Sex comedy (also known as sexual comedy and erotic comedy) is a genre in which comedy is motivated by sexual situations and love affairs. Although "sex 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 sex comedies.
Sex comedy was popular in 17th century English Restoration theatre. From 1953 to 1965, Hollywood released a number of sex comedies, some featuring stars such as Doris Day, Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe. The United Kingdom released a spate of sex comedies in the 1970s, notably the Carry On series. Hollywood released Animal House in 1978, which was followed by a long line of teen sex comedies in the early 1980s, e.g. Porky's, Bachelor Party and Risky Business. Other countries with a significant sex comedy film production include Argentina (comedia picaresca), Brazil (pornochanchada), Italy () and Mexico (sexicomedias).
Antiquity Although the ancient Greek theatre genre of the satyr play contained farcical sex, perhaps the best-known ancient comedy motivated by sexual gamesmanship is Aristophanes' Lysistrata (411 BC), in which the title character persuades her fellow women of Greece to protest the Peloponnesian War by withholding sex.Jon Solomon, The Ancient World in the Cinema (Yale University Press, 2001), p. 284. The "boy-meets-girl" plot that is distinctive of Western sexual comedy can be traced to Menander (343–291 BC), who differs from Aristophanes in focusing on the courtship and marital dilemmas of the middle classes rather than social and political satire.Richard Hornby, Mad about Theatre (Applause Books, 1996), p. 261.
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 sex comedy.Paul Kuritz, The Making of Theatre History (1988), p. 51.
Restoration sex comedy
During the period between 1672 and 1682, sex comedy such as The Country Wife (1675) flourished as part of the revival of theatre in England resulting from the Restoration.Susan J. Owen, Perspectives on Restoration Drama (Manchester University Press, 2002), p. 42. Forerunners of the craze were John Dryden's An Evening's Love (1668) and Thomas Betterton's The Amorous Widow (ca. 1670).Owen, Perspectives on Restoration Drama, p. 42. Sexual content was favored by the presence of female performers, in contrast to the drag performances of the Elizabethan stage.Elizabeth Woodrough, Women in European Theatre (Intellect Books, 1995), p. 16. The main character was often a self-important rake or libertine, posturing heroically.Owen, Perspectives on Restoration Drama, p. 43. Adultery was a major theme, and the couple is sometimes found in flagrante delicto, represented by the stage direction "in disorder."Woodrough, Women in European Theatre p. 16. The plays are often characterized by sexually charged banter, "swaggering masculine energy," and a superficially innocent heroine who is nonetheless alluring.Deborah Payne Fisk, introduction to Four Restoration Libertine Plays (Oxford University Press, 2005), p. xii. This theatrical milieu produced the first woman of the Western tradition who made her living as playwright, Aphra Behn (The Rover).
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 sex comedy American sex comedy Film historian Tamar Jeffers McDonald highlights the period 1953 to 1965 as an era when sex comedy came to be the main form of romantic comedy in Hollywood.Tamar Jeffers McDonald. 2007. Romantic Comedy: Boy Meets Girl Meets Genre. Wallflower Press. She claims that 1953 was a key year as the producers of the film The Moon Is Blue challenged the Motion Picture Production Code rules against using the word 'virgin', Hugh Hefner introduced Playboy magazine, and sexologist Alfred Kinsey drew attention to the way women were having sex before marriage. In the movies, playboys played by actors such as Rock Hudson or Tony Curtis would try to bed marriage-minded women played by actresses such as Doris Day or Marilyn Monroe, and the central question would seem to be "will she or won't she?", but in the end, the man would fall for the "girl", and sometimes agree to marry her. Notable sex comedies in this period were Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Irma La Douce, Pillow Talk, The Seven Year Itch, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Lover Come Back. According to McDonald, by 1965, the sexual revolution was under way, so "will she or won't she?" could no longer serve as the central dynamic, and filmmakers moved on to different topics.
Some may also consider the 1967 film, The Graduate, to be a sex 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 sex comedy sub-genre. The sub-genre sometimes shares genre elements with the coming-of-age stories genre as well.
In 1978, National Lampoon's Animal House success led to a string of raunchy gross-out and sex 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 "peeping tom" to spy on a half-naked pillow fight at a sorority. In 1981, the film Porky's cemented the wide appeal of the sex 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 sex 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 into 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 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.
Sex 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 sex comedy According to David McGillivray in his history of the British sex film, Doing Rude Things, Mary Had a Little... (1961) was the first British sex comedy.David McGillivray Doing Rude Things: The History of the British Sex Film 1957–1981, Sun Tavern Fields Books, 1992. . Bridging the gap between documentary nudist films and the later sex comedies was the film The Naked World of Harrison Marks (1966). George Harrison Marks' love of music hall and slapstick found its way into this spoof documentary biographical film.
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. In the film, he leaves his wife and children to take a business trip and has an affair with a young woman, played by Sally Geeson. The film contains nude and bed scenes with Wisdom's and Geeson's characters appearing in bed together. A scene in which Geeson appears topless was cut from the UK release.
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 womaniser's, which is very large. The rest of the film is about its new owner following in his predecessor's footsteps and meeting all the women who are able to recognise it. There was a sequel, Percy's Progress, released in 1974.