Women Objectified for Laughs

Table Of Contents

Main Description

Women are objectified for laughs on screen more often than men and the humor makes it harder to criticize. "It was just a joke" or "Don't you have a sense of humor?" people can say if you express concern.

Conservative Trope Examples

  • Bad Santa 2 (2016)
    Willie (Billy Bob Thornton) stares at a voluptuous young woman breastfeeding her child while driving a car and crashes into a valet stand because he is focusing on her.
  • We're the Millers (2013)
    Jennifer Aniston encourages new dancer "Kimberly with a Y" to come up with a stage name to help protect herself from all the creeps who frequent the strip club they work at. She asks Kimberly if she has a nickname and she excitedly replies "totally!" as she proudly shows off her stomach tattoo that spells out "Boner Garage" with an arrow pointing downwards. Moments later the manager walks in and yells for "Boner Garage" to head to the stage.
  • Grown Ups 2 (2013)
    Squats Fitness janitor Jon Lovitz begins a ladies fitness class over protests that their instructor hasn't arrived and has them begin with breathing exercises that "really stretch out those lungs," which has the effect of making the women's breasts appear larger and more refined. He then has the ladies "shimmy, shake those shoulders back and forth" as ogles at the ladies breasts bouncing back and forth.
  • Grown Ups 2 (2013)
    Multiple men ogle a ballet teacher in a very revealing outfit as she leads a performance with kids on stage for families in the audience. While the kids dance normally, her moves are depicted in an over the top gratuitous way. Chris Rock and David Spade appear stunned while Nick Swardson and Shaquille O'Neal stand with mouths agape. David Spade waves four $1 bills as if he were at a strip club. Kevin James is shown filming the performance with his camcorder and his wife says "look at her!" excited about their daughter. He responds "I am. I'm looking at her!" as he focuses on the ballet teacher instead.
  • The Way Way Back (2013)
    Owen (Sam Rockwell) has a waterslide attendant make a woman in a bikini wait so he and his new young and shy protégé can ogle her for 34 seconds (yes, we timed it). And then, they slide down right after her where Owen pretends to lose his balance after landing in the water as an excuse to grab onto the woman's waist.
  • Hall Pass (2011)
    Rick (Owen Wilson) turns around and casually checks out a good-looking woman's backside while walking with his wife. His wife lightly scolds him for checking "out that girl's butt," but instead of apologizing he asks "do you think she noticed?"
  • Hall Pass (2011)
    Larry reminds his wife Mandy (Alyssa Milano) the they paid for "a couple of fairly substantial expenditures recently" as the camera focuses in on her large breasts in a tight lowcut t-shirt, implying she had breast augmentation surgery.
  • Hall Pass (2011)
    Rick (Owen Wilson) is infatuated with a coffee house barista wearing a revealing tight shirt and can't stop commenting on her looks. The barista soon turns around and slowly bends over to pick something up from the floor while the camera focuses on her buttocks.
  • Grown Ups (2010)
    Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, and David Spade "take shifts" gawking at Rob Schneider's scantily clad daughter's backside as she works on her broken-down car. Chris Rock says he hopes "that car never gets fixed" and David Spade assures him it won't because he "took the spark plugs out."
  • The Hangover (2009) | Catcalling for Laughs
    "Ma'am, in the leopard dress, you have an amazing rack," says Phil over a megaphone while driving in Las Vegas in a commandeered police car
  • Tropic Thunder (2008)
    Alpa Chino has two women shaking their butts in his face as he repeatedly yells "I love that p#ssy!" to promote his Booty Sweat energy drink and Bust a Nut bar in an opening commercial.
    Staff Aside
    It is funny and over the top satire, but satirizing how women are portrayed in rap music videos by portraying them worse is...well...
  • Superbad (2007)
    Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan lament that a woman they knew in high school underwent breast reduction surgery because it's "like slapping God across the face for giving you a beautiful gift." They continue objectifying her from afar, commenting on her breasts shape, suppleness and symmetry until Seth has had enough and says he's "gotta catch a glimpse of these warlocks.
  • Beerfest (2006)
    Women serve beer at a secret underground Oktoberfest celebration wearing overly revealing outfits while mostly men drink beer and party.
  • Beerfest (2006)
    Women slip, fall and "accidentally" rip off each other's shirts exposing their breasts to cheering men after a mishap at a biergarten during Oktoberfest.
  • The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)
    A buxom woman's breast pops out of her shirt without her knowledge while she was talking to Andy (Steve Carell) at a speed dating event. Andy awkwardly moves his shirt around in a veiled attempt to point out her unfortunate slippage, but never let her know her breast was exposed and allowed her to continue talking for twenty seconds before the buzzer sounds.
  • The Girl Next Door (2004)
    Adult film star next door neighbor Danielle (Elisha Cuthbert) surprises Matthew's two friends by ringing their doorbell with a white shirt and red bra mostly showing and says, "I'm all wet, can I come in?" They gawk at her for a couple seconds before Matthew appears in the scene, and they both laugh at his friends' jaw dropped expressions.
  • Bruce Almighty (2003)
    Bruce uses his power to blow a manhole cover up to shoot air up to lift a woman's dress up revealing her underwear
  • Serving Sara (2002)
    Sara loses her pants in an airport luggage conveyor belt accident and looks to find a replacement pair going through the luggage. She instead comes out with an entirely new outfit which is much more revealing and the punchline in the next scene is that she had to rummage through 20+ bags strewn everywhere until she found something she liked.
  • Serving Sara (2002)
    Kate (Amy Adams) walks into a bar with men checking her out and one whistling as she struts in with a revealing top. The camera later pans to Joe imagining her breasts moving suggestively on their own.
  • Bridget Joness Diary (2001)
    Bridget's (Renée Zellweger) is hurriedly told to slide down a fireman pole and the camera zooms in up her miniskirt while she's sliding down. Later Bridget watches her up-skirt mishap over and over while narrating that she's embarrassed about what happened and lamenting that she has a "bottom the size of Brazil."
  • Tomcats (2001)
    Michael (Jerry O'Connell) is $25,500 down at the craps table while trying to impress an attractive woman Amber who, in an overly gratuitous green cocktail dress, rubs the dice on her breasts, blows on them suggestively and flirts with him as he loses. His friend Steve tries to intervene before Michael does a double or nothing bet and convinces him he cannot afford it. Amber, despite obviously being able to hear what was said, throws the dice seemingly unaware Michael wants to stop, and he loses owing the casino $51,000 -- which he doesn't have.
  • Meet the Parents (2000)
    Greg Focker unintentionally faces a stuffed animal with a hidden camera inside of it at his girlfriend's mom and on the television behind her is a zoomed in view of her in a short dress with her legs spread apart. We watch her with her legs spread open for seven full seconds before Greg realizes what he is doing and throws the bear on the ground.
  • There's Something About Mary (1998)
    Healy (Matt Dillon) spies on Mary (Cameron Diaz) changing in her bedroom, and as she takes off her shirt, he switches to oversized binoculars to get the "money shot" but ends up spying her older roommate topless instead.
  • The Big Lebowski (1998)
    The Dude creeps up on Bunny (Tara Reid) sunbathing in a lime green bikini and the first thing she asks him is to blow on her toes to dry the nail polish she just applied. After some brief chit chat she gets to the point and and tells him "I'll suck your c*ck for a thousand dollars," but tells him "Brandt (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) can't watch, though, or he has to pay a hundred."
    Staff Aside
    It's only $7.99 to buy the HD version on Amazon Prime though.
  • Vegas Vacation (1997)
    Chevy Chase squats down and puts his face directly in front of an attractive woman's cleavage at a casino craps table and says "nice place for a pearl necklace" as he tries to hide from his annoying cousin Eddie.
  • Happy Gilmore (1996)
    Happy Gilmore has a dream with his love interest Virginia Venit strutting around in white lingerie carrying two pitchers of beer while sitting on a bed and then getting wet walking through water sprinklers.
  • Happy Gilmore (1996)
    A young attractive woman holds her shirt open so that Happy Gilmore can sign her breasts just above her bra as the crowd cheers along while Shooter McGavin signs autographs for senior citizens during a golf tournament.
  • Dumb and Dumber (1994)
    Lloyd falls asleep while driving and dreams about Mary jumping into his arms while he lifts up her dress to peek at her bare backside. She later takes off her top to presumably have sex with him, but her breasts are covered by bright headlights, which snaps him out of his dream before he hits a semi-truck head-on.
  • Christmas Vacation (1989)
    Clark (Chevy Chase) gets flustered by an attractive store clerk with a revealing top helping him pick out underwear for his wife. He makes several "Freudian slips" about her for laughs and then she hikes up her skirt revealing her entire leg to show him where the underwear straps clip. Later, as Clark daydreams about a new swimming pool he's having built, he imagines the same woman suggestively taking off her swimsuit. But just before you see her jump out of the pool naked, he gets asked a question that interrupts his dream.
  • Scrooged (1988)
    Frank Cross (Bill Murray) argues with a network censor over a voluptuous woman's costume that is so small her nipples are peeking out. The censor says she can't allow it because you can clearly see her nipples and Frank screams "I want to see her nipples" as the camera zooms in on the woman's breasts. After the censor tries to remind Frank it's a Christmas show he says that he's "sure Charles Dickens would have wanted to see her nipples" too.
  • Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
    Brad (Judge Reinhold) imagines Linda (Phoebe Cates) taking off her red bikini top and kissing him as "Moving in Stereo" by the Cars plays in the background.
  • Airplane! (1980)
    During a crisis with the crew becoming sick on board the airplane, they have to engage autopilot which is not a computer but hilariously an inflatable male pilot who takes control. And later something goes wrong and the pilot starts deflating and the plane starts descending and chaos ensues. But the female head flight attendant is able to restore order by reinflating the autopilot manually by mouth, but the nozzle happens to be in his crotch. So you get the picture.
    Staff Aside
    So this is one of the funniest and most iconic comedic scenes in our opinion. It is great. Very clever humor. Super funny. Laugh every time. So how could we include it? Because that is the point. Would they have had a man saving the day by putting his face in an inflatable woman pilot's crotch? Jokes about gender are some of the funniest but if there is a pattern of them being one-sided, over time that is not so funny we think. More of these type jokes getting big laughs with men instead as the punchline is our vote. But we have 40+ years after the fact here where that is still not the case and people will still watch, talk about or meme this and other movies considered classic.
  • Airplane! (1980)
    As the plane experiences major turbulence the camera zooms in on a plate of Jell-O prepared in a way that looks like a woman's breast bouncing vigorously back and forth and then pans over to zoom in on a woman's breasts doing the same thing.