When Dick Slips In: A Brief History of PG-Rated Penis
As a companion to our earlier post about the sanitization of film through the PG-13 rating, here are a few examples of when things swung the other way. (It is namely dicks that are swinging.) Though the penis's on-screen presence virtually guarantees an R-rating today, we found a few examples of fully naked guys on PG-rated film. All of these instances date back before the introduction of the PG-13 rating in 1984, though that rating turned out to be even less permissive regarding penis (Cider House Rules contains the rare PG-13 dong flash).
Below is a big old helping of dick when you didn't order it. What luck. Expand the videos and feast your eyes.
Can't Stop the Music, 1980
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This is isn't the earliest example, but it's the most notable. No amount of soap suds could mask the exposed studs in the shower scene in this Village People vehicle. Considering the MPAA's stigma against gayness and the utter homoeroticism of this scene, the whole thing is shocking from top to shining bottom.
Hair, 1979
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The stage musical famously had its cast stripping down to nothing. The analogous scene in the Hair movie adaptation chopped the dick, but this prelude to skinny dipping featuring a blink-or-miss upside down dong helps satiate the dick hunger.
Gallipoli, 1981
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Gallipoli is notable for not just PG dick-flashing, but for celebrity PG dick-flashing: A few frames catch Mel Gibson's member as he swims by, surrounded by fellow World War I soldiers. They're all naked, too, so this is almost as homoerotic as that Village People shit. Try to see how many dicks you can make out through the murk of the water. Drink every time you see one or think you see one. Wishful thinking alone will have you drunk before this minute-and-a-half clip is over.
Bonus: The Andromeda Strain, 1971
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Dead bodies and tits pile up in this one, which was, astoundingly, rated G. You'll see old-guy ass in this clip, and then naked nudes viewed through a heat sensitive filter (or infrared or something). Dick is almost visible. Squint hard and you may see it. It'll be like back-in-the-day penetration-spotting through the cable-scrambled Spice channel.
There are also instances of dick in Superman and Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (both PG), but it's underage dick. If you're interested in seeing those clips, find them for yourself, you sicko.
Update: Reader Jonathan points out, "Dude, you forgot Teen Wolf. Dude shows his dong at the end." It's a matter of debate, but it does warrant mention in PG-dick discourse. So there you go.