Do unto others and all that.
Filmmaker and funnyman Judd Apatow has nudity exposure down to a fine science. According to the Girls producer, movies need to follow the golden five-second-penis rule.
“We’ve experimented with the limits of what people can handle,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. He specifically spoke about showing a penis on screen. “We found out that 20 seconds of someone naked is probably too much, and people will leave the theater if you have full frontal nudity for an extended period of time. But if you make it five seconds they’ll laugh and say it was great.”
What does this say about us when we can't stand watching a penis for more than five seconds in a public theater? Maybe at ten seconds, we'll start looking around to see if we’re the only ones watching said penis. At 15 seconds, we will all make eye contact and realize that we’re not the only ones flat out watching this penis. At 20 seconds, we'll all leave the theater in secret shame, pretending our puritanical sensibilities were offended by that penis.
I guess when you're in public, it's best to keep it to peep show doses of nudity. It feels more polite that way.
Image via Flickr.