'Cello Scrotum' Exposed as Medical Hoax

The world's cellists can rest easy today knowing the dreaded "cello scrotum" is a myth, the Independent reports. A doctor who's a member of Britain's House of Lords has confessed that she invented the condition described in a letter to the British Medical Journal as a spoof. It has been referenced in articles on medical maladies for the last 34 years.

The doctor's chemist husband wrote a note to the influential journal after the couple read another letter on "guitarist's nipple"—which the doc believes was also a spoof. They were astonished their letter was published and triggered medical discussions of the "condition," which purportedly caused scrotums to swell. Cellists say they weren't worried about the ailment anyway. "You would have to be doing something fairly extreme to get that by playing the cello,” noted a musician for the London Symphony Orchestra.
(More cello stories.)