The internet loves a cheap joke, and “micropenis” has become one of its favorites. People toss it out at strangers in traffic, politicians on TV, and any man doing something annoying in public. It’s an insult that pretends it’s about behavior, then inadvertently drags a medical condition into the blast radius.
A North Carolina man named Michael Phillips is trying to change that, in the loudest way possible. As reported by The Guardian, Phillips is publicly claiming he has the world’s smallest penis, and he’s challenging anyone on earth to prove him wrong. He says the whole point is getting people to take the condition seriously and chill with the body-shaming.
Phillips, 38, made the claim in an interview posted on TMZ’s YouTube channel. He said his penis measures 0.38 inches (0.97 cm) when fully erect. To illustrate it, he held up the fingernail on his right pinky and said, “When it’s flaccid, it’s smaller than that.”
He also said “research [he had] done online” convinced him his measurement might be the smallest on the planet. “I welcome anybody to [go] out there and beat me,” he added. It’s a wild thing to say out loud, but he’s all business.
Phillips told TMZ he was diagnosed with micropenis in 2025. He described “several occasions” where he was “in a position where I could have sex and trying and not being successful,” which pushed him to get checked out and see whether anything could be done. He said using the bathroom can also be difficult because “it goes everywhere and stuff like that.” He claimed medical providers “didn’t give any…advice on how to increase it,” though they mentioned “there’s minor things that can be done.”
Micropenis has an actual clinical definition. The Cleveland Clinic describes it as rare and estimates it affects about 0.6 percent of people worldwide. It also notes that diagnosis relies on stretched penile length, with an adult measurement under a specific threshold falling into the category (around 2.95 inches).
Phillips also took aim at the stereotype that men behave badly because they’re “overcompensating.”
“In reality,” he said, “I believe that has nothing to do with it.”
This is attention-seeking, by design. That’s the only language a lot of people hear anymore. Phillips is trying to pull a medical condition out of the insult bin and into a real conversation about stigma, sex, and healthcare. It’s awkward, but awkward makes people interested.
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