In this week's Guardian film section, blogger/critic John Patterson reminds us that, amongst the other debts we owe to Judd Apatow, we can also thank him for helping shred one of the last remaining bougeois taboos in cinema: the one that state that the human penis cannot be seen at any cost.
Patterson reports that it took a string of comedies, from Superbad to Forgetting Sarah Marshall to the upcoming Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, to shatter the ironclad reluctance of American bluenoses to the merest suggestion of the national generative organ. The penis is, after all, as Patterson notes, a comical thing -- "just ask any woman." Prior to the recent proliferation of the dick as joke (not to be confused with the dick joke), big-screen appearances of the little man were confined to pornography, well-meaning art films, and any movie starring Harvey Keitel.
Happily, the story isn't deadly earnest despite its very legitimate and welcome message, and Patterson does allow himself plenty of gag lines. Frustratingly, though, he fails to credit The Simpsons Movie for its role in the dingus drama; Bart's brief nude scene was the most talked-about moment of the film. Just because it's a cartoon penis doesn't mean that it doesn't count, Mr. Patterson!
