Line #7 Main/AwfulBritishSexComedy


1	[[quoteright:499:[[Film/ConfessionsOfASeries https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/33303.jpg]]]]
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3	->''"Why is it that the heart sinks, the knees sag and stark horror grips the soul at those three words: British Sex Comedy?"''
4	-->-- '''Tim Healey''', ''The World's Worst Movies''
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6	During TheSeventies, when [[{{Fanservice}} sex and nudity]] in mainstream films were at their height and the boundary between soft-core porn and mainstream was blurred, the UK film industry's main product, aside from big-screen BritCom adaptations, consisted of low-budget comedies with sexual themes featuring a great deal of nudity and slapstick. Modern viewers almost universally agree that these were flat-out ''awful'' films, but some [[SoBadItsGood enjoy them anyway]]. David [=McGillivray=], in his 1992 history of the genre, ''Doing Rude Things'', opines that the popularity of these films was an outgrowth of Victorian-era attitudes toward sex among Britons which made people uncomfortable discussing matters sexual unless in a comedic context.
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8	Most famous was the [[Film/ConfessionsOfASeries "Confessions of a..." Series]], four films entitled ''Confessions... of a Window Cleaner, of a Driving Instructor, of a Pop Performer'' and ''from a Holiday Camp'', all of which followed the misadventures of Creator/RobinAskwith's "lovable" loser Timmy Lea (to quote the theme tune from the first episode "You're really not a loser, you just find it hard to win") as he bungles his way through a series of jobs set up for him by his brother-in-law, Sid Noggett, who happened to be played by Creator/AnthonyBooth, later the future father-in-law of former British Prime Minister UsefulNotes/TonyBlair. At every turn, Sid and Timmy attempt to have sex with every young woman they meet, often [[ThePornomancer successfully]]. Subplots include Sid's stormy marriage and Timmy's Dad's habit of stealing things from the lost property office where he works.
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10	Other similar films were made at about the same time, including the derivative "Adventures" series, one episode of which, ''Adventures of a Taxi Driver'' is said to have out-performed Creator/MartinScorsese's ''Film/TaxiDriver'' at the British box office; if true, this says a horrible thing about British culture in the '70s [[note]]The page image, ''Confessions of a Window Cleaner'' notoriously knocked Disney classic ''WesternAnimation/TheAristocats'' off the number one spot of the most popular film of 1974[[/note]]. Established comedy series, such as ''Film/{{Carry On\|series}}'', also converged with this type of film during TheSeventies.
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12	One of the best-known actresses to perform in this genre was Mary Millington, a pretty, petite blonde who started out as a nude model (with occasional forays into hardcore porn) before transitioning to softcore sex comedies, starting with ''Come Play With Me'' (1977), which made her a star in the genre over the next two years. Unfortunately for her, however, she got into trouble with both the police (for selling then-illegal porn in the sex shop she ran on the side, as well as tax issues and kleptomania) and with British MoralGuardians, most notably Mary Whitehouse, on top of which she had problems with drug use. She committed suicide in August 1979 by taking a lethal mixture of drugs and alcohol.
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14	All the films of this type were cheap, cheerful and cheesy. They also showed considerably more flesh and considerably less morality than modern {{sex comed\|y}}ies. For example, remember how, at the end of ''Film/AmericanPie 2'', our hero turns down the beautiful foreign student who has already [[FanService got her tits out]] and runs off after the band geek whom he has just realized he really loves? Timmy Lea would have shagged the foreign girl, then said, "Ta very much, love. Cheerio!" and ''then'' ran off after the band geek. And the shag would have been on camera.
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16	A notable TV example of this genre is ''Series/TheBennyHillShow'', a long-running {{Britcom}} that ran for 20 series[[note]]The British telly equivalent of a show's TV season; for example, Series 1 would be the British equivalent of Season 1, etc.[[/note]] from 1969 to 1989, which is notable for two things: Creator/BennyHill's slapstick antics, which would usually result in a woman hitting him even when contact was accidental, and getting ChasedOffIntoTheSunset with such a closing sequence involving "Yakety Sax", the wacky, fast-paced closing theme played by Boots Randolph on the saxophone.
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18	This genre of film was spoofed in Film/AnAmericanWerewolfInLondon, in which a fictional movie called ''See You Next Wednesday'' is referred to in several scenes (usually by a film poster seen in the background); [[spoiler:in the climax of the movie where David has his final, and fatal, transformation, this occurs in a theater where the movie is being shown, the patrons fleeing in terror as David-as-werewolf begins to wreak havoc]].
19	----
20	!!Laden with tropes, including:
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22	* BasedOnAGreatBigLie: The ''Confessions'' films were based on a long series of ''True Confessions of Timothy Lea'' books available from cheap paperback racks, all supposedly written by Lea himself as true accounts of his adventures (actually by Christopher Wood, who also wrote the screenplays). Wood was also responsible for the equally fictional ''True Confessons of Rosie Dixon'' books, the first of which was adapted into the film ''Rosie Dixon -- Night Nurse''.
23	* CampGay: As comedy relief only.
24	* DoubleEntendre: Rarely subtle.
25	* FanService: Pretty much the whole point.
26	* FoodFight: If drinks, soup, pies, cream buns etc can be used to make someone messy, they will be. This comes from "sploshing", the British take on "wet and messy" fetishism, with the idea being that [[HollywoodCuisine British food]] is much more appealing if it's being worn.
27	* HurricaneOfPuns: Goes without saying in a British comedy of any type.
28	* LovableCoward: If the hero is in bed with a woman and her husband comes home, cue terrified dash with underpants at half mast.
29	* PornWithPlot: Well, enough plot that they could be presented as something other than porn, and shown in mainstream cinemas. And very softcore porn by modern standards. But frankly, the sex and the FanService seem to have been the point of the exercise for most people, both making and watching these things.
30	* {{Slapstick}}: As the easiest form of comedy.
31	* ThisLoserIsYou: Implied, or why would you be identifying with this schmuck bumbling around with other men's wives?
32	* ValuesDissonance: And not just in sexual matters either. For example, in ''Confessions from a Holiday Camp'', Timmy is working at a camp where the campers are all assigned teams named after the suits in a pack of cards. Timmy approaches a black woman with, "Hello, you're a spade, aren't you?". And the jokes ''get worse'' from there.
33	* WardrobeMalfunction: Inevitably and endlessly.

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