Moviegoers and Their Pavlovian Response to Penis
Filed under: Action, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, New Releases, Warner Brothers, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Images
Yes, I get it. Penises are not something we see every day. Oh wait, yes we do. All men (and a good deal of women) see penises every dang day, so why all the chuckling? Of course I'm referring to my recent screening of Watchmen, a film in which a big, blue demigod wanders around most of the film with his big, blue member dangling southward. The first time the oversized organ showed up in the film, I noticed a bunch of (not so) muffled chuckles, and I didn't think much of it. It's weird to see full-frontal male nudity in a mainstream film, doubly so when the wiener is all blue and slightly glowing.But then, later in the film, the dingle shows up again and again. Director Zack Snyder even has a sequence in which THREE of the blue bullets can be seen clearly, as if to say "There! Get a good look, get the giggles out of your system, and let's move on." It didn't work. The folks at my screening were so tickled by the schlongs that they had to chuckle (firmly and audibly), as if to show a bunch of total strangers that they weren't, I dunno, aroused by the sight of three superhuman wangs. And then, just like Pavlov's dogs, they chuckled every damn time the thing popped up again. If the movie had been 14 hours long, they would have insta-chuckled at the willy another 45 times.
Now, I'm certainly no paragon of maturity, but by the 3rd or 4th time I see an onscreen tallywhacker, I've been pretty much inured to it. So why is it that fully aged and allegedly mature grown-ups are so dang uncomfortable with the sight of a penis? I never hear anyone chuckling when a vagina makes its way on to the silver screen. Just the opposite in fact: You could hear a pin drop when Sharon Stone uncrosses her legs, trust me, I was there when Basic Instinct opened, and Ms. Stone's thighs with it.
So which group were you in? The one that thought Dr. Manhattan's man-parts were the pinnacle of all things blue, circumcised, and hilarious -- or did you actually GET that a godlike character would have next to no need whatsoever for human-style clothing, shame, or insecurity -- and then you simply got on with the film?
Tom Cruise and J.J. Abrams Reunite for 'Mission Impossible 4'
'Big Top Pee-Wee': The Original Benicio Del Toro Wolfman
Spin-ematical: New on DVD and Blu-ray for 2/9
Watch This: Brilliant Oscar-Nominated Short 'Logorama'
Chris Nolan to Lead 'Superman' Reboot!?
_thumbnail.jpg)
_thumbnail.jpg)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
3-08-2009 @ 11:21AM
SunKing said...
Out of interest, could you determine if it was women or men who found it funny?
Reply
3-08-2009 @ 11:28AM
Erik Davis said...
No one in my audience really laughed. The only time I heard a little chuckle was toward the end when it swung around a little. I guess it also depends how "young" the audience is, too -- my crowd was made up of a lot more adults than teens.
Reply
3-09-2009 @ 11:41AM
podbaydoor said...
This is a US audience, right? Because when watching it last Thursday in Amsterdam, the audience wasn't giggling. Then again, most Dutch movies have full frontal nudity, from both sexes, so we're used to it.
Heard on another review they thought the penis was unusual large, made me think theirs must be really small, because this was a normal size penis, as far as I was concerned.
Reply
3-08-2009 @ 11:32AM
KMF said...
I didn't giggle at Dr Manhattan's manly bits. In fact no one at my showing giggled at it. Him being naked was no big deal, I didn't even think about it. Perhaps it's that I'm getting older or I've seen enough of manly bits that it seems silly that people (Hollywood really) get uptight about male nudity. When I was younger I would have been uncomfortable and would have laughed. But not now.
I will admit it, Nite Owl's pasty man can now that's funny. ;P
Reply
3-08-2009 @ 11:35AM
ScreenRant.com said...
If people didn't find it funny, it wouldn't be so prevalent in Apatow films (or is "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" the only movie, I'm not a big Apatow fan).
I don't really buy into the concept of so god-like he didn't care about clothes. Obviously he still cared enough about how he looked to reform his body into the most muscular, ripped dude on the planet.
And personally, I think it's more comfortable to walk around "secured" than with stuff flopping all around.
Vic
Reply
3-08-2009 @ 4:00PM
William Goss said...
There was the Walk Hard punchline where a penis was shown pretty prominently for one shot.
3-08-2009 @ 8:53PM
bob loblaw said...
i doubt a god-like figure would choose to have a body of a couch potato with a beer gut, who would be gasping for air after walking up a flight of stairs. i think he's muscular, not because he's concerned with his image, but because that's the most efficient and powerful form he can take.
and yes, penises can be hilarious...if used in a comedic context. but neither doc manhattan or watchmen are meant to be funny, and were not presented that way. so, unless you're 12 years old or have the maturity of one, then there's no reason for chuckling.
3-08-2009 @ 11:38AM
Jenn Brown said...
No giggling at the penii when I saw it. But I was at the Alamo. There was giggling during the pre-show, though. And outright laughter when Leonard Cohen started singing.
Reply
3-08-2009 @ 12:01PM
Kate said...
I take figure drawing at least once a week so I'm at a point now where wedding tackle doesn't faze me. I wish I could say the same of the audience both times I went. I have no idea why people are so dick-shy, but it's annoying as hell.
Reply
3-08-2009 @ 12:02PM
Linda said...
No laughter at the penis at the screening I went to. Though I did notice it was an older crowd and predominantly male. Guess older men don't think it's that funny. Though the flame thrower at the end of the sex scene got a hearty laugh.
Reply
3-08-2009 @ 12:03PM
Cale said...
My audience chuckled quite badly. To the point of annoyance.
Though I lost it too during the sex scene. Slo motion sex set to leonard Cohen's Hallelujah is naturally hilariously awful.
Reply
3-08-2009 @ 12:33PM
lainix said...
i was in a crowded theater on a friday night, and there was no chuckling or giggling. it seemed i had managed to catch the all gek show thank god, because the mos ti had to tolerate in the noise area was occasional clapping.
Reply
3-08-2009 @ 12:57PM
Craig said...
I was at a showing of Knocked Up where a woman shrieked all three times they showed the prosthetic-vagina giving birth. Not just the first time. All three times.
Reply
3-08-2009 @ 1:15PM
Boxwatcher said...
I loved the dangling bits scenes in Forgetting Sarah Marshall because of how uncomfortable the scenes made people. Doc Manhattans nudity wasn't funny. I'll give you the little giggle first time it shows up, but after that there is nothing funny about it.
Reply
3-08-2009 @ 3:09PM
Laurentz said...
I wasn't really phased by Dr. Manhattan's nudity. I kind of thought ... on one hand, "show off" (LOL) and on the other... "Thanks bro for represent'in".
The giggles I did hear were mostly from the young women in the audience. (You'd think they'd get over it ... I mean being "worldly sophisticates" and all.
Reply
3-08-2009 @ 4:12PM
Leo M. said...
yeah that's what I thought...I didn't chuckle or anything but it did get pretty quiet in the theater
I leaned over to my friend and commented on what a show-off he was...
I think people just aren't used to seeing penises in big movies as much as breasts and things of that nature
3-08-2009 @ 1:24PM
bosstoneska said...
I had the exact same crowd when I saw it last night in NYC. My friend and I got tired of the giggling and were hoping someone would stand up and say "It's a penis. Half of you here have one. Now shut the f&@# up!"
I managed to get through without laughing. But why are penises so funny anyway?
Reply
3-08-2009 @ 1:27PM
Hughman Bein said...
I got into an argument with my dad about this because he said this movie would really make the ladies happy. I think that the content would usually say the opposite, but as a gay man growing up looking for any inkling of sexual satisfaction in a male dominant industry I'm happy with the current trend of penis. I think that every time I see a penis in a movie these days that it has to have a meaning behind it and I hope that some day it is just an afterthought and we can get over the locker room shyness we all seem to have over one organ. People also giggled about the comedian shooting people with a smoke grenade launcher. There was a fine line in this movie about society being base and society being ridiculous. I personally think that when people are getting injured for expressing freedom of speech it has more meaning than "oh he got hit in the back". hahah. I feel like Nelson from the Simpsons was in the show more often than not, and that's ok.
Reply
3-08-2009 @ 1:30PM
DoubleA07 said...
it's in the fucking book people! so, duh, it has to be in the movie!
Reply
3-08-2009 @ 1:38PM
Red Confession said...
Thankfully my audience didn't laugh. I was more stunned than anything. I don't think I've ever seen a mainstream movie with the penis THAT prevalent. That being said, I never laughed. My friend and I did discuss the penis-to-boob ratio, and I told him its time for the girls to get some visuals for once. I think it's kind of immature to laugh EVERY time the guy's dong was shown.
Reply