Imagine celebrating your anniversary with your significant other by booking the same hotel you did on your honeymoon. Feeling a bit frisky, you decide to rent some “adult content” to make the evening more exciting. Imagine turning on the TV and seeing… yourself! You and your spouse on the night of your honeymoon, solidifying your love in physical form.
Why was this taped?
How often has this tape been rented?
How many more people have seen this?
How mortifying would that be?
Lawsuits and settlements aside, the discovery would be nothing short of a nightmare for the ones who are enduring it. This risque urban legend has been circulating the Internet for years, a riveting version of the tales of people in bathrooms and bedrooms, trying to catch people at their most private moments.
While the general storyline of this legend is fictional, there have been some real life cases of couples becoming unknowing voyeurs.
In 1988, an engaged couple won a $1 million lawsuit against a Cantebury Inn when their private celebrations in a penthouse suite had a two-way mirror and peephole that granted the person next door to peer into their sexual practices. While it was the use of a trick mirror instead of hidden cameras, a legend such as this is expected to be circulated with the growing invention of smaller, cheaper and higher quality technical equipment used for such perverse practices.
What makes this story particularly amusing is not just its ribald nature, but because of how the plot of this legend stood the test of time well, with a few adjustments here and there. In some versions, the couple is not engaged to each other, but are rather adulterers or religious folk who have sinned and believe were being punished for giving in to sexual desire.
The legend has been retold a number of times, an example comes from a 1927 humor collection:
A gentleman from Idaho was in Paris and didn’t want to make himself too conspicuous. So, he asked a cabby to give him the address of a good whorehouse. He went there by himself, quietly, and asked for a private room. After selecting his partner, he ordered dinner with lots of wine. After the meal, the man entertained himself in various ways with his playmate who taught him positions of which even Elephantis, Aretino and Luisa Sigea were ignorant. Thoroughly drained, the gentleman from Idaho went downstairs and asked the madam what his bill was.
“There is no charge,” said the lady of the house.
Astonished, but not disposed to argue the matter, her guest left. The next day, he hugged his secret to himself. He could barely wait for dinner time before he presented himself again before the bawds. Once more, he went through his performance but this time, when he made a bluff at paying the piper, he was informed the charges were seven hundred francs.
“What!” he shrieked. “Wasn’t I here last evening? And didn’t I go through every kind of screw? And you didn’t charge me a sou?”
“Ah,” said the madam, “but last night was for the movies.”
Even the tale’s elements have been used in storytelling since the earliest motion picture days. The 1903 film The Story of Biograph Told includes a scene in which a man is explaining to a new office boy his duties. The boss leaves the boy to his duties and gets together with an attractive female secretary. As they engage in romantic play, the boy is secretly recording them by cranking a camera. The next scene shows the boss and his wife watching a movie in a theater when suddenly, the clip of the boss and his mistress appears. The film ends with the wife coming to the office, firing the secretary, and having a man replace her.
The theme of placing people in embarrassingly compromising positions creates a sense of amusement for the audience. Another story similar to this one in the media is the banned episode of Fox’s Married With Children “I’ll See You In Court.” In the episode, Al and Peg have a romantic getaway at a hotel and find out the porn video they rented features their neighbors.
As the years pass, the embracing of sexuality and sex positivity has prompted people to actually be willing to amuse audiences by sharing their risque nature via webcam, live streams, and other forms of media.