What's the funniest moment of "Showgirls"?

What about Nomi's vibrating beef curtains??

It’s such a colossal, god awful monstrosity. It never fails to deliver on ‘bad movie’ 🍿 night!

Kyle MacLachlan's ass was incredible in this movie and made the entire misbegotten production worthwhile.

"Miss Connors, how old are you?"

Um, where the FUCK is the "it's a Versayce" quote listed????

When the angry black dancer says "what are you looking at, bitch!?"

The MS Paint digital bras, nonsensical dirty-word substitutions, and slice-and-dice continuity in the "Cleaned Up for Basic Cable" edit

r3, how do you know that's really him? Looks from the way he's shot it's likely a butt double.

MacLachlan has said in several interviews that he did that nude scene, R8.

He was frontally nude in Blue Velvet, so it's not that surprising.

R6: After she failed her dance audition at that "ass-lickin'" school, Shirley Mulholland stopped bearding for Leroy, hitchhiked to Las Vegas, and changed her name to Annie. She booked "Goddess" after auditioning for 15 years. She was payin' in sweat, until her partner lost his footing on a handful of errant sequins.

I wish Criterion would release a Collector's Edition with the director's commentary, a thorough analysis of the sociological commentary of the movie, etc.

There is currently a showgirls documentary out.

I can't believe Showgirls is going to be 25 years old this year.

Black guy: " You fuck em without fucking em! Man, everybody got AIDS and shit!!!"

What R5 said. But Nomi mentioning her period always cracks me up too.

R15, not just mentioning it but SHOWING the guy.

The gusto and vulgarity with which she eats all kinds of junk food is breathtaking - and she never gains an ounce.......

And her jamming the straw into the drink cup is hilarious....

A galaxy of riches, OP. Nearly all these choices are gold. Dolphin sex, though, had to be my choice, as it defines high camp (meant to be sexy and erotic, the scene never fails to elicit laughs).

I love everything about this movie including the casino secretary who is spot on as a casino secretary asking our femme fatale: “social security number?”

And poor Nomi didn’t know how to answer.

I love this movie.

R11, there was actually a really great documentary about Showgirls and it’s critical re-evaluation that came out a few weeks called You Don’t Nomi. You should check it out. I got it on iTunes.

R20, see R12

So many great options.

I would like to add Nomi saying “Check” when she tells James she’s on her period.

And the ultimate: when she shoves that receptionist up against the wall for no reason.

I liked this part

After Nomi first meets Crystal and tells her she doesn't know shit. Then it cuts to Molly pissed off at her and Nomi apologizes before forcefully burying her head in her arms against a car.

I know the moment you’re talking about and I love it too. It was very Jessie Spano.

I’m so excited... I’m SO excited! .... I’M SO EXCITED!!!! ... IM SO.... scared

The dolphin sex scene is so weird because it's so unerotic. It's like she's trying to save herself from drowning by leaping her torso up in the air out of the water and then falling back in again, and then pushing it up again, and he just stands there in the water, grinding away as if we doesn;t understand she's trying not to drown.

Did Berkeley really do all the flailing there, or did they get some sort of aquatic gymnast stunt double to do it for her?

Remember Nomi having bullseyes on her breasts and having Andrew Carver--aka the Rock god--suck on them, right before she beats him to a pulp. That was interesting.

I remember back in the '00s there was an interactive screening in Toronto. It was so much fun.

The audience shouted hilarious things at the screen. Some of them were shocking but we couldn't help but laugh.

The crudest - and funniest - was the scene at the end when Nomi visits Molly in the hospital.

Someone shouted "I brought you a copy of Andrew Carver's latest CD!!"

R28 it always bugs me that she doesn't fuck up the 2 bodyguards as well.

R30, right! Good point, I forgot all about that.

R29, I went to a screening at The Music Box Theater in Chicago in 2007. Easily the most fun I've had at a movie.

Because of the interactive screening I attended (which came with a Showgirls bag of goodies and instructions on what to shout at the screen) I went to another interactive screening in Toronto a few years later. I invited all my friends, telling them how good the first one was. Unfortunately the second one was completely different in tone. It was hosted by Nina Arsenault who was so high on drugs she could barely form a sentence, although she did state that the rape sequence was horrifying. It kind of killed the vibe.

Weirdly, I think it was MGM that sponsored the first one and somehow they pulled it off.

The weirdest thing about the whole movie for me (other than the fact that Nomi could become a star through "Goddess," where she is wholly anonymous onstage) is that Cristal knows Nomi tripped her and never says anything to anyone about it. It's as if she recognizes that to be a star, you have to push people down staircases, and then expect someone will do it to you someday.

I love all of Nomi's epileptic seizures when "dancing". You just know EB thought she was giving it her all, which makes the scenes even funnier.

LOL, R29!

[quote] Cristal telling Nomi she doesn't know what she's doing at the Cheetah

"I don't know how good you are, darlin', and I don't know what it is you're good at, but if it's at the Cheetah, it's not dancing, I know that much!"

One of the greatest burn lines in pop culture history.

Gina Gershon was perfect in this movie r36. The only one who knew it was trash and acted accordingly.

"Molly, you just got gangraped by a celebrity I procured for you, but hey, I beat him up, and now I am leaving town, so here's a hug, we square!"

I hated that drag queen with the fucking fans on her tits......or was it a woman? I can't remember - I just remember I hated her.

Not funny.....just annoying.....

I loved Al. I don't remember the exact line but when he hires Penny/Heather he says something like "If you know what's good for you, you'll give me a blowjob. After you get used to the money, I make you swallow."

What's also so striking is that Joe Eszterhas was thought to have a golden pen after "Basic Instinct," and so the studios kept paying him huge fortunes for screenplays like this one and the one for "Jade" that seemed obviously written under the influence of tons of drugs.

He clearly hates women and thinks they're nasty (thus all of Henrietta Bazoom's jokes about women's bodies, and Nomi's constant references to her periods for no good reason, and all the nasty fighting over men backstage at "Goddess"), but had convinced himself he's somehow a feminist.

To this day he's still convinced he's a genius.

Joe Ezterhas is now a devoted Catholic and I think he's denounced his older movies. Interesting.

R41, he did write some of the most quotes lines in gay history so in that instance, yes, he was a genius.

Joe Ezterhas reached a height that most screenwriters never reach - wasn't he the most paid screenwriter at one point?

Did EB actually believe this would make her the next Sharon Stone?

I really think she did. In the clip below, she's thinking "I'm on David fucking Letterman and Lark Voorhees is folding sweaters at Contempo Casuals"

[Quote] Lark Voorhees is folding sweaters

More likely balling them up and throwing them in a corner.

You know, I 've never seen Showgirls.

But I love The Apple Xanadu Can't Stop the Music

and other so bad they're good movies. I guess I should finally watch it.

R48 you really should.

R48 nothing can really prepare you for the awfulness of it all.....not even those titles you mention. It is indeed in a class by itself.....although Pia Zadora in The Lonely Lady might come closest.....

Yeah, there is nothing quite like Showgirls. A high-budget Hollywood film with titties and pussy shots galore and Berkeley's bizarre writhing in almost every scene. The complete opposite of subtlety.

Berkeley really thought she was going to have a career-making performance like Sharon Stone. Well, it was career-defining. Unlike Stone, Berkeley had ZERO fun in the role. She was oh-so serious, as if she was a major dramatic actress. Gina Gershon, like Stone, realized the trashy nature but still had fun and delivered an iconic performance.

I can't imagine what they were thinking with the way they made EB look. She was a young pretty girl and they gave her that awful perm and the makeup made her look like a well-worn highway.

Is this from the actual movie?

R53, yes, that's where she beats up the rapist/rock star Andrew Carver. Andrew Carver really is a time capsule. When watching him, you go "this was what was considered a rock star in the 90s???". That rape in Showgirls is probably the most brutal one I have ever seen in a mainstream Hollywood movie. I saw the censored version on VH1 and was not prepared for the real version.

That looks like Britney Spears's head photoshopped onto someone else's body, r53.

Was Nomi supposed to look like she smelled bad? Sharon Stone didn't look this trashy in Basic Instinct.

R56 everyone except for Molly came off as trashy.

The morning after her pool sex, she gets up out of bed and puts her dress on with no panties underneath. You can almost see the stink waves coming off her nether regions.

[quote] Sharon Stone didn't look this trashy in Basic Instinct.

Sharon was playing a slut, not a whore. God!

I’m a dancer!

Dolphin sex for the win

R57, to be fair, she did live in a trailer

EB was running through every scene. It was hilarious, she is a total spaz. I mean the girl didn't know what to do with herself. I love this movie. The definition of craptastic. It should be playing on a loop at every hotel in Vegas.

You're a whore, darlin'.

The Penny parts were all pretty funny. Like when Al tells her she’ll have to blow him and she’s like “is he serious?” Or when she’s performing in James dance and he tells her how much she ducks

And yes I would blow Al

I just could never get over the somehow very trashy and vulgar aura that EB seems to emanate. I don't know exactly what it is, but she's someone that invites being made fun of. Maybe it's just me.

I didn't think EB seemed trashy before Showgirls. I mean, she played the polar opposite character on Saved By the Bell.

[quote] I wish Criterion would release a Collector's Edition with the director's commentary, a thorough analysis of the sociological commentary of the movie, etc.

This needs to be done for "Mommie Dearest" as well.

[quote] You're a whore, darlin'.

This should have, somehow, been worked into the poll at OP.

R62 lol true.

I think EB convinced herself that if she threw 110% of energy into every scene it would show "commitment" to the role.

She took advice from Jessie Spano.

Actually, I read somewhere that the director of Showgirls demanded that the actors overact and do the scenes more dramatically because that was the style of the movie. I guess the director didn’t realize that bit of direction would tank Elizabeth Berkley’s career.

Am I the only one here who think EB's performance was actually perfect for the character? She is playing a bipolar prostitute who isn't in on the joke or the game.

Sure. The director instructed EB to throw fries all over the place as a demonstration of Nomi's vulnerability under the tough exterior.

Was this movie submitted for any awards?

R76, yes--The Razzies. And it won handsomely. But I was serious with my comment @ R75--I actually think her performance is perfect for the character.

I have met trashy girls in real life with hints of Nomi’s personality.

R74, that’s bullshit and a kindness offered by Verhoeven. Any one who saw Saved by the Bell can attest that was ALWAYS her acting style.

Being a ghey myself, I don't know what goes on at places like the Cheetah. But do lady strippers lick the pole IRL? Is that really something that is done? Seems kind of nasty to me, that pole likely covered in semen, pussy juices, fecal matter, and the sweat of 10,000 strippers before her.

No. Strippers do not normally lick poles. You've got too many bare assholes and pussies rubbing up on it. That was utterly disgusting and likely improvised.

Whenever someone stumbles or falls. Asses and pussies flying everywhere.

Director of Godess: "Spell MGM backwards"

Showgirl: "MGM"

Director: "Good!"

Showgirl: (sigh of relief)

Director of Goddess: "Your nipples. They aren't hard enough. Here, try these (hands Nomi ice cubes). I'm erect. Why aren't you?".

Nomi then storms of angry, while shoving his hands away. The ice cubes go flying.

Crystal: "I've had dog food...Doggie Chow. I used to love Doggie Chow too."

Nomi: "I used to love Doggie Chow too, hahahaha.

Nomi and Crystal then look lovingly into each others eyes and share a chip together with their whorey fingernails.

I gotta watch this movie again

I just watched it. I had forgotten that EB does the sexual dolphin thing twice in the movie.

That whole stage looked like it reeked of ass and pussy sweat/discharge.

EB deserved an Academy Award.

Much like Sharon Tate’s death scene in VOD I think Gershon’s final scene with EB is very sad and touching. Crystal will get a nice settlement from her ‘accident’ and end up living in a trailer park and dining on puppy chow.

"You ate the chips! You did! YOU ATE THE CHIPS! YOU DID!"

What was even funnier is the lazy ass props department that couldn't be bothered creating a fake brand and just cut a bag of Lays in half and sealed it up, making it the most awkward looking bag of chips EVER!

“I chipped my tooth on a quaalude!” - Gay

“Um...wait...what?” - What Nomi should have said.