The 80s became famous as a golden era of teen sex comedies. Among them, "Revenge of the Nerds" is a classic. The storyline (no spoiler here) is about as simple and predictable as the title implies: 1. Nerds show up for their Freshman year at Adams College; 2. The jocks from the Alpha Beta frat pick on them; 3. The nerds get their revenge (and girlfriends!).
It's become a cult classic and taken it's place in the 80s genre alongside films like Porky's. Ironically, while Porky's may be considered the quintessential 80s sex comedy, Revenge of the Nerds has about twice the nudity--and neither really has very much but a teasing glimpse. There is a certain adolescent innocence to both. In Porky's, the boys spy on the girls though a hole in the shower room. In Nerds, the guys install remote control surveillance cameras in the sorority house of the PIs.
After a successful panty raid on the sorority and the covert installing of the cameras, the nerds gather around their TV back at their house. They ooh and aww as they watch the girls undress and prepare for bed. Eventually, this leads Booger to become impatient and shout: "This is bullshit, I want bush!"
He gets a glimpse of bush as the nerds scan the camera down on one of the PIs who slips off her panties. The amount of bush shown is but a split second. Yet, it is a victory for the nerds. Vicariously, it is also a thrill for anyone who ever fantasied about the pretty girls of college and what it must be like to see them undress.
Both Revenge of the Nerds and Porky's are stories of underdogs, and specifically, white middle class boys on the cusp of adulthood, being picked on, and just wanting to lose their virginity. It is an anxious time of lusting for girls with every cel of their body and mind, and not exactly knowing what will happen if the girl says yes. A mix of raging hormonal desire and social ineptitude. A sweet, and awkward time.
This turning-point moment from boy to man is nothing exclusive to the 80s--it's the same ilk of The Last Picture Show (1971) or American Pie (1999). Bu there is something of a high point in the 80s, perhaps the drugs, perhaps the pre-AIDS promiscuity. It is a particular perspective of sexuality that might not have ever been real, but that became the defining ethos of the early 80s--that all teen boys wanted to lose their virginity as soon as possible, and the older, college girls, were ready. They were always horny, always practicing on bananas, always having half-nude pillow fights at slumber parties. It was never a question of "if" the girls could be had--but a question of by whom.
The fact might be that no more nor less people actually had sex back then, but the critical difference was that every teenage boy in the 80s thought the dream was obtainable. Right within reach. Or through a window, or hole in the locker room, or secret spy camera. A time before internet porn made naked females ubiquitous.
In silly 80s pranks of voyeurism, they could see the women of their desire... and by seeing, they were that much closer to having.
It's become a cult classic and taken it's place in the 80s genre alongside films like Porky's. Ironically, while Porky's may be considered the quintessential 80s sex comedy, Revenge of the Nerds has about twice the nudity--and neither really has very much but a teasing glimpse. There is a certain adolescent innocence to both. In Porky's, the boys spy on the girls though a hole in the shower room. In Nerds, the guys install remote control surveillance cameras in the sorority house of the PIs.
After a successful panty raid on the sorority and the covert installing of the cameras, the nerds gather around their TV back at their house. They ooh and aww as they watch the girls undress and prepare for bed. Eventually, this leads Booger to become impatient and shout: "This is bullshit, I want bush!"
He gets a glimpse of bush as the nerds scan the camera down on one of the PIs who slips off her panties. The amount of bush shown is but a split second. Yet, it is a victory for the nerds. Vicariously, it is also a thrill for anyone who ever fantasied about the pretty girls of college and what it must be like to see them undress.
Both Revenge of the Nerds and Porky's are stories of underdogs, and specifically, white middle class boys on the cusp of adulthood, being picked on, and just wanting to lose their virginity. It is an anxious time of lusting for girls with every cel of their body and mind, and not exactly knowing what will happen if the girl says yes. A mix of raging hormonal desire and social ineptitude. A sweet, and awkward time.
This turning-point moment from boy to man is nothing exclusive to the 80s--it's the same ilk of The Last Picture Show (1971) or American Pie (1999). Bu there is something of a high point in the 80s, perhaps the drugs, perhaps the pre-AIDS promiscuity. It is a particular perspective of sexuality that might not have ever been real, but that became the defining ethos of the early 80s--that all teen boys wanted to lose their virginity as soon as possible, and the older, college girls, were ready. They were always horny, always practicing on bananas, always having half-nude pillow fights at slumber parties. It was never a question of "if" the girls could be had--but a question of by whom.
The fact might be that no more nor less people actually had sex back then, but the critical difference was that every teenage boy in the 80s thought the dream was obtainable. Right within reach. Or through a window, or hole in the locker room, or secret spy camera. A time before internet porn made naked females ubiquitous.
In silly 80s pranks of voyeurism, they could see the women of their desire... and by seeing, they were that much closer to having.
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| Julia Montgomery plays "Betty" the lead cheerleader of the PI sorority. She undressed for her shower, unsuspecting the nerds are in the middle of a panty raid. |
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| After installing remote-control spy cameras, the nerds get a glimpse of "bush." |
