`Porn n' Chicken' a deliciously good time
By C. SPENCER BEGGS
Scene Editor
Why porn and chicken?
"Fried chicken is delicious, and porn, well that's video of people having sex with each other."
Well, you just can't argue with that nugget of logic from Comedy Central's first original movie "Porn n' Chicken."
"Porn n' Chicken" is based on the story of Yale's secret society of the same name. The group garnered national media attention in early 2001 when the media learned of the secret society's plan to film an Ivy League pornographic film.
Yale has a number of secret societies, including the infamous Skulls that count both President Bushes as members. And like their clandestine counterparts, the history and information on The Porn n' Chicken Club is hazy at best.
The group apparently formed in 1996 during a strike for better wages by Yale's Graduate Employees & Student Organizations. Strikers ordered Popeye's fried chicken, drank beer and watched porn during meetings to discuss the strike. When the strike was resolved, the group apparently continued the meeting activities without the meeting.
The underground group resurfaced in 2000 when four undergrads were tapped to carry on the tradition. The core group, none of whom knew each other, received anonymous e-mails from the shadowy group founders, the access code to a bank account with money for supplies and trash bags full of porn. The group meets once a month to eat fried chicken and watch porn.
The movie, however, is more of a meeting between the real story and "Animal House." It follows the last three months in the college career of Josh Hutchinson (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), a self proclaimed anal-retentive tool, who is an obsequious Yalie with the sole motivation of making it into Yale Law School.
When his coveted law professor writes him a "shoe-in" recommendation, Hutch's life seems complete. That is until his girlfriend dumps him for being boring and a lousy lover. And, yes, she was faking it. In a complete down spiral, Hutch is rescued from self-destruction by his debonair partier roommate Quentin (Alex Burns) and cohorts Andy (Geoffrey Arend) and Lenny (Michael Goldstrom). Together the crew kills their Ivy League super ego by starting the infamous club.
Eventually, the now popular club attracts the attention of Polly (Angela Goethals), a feminist campus activist. Poly, who takes her name from polymorphous perversity, a condition in which the afflicted receive sexual pleasure from all parts of his or her body, becomes the club's biggest supporter and Hutch's love interest. She encourages the group to shoot a full-length porn called "The StaXXX," named after the fabled hook-up spot in the deserted Yale archives. Plan to shoot the movie is tipped when a savvy reporter from the mythical world of competitive college journalism documents one of the group's parties. Soon the group is, as in all college coming-of-age flicks, head to head with the oppressive administration. The oppressive administration is more of an invention of Comedy Central than fact, as the Yale brass practiced a "don't ask, don't tell" policy with the group.
The acting is touching, but movie and television veteran Kurt Fuller steals the show as Dean Richard Widehead. Fuller, who has made a career of playing rich, white, uptight, intolerant authority figures (in short "The Man"), brings his schmendrick act to a new level.
Although the movie follows a fairly typical college antics versus stuffy administration formula reminiscent of "Animal House" and "PCU," it exudes a charm by not trivializing the college experience. The characters aren't just flat partiers or nerds; they all have real motivations and experiences.
Unlike the disgusting pop culture stereotyping of college as four years of sex and drugs in movies like "American Pie," the members of the Porn n' Chicken Club actually have to live on campus. "Porn n' Chicken" looks into why college students want to get laid instead of trivializing sexuality — the irony abounds.
Comedy Central will air "Porn n' Chicken" Sunday at 10 p.m. with encore presentations of Sunday at 12 a.m. and Friday, Oct. 18 at 11 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 19 at 11:30 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 27 at 2 a.m.
(3.5 out of 5 shamrocks)
Contact C. Spencer Beggs at beggs.3@nd.edu
All Scene Stories for Thursday, October 10, 2002
