Porky’s is easy to dismiss as a dumb teen sex comedy, but how does it hold up 45 years later?
Is it dumb? Is it teen? Is it sex? Is it comedy?
These are questions we must answer because if we don’t… it doesn’t really matter, actually.
But what else are we going to do for the time being?
Porky’s
Porky’s isn’t just a dumb teen sex comedy. It’s one of films that started the genre.
Animal House would also be on that list. Some more obscure films in this first wave include Malibu Beach (1978), Lemon Popsicle (1978), Meatballs (1979) and Little Darlings (1980). Maybe Summer of ’42 could be thrown in, too, because it contains a couple glints of common elements, as well.
But Porky’s is the airport from which the genre took off. Believe it or not, Porky’s is still the highest grossing Canadian film of all time. Just when you think Canada is a joke, it goes and throws that kind of street cred in your face…
Porky’s Pig
Despite its famous shower scene, Porky’s is fairly light on nudity, and even the shower scene is filmed more tastefully than it could have been. It’s all rather quaint in this era of internet pornography.
It’s amazing that Hollywood still tries to compete with internet porn by making attempts at being sexy in this day and age.
Why bother? It’s like the Washington Generals playing the Harlem Globetrotters.
Maybe just try telling compelling stories with suspense and action, Hollywood? I know. It’s an extreme course of action, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
Most of the sexual content in Porky’s is via spoken word or implied. The only sex scene is between pretty much fully clothed performers and is built around a joke.
“Why do they call you Lassie?”
So that answers one question. Is Porky’s sex?
Not particularly, even though sex is the driving motivation of the film…
Porky’s And Beans
The comedy in Porky’s is extremely broad. You got slapstick, practical jokes, puns, inuendo and penile tug of war. Will it make a person laugh?
Tough to say. Those elements of comedy still exist today, but comedy is something that actually has evolved through the years.
Sarcasm, irony and cringe became more common. Foul-mouthed women happened thanks to Sarah Silverman. Dark humor has also gone more mainstream.
Gallows humor always existed among the general population, but you couldn’t really turn on the TV and see a comedian joke about transperson suicide in the 1980s. Now that sort of stuff is everywhere. Comedy is a lot more uncomfortable today than in 1981.
One interesting aspect about Porky’s is how much it makes its laughter meta. Characters guffaw at the follies they participate in. The payoff of a couple jokes are based entirely on characters laughing at the situation like they’ve been hooked up to nitrous oxide.
Is Porky’s comedy? Maybe. It depends on your point of view.
Porky’s Chops
Is Porky’s dumb?
Surprisingly, not really. The script is denser than expected. It starts out as a high school comedy and somehow morphs into a men-on-a-mission film. This makes it a bit too scattershot to be perfect, but it is ambitious.
A good amount of subplots are thrown in: Peewee’s quest to have sex, Coach Brackett’s pursuit of Miss Honeywell, Beulah Balbricker’s war with Tommy Turner, the hooker-in-a-shack practical joke, Mickey’s inability to let Porky’s insults go, Ted’s mentoring, the first visit to Porky’s and probably a couple more.
Porky’s even finds time to throw in a triangular relationship between Tim, his father and Brian that goes from bigotry to buddy.
It is also interesting to note that the character of Porky is not as one dimensional as he seems. He seemed like a ridiculously fat villain to 1981 eyes. With 2026 eyes, he wasn’t super fat post Body Positivity Movement. Plus, he was a businessman trying to deal with underage kids invading his bar. He shows genuine hurt when his club is torn down.
Add all that up, and Porky’s doesn’t really belong in the remedial class of high school comedies. It has a bit more going on than lowest common denominator.
Porky’s Roast
Ultimately, the final question best sums up Porky’s.
Is Porky’s teen?
At its heart, Porky’s is a coming-of-age film. It’s director Bob Clark’s love letter to being a teenager, and he based it on his own experiences growing up in Florida.
Porky’s is about buddies and quests during the years when everything one encounters glows in primary colors and has not yet taken on the grays of adulthood. It’s about laughing at the present instead of worrying about the future or lamenting the past.
Porky’s also captures a bygone era. It takes place in the 1950s when everything in America was on an upward trajectory, but the pre-World War II era still cast its shadow on things.
Each southern rural county had its own personality. Slurs and beatings got thrown around as normal, and everyone was a lot tougher and simply rolled with the insults and punches. They understood that getting offended didn’t offer much in the way of living one’s life. Plus, their cars were a lot cooler. This 1950s aesthetic almost makes Porky’s a seedy Leave It To Beaver episode.
Meanwhile, the universal human drives bound all times together and life went on. Now, we are in this time, looking back and still see people step in the same footprints.
Porky’s Alumni
Despite Porky’s being huge at the box office, it didn’t necessarily translate to doing the same thing for the careers of everyone involved.
Dan Monahan (Pee Wee) appeared in the sequels and a few other movies, but he has been mostly quiet since 2000.
Mark Herrir’s Billy was the leader of the group in the film. He also appeared in the sequels and little else of note, taking a backseat to fame.
Roger Wilson (Mickey) had an interesting post-Porky’s life. He went on to be a writer and producer and dated a string of supermodels: Christy Turlington, Elizabeth Berkley, Kelly LeBrock, Diane Lane and Nicollette Sheridan.
Cyril O’Reily (Tim) had the most looks. Perhaps that helped him have a fairly successful career in B movies and on TV. He still appears in low-budget films.
Tony Ganios (Meat) got to be stabbed in the eye with an icicle by John McClane in Die Hard 2. That’s pretty awesome!
Susan Clark (Cherry Forever) played a hooker in this after playing a tomboy in The Apple Dumpling Gang. What range!
Porky’s Pen Continued
Kaki Hunter (Wendy) was the lead actress in Porky’s. She appeared in the sequels and went on to be a writer and a white-water rafting instructor in Utah.
Kim Cattrell, as we all know, went on to be a pretty big deal. The funny thing is that she thought Porky’s would end her career before it started.
Scott Colomby (Brian) appeared in Caddyshack and Porky’s. Despite that heavy hitter duo of classic comedy films, he did most of his work in TV
Boyd Gains (Coach Brackett) stayed fairly active in TV and theater.
Art Hindle (Ted) appeared in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978). We will just grant him legend status for that. The rest of his credits are solid, as well, however.
Alex Karras (Sheriff Wallace) played the dad on the TV show Webster, plus Mongo in Blazing Saddles. He did all right for himself.
Surprisingly, Doug McGrath (Coach Warren) is still with us at 90. He worked in a number of Clint Eastwood films, plus appeared in The Rocketeer and Ghosts of Mars.
Porky’s In Memorium
Chuck Mitchell (Porky) is no longer around. He passed away already in 1992. He also did not appear in a lot of films, but he showed up in Better Off Dead.
What a wonderfully quirky film that is, and it probably wouldn’t have existed without Porky’s. It can’t help but reference the film with Mitchell’s role.
Nancy Parsons (Beulah Balbricker) died in 2001. She appeared in number of memorable movies, like Motel Hell, Steel Magnolias and Sudden Impact.
Parsons grew up in my neck of the woods. She was born in Minnesota and lived in La Crosse, WI at the end of her life. If I had known that, I would have went and visited her.
The saddest death belongs to Wyatt Knight. He showed real charisma as Tommy. In fact, his Porky’s character half makes me wonder if Ryan Reynolds was inspired by him. They show some of the same characteristics.
Knight appeared in the sequels and did TV work on MASH and Star Trek: TNG. He eventually had a bone marrow transplant from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. It left him in great pain, according to his wife. He committed suicide October 26, 2011.
Watching Porky’s with Knight’s death in mind makes the final scene carry a different sort of weight. It is Knight breaking the fourth wall and shrugging.
Stick A Porky’s In It…
I remember watching Porky’s with a bunch of relatives who were over for someone’s birthday party. All the women were in one room talking it up. All the men were in another room watching Porky’s and laughing it up. I didn’t understand all of the jokes, but I remember laughing along with them. They didn’t censor me from anything, but I didn’t care about the raunchiness. It was fun to see all of the old people laugh. And, personally, I never had much issue separating movies from life on moral issues. It’s not rocket surgery…
In the end, Porky’s made its mark. It endures because it isn’t one of the dumb teen sex comedies it inspired.
It’s a still frame of youth while the reel relentlessly turns…
