Think You've Seen "Deep Throat"? Think Again.

While writing The Complete Linda Lovelace, I watched Deep Throat more times than I can count—certainly more times than I’d like to admit—and if there's one thing I learned it's that there's more to Deep Throat than meets even the eye. Well, to quote Neil Innes, "I've suffered for my art, and now it's your turn." Here are some takes on the world's most infamous porn flick you may not have seen. 

Geek Throat

Remember, back in what us old timers wistfully call “The Day,” making dirty pictures on a computer? When the party didn't really start until some nerd from the high school AV department showed up with half a bottle of swiped Boone's Farm and a crumpled dot-matrix printout of Charlie Brown banging Lucy? Luka Frelih did those dorks one better by programming Deep ASCII, everyone’s favorite (or at least first) porno in beautifully low-tech, IBM-style, green-on-black, binary animation. Deep ASCII premiered at the 1998 WorldWide Video Festival in Amsterdam (one more reason pot should be legal) and played at a few European festivals over the next year or so. If you didn't catch it there, you can see it here. It’s silent, it's slightly off-speed and it's kinda hard to watch—just like porn should be. 

PLEASE NOTE: The java application it runs with can be buggy depending on your computer’s OS, but it's worth the risk.

D**p Thr**t

Heeeey, jus' cuz Noo Yawk Judge Joel Tyler sed Deep T'roat wuz obscene didn’t mean dat da Peraino boys wasn’t gonna make no more fuggin’ money off it, capisce? So a special "Revised" version was re-released at the Lincoln Art Theater in June 1974. The new cut of the film had some scenes blown up so the penetration appeared off-screen; other parts, like the orgy scene, had two- or three-frame stop action “animation” superimposed over the live-action hardcore (the good parts, anyway). Al Goldstein, reviewing the film in Screw magazine’s "Dirty Diversions" column dated June 10, 1974, came to the conclusion that, yes, it sucked.

Nip/Suck

Japanese director Kan Mukai’s 1975 Deep Throat in Tokyo puts an interesting spin on Gerard Damiano's original plot: Kumi Sakuma (Kumi Taguchi) leaves her boxer boyfriend for Hideo, the son of a wealthy buisinessman. Imagine Hideo's disappointment when his father, Takehiko, falls in love with her and plots to have Hideo killed. Imagine Papa-san's disappointment when, now that he has the beautiful Kumi all to himself, she refuses to give him head. Then imagine Kumi’s disappointment when Takehiko has her clit surgically removed from its natural hiding place and reinserted in her throat to give her a little incentive. Now imagine your disappointment when I don't reveal the film's amazing shock ending. . . .

Director Mukai didn't just borrow from Deep Throat's plot. Check out this clip of the surgery scene, and you’ll hear a very distinct similarity between its score and Deep Throat’s theme music. 

(A longer version of this post will appear in the revised edition of The Complete Linda Lovelace, available in multiple formats on October 1, 2011.)