Getting Filthy With PINK FLAMINGO’s Infamous Blowjob Scene
Whenever there’s some controversy about whether or not a film features unsimulated sex between actors - whether it’s The Brown Bunny, Intimacy, or whatever else - I’m always a little surprised. John Waters was doing that shit in 1972. Once the dam broke on onscreen kissing, it remained broken. Same with people acting like they were having sex, regardless of how graphic. But when it comes to real people putting real weiners into real parts of their bodies in movies, the taboo appears to be quite resilient, able to reset itself for each new generation.
Pink Flamingos might not be the first film to feature unsimulated oral sex between a guy and a guy dressed like a lady, but it’s the first I ever saw, and it’s certainly my favorite. John Waters’ opus earned it legendary status from a scene in which Divine eats real dog shit onscreen. Gross as that is, I was ready for it when I first saw the film. I knew that was coming. This blowjob scene was a real shocker. Not just for what I was seeing, but that such a thing existed in 1972 and all people wanted to talk about was the dog poop. Even the chicken scene strikes me as more extreme. To put it another way, you can see guys eat poo on Jackass. As far as I can recall, none of those movies have a part where they blow each other.
For whatever reason, whether dramatic or exploitive, some films want to shock you. No film has shocked me like Pink Flamingos and I suspect none ever will again. I saw it when I was fifteen, but I’m not sure that’s the sole reason why its acts of depravity had such an effect. Even today the film still feels dangerous and exciting for just how far over the line of decency it travels. It’s not hard to think of crazy stuff to put in a movie. The Human Centipede 2 - a movie I’m really fond of - can pull out whatever disgusting nonsense it wants. I appreciate the effort, but there’s no way it’s even coming close to what John Waters pulled off. That shit was real, that shit was amazing, and that shit still has the power to make me think I’m trespassing into a gross and unsavory world I’m just not prepared for. The post-Pink Flamingos world shouldn't suffer shock for movies like The Brown Bunny. We should be long past that now, capable of watching people really have sex in narrative films casually, maybe even for the fun of it. That's part of why I love Short Bus so much.
John Waters himself wasn’t able to top Pink Flamindos either, by the way. Never again would he push things so far. There’s some great stuff in Desperate Living - a film I actually prefer - but nothing so amazing as that blowjob scene. Or the chicken scene. Or the singing buttonhole scene. Or, yes, the dog poop scene.
So the next time a pal wants to go on and on about some crazy sex they saw in a movie, show them this. It’ll properly calibrate their sense of onscreen blowjob history, and it’s about a million times funnier than Deep Throat.
