- Last night was the Season 2 premiere of HBO’s Succession.
- In the episode, Connor Roy (Alan Ruck) mentions that he purchased Napoleon Bonaparte’s penis at an auction.
- It turns out this is a real collector’s item that’s been bought and sold.
HBO’s Succession, which debuted its second season last night, is a constant character study in the super-rich, super-elite, and super out-of-touch. Most of the characters at the center of the show are involved in a Game of Thrones-esque battle to control the family media conglomerate empire, but one character, Connor Roy (Alan Ruck), is the black sheep, of sorts, of the family. In fact, he’s so uninterested in family drama, that while his family members are wrestling for power, he’s purchasing Napoleon’s severed, dried-out, shriveled penis.
You read that right. Connor expressed his interest in “Napoleonica” in the show’s second season debut, and as it turns out, his prized item is actually a real piece that’s been bought and sold in the past. As the Washington Post reported, there were some accounts that following Napoleon’s exile to St. Helena and subsequent death there in 1821, “Napoleon’s little Napoleon, as well as other vital organs, including his heart and stomach, was excised by the doctor.”
Supposedly, the penis traveled around the London auction market beginning in 1927, moving around for around 50 years, until an American urologist named John J. Lattimer pushed his way through the fray to purchase it back in 1977.
According to Vulture, Napoleon’s penis is still in possession of the Lattimer family, now in the hands of Evan Lattimer, daughter of John, as written in a book by Tony Perrottet.
It’s a super weird easter egg from a show where super weird is absolutely the norm. The only thing left to wonder, now, is what Connor might purchase next; Maybe John Lennon’s toilet? Or Stephen Hawking’s wheelchair? Ted Bundy’s Christmas card would certainly be on-brand.