Sexual comedy (also known as, sex comedy and erotic comedy) is a genre in which comedy is motivated by sexual situations and love affairs. Although "sexual comedy" is primarily a description of dramatic forms such as theatre and film, literary works such as those of OvidElaine Fantham, "Sexual Comedy in Ovid's Fasti: Sources and Motivation," in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 87 (1983) 185–216. and Giovanni BoccaccioRobert R. Edwards, "Narrative," in A Companion to Chaucer (Blackwell, 2000, 2002), p. 314. may be considered sexual comedies.
Sexual comedy was popular in 17th century English Restoration theatre. From 1953 to 1965, Hollywood released a number of sexual comedies, some featuring stars such as Doris Day, Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe. The United Kingdom released a spate of sexual comedies in the 1970s, notably the Carry On series. Hollywood released Animal House in 1978, which was followed by a long line of teen sexual comedies in the early 1980s, e.g. Porky's, Bachelor Party and Risky Business. Other countries with a significant sexual comedy film production include Argentina, ( comedia picaresca), Brazil (pornochanchada), Italy (commedia sexy all'italiana) and Mexico (sexicomedias).
Antiquity
His successor Plautus, the Roman playwright whose comedies inspired the musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, regularly based his plots on sexual situations.Robert Blumenfeld, Using The Stanislavsky System: A Practical Guide To Character Creation and Period Styles (Limelight Editions, 2008), p. 100. The popularity of Plautus's comedies was a major influence on the creation of situation comedy.Paul Kuritz, The Making of Theatre History (1988), p. 51.
Restoration sexual comedy
Sex comedy embraces a realm of drama in which women can be contenders. The war is fought with glances and flirtations, wit and beauty, manipulation and desire. And in this battle, women often win—even if the victory is sometimes equivocal.Ann Marie Stewart, The Ravishing Restoration: Aphra Behn, Violence, and Comedy (Rosemont, 2010), p. 96.
Presenting seduction and adultery as funny eased moral anxieties that might otherwise have attached to these themes.J.L. Styan, Restoration Comedy in Performance (Cambridge University Press, 1986), p. 242. It is an open question as to whether the plays portraying libertinism endorses the lifestyle, or holds it up to satire and criticism.Adam Smyth, A Pleasing Sinne: Drink and Conviviality in Seventeenth-Century England (D.S. Brewer, 2004), p. 127; Owen, Perspectives on Restoration Drama, p. 43.
After the main vogue of Restoration sex comedy, William Congreve revived and reinvented the form, and bawdy comedy remained popular into the 18th century.Owen, Perspectives on Restoration Drama, p. 42.
Modern sexual comedy
American sexual comedy
Some may also consider the 1967 film, The Graduate, to be a sexual comedy due to the story being about the main character, Benjamin Braddock, being seduced and starting an affair with his family friends' mother, Mrs. Robinson. During the 70's, there were films such as Pretty Maids All in a Row, The Chicken Chronicles, The Swinging Cheerleaders, The Pom Pom Girls, and Cooley High which share some to many elements from the sexual comedy sub-genre. The sub-genre sometimes shares genre elements with the coming-of-age stories genre as well.
In 1978, Animal House success led to a string of raunchy gross-out and sexual comedies in the late 1970s and early to mid 1980s. Animal House featured many scenes that would become iconic and often parodied, such as the scene in which John "Bluto" Blutarsky (John Belushi) acts as a "voyeurism" to spy on a half-naked pillow fight at a sorority. In 1981, the film Porky's cemented the wide appeal of the sexual comedy. Although it would go on to become the fifth highest-grossing film of the year, it proved to be unpopular with critics, with many accusing it of being degrading to women as well as objectifying of them. The film would lead to three sequels and is credited by many as the start of the "teen" subgenre of the sexual comedy. Some other examples of these types of films from this era and some of which have actors/actresses starring in them that later went on to bigger fame include Revenge of the Nerds, Hot Dog…The Movie, The Last American Virgin, Losin' It, Risky Business, Mischief, Bachelor Party, Once Bitten, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Secret Admirer, The Sure Thing, Class, Private Lessons, Private School, and Private Resort.
Another 80's teen comedy film that stars young actors and actresses that went onto bigger fame and is tamer on its handling of sex is Little Darlings.
Although not widely considered a "sexual comedy," the 1998 critical and financial hit There's Something About Mary has many moments that have entered the pop culture lexicon, particularly the infamous scene in which Ted Stroehmann (Ben Stiller), following a scene of vigorous masturbation, discovers that his semen is hanging off of his ear. Mary (Cameron Diaz), mistaking it for hair gel, nonchalantly grabs it and runs it through her hair.
A year later, the film American Pie was credited with reviving the "teen sex comedy" subgenre. In the film, a group of high schoolers make a pact to lose their virginity before they graduate. The film's most famous scene (which also provides its namesake) involves one of the high schoolers, Jim (Jason Biggs), having intercourse with a fresh apple pie after being told by a friend that it is similar to "getting to third base." The film spawned numerous sequels and spin-off films, all with varying degrees of financial and critical success, and kicked off a second wave of American sexual comedy in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
A third wave of American sexual comedy emerged in the mid to late 2000s and into the early 2010s with a string of successful sexual comedy films by Judd Apatow and his associates. Apatow's 2005 directorial debut The 40-Year-Old Virgin follows Andy Stitzer (Steve Carell) as he struggles with the pressures of reaching the age of 40 without ever having "done the deed." Although the film featured crude sexual humor, it was critically praised for balancing it with an underlying romantic message. Another Judd Apatow related film, Superbad, shared many similar motifs from classic "teen" sex comedies of the past.
Sexual comedies of the 2010s include The To Do List, puberty-themed series Big Mouth, and Yes, God, Yes.Rife, Katie. Lady Bird meets American Pie in the sweetly innocent sex comedy Yes, God, Yes." G/O Media. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
British sexual comedy
Norman Wisdom's last starring role, What's Good for the Goose (1969), was a sexual comedy made by Tony Tenser. He specialised in producing exploitation films and founded his own production company Tigon British Film Productions in 1966. R.I.P. Tony Tenser « SHADOWPLAY In the movie, he leaves his wife and kids to go off on a business trip and has an affair with a young girl, played by Sally Geeson There apparently are two versions of the film: the 98-minute cut version was released in the UK, while the uncensored version (105 minutes) which shows nudity from Sally Geeson, was released in continental Europe.
Percy was directed by Ralph Thomas and starred Hywel Bennett, Denholm Elliott, Elke Sommer, and Britt Ekland. The film is about a successful penis transplant. An innocent and shy young man (Bennett) whose penis is mutilated in an accident and has to be amputated wakes up after an operation to find out that it has been replaced by a womanizer's, which is very large. The rest of the movie is about its new owner following in his predecessor's footsteps and meeting all the women who are able to recognize it. There was a sequel, Percy's Progress, released in 1974.
To move with the times, the Carry On series added nudity to its saucy seaside postcard innuendo. Series producer Peter Rogers saw the George Segal movie Loving (1970) and added his two favourite words to the title, making Carry On Loving (1970) the twentieth in the series.
It has often been noted that historically, a defining characteristic of most British sex comedies – particularly in the period after the censorship rules were relaxed slightly at the turn of the 1970s – is that they were "neither sexy nor funny".
The Confessions series
Soon came Adventures of..., directed by Stanley Long, which started with Adventures of a Taxi Driver, starring sitcom star Barry Evans, and was followed by Adventures of a Private Eye and Adventures of a Plumber's Mate, starring future record producer Christopher Neil. Long began his career as a photographer before producing striptease shorts (or "glamour home movies", as they were sometimes known), for the 8 mm market. Beginning in the late fifties, Long's feature film career would span the entire history of the British sex film, and as such exemplifies its differing trends and attitudes. His work ranges from coy nudist films ( Nudist Memories 1959), to moralizing documentary ( The Wife Swappers, 1970) to a more relaxed attitude to permissive material ( Naughty!, 1971) to out and out comedies at the end of the 1970s. He did not like sex scenes and was dismissive of pornography, saying it did not turn him on and he turned his back when such scenes were being filmed.
Carry Ons become sexy
In Carry On Emmannuelle, the beautiful Emmannuelle Prevert just cannot get her own husband into bed. A spoof of Emmanuelle, the film revolves around the eponymous heroine (Suzanne Danielle) and her unsuccessful attempts to make love to her husband, Emile (Kenneth Williams), a French ambassador. Emile grants Emmannuelle permission to sleep with anyone she likes, and her promiscuity turns her into a celebrity and a frequent talk show guest. Meanwhile, Theodore Valentine is besotted by her and wants them to get married. But Emmannuelle is obsessed with arousing her husband's sexual desire at almost any cost. This was the last of the original Carry On films.
Sleaze and sexploitation
Films like Dreams of Thirteen, The Younger the Better, Geilermanns Töchter - Wenn Mädchen mündig werden, Erika's Hot Summer, Mrs. Stone's Thing, and Come Play With Me played in Soho and elsewhere, but with the arrival of the Margaret Thatcher government in 1979 the Eady Levy was abolished in 1985, killing off the genre.
French sexual comedy
Italian sexual comedy
Indian sexual comedy
Japanese sexual comedy
In 1959 director Kon Ichikawa produced an adaptation of Junichirō Tanizaki's novel The Key titled Odd Obsession wherein a man whose powers are failing finds he can restore his vigor by spying on his daughter and her fiancé, so he hatches a scheme to involve his wife. Yasuzo Masumura's 1964 film adaptation of Junichirō Tanizaki's novel Quicksand (Manji) took a tongue-in-cheek approach to the melodrama of a housewife falling in love with a younger woman. Shohei Imamura released The Pornographers in 1966, parodying the workings of a small pornographic film company.
In 1970–1 Yuji Tanno and Isao Hayashi directed a number of movies based on Go Nagai's manga Harenchi Gakuen. Go Nagai's Kekkou Kamen manga has also been adapted into a movie and several Original Videos. Norifumi Suzuki has directed a number of sex comedies: Ero Shogun to Juuichinin no Aishou (The Erotic Shogun and his 11 Concubines 1972), Onsen Mimizu Geisha (Hot Springs Worm Geisha 1972), Onsen Suppon Geisha (Hot Springs Turtle Geisha 1972) all for big budget studio Toei Company as well as the teen sex comedy Pantsu no Ana (Hole in her Panties 1984).
Yoshimitsu Morita has directed a number of racey comedies including Something Like It (No You na Mono) (1981), Hot Stripper (Maru Hon Uwasa no Sutorippaa)(1982) and 24 Hour Playboy (Ai to Heisei no Iro Otoko) (1989). Director Juzo Itami's films such as The Funeral, Tampopo and A Taxing Woman are comedies principally about non-sexual topics, but all have a side story that deals with sex, and features nudity. Takeshi Kitano's Getting Any? movie is about the quest for sex. Nikkatsu's Roman Porno series was usually fairly serious, but Morita's Love Hard Love Deep and manga adaptation Minna Agechau were Roman Pornos, and other films in the series such as Pink Tush Girl and have been described as comedies.
Recently there has been a spate of sexy coming of age comedies, e.g. Haruka Ayase's Oppai Volleyball and live action adaptations of the manga Tokyo Daigaku Monogatari, Ibitsu, Moteki and Recently, My Sister Is Unusual.
The 2003 Japanese TV drama Stand Up! starring Kazunari Ninomiya is the story of four virgin boys, and bears some resemblance to American sex comedies of the 1980s.
See also
Further reading
- McDonald, Tamar Jeffers. 2007. Romantic Comedy: Boy Meets Girl Meets Genre. Wallflower Press
- McDonald, Tamar Jeffers, ed. 2010. Virgin Territory: Representing Sexual Inexperience in Film. Wayne State University Press.
- Sheridan, Simon. 2011. Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema. Titan Books. 4th edition.
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