# What's the deal with Airplane! having a PG rating but having breastal nudity? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 29, 2003, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-airplane-having-a-pg-rating-but-having-breastal-nudity/171827 "2003-04-29T01:42:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-airplane-having-a-pg-rating-but-having-breastal-nudity/171827/41 "2003-04-30T13:37:29Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Incubus_ > \*\*_The Fifth Element_ had bare breasts in several scenes and was given a PG-13 rating. \*\* While Leloo does walk around naked for a good portion of the movie you never see her breasts. > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by syncrolecyne_ > \*\*I think Jack Nicholson said years ago "If you kiss a breast its an “X”, if you chop one off, it’s an “R”. \*\* Actually the almighty Bruce Campbell said that. ---
**Author:** ![bayonet1976](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@bayonet1976](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bayonet1976)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-airplane-having-a-pg-rating-but-having-breastal-nudity/171827/42 "2003-04-30T14:00:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Justin\_Bailey \* > **While Leloo does walk around naked for a good portion of the movie you never see her breasts.** Yeah you do. For a very short time, when she’s just been recreated and is lying down in the chamber, right before she’s reanimated. ---
**Author:** ![mipiace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb9ed0/32.png) [@mipiace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mipiace)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-airplane-having-a-pg-rating-but-having-breastal-nudity/171827/43 "2003-04-30T16:22:44Z")
This is probably not a popular opinion but I don’t get why breasts rate any kind of additionaly rating anyway. They are just breasts! I don’t have a problem with my kids seeing topless females. We used to see as much or more at the beach when we lived in Europe anyway. But I don’t want to turn this into a great debate. ---
**Author:** ![Marine\_One](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marine_one/32/3461_2.png) [@Marine\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marine_One)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-airplane-having-a-pg-rating-but-having-breastal-nudity/171827/44 "2003-04-30T17:25:43Z")
Surely everyone remembers the Jello jiggling and then… ---
**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-airplane-having-a-pg-rating-but-having-breastal-nudity/171827/45 "2003-04-30T17:59:57Z")
To throw oil into the roiled waters here … I recall the producer of “How to Beat the High Cost of Living” complaining bitterly about his movie getting an “R” rating from the MPAA. Apparently, the only thing in it that would justify such a rating was the brief exposure of a pair of breasts in a non-sexual moment, and such things had been seen in “PG” movies on a regular basis at the time. The only thing that made these breasts different was that they belonged to Jane Curtin, of _Saturday Night Live_ fame. (This was in the heyday of the original SNL shows.) I’m still trying to figure that one out. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-airplane-having-a-pg-rating-but-having-breastal-nudity/171827/46 "2003-04-30T18:37:07Z")
The obvious answer is that Jane Curtin isn’t sexy, but that’s just mean. IIRC she doesn’t actually flash for the camera. She’s doing a strip to distract people from the Money Ball and gets down to bra, then yells something like “who wants to see 1985?” (there was a year-by-year theme to the strip). She takes off the bra but is only shown from the back. ---
**Author:** ![xvxdarkknightxvx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/34f0e0/32.png) [@xvxdarkknightxvx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xvxdarkknightxvx)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-airplane-having-a-pg-rating-but-having-breastal-nudity/171827/47 "2003-04-30T18:49:12Z")
MentalGuy: Yeah…the MPAA says PG, and it also says so on my DVD =]. I remember reading about how the makers of South Park kept getting NC-17 as the rating for South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut. The reasons always revlved around certain jokes that the panel decided were too vulgar. What the makers decided to do was change each joke to a slightly worse/more vulgar joke and see what happened. Well, since the panel changes every time a movie gets reviewed, the different panels kept approving the vulgarer version of the joke but dissapproved of other jokes. So the process of changing each joke to a more vulgar version kept repeating itself until finally some panel gave it an R and the movie was released. ---
**Author:** ![xvxdarkknightxvx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/34f0e0/32.png) [@xvxdarkknightxvx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xvxdarkknightxvx)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-airplane-having-a-pg-rating-but-having-breastal-nudity/171827/48 "2003-04-30T18:55:46Z")
Oh, also, I just remembered that scene from The Abyss where the leading lady and that guy from Pollock are trapped in a submersible. There’s only enough air for one of them, so she decided to let Pollock guy have it. So he swims her to the main craft while she hopes her body will “pass out” but not die. Anyway, he gets her on the ship, and in order to save her, he rips her shirt open and does CPR. I’m not sure, but I think I saw her boobs in that. The movie had a PG-13 rating. Just another example… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-airplane-having-a-pg-rating-but-having-breastal-nudity/171827/49 "2003-04-30T19:33:04Z")
Quoth **scottandrsn** : > [@](#): > > “breastal”? No kidding. Everyone knows that the proper term is “boobilicious”. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-airplane-having-a-pg-rating-but-having-breastal-nudity/171827/50 "2003-04-30T19:40:26Z")
There’s a scene in [Student Bodies](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0083133) where someone purporting to be a producer of the film breaks in to the action and says “In order for a film to receive and R rating, it must contain either full-frontal nudity, excessive violence or a graphic description of the sex act. Since this film contains none of these things, allow me to take a moment to say ‘fuck you’.” Largely meaningless to the present discussion but seeing that scene as an early-teen person I thought it was hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-airplane-having-a-pg-rating-but-having-breastal-nudity/171827/51 "2003-04-30T20:09:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Otto \* > \*\*The obvious answer is that Jane Curtin isn’t sexy, but that’s just mean. IIRC she doesn’t actually flash for the camera. She’s doing a strip to distract people from the Money Ball and gets down to bra, then yells something like “who wants to see 1985?” (there was a year-by-year theme to the strip). She takes off the bra but is only shown from the back. \*\* Well, then it’d be pretty stupid for the movie to have received its “R” rating. My recollection is that she did flash the camera, for less than a second, and the movie was slapped with an “R.” That’s what the producer was complaining about. He then cut the scene to remove her “breastal nudity” and got the PG rating he was looking for. I seem to recall him comparing it to “Kramer vs. Kramer”, which also had a very mild nude scene but which received a PG rating instead of an R. I could be wrong on that, though. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-airplane-having-a-pg-rating-but-having-breastal-nudity/171827/52 "2003-04-30T22:03:52Z")
A striptease is a sexual context. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (for instance) is not a sexual context. That’s the difference. What was the nude scene in _Kramer vs. Kramer_ about? ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-airplane-having-a-pg-rating-but-having-breastal-nudity/171827/53 "2003-04-30T22:30:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by xvxdarkknightxvx \* > \*\*I remember reading about how the makers of South Park kept getting NC-17 as the rating for South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut. The reasons always revlved around certain jokes that the panel decided were too vulgar. What the makers decided to do was change each joke to a slightly worse/more vulgar joke and see what happened. Well, since the panel changes every time a movie gets reviewed, the different panels kept approving the vulgarer version of the joke but dissapproved of other jokes. So the process of changing each joke to a more vulgar version kept repeating itself until finally some panel gave it an R and the movie was released. \*\* Were you perchance thinking of [this article](http://www.moviemaker.com/issues/41/mpaa.html) or a similar one? From the article: > [@](#): > > Said Matt Stone, “The MPAA has no set rules. Things change from movie to movie. It makes no sense. In going through the notes we saw that they had no standards, so we decided these people are stupid and we’d just try to get it past them. If there was something they said couldn’t stay in [South Park], we’d make it 10 times worse and five times as long. And they’d come back and say, ‘OK, that’s better.’” The entire article is well worth reading; it highlights some of the difficulties independent filmmakers have encountered in getting their films rated by the MPAA. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2003, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-airplane-having-a-pg-rating-but-having-breastal-nudity/171827/54 "2003-04-30T22:47:10Z")
The KvK nude scene involved the son going to pee in the middle of the night and meeting Dad’s naked squeeze on her way to the bathroom. the nudity itself was non-sexual but obviously sprang from a sexual situation. ---
**Author:** ![xvxdarkknightxvx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/34f0e0/32.png) [@xvxdarkknightxvx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xvxdarkknightxvx)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2003, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-airplane-having-a-pg-rating-but-having-breastal-nudity/171827/55 "2003-05-01T04:02:09Z")
That’s the one, Max =]. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2003, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-airplane-having-a-pg-rating-but-having-breastal-nudity/171827/56 "2003-05-01T05:38:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Otto \* > There’s a scene in [Student Bodies](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0083133) where someone purporting to be a producer of the film breaks in to the action and says “In order for a film to receive and R rating, it must contain either full-frontal nudity, excessive violence or a graphic description of the sex act. Since this film contains none of these things, allow me to take a moment to say ‘fuck you’.” Sometimes this is taken into account and the word is removed. There is a scene in _Galaxy Quest_ (a much under-rated film) in which Sigourney Weaver clearly mouths the words “Well, fuck _that!_” but it’s been dubbed “Well, screw _that!_” I’m not sure if dodging the R-rating helped the box office, which was a respectable $54 million. Maybe if they’d gone all out with Weaver nude and grimmer violence and rougher language, they might have done okay among the “R” movies, but that seems counter to the inherent silliness of the Trekkie-spoofing plot. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-airplane-having-a-pg-rating-but-having-breastal-nudity/171827.md?page=2)