They put people in jail for sporting such huge ones / And this while it’s resting

[Coffee Break]

I encountered the sentences "They put people in jail for sporting such huge ones / And this while it’s resting", but am struggling to understand them. Could you please let me know what they mean? Here is the excerpt:

As usual, I made my way straight into the kitchen. It felt safer there, and gave me time to settle in and get used to faces I hadn’t seen in a while. I found a huge uncut French cucumber and right away put it in my trousers. “They put people in jail for sporting such huge ones,” said Rachel. “And this while it’s resting,” I said, which brought a guffaw from all those in the kitchen. Someone suddenly burst in: “They’re fighting again.” “They should get a divorce,” said Rachel, “they’re jerks.” “Who’s the jerk?” asks her sister. “I am,” said the man who was just quarreling with his wife and who thrust his way into the kitchen to get a glass of water, “I’m the jerk, I am. I. Am. The. Jerk. See?” he said, ramming his head against the wall. “The biggest jerk on earth.”

- André Aciman, Eight White Nights, Seventh Night

This is a novel published in the United States of America in 2010. It is narrated by a nameless male protagonist. He meets Clara at a Christmas party in Manhattan. Now the protagonist is at another party, joking with the host Rachel.

I wonder what the underlined sentences mean.
I vaguely guess that they might be some kind of joke using the cucumber, but I have absolutely no idea why the people are laughing, so I wanted to ask you.

 

[emsr2d2]

Her first statement is just a daft one, suggesting that people are jailed for having a large penis. The second sentence means "And it's this big even while it's flaccid!" There is an unspoken "Imagine how huge it would be when erect". That's why people are laughing.

 

[Ostap]

Her first statement is about exhibitionism -- displaying the private parts publicly. That's indeed illegal.

 

[emsr2d2]

Her first statement is about exhibitionism -- displaying the private parts publicly. That's indeed illegal.

That's a slightly odd take on it. For a start, the cucumber is inside his trousers so he's not displaying anything publicly. Also, "sport" doesn't mean "display" - it's used in place of "have" or "wear".

There's a man sporting a huge moustache. (There's a man who has a huge moustache.)
She was sporting a ridiculous sombrero. (She was wearing a ridiculous sombrero.)

 

[Ostap]

That's a slightly odd take on it.

I particularly don't see anything odd. First, it makes her statement logical and not daft.

For a start, the cucumber is inside his trousers so he's not displaying anything publicly.

He doesn't have to. He just put a huge one in his trousers, which, in turn, made her think of people exposing such ones to the public.

Also, "sport" doesn't mean "display" - it's used in place of "have" or "wear".

But it does. Every dictionary I checked indicates that. E.g., AHD:

To display or show off: “His shoes sported elevated heels” (Truman Capote).

 

[Ostap]

On second thought, I'm not sure now, especially since she's indeed mentioning "such huge ones". Everything about that scene is weird, like they're all on drugs.

 

[emsr2d2]

Everything about that scene is weird, like they're all on drugs.

It doesn't strike me as weird or drug-induced. It's just a bloke being fairly immature with a cucumber and a woman making a puerile joke. I don't even think any alcohol would need to be involved. Adults can be pretty childish!

 

[Ostap]

A bit too immature I'd say. It reminded me of Lloyd doing the trick with the lighter at the party.

 

[Tarheel]

@Ostap Say:

I don't see anything particularly odd.

Why does her statement have to be logical?

 

[Ostap]

@Ostap Say:

I don't see anything particularly odd.

Why does her statement have to be logical?

We assume by default that when people speak they usually make sense. On the other hand, exhibitionists may have things of any size, not only huge. However, it'd make more sense for an exhibitionist to flaunt a big (rather than small or average) one.

 

[Coffee Break]

@emsr2d2, @Ostap, and @Tarheel,

Thank you very much for the explanations.
Oh, so the joke was all about the size of the penis and the exhibitionism.

The confusing part here is whether "sport" (verb) here means "to show off" or just "to have"...
So I looked it up in the OED, and saw that the "show off" meaning (b) and "have" meaning (d) are from the same tree (meaning 10):

10. colloquial. To display publicly. (In senses 10b and 10d now the principal meaning.)
b. transitive. To display or exhibit publicly, esp. in an ostentatious way; (now) esp. to possess (a distinctive visual feature).
d. transitive. To display on the person; to wear.

So basically, someone wears something, such as clothes, so that naturally the worn clothes are shown publicly... so I understood the logic of the meaning of "sport". Though I may be wrong.

So, Rachel was saying: "The police officers put people in jail, just for having such huge genitals, because those huge genitals can show even beneath clothes." (Of course, no one ever gets caught for just having huge genitals, but I guess it is her way of exaggerating the greatness of the size of the genitals, I guess.)
And then the protagonist was saying: "And look at this, it is this big even when it is not in erection." And at his witty remark, people laughed.

I think I am grasping the idea all thanks to you. I sincerely appreciate your help.

 

[Tarheel]

@Coffee Break It's just a silly joke, okay?

 

[Rover_KE]

… and like all silly jokes, it gets less funny the more we try to analyse it.