Sex comedy
Sex comedy, erotic comedy or more broadly sexual comedy is a genre in which
Sex comedy was popular in 17th century English
Antiquity
Although the
His successor
Restoration sex comedy
During the decade 1672–82, sex comedy such as
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.[13]
Presenting seduction and adultery as funny eased moral anxieties that might otherwise have attached to these themes.[14] It is an open question as to whether the plays portraying libertinism endorses the lifestyle, or holds it up to satire and criticism.[15]
After the main vogue of Restoration sex comedy, William Congreve revived and reinvented the form, and bawdy comedy remained popular into the 18th century.[16]
Modern sex comedy
American sex comedy
Film historian Tamar Jeffers McDonald highlights the period 1953 to 1965 as an era where sex comedy came to be the main form of romantic comedy in Hollywood.
Some may also consider the 1967 film,
In 1978,
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 "sex 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 sex comedy in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
A third wave of American sex comedy emerged in the mid to late 2000s and into the early 2010s with a string of successful sex comedy films by
Sex comedies of the 2010s include The To Do List, puberty-themed series Big Mouth, and Yes, God, Yes.[19]
British sex comedy
According to
Norman Wisdom's last starring role, What's Good for the Goose (1969), was a sex comedy made by Tony Tenser. He specialised in producing exploitation films and founded his own production company Tigon British Film Productions in 1966.[21] 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[22] 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.[citation needed]
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
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".[25]
The Confessions series
The Confessions series consisted of four sex comedy films released during the 1970s starring Robin Askwith. The films in the Confessions series—Confessions of a Window Cleaner, Confessions of a Driving Instructor, Confessions of a Pop Performer, and Confessions from a Holiday Camp—concern the erotic adventures of Timothy Lea and are based on the novels of Christopher Wood, writing as Timothy Lea.
Soon came Adventures of..., directed by
Carry Ons become sexy
British sex comedy films became mainstream with the release in 1976 of Carry On England, starring Judy Geeson, Patrick Mower, and Diane Langton, in which an experimental mixed-sex anti-aircraft battery in wartime is enjoying making love not war. However, the arrival of the new Captain S. Melly brings an end to their cosy life and causes terror in the ranks.
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
Producer/director
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.[clarification needed]
French sex comedy
Some French coming of age films contain many themes of the modern "sex comedy" genre, such as Murmur of the Heart.
Italian sex comedy
The commedia sexy all'italiana (lit. "sex comedy Italian style"), also known as commedia scollacciata or commedia erotica all'italiana, is a subgenre of Italian commedia all'italiana film genre. It is characterized typically by both abundant female nudity and comedy, and by the minimal weight given to social criticism that was instead basic in the commedia all'italiana main genre.[29]
Indian sex comedy
Since the 2010s, many Indian films and TV shows have been made in the sex comedy genre. There was initially a hesitant reaction to them but this was followed by gradual acceptance. Examples of the genre include Vicky Donor, Mastizaade, the Masti film series, The Shaukeens, the Pyaar Ka Punchnama film series, the Kyaa Kool Hai Hum film series, Guddu Ki Gun, In Bengali languages Teen Yaari Katha, Aamra.The Four More Shots Please! In hindi And , Ekla Cholo in bengali streaming TV show. Widely available and affordable Internet connections have been available in India since 2016, and this combined with affordable over-the-top media services have contributed to increased production of the genre. However, the conservative political and social culture that has been prevalent in the country since 2014 has been very critical of sex comedies. Sexual films and TV shows in general are subject to far more intense attacks on social media in India than are seen in other countries. Despite such criticisms the rate of sex comedy production has not slowed.[citation needed]
Japanese sex comedy
In Japanese, sexy movies or TV shows tend to be referred to as 'oiroke' お色気 which might be translated as 'with a tinge of colour.' 'Pink films' ピンク映画 are more narrowly sexy films made by independent studios for release to adult theatres. The traditional word for comedy is 'kigeki' 喜劇. It was applied to Kyōgen, short comic plays performed in theatres. The word 'kigeki' is also used in the titles of some movies from the 1960s, but more recently the loan word 'komedi' コメディ has become the usual way of referring to humorous films or TV shows.
In 1959, director
In 1970–1, Yuji Tanno and
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 Abnormal Family: Older Brother's Bride 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
See also
References
- ^ Elaine Fantham, "Sexual Comedy in Ovid's Fasti: Sources and Motivation," in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 87 (1983) 185–216.
- ^ Robert R. Edwards, "Narrative," in A Companion to Chaucer (Blackwell, 2000, 2002), p. 314.
- ^ Jon Solomon, The Ancient World in the Cinema (Yale University Press, 2001), p. 284.
- ^ Richard Hornby, Mad about Theatre (Applause Books, 1996), p. 261.
- ^ Robert Blumenfeld, Using The Stanislavsky System: A Practical Guide To Character Creation and Period Styles (Limelight Editions, 2008), p. 100.
- ^ Paul Kuritz, The Making of Theatre History (1988), p. 51.
- ^ Susan J. Owen, Perspectives on Restoration Drama (Manchester University Press, 2002), p. 42.
- ^ Owen, Perspectives on Restoration Drama, p. 42.
- ^ Elizabeth Woodrough, Women in European Theatre (Intellect Books, 1995), p. 16.
- ^ Owen, Perspectives on Restoration Drama, p. 43.
- ^ Woodrough, Women in European Theatre p. 16.
- ^ Deborah Payne Fisk, introduction to Four Restoration Libertine Plays (Oxford University Press, 2005), p. xii.
- ^ Ann Marie Stewart, The Ravishing Restoration: Aphra Behn, Violence, and Comedy (Rosemont, 2010), p. 96.
- ^ J.L. Styan, Restoration Comedy in Performance (Cambridge University Press, 1986), p. 242.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Owen, Perspectives on Restoration Drama, p. 42.
- ^ Tamar Jeffers McDonald. 2007. Romantic Comedy: Boy Meets Girl Meets Genre. Wallflower Press.
- ^ "Critic Reviews for The 40 Year Old Virgin". Metacritic.
- ^ Rife, Katie. Lady Bird meets American Pie in the sweetly innocent sex comedy Yes, God, Yes." G/O Media. Retrieved 2020-08-31.
- ISBN 9780951701225.
- ^ R.I.P. Tony Tenser « SHADOWPLAY
- ^ Peretti, Jacques (January 29, 2005). "Oo-er missus". The Guardian. London. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
- ISBN 0563551836.
- IMDb
- ^ Brooke, Michael (19 July 2018). "10 Great Erotic British Films". British Film Institute. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
- ^ Upton, Julian. "British exploitation cinema". Archived from the original on 2009-07-13. Retrieved 2007-02-10.
- IMDb
- ^ Matthew Sweet's BBC Four documentary [British B Movies: Truly, Madly, Cheaply http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00c7ytb]
- ISBN 978-1441160690.
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.