Film

Revenge of the Cheerleaders

A 1976 sex comedy about cheerleaders at Aloha High fighting to save their school from a corrupt developer. Shamelessly horny and anarchic, it's the kind of film that treats nudity as comedy oxygen and plot as a scaffolding joke. For anyone curious about how the '70s understood fun, or who loves trashy genre cinema as social document.

TMDb rating2.3

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Porky's1981

The definitive high school sex comedy, endlessly inventive in its scenarios and populated with a huge ensemble cast who feel like real friends. Raucous, generous-spirited, and genuinely funny.

But The sexual humor is relentless and dated; some gags have aged poorly, and the plot barely exists as an excuse for set pieces.

Porky's poster

Fast Times at Ridgemont High1982

Captures the texture of teenage life with remarkable warmth and specificity. Packed with talent before they were famous, and balances comedy with real feeling without ever losing its swagger.

But It's a teen sex comedy, so the raunchiness is constant. Some viewers find its gender politics—especially around the female lead—uncomfortable on revisits.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High poster

The Cheerleaders1973

Another '70s cheerleader comedy with similar anarchic energy. If you loved Revenge of the Cheerleaders, this earlier film runs on the same fuel and has its own weird charm and surprise cast.

But The production values are lower and the comedy occasionally feels stranded between eras. It's slower in places than you'd hope.

The Cheerleaders poster

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The Apple1980

Both are anarchic '70s-'80s artifacts that treat their own premise as a joke that never lands, and that's kind of the point. Both trust chaos and nudity over structure. Both believe enthusiasm is a substitute for competence.

A rock opera musical set in a dystopian near-future where a massive corporation controls entertainment. Visually hallucinogenic, genuinely awful in fascinating ways, and absolutely committed to its own insanity. Pure '70s-into-'80s excess.

But It's a film that actively works against entertainment in most conventional senses. The plot is nonsensical, the music is almost unlistenable, and the whole thing feels assembled by people with more ambition than taste.

The Apple poster
More like this (6)

Hardbodies1984

A beach comedy with the same freewheeling '70s-hangover sensibility. Treats its premise—old men trying to impress young women—as an excuse for gags rather than anything serious. Dumb and committed.

But It's tremendously sexist by design, and the comedy relies almost entirely on physical appearance and objectification. The humor has not evolved.

Hardbodies poster

How to Stuff a Wild Bikini1965

An earlier entry in the beach comedy tradition that Revenge mines. Silly, colorful, and unconcerned with sense. Fun as a document of how studios used to throw movies together.

But The pacing is glacial by modern standards. It assumes you have nowhere else to be. The humor can feel thin between musical numbers.

How to Stuff a Wild Bikini poster

The Private Lives of Adam and Eve1960

A '60s sex farce that proves this comedic DNA goes back further than you might think. Off-kilter, confident in its own weirdness, and genuinely weird in the best way.

But It's abstract and digressive; the structure doesn't hold. If you need plot momentum or character coherence, look elsewhere.

The Private Lives of Adam and Eve poster

Used Cars1980

Robert Zemeckis's pre-Back to the Future comedy is anarchic and stupid in exactly the right way. Car salesmen scheming and screwing each other over, no one sympathetic, everyone hilarious.

But The sexism is genuinely unpleasant at moments. It's also quite mean-spirited; the comedy comes from cruelty, which isn't always fun.

Used Cars poster

National Lampoon's Vacation1983

Chevy Chase stumbling through the Griswold family vacation. Warm enough to work, stupid enough to love. A high school movie it isn't, but it has similar DNA and better execution.

But The humor is very broad. If you need subtlety or character depth, you're in the wrong place. It's also uneven—great scenes surrounded by dead air.

National Lampoon's Vacation poster

Xtro1982

Both are products of 1970s-80s exploitation cinema that somehow achieved cult status despite (or because of) their aggressive weirdness. Both film eras had producers and studios willing to fund anything slightly saleable. Both are records of a moment when taste was optional and fearlessness was the only requirement.

A British sci-fi body horror film that plays like someone remade a bad movie with genuine artistry and actual special effects. A man returns from an alien abduction changed, grotesque, and reproducing. Weird, unsettling, visually inventive, and completely sincere about its own strangeness.

But It's genuinely disturbing in ways that aren't fun or cathartic. The pacing is strange. Watching it means accepting that someone spent real money and talent making a film about alien impregnation and metamorphosis, and that the result is deeply unpleasant to experience.

Xtro poster

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