This case study explores two stories from Boccaccio's Decameron, both featuring the character of Calandrino, through the lens of Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology. It argues that the comedy of both tales relies upon a disjuncture between what Merleau-Ponty terms the 'lived body' and the 'objective body'. This phenomenological conception of embodiment is then used to explore the ways in which Calandrino's body challenges the binary of biological sex. The article further suggests that the conceit at the centre of the second story, in which Calandrino is tricked into believing he has become pregnant, may be read as an instance of phantom pregnancy.