# Utterly Gratuitous Moments **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 14, 2005, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utterly-gratuitous-moments/321584 "2005-09-14T12:51:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utterly-gratuitous-moments/321584/21 "2005-09-14T20:21:01Z")
> [@kidchameleon](#): > > Well, while it was gratuitous, there was a reason for why she missed all the violence and mayhem, she was drugged prior to going into the cake. Really? Granted I haven’t seen it in a while. Must’ve been a local - she sure did come out of it quickly. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utterly-gratuitous-moments/321584/22 "2005-09-14T20:31:50Z")
In a race to the bottom for Most Gratuitous Scene in a movie that was entirely gratuitous, I nominate “Uhura Fan Dance” (Star Trek V). ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utterly-gratuitous-moments/321584/23 "2005-09-14T20:37:03Z")
> [@Fabulous Creature](#): > > Fourth–did I mention Carla Gugino? This can never be mentioned too many times. So… Carla Gugino. Drooooool. Losing _Karen Sisco_ was a tragedy. Re the OP: How about Beverly D’Angelo in the first _National Lampoon’s Vacation_ movie? What was the point of that? ---
**Author:** ![Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myron_Van_Horowitzski)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utterly-gratuitous-moments/321584/24 "2005-09-14T20:43:05Z")
The first time I saw _Ace Ventura_ I was patently unimpressed. The second time I saw it I kind of enjoyed it. The second time it was edited for network broadcast. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utterly-gratuitous-moments/321584/25 "2005-09-14T20:46:52Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > This can never be mentioned too many times. > > So… Carla Gugino. Drooooool. Losing _Karen Sisco_ was a tragedy. > > Re the OP: How about Beverly D’Angelo in the first _National Lampoon’s Vacation_ movie? What was the point of that? It was Beverly D’Angelo, man. Who cares? She can wear as little clothing as she likes. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utterly-gratuitous-moments/321584/26 "2005-09-14T20:50:39Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > This can never be mentioned too many times. > > So… Carla Gugino. Drooooool. Losing _Karen Sisco_ was a tragedy. Psst. [_Threshold_](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6573083&postcount=14) > [@](#): > > Re the OP: How about Beverly D’Angelo in the first _National Lampoon’s Vacation_ movie? What was the point of that? Well, they figured the teenage boys in the audience got so worked up by the promise of some non-gratuitous Christie Brinkley, that they had to deliver some sort of goods… ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utterly-gratuitous-moments/321584/27 "2005-09-14T21:11:58Z")
Some Van Damme movie: one of the **Universal Soldier** ones, I think. Anyway, our hero has to make a phone call, so he goes into a _strip club_ to find a phone. Of course! Where else would one look? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utterly-gratuitous-moments/321584/28 "2005-09-14T21:21:03Z")
Clarify something for me, por favor: There is _gratuitous_ nudity in movies? Anywhere? Sure, there can be undesired nudity (ie: me at any time), but gratuitous? ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utterly-gratuitous-moments/321584/29 "2005-09-14T21:38:05Z")
Pretty much any movie–men taking leaks. Seems every movie has to have a urinal scene, and _most_ of the time it just seems unnecessary. And I have to agree with that stupid scene in _Under Siege_. What makes it even MORE ridiculous is how she gets so modest a few minutes later and _covers_ her breasts when Ryback hands her some clothes to put on. She was ready to show those boobs to a whole shipful of men, but she has to cover them up so that one man doesn’t see them just before she puts on a shirt? _Riiiiiiiiiight_. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utterly-gratuitous-moments/321584/30 "2005-09-14T21:47:24Z")
> [@Chanteuse](#): > > Pretty much any movie–men taking leaks. Seems every movie has to have a urinal scene, and _most_ of the time it just seems unnecessary. I don’t know why that shows up so often. A friend of mine has been saying for years that there just _has_ to be a man peeing in every movie she sees. She can’t escape it. When we rent movies, she’ll call it out half the time. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utterly-gratuitous-moments/321584/31 "2005-09-14T21:50:11Z")
> [@Chanteuse](#): > > She was ready to show those boobs to a whole shipful of men, but she has to cover them up so that one man doesn’t see them just before she puts on a shirt? _Riiiiiiiiiight_. Hey, she was gettin’ _paid_ to burst out of that cake. This ain’t a charity, buddy. ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utterly-gratuitous-moments/321584/32 "2005-09-15T01:35:31Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#): > > Hey, she was gettin’ _paid_ to burst out of that cake. This ain’t a charity, buddy. LOL, that must be it! I always wondered why a former Playboy centerfold, who’d done a Wet and Wild video, and was about to show it all to that crew suddenly got shy–the cook didn’t have any dollar bills to line her G-string with! Now it all makes sense! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utterly-gratuitous-moments/321584/33 "2005-09-15T12:03:17Z")
A couple others that leapt out at me from my cringing memory: In Independence Day, where does Wil Smiths wife work? At the strip bar, of course! So you get the pointless moment of performance before moving on to the rest of the pointless movie. I want my money back! A moment that has become famous for it’s gratuity: the (in)famous point in the Batman movies where our hero is getting into bat-costume and they have a little bat-montage ending in a pretty blatant bat-ass-shot. I remember the audience laughing/groaning at that. It’s became a sort of joke for the movie so they included the same moment in future bat-flicks with Batgirl. The one episode of Spongebob I’ve ever seen parodied that moment by including it in a scene where our yellow square hero puts on a bat-like costume and they use the ass-shot. ---
**Author:** ![ArrMatey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrmatey/32/3522_2.png) [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utterly-gratuitous-moments/321584/34 "2005-09-15T14:18:01Z")
> [@Dooku](#): > > Gotta go with **Under Siege**. Seagal has just escaped from the kitchen after killing a dozen or so bad guys, and comes across the mess hall, where suddenly Erika Eleniak pops out of a cake and does a sexy dance, naked. > > Not only was it the only nudity in the movie, but we are meant to believe that she just sat there writhing with her eyes closed, not noticing that the room was empty, totally oblivious to all that happened before, like the gunshots, murder and general mayhem during the taking over of the ship. Plus, she must’ve been in there for a good hour or so - didn’t it occur to her that something was amiss? “I’ll just wait in this cake until the music plays…were those gunshots?” Or, as my sis-in-law put it when we saw it, “Okay, we’ve seen your boobs. Can she die now?” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utterly-gratuitous-moments/321584/35 "2005-09-15T15:04:51Z")
It’s one of items on the movie cliche list that every police investigation requires the detectives to visit a strip club at some point. Most gratuitous nudity ever? The 1985 HBO movie _Gulag_ was about an American journalist who was imprisoned in a Soviet labor camp on trumped up charges. Not much opportunity for choice female nudity would seem to present itself. But the movie had a sequence in which the hero was dreaming about his wife back home - taking a shower. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utterly-gratuitous-moments/321584/36 "2005-09-15T15:07:08Z")
> [@Chanteuse](#): > > LOL, that must be it! I always wondered why a former Playboy centerfold, who’d done a Wet and Wild video, and was about to show it all to that crew suddenly got shy–the cook didn’t have any dollar bills to line her G-string with! Now it all makes sense! 😃 Well you don’t see strippers wandering around naked at the mall, the supermarket, college classes, etc. They’re performers, but they’re not always “on.” ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utterly-gratuitous-moments/321584/37 "2005-09-15T18:19:19Z")
> [@Big Bad Voodoo Lou](#): > > Well you don’t see strippers wandering around naked at the mall, the supermarket, college classes, etc. They’re performers, but they’re not always “on.” That’s true (thankfully!)! But it’s not only the fact that she was remaining clothed in a different situation. It’s that I just had to laugh at someone who felt the need to cover her breasts in the half-second before she put on a shirt, when she’d been hanging them out not two minutes earlier. I mean, the guy had just seen her pretty much fully exposed. He wasn’t going to be terribly shocked if he saw a flash of them in the instant before she clothed herself! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Reloy3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c68b51/32.png) [@Reloy3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reloy3)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utterly-gratuitous-moments/321584/38 "2005-09-15T18:25:09Z")
[From Holllywood Reporter (I hope this works)](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com%2Fthr%2Ffilm%2Farticle_display.jsp%3Fvnu_content_id%3D1000947222) [From the Hollywood Reporter (I hope this works)](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com%2Fthr%2Ffilm%2Farticle_display.jsp%3Fvnu_content_id%3D1000947222) > [@AskNott](#): > > You’re all missing one basic point. For some films, it is necessary to throw in nudity or foul language **to ward off a G rating.** The “kiddie” rating is a death sentence for movies. Directors will throw in tits and ass or “motherfucker” just to avoid it. Huh? The “kiddie” rating is a death sentence for movies? Not to hijack too far, but G rated movies generally outperform all other movies at the box office. IIRC, the “higher” the rating, the worse the movie is likely to gross. I tried to post a cite, but it isn’t working - Look at June 7, 2005 issue of Hollywood Reporter - On-line at [Hollywoodreporter.com](http://Hollywoodreporter.com) ---
**Author:** ![Reloy3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c68b51/32.png) [@Reloy3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reloy3)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utterly-gratuitous-moments/321584/39 "2005-09-15T18:26:13Z")
I guess it worked. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utterly-gratuitous-moments/321584/40 "2005-09-15T19:18:28Z")
> [@Chanteuse](#): > > That’s true (thankfully!)! But it’s not only the fact that she was remaining clothed in a different situation. It’s that I just had to laugh at someone who felt the need to cover her breasts in the half-second before she put on a shirt, when she’d been hanging them out not two minutes earlier. I mean, the guy had just seen her pretty much fully exposed. He wasn’t going to be terribly shocked if he saw a flash of them in the instant before she clothed herself! 🙂 Tailhook aside, there was a pretty small chance she’d be molested (or worse) in the presence of an entire room full of sailors. Alone with an armed, unsavory looking thug, OTOH… best she didn’t give him any ideas. Besides, lots of people who are comfortable with crowds can be quite shy in one-on-one situations. It’s very common with showbiz types. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utterly-gratuitous-moments/321584.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/utterly-gratuitous-moments/321584.md?page=3)