# Blue Movies and Laws

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-movies-and-laws/34235>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 23, 2000, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-movies-and-laws/34235 "2000-09-23T02:47:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Marvel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marvel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvel)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2000, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-movies-and-laws/34235/1 "2000-09-23T02:47:06Z")

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Question…why are porno films called “blue movies?” A friend of mine reckons that the earliest such films had a blue tint to them due to poor developing procedures (like, in someone’s bathtub). Or does the strange name have something to do with the even stranger “blue laws,” which indicated what folks were NOT to do on Sundays? And why the heck were the laws “blue?”

Color Me Confused,  
Patty

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**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2000, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-movies-and-laws/34235/2 "2000-09-23T07:09:50Z")

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For what it’s worth “Blue Laws” first applied to the theocratic New Haven colony (they printed the stuff on blue paper). Something off-color can still be referred to as blue.  
Film gets a tint to it because the tint was added.

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2000, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-movies-and-laws/34235/3 "2000-09-23T19:42:51Z")

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[This page](http://www.shu.ac.uk/web-admin/phrases/bulletin_board/messages/2890.html) has some theories about “blue” used in this way. One of the more interesting is below

> [@](#):
>
> it was standard practice to change the color filters on spotlights when the star dancer went into the gamier parts of her act. A favorite color used during these portions of her act was blue, so ‘dipping into the blue,’ as the common expression went, may well have come from this change in color of the spotlight

Now my own WAG: it may be related to a slang expression for an erect penis, **a blue-veiner**

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**Author:** ![Marvel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marvel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvel)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2000, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-movies-and-laws/34235/4 "2000-09-25T23:30:41Z")

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Thanks for the input! The webpage is especially useful!

Patty

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**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-movies-and-laws/34235/5 "2000-09-26T00:42:00Z")

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I can’t resist- ever notice that a smoke-filled room has a blue haze around the ceiling? Old-time porn films were frequently called “smokers”.

Just another WAG

```
Cartooniverse
```