Slightly less popular today, this cherished anecdote about the Victorians actually originated in Britain and was told about Americans. The idea of sophisticated adults feeling concern over impure sexual thoughts inspired by table legs, however, fits in more comfortably today with negative stereotypes about citizens of Victorian England, who were notoriously paranoid about all forms of sexual representation, despite at the same time secretly consuming massive quantities of what is seriously some of the filthiest pornography you have ever seen in your life.