Make 'em laugh - just take off your clothes

From Carrie Rickey's "Flickgrrl"

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/flickgrrl/

When did nudity in movies stop being sexy and start being funny? I speak, of course, of scenes in this summer's films The Hangover, The Proposal, Brüno, and The Ugly Truth (which opened yesterday) in which the anti-erotic nudity of Zach Galifianakis, Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Katherine Heigl is played for laughs.

First time I noticed this was about six years ago in Something's Gotta Give in a scene where Jack Nicholson loses his way in Diane Keaton's house and startles his nekkid hostess in the hallway. (This, shortly after a scene where Nicholson, on pain meds, wanders down a hospital hallway with the back of his hospital gown open.) Then there was Sideways, where the Naked Guy runs down the street trying to beat up Thomas Haden Church, who had his way with Naked Guy's wife. And Jason Segel's full-frontal frolic in last year's Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Of course, the naked Greco-Roman wrestling between Borat and his videographer in Borat was a high of low gross-out comedy.

Do the laughs come from the surprise of seeing man and woman parts not in the service of titillation? Or. ...?

From Carrie Rickey's "Flickgrrl"

Nearly 47 years after her death, Marilyn Monroe continues to bewitch. So the news this week that a brassiere once worn by the beguiling blonde sold at auction for $5,200 shouldn't be a surprise. The undergarment in question is a marvel of engineering, a double-slung sling described by lingerie authorities as an antecedent of the Wonderbra.

Perhaps more than any actress of her generation, Monroe lived the truth behind the Oscar Wilde quip that to be natural is such a difficult pose to keep up. The late Holly Solomon, an art dealer who befriended Monroe, liked to tell the story about how impressed she was that in the era of binding girdles, Monroe seemed unbound by the proprieties of the day. "I screwed up the courage to tell Marilyn that I wished that I could, like her, go braless," she said. To her surprise, Marilyn giggled and unbuttoned her blouse to reveal a sheer brassiere that had nipples embroidered on its cups. "It's about illusion," Monroe confided.