Sunday, January 20, 2013

AVN needs to reconsider what’s a clever porn title

The 2013 AVN Awards, considered the Oscars of the porn industry, were handed out Saturday in Las Vegas.
Since I never see any of these movies, the only category of interest to me is the Clever Title of the Year award. This year’s winner was “Does This Dick Make My Ass Look Big?” by Vouyer Media. That’s a humorous title, but most of the 15 nominees were not that clever.
As an outsider whose interest in the porn industry is almost entirely First Amendment driven, I like porn titles that parody mainstream movies and popular culture. The only nominee fitting that description this year was “Occupy My Ass” by Bobbi Starr and Evil Angel, which riffed on the Occupy Wall Street protests.
The only studio interested in parody porn titles these days seems to be Caballero Video. In recent years, it’s been giving its porn movies titles and covers that mock popular brands of breakfast cereal, snack foods, candy, alcoholic drinks and caffeinated beverages. They’re like Wacky Packages done by pornographers.
But the trend could be nearing an end.
Caballero last fall pulled off the market a series of 10 movies that parodied Ben and Jerry’s ice cream flavors. The ice cream company, owned by Unilever, sued and got a judge to issue a restraining order on the sale of the movies in question.
Caballero should have stuck to its guns for the sake of First Amendment parody rights. But it caved. It’s “Ben & Cherry’s” movies parodied real ice-cream flavors Boston Cream Pie (“Boston Cream Thigh”), Banana Split (“Banana Clit”), Late Night Snack (“Late Night Snatch”) and Peanut Butter Cup (“Peanut Butter D-Cup”). It pulled the DVDs off the market in September and agreed to destroy them, according to Bloomberg, Reuters, Los Angeles Times and New York Post.

Photo: Caballero Video’s banned “Peanut Butter D-Cup” porn video. 

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