever a long inconclusive – possibly acrimonious- debate about a scenario with two mutually exclusive choices occurs on the Internet, the correct answer is ‘it doesn’t matter'”.

    For me, the correct way to hang a toilet roll is whichever way it is hung.

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