Film

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex *But Were Afraid to Ask

Name: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex *But Were Afraid to Ask
Genre: Comedy
Released: 1972
Cast: Woody Allen, John Carradine, Lou Jacobi, Louise Lasser, Anthony Quayle

Comedy
Light-hearted
Dip in and out

Woody Allen's audacious sketch comedy about sex, structured as seven absurdist vignettes. Each tackles a taboo question—aphrodisiacs, masochism, impotence, infidelity—with anarchic logic and visual gags. It's gleefully crude, intellectually playful, and utterly unafraid to be silly about serious things. For anyone who likes their comedy smart and their subjects forbidden.

TMDb rating

3.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like sketch comedy that jumps between absurd set-pieces, where a silly premise gets a sharp, quick punchline and nothing overstays its welcome.

Skip it if you want a single story to settle into, since this is a run of unconnected bits, and the jokes land unevenly, with some sketches running long after their point is made.

What it asks of you: Brisk and episodic at under ninety minutes, it hops from lab coat to game show to royal court, so you just keep up with each bit rather than waiting for a thread to carry you.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Sleeper1973

Allen's masterpiece of pure comic construction: a sci-fi pastiche so perfectly architected that every gag lands. Same anarchic energy as Sex, but with a plot that actually holds together.

But The sci-fi premise feels dated now, and some of the physical comedy won't work for everyone. Slower pacing than you'd expect from a 1973 comedy.

Bananas1971

Allen's political absurdism at full throttle—a love story wrapped in revolutionary chaos. Every scene swings for the fences. This is where his sketch-comedy brain learned to sustain a feature.

But The satire is blunt and the romance subplot underbaked. Some gags haven't aged well; others feel dated on arrival.

Love and Death1975

Allen at war with *War and Peace*, making jokes about philosophy and mortality while blown up as a Napoleonic soldier. Intellectually ambitious comedy that never stops moving.

But The literary references will sail past you if you haven't read Tolstoy. The tone is more melancholy than funny—it's a sadder kind of laugh.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex *But Were Afraid to Ask

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Eating Raoul1982

Both use sexual anxiety as pure comedy material, finding the absurd in taboo. Neither film is interested in being tasteful about desire—they're interested in what happens when civilization cracks.

A middle-class couple solve their money problems by murdering and robbing the swingers who keep invading their apartment. It's a sitcom premise filtered through body horror and sexual panic. Deadpan, deranged, and genuinely hilarious.

But It's a cult film for a reason: grotesque, transgressive, and committed to its own bad taste. The budget is visible. Some will find it too arch and cheap to work.

Annie Hall1977

His masterwork: anarchic Allen humor meets genuine feeling. The same restless comic mind, but now thinking about love and death instead of sex and science.

But If you want constant laughs, this is too interested in silence and character. It's a romance first, a comedy second.

Crimes and Misdemeanors1989

Allen asks his biggest questions here—about guilt, desire, morality—and lets the comedy emerge from real stakes. The absurdism is still there, now shadowing darkness.

But Uneven tone; the lighter subplot feels like it belongs in a different film. At two hours, it tests patience.

Zelig1983

A mockumentary about a man who physically changes to match whoever's near him. Conceptually brilliant, technically dazzling, genuinely funny. Pure Allen invention.

But The premise outruns the emotional story. By the third act it's coasting on cleverness alone, and the ending doesn't earn what came before.

Manhattan1979

Allen's most beautiful film, shot in black-and-white, about messy people in a messy city. Funnier and sadder than you expect, with New York as a character itself.

But The central relationship is troubling by modern standards, and the film never quite acknowledges it. Some will find that disqualifying.

Mighty Aphrodite1995

Allen as a sportswriter who becomes obsessed with his son's biological mother, set against a Greek chorus and mythology. Silly, sweet, structurally playful.

But It's minor Allen—fun but forgettable. The satire is gentler than he usually manages, and that makes it feel diluted.

Deconstructing Harry1997

Allen at his most chaotic: a writer watches his life fall apart while his fiction comes alive around him. Crude, dark, formally ambitious, and weirdly moving.

But Aggressively messy and self-indulgent. The tone lurches between registers, and some scenes feel gratuitously bitter.

Network1976

Both are comedies about systems (sex education, media) colliding with human chaos. Both treat their subjects with satirical venom. Both believe that laughter comes from watching structure fail.

A TV executive loses his mind on air and becomes a ratings phenomenon. It's a satire of media, capitalism, and performance, structured like a fever dream. Paddy Chayefsky script; Faye Dunaway commands every frame.

But The rage is relentless and the tone is acid. It's not funny in a fun way—it's angry and exhausting by design. The ending won't satisfy you.

A Serious Man2009

Both are films about questions that have no answers, structured as grotesque comedy. Both use formality (Allen's sketches, the Coens' symmetry) to heighten the absurdity. Both ask: what do we do when the system fails?

The Coen Brothers' most personal film: a Jewish physics teacher's life disintegrates while the universe offers him no answers. It's funny, philosophical, and genuinely unsettling. A comedy about mortality and confusion.

But The punchline is that there is no punchline. It's deliberately unresolved and bleak. Some find that form of ending cowardly; others find it brave.