Monday, June 8, 2009

Revenge of the Nerds, 25 Years Later

I remember loving the movie “Revenge of the Nerds.” It wasn’t one of those movies I quoted with friends all the time, unlike “Better Off Dead” (4 weeks, 20 papers, that’s 2 dollars), “A Christmas Story” (I shot my eye out) or more recently, “Office Space,” (Lumbergh’s gonna have me come in on Saturday, I just know it). But, it was a funny movie regardless. My brother and I spent a lot of our childhood playfully poking fun at our father with the line, “I got the ol’ cruise control set at 35!”

On Friday night, I had a slight touch of insomnia (translated: I poured a beer very late, and stayed up to slowly drink it and for lack of anything better to do), and while channel surfing I found “Revenge of the Nerds” on G4, on their “Movies That Don’t Suck” promotion. G4 is apparently toned down for network TV (despite having a show whose premise seems to be “Hot girls that do disgusting things on video, while professional comedians comment on them”), so Revenge of the Nerds seemed to be edited. I have to be really honest here, it’s not quite the same movie without Booger going, “We’ve got bush! WE’VE GOT BUSH!” And they show you the subject of Booger’s exultations. Or, when Stan Gable wipes whipped cream off a plate and exclaims, “That’s MY pie!” Oh, and Louis Skolnick banging the hot cheerleader on The Moonwalk in the funhouse. All of that was cut. So, what we ended up with was basically an entire movie with what appeared to be rampant sexual tension between Louis and Gilbert, and gay jokes at Lamar’s expense, and fart/burp jokes at Booger’s. It’s been since I was probably a teenager (pre-1990) that I last saw this movie, but I clearly remember it being better (meaning, it had a decent amount of nudity).

But there was one scene which was not cut (which probably should have, if they also cut out Louis telling Betty, “jocks only think about sports, nerds only think about sex) was the talent show at the end. The members of Rho Rho Rho fraternity were doing a skit where they were in a rowboat and singing “Row Row Row Your Boat.” At the end, 3 girls sat up in the boat and sang the “Merrily merrily merrily merrily life is but a dream” part. At the end of that line, all 3 girls wiped their chins. How I missed that when I was 14, 15, 16, I’ll never know, but it instantly made that one scene a hell of a lot funnier. That scene went from “hey, those girls might be giving head to the Rho’s,” to “holy shit, those girls just implied they got facials from the Rho’s”. I have to give the director some credit for that, and the censors for being as stupid as I was 20 years ago when I missed it.

I’m sure there are other movies out there that were very different when watched as adults, versus when you first saw them as kids, so feel free to discuss. Or, music for that matter (take as an example, the woman in her mid-40’s who found out….from me, last year…..that Freddie Mercury was very gay, hence the name Queen, and that “Lola” was about a tranny).

7 comments:

  1. I can not believe you sat through a movie that had been butchered by the decency police. Your unconscious support of this disgrace is an affront to the artistic integrity of the writer and filmmakers, not to mention the thespians involved. I mean for pete's sake James Cromwell was in it.
    travesty
    Did you notice however that even though this was one of the “Movies That Don’t Suck” the girls in the canoe do?

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  2. Hair pie.

    Last time I saw this was on thecomedychannel (yes that's how they spelt it) on Foxtel (Australian cable.) From memory it was spectacularly uncut.

    I second U's diatribe. By watching this farrago of lies and deception you are supporting the gimlet eyed nimrods who are pedalling these diluted visions of the directors' original art. If we are not free to watch the uncut version of Revenge Of The Nerds on cable TV WITH all the swearing and muff shots included, THE TERRORISTS HAVE WON.

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  3. Goonies was a brilliant movie when I was a kid and while is it still great the really fun stuff seems a little pedestrian.

    One thing from the 80s that I am really enjoying at the moment is Magnum P.I.. They have started showing it at 11am on a Sunday and it is GOLD! I think I actually enjoy it more now than I did back when it was first one.

    That said, some of the shorts the guys wear on the show are quite distrubing when viewed with the modern eye.

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  4. Yeah, I keep having to look away, for fear I'll catch the slightest hint of scrotum. But I agree, that is still a great show, if you can get past the dated clothes and Rick's butterfly collars from the early years.

    U, here's how bad that movie is....according to IMDB, he's credited as "Jamie Cromwell."

    Doc, trust me, if watching the We've Got Bush edition was an option, I would've been all over it. Sadly, that night there was a complete dearth of anything entertaining on tv.

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  5. When it first came out, Fast Times At Ridgement High was a scream, especially Sean Penn's Jeff Spicolli character. I saw it late night a couple of weeks ago and it just seemed...terribly dated.

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  6. I LOVED Princess Bride as a kid, and now as an adult I love it even more. I missed SO many jokes in it, I'm not sure why I even liked it as a kid. I watch it as often as I can. Top Five Best Movies Ever!

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  7. Indie, I love that movie as well...it was such a good movie, with lots of action and humor, that I didn't mind the kissing so much. And it's very quotable, especially when you are challenging someone to a fight to the death.

    Knifeboy, you're right it is pretty dated. That's a movie that needs the foul language and nudity to stay watchable, but one you remove Spicolli's "Youuuuuu DICK!" It's just another 80's movie.

    Learnin' about Cuba, and having some food.

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