From Mav: So a few weeks ago, after Michelle Trachtenberg suddenly died, I started thinking about whether or not we wanted to do an episode of our “is this a bad movie?” series to talking about Eurotrip. Partly because I thought it would be interesting to talk about the changing sensibilities within American youth culture, even in such a short time. That is to say that Eurotrip isn’t a particularly old movie — it came out in 2004 — but it is quite dated. From premise to incidental humor it’s basically constant gay jokes. They’re not really intended to be mean spirited per se. But it is very “of the time” and reads a lot differently 20+ years later than it did at the time. Still, I actually kinda love it. Not the least of which because it very much speaks to the general vibes that society saw for teenage sexuality in the beginning of the 21st century.
And that’s what teen sex farces do. Or at least that’s what they did. As I started thinking about this, I realized that the teen sex farce is kind of dead. Eurotrip came out during what I would call the hey day or second golden age of the mini drama with films released in the wake of American Pie in 1999. The first was during the eighties when you had films like Porky’s (and sequels), Meatballs (and sequels), Revenge of the Nerds (as problematic as it is… and all of the sequels) and even Zapped! (and yeah, even it had a sequel). Plus there were a shit ton of these that no one remembers unless you were fans of USA Up All Night! And of course this gave way to the early low budget Skinemax comedy like Ski School or favorites of mine like Beach Babes From Beyond, but I’m not even talking about those really.
There was a break after the eighties but then once American Pie hit in 1999 there were just tons of them right after. Aside from American Pie sequels (yes, of course I’ve seen all nine movies in the series) you had your Road Trips (yeah, there’s two NOT including Eurotrip and yep, I’ve watched all of them), and your Van Wilders (there’s three of these too) and just a crap ton of tinier films that pretty much only I have seen. That lasted maybe a decade before it began to die out. I think that cycle kind of culminated with Superbad and Easy A.
And there just really aren’t many of this kind of movie right now. I think there are a few that are kind of using the rough formula but focusing more on being queer narratives first and teen sex farces second. Like, I think a really good recent example of this is Bottoms as is Booksmart. Similarly, a few people have pointed out Blockers as a recent example, though I think that’s tried to sort of end-around the whole thing by focusing on the parents in the sex farce rather than kids. It ends up feeling more like it’s a comedy about parenting and accepting your kids’ sexuality rather than about growing up and discovering your own. And Good Boys I think also counts, but in a similar way, its disguised by moving the sex farce onto kids typically considered too young to have one.
Now I want to be clear — I don’t think we are done making movies dealing with teen sexuality. In fact, I feel like the coming of age movie is going strong. Everything from Lady Bird to Edge of Seventeen to my favorite movie of last year, My Old Ass. But I don’t think those are the same really as the teen sex farce films. No one is really watching a straight up teen sex farce for the most part anymore. Even American Pie tried to revive itself a couple years ago with American Pie: Girls Rules and basically no one noticed. Maybe as we’ve evolved to take teen sexuality more seriously the need to make fun of it has diminished?
So yeah, I want to talk about that. Do you have thoughts on teen sex farces? Did you love them? Hate them? Miss them? Glad they’re gone? Or am I wrong? Do you think they’re alive and well? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Oh… and just as an aside. If you ever decide you want to write a blog about teen sex comedies and you need images of the movie posters for your blog post. Don’t search for Bing for “My Old Ass” unless you are sure you have Safe Search turned on. Otherwise you will not get what you think!
Call For Comments: What Happened to the Teen Sex Farce?
April 2, 2025
From Mav: So a few weeks ago, after Michelle Trachtenberg suddenly died, I started thinking about whether or not we wanted to do an episode of our “is this a bad movie?” series to talking about Eurotrip. Partly because I thought it would be interesting to talk about the changing sensibilities within American youth culture, even in such a short time. That is to say that Eurotrip isn’t a particularly old movie — it came out in 2004 — but it is quite dated. From premise to incidental humor it’s basically constant gay jokes. They’re not really intended to be mean spirited per se. But it is very “of the time” and reads a lot differently 20+ years later than it did at the time. Still, I actually kinda love it. Not the least of which because it very much speaks to the general vibes that society saw for teenage sexuality in the beginning of the 21st century.
And that’s what teen sex farces do. Or at least that’s what they did. As I started thinking about this, I realized that the teen sex farce is kind of dead. Eurotrip came out during what I would call the hey day or second golden age of the mini drama with films released in the wake of American Pie in 1999. The first was during the eighties when you had films like Porky’s (and sequels), Meatballs (and sequels), Revenge of the Nerds (as problematic as it is… and all of the sequels) and even Zapped! (and yeah, even it had a sequel). Plus there were a shit ton of these that no one remembers unless you were fans of USA Up All Night! And of course this gave way to the early low budget Skinemax comedy like Ski School or favorites of mine like Beach Babes From Beyond, but I’m not even talking about those really.
There was a break after the eighties but then once American Pie hit in 1999 there were just tons of them right after. Aside from American Pie sequels (yes, of course I’ve seen all nine movies in the series) you had your Road Trips (yeah, there’s two NOT including Eurotrip and yep, I’ve watched all of them), and your Van Wilders (there’s three of these too) and just a crap ton of tinier films that pretty much only I have seen. That lasted maybe a decade before it began to die out. I think that cycle kind of culminated with Superbad and Easy A.
And there just really aren’t many of this kind of movie right now. I think there are a few that are kind of using the rough formula but focusing more on being queer narratives first and teen sex farces second. Like, I think a really good recent example of this is Bottoms as is Booksmart. Similarly, a few people have pointed out Blockers as a recent example, though I think that’s tried to sort of end-around the whole thing by focusing on the parents in the sex farce rather than kids. It ends up feeling more like it’s a comedy about parenting and accepting your kids’ sexuality rather than about growing up and discovering your own. And Good Boys I think also counts, but in a similar way, its disguised by moving the sex farce onto kids typically considered too young to have one.
Now I want to be clear — I don’t think we are done making movies dealing with teen sexuality. In fact, I feel like the coming of age movie is going strong. Everything from Lady Bird to Edge of Seventeen to my favorite movie of last year, My Old Ass. But I don’t think those are the same really as the teen sex farce films. No one is really watching a straight up teen sex farce for the most part anymore. Even American Pie tried to revive itself a couple years ago with American Pie: Girls Rules and basically no one noticed. Maybe as we’ve evolved to take teen sexuality more seriously the need to make fun of it has diminished?
So yeah, I want to talk about that. Do you have thoughts on teen sex farces? Did you love them? Hate them? Miss them? Glad they’re gone? Or am I wrong? Do you think they’re alive and well? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Oh… and just as an aside. If you ever decide you want to write a blog about teen sex comedies and you need images of the movie posters for your blog post. Don’t search for Bing for “My Old Ass” unless you are sure you have Safe Search turned on. Otherwise you will not get what you think!
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