There was a time when the libido of the young American white male was perhaps the most revisited topic in Hollywood. As the sexual excess of the 1970s trickled down to the younger generation of the 1980s, and the popularity of films like Deep Throat opened a new generation to a grand new vista of sex within their media, and filmmakers began more openly exploring the way the conversations about sex suddenly blew open for these young people. As it turns out, though, while the conversation was now more open and open-minded, the young people were just as awkward, unsure of themselves, and desperately horny as they always were.
As such, the early 1980s saw an explosion of sex comedies, largely about young white men, all seeking to either lose their virginity or simply get laid as much as possible. Finally, we now saw, the dunderheaded and embarrassing quest to have sex could be shown in all its silly, dumb, stupid glory.
A generation later, and young people now became treated to yet a further level sexual saturation in their media. We had an audience being raised on 1980s teen sex comedies, all rated R, all featuring a huge amount of nudity, and all openly and crassly cussing about sex. It was a glorious time to be an adolescent, and horny young audiences now had on-screen peers they could be embarrassed with.
Paramount Pictures
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In the internet age, a lot of sex comedies have become more chaste – actors and actresses are now a little more reserved about stripping nude in an age when their bodies can easily make it online – but the spirit is still alive. Indeed, the new R-rated Baywatch aims to bring a lot of the crassness back into comedy, and is certainly ambitious enough to boldly insert breasts and pecs into the action. Much of the cast of Baywatch will at least be clad in swimsuits throughout.
This is excuse enough to look through the grand history of sex comedies, and recall some of our favorites. The following is a list of the most memorable installments in the genre. Some of them are legit classics, some are just titillating fun. All of them are well remembered by a sex-soaked teenage mind somewhere.
Twenty-Five Excellent Sex Comedies from the Days of Yore
Top Image: Paramount
Witney Seibold is a longtime contributor to the CraveOnline Film Channel, and the co-host of The B-Movies Podcast and the TV podcast Canceled Too Soon. He also contributes to Legion of Leia, Nerdist, and Blumhouse. You can follow him on “The Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
Sex comedies
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American Pie
In this 1999 film, a group of graduating high school boys resolve to lose their virginities, all in increasingly embarrassing ways.
Image: Universal
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Fast Times at Ridgemont High
In 1982, the sexually assertive women of Ridgemont high faced off against their wimpy male classmates.
Image: Universal
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The Lemon Popscile movies
The first of the Israeli Lemon Popsicle films was released in 1978, and it set the standard for many American movies to follow, like...
Image: The Cannon Group
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The Last American Virgin
In 1982, The Cannon Group remade the first Lemon Popsicle film as The Last American Virgin, an equally smutty and even funnier redux.
Image: The Cannon Group
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Mischief
In this 1985 film, an introvert boy and an extrovert boy compare notes as they attempt to seduce their respective female paramours.
Image: 20th Century Fox
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My Tutor
A teenage boy, in attempting to lose his virginity, sets his sights on his much older Franch tutor. The subgenre of teen-boys-and-their-sexy-teachers is known as nave scuola.
Image: Crown International Pictures
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Porky's
Bob Clark's 1981 comedy follows another team of boys avowed to lose their virginities, and include several notorious(-ly nude) shower peeping scenes, for which the boys do get their comeuppance.
Image: 20th Century Fox
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Meatballs
The most famous summer camp movie (without Jason Voorhees), Ivan Reitman's Meatballs tells of the sexual adventures of a group of campers and their counselor, Bill Murray, in his breakout movie role.
Image: Paramount
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Revenge of the Nerds
Nerds, it turns out, are just as sexual - and as sexually devious - as their more popular and more celebrated jock counterparts.
Image: 20th Century Fox
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H.O.T.S.
"Hands Off Those Suckers." The 1979 comedy follows a cadre of sexy sorority girls as they raise funds via various shenanigans.
Image: Anchor Bay
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The Cheerleaders
One of the earlier sex comedies, this 1973 comedy is about conniving cheerleaders who sex up the opposing football team so that they're too tired to play. A clever ploy, I'd say.
Image: Cinemation Industries
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The Swinging Cheerleaders
A kind-of sequel to The Cheerleaders. Despite a more titillating title, this is a more grounded teen drama about virginity, proposals, and scandals in high school.
Image: Centaur Pictures
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Hamburger: The Motion Picture
Maybe one of the weirder sex comedies of the 1980s, Hamburger: The Motion Picture takes place at a hamburger college (?) where students come to bed one another. And also make burgers.
Image: F/M Entertainment
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Risky Business
Tom Cruise needs money to fix a Porsche that a prostitute broke, so he turns his house into a brothel for the night. The '80s were a glorious time.
Image: Warner Bros.
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Losin' It
Tom Cruise stars in another anti-virginity pact, this time taking a group of young men to Mexico, to hookers, and into the arms of divorcee Shelley Long.
Image: Embassy Pictures
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Zapped!
Scott Baio finds he can move objects with his mind. What better use of the power than to expose women's breasts? (Well, lots obviously, but Zapped! isn't that kind of film.)
Image: Embassy Pictures
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Ski School
Dean Cameron stars in this loopy slapstick sex farce that taps into everyone's sexual ski fantasies (?).
Image: Moviestore Entertainment
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Booty Call
Out on a double date, in the mood, but low on condoms, Booty Call is about the embarrassing quest to acquire protection at the last minute. I think we've all been there.
Image: Columbia Pictures
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Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss
Billy dreams of kissing his hot new roommate, unsure as to whether or not he may be gay. This is one of the sweeter films of the indie gay boom of the 1990s.
Image: Trimark
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The 40-Year-Old Virgin
When a 40-year-old man is outed as a virgin by his co-workers, they all go on a quest to get him laid. His awkwardness is well-developed.
Image: Universal
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Zack and Miri Make a Porno
Two sluggish twentysomethings decide to pay their mounting bills by casting themselves in a porn flick. They are more enterprising than you might think.
Image: The Weinstein Company
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But I'm a Cheerleader
A topical film about an ostensibly straight girl who is enrolled in a surreal gay conversion therapy course, and who might actually discover her sexuality there.
Image: Lionsgate
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EuroTrip
Horny teenage boys go to Europe to clear up an online misunderstanding with a German pen pal they assumed was a male. They discover the disillusioning realities of nude beaches.
Image: DreamWorks
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The Girl Next Door
A teenage boy can't determine if his sexy new neighbor is a porn star or not. He makes an ass of himself finding out. She, meanwhile, strips often.
Image: 20th Century Fox
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Wet Hot American Summer
Perhaps the greatest spoof of a sex comedy ever made.
Image: USA Films
