The funhouse scene in Revenge of the Nerds, where Lewis Skolnick tongue-bangs Betty Childs has always bothered me. It’s goddamn rape! Skolnick tricked Childs by wearing Stan Gable’s mask. She thought she was banging her boyfriend Gable! Just because she ended up enjoying it and falling in love with the Tri-Lamb doesn’t mean it’s not rape.

I recently went to an engagement party where, because I am a complete fuckin’ weirdo, I brought this rape scene up and took an impromptu poll about whether it was indeed rape. About 1/3 of the people thought it was rape, 1/3 thought it wasn’t rape, and another 1/3 just gave me odd looks and walked away. Where do you stand? Is Lewis Skolnick a rapist?

It is awfully rapey. In fact, that entire movie is rooted in creepy behavior. The nerds break into a sorority and hide in the shower (CRIME). They plant surveillance cameras in that sorority (CRIME). And they hand out naked images taken from that footage at the Greek Carnival (CRIME!).

It’s a measure of how different things were in the 80′s when that kind of behavior was considered playful and humorous. I watched that movie a million times as a kid—to the point of memorizing pretty much all of the dialogue—and I often found myself hoping that one day I’d have the chance to trick a cheerleader into letting me go down on her, then pass around nude photos of her underneath whipped cream pies (shouldn’t Betty have been mad about that?). IT MADE A MONSTER OUT OF ME.

Thanks to SMP for the link.