Sexposition

Jay: It's a great way to do exposition in a movie. Boobs, boobs, boobs, here's the point of this scene, see ya!
Josh: As noted, that's how they do it on Game of Thrones.

— Best of the Worst, discussing Hard Ticket to Hawaii

Sexposition is the practice of combining plot exposition or infodumps with sex scenes, in order to tell the viewer about things they need to know to understand the plotline in a way that will hold their attention slightly better than just two characters talking. It's used generally on US cable channels (particularly HBO), which can get away with more nudity than other networks and want to make the most of it.

The term "sexposition" is a fairly new one. It was coined in 2011 by TV critic Miles McNutt to describe the numerous such scenes on Game of Thrones, which features a number of characters who are or frequently visit prostitutes and has become known for taking the sexposition techniques to new heights. It has, however, been retroactively applied to older shows including The Sopranos and Deadwood.

Sometimes this works too well. The viewer is drawn towards the scene but misses all the exposition. This can lead to the show being Best Known for the Fanservice, or for the claim of sexposition being seen as little more than an excuse to insert unnecessary sexual content simply because the venue allows for it.

Sexposition may be supplied by a character undergoing Coitus Uninterruptus.

Compare I Have Boobs, You Must Obey! when a female character uses her… assets to persuade another character, and Sex Sells, which is where sexy imagery is used as an eye-grabber for advertising.

Has nothing to do with sex positions. Seriously, get your head out of the gutter.

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Examples:

Advertising

• PETA:
  • Used for several years with a "State of the Union Undress" where an attractive female PETA member would strip while talking about animal rights — and then it cuts to horrific shots of animals being abused.
  • As well as their ad campaign featuring photos of nude celebrities with the caption, "I'd rather go naked than wear fur!"
  • Several ads have sexualized animal people trying to convey PETA's message (ex, a cow-woman breastfeeding a human), which spectacularly backfired and led to accusations of sexual misconduct towards animals.

Anime & Manga

• Black Butler: In the Noah's Ark Circus arc, Sebastian seduces Beast and she reveals to him about her "father…while he's fingering her.
• Bleach: When Ichigo is training to master his inner Hollow, the conversation is intercut with dialogue about a young perverted woman's Porn Stash.
• In GUN×SWORD Fasalina made love to Michael Garret as she explained The Claw's plans of world destruction to him.
• In Kill la Kill, Ryuko's Stealth Mentor and resident Mr. Fanservice Aikuro seems to enjoy suggestively taking his clothes off while telling her about Life Fibers.
• Mnemosyne used something similar. In one episode where Rie Kugimiya's character Mimi had an orgy with a group of other immmortals, there was a voiceover that discussed their battle plans against the antagonist Apos.
• In an episode of Naruto, the title character is teaching Konohamaru the basics of the Rasengan. Which are 1) Rotation (Konohamaru imagined a half-naked girl pole dancing), 2) Power (it comes as a dangerously sexy woman), and 3) Compression ("compress it all into an ultimate sexy pose!") And then Naruto gets startled at what Konohamaru's thinking. Makes sense since the latter expects the former to teach a super-perverted technique as he thinks it's "usual" for him to do.
• One Piece: While Nami and Carrot are taking a bath, Chiffon tells them about her and twin sister Lola's backstory, their relationship with Big Mom, and what their mother's goal was. The scene also serves to give Nami the opportunity to bond with Chiffon, as Nami has already been friends with Lola.
• In the later episodes of Revolutionary Girl Utena, Akio, Touga and Saionji have a tendency to discuss plot and characterization developments while writhing around shirtless on beds and Akio's car. Considering how much of Utena's plot is cloaked in metaphor and the romantic lives of the parties involved, this is pretty obviously pillow talk.

Comic Books

• Part of the Bad Futureness of The Dark Knight Strikes Again is "News in the Nude," the only news worth watching. Guess writer/artist Frank Miller had never heard of Naked News.
• Parodied in a 1970s National Lampoon photocomic from the other direction—the censors will have to leave this sex scene in because it has plot-important exposition.
• The French comic Les Profs has a one-page comic consisting almost entirely of the local Hot Teacher stripteasing down to her underwear, with the last panel saying "Now that I have your attention, open your books" in front of red-faced, sweating guys and red-faced, furious girls.

Film — Animated

• Ninja Scroll has an important strategy meeting which the authority figure coldly attends while in the middle of a Coitus Uninterruptus.
• Subverted in Patlabor: The Movie. Gotoh's Infodump about Ei'ichi Hoba's god complex cuts back and forth between him talking and Captain Nagumo changing out of her uniform into civilian clothes in their office's closet, but we aren't actually shown anything titillating.

Film — Live-Action

• The Big Short has downplayed cases of Fanservice instead of intercourse. First, the concept of subprime bonds is explained by Margot Robbie in a bubble bath. Then, Mark Baum is certain of the housing market is a bubble about to burst talking to a stripper, who says she has multiple mortgages on her name, and so do her workmates.
• The Devil's Advocate: While Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves' characters have their final dialogue, Al sends in a beautiful woman who undresses herself in order to seduce Keanu. He refuses her and their dialogue continues, while she just keeps standing there completely nude, apparently to give the audience something to stare at while all this talking goes on. Oh, and she's his half-sister. But what do you expect from the Devil?
• In Die Hard 2, our introduction to the villain Colonel Stuart is him watching a Chekhov's News broadcast outlining his connection to the former Central American drug lord dictator Ramón Esperanza... as he's practicing martial arts while completely butt naked.
• A downplayed example from The Last Jedi. When Kylo Ren tells Rey his version of the night he turned to the Dark Side via their Force bond, he's naked from the waist up, which even briefly distracts Rey ("Do you have something, a cowl or something you could put on?"). According to the filmmakers, it also helped establish that Rey could actually see Kylo's entire body when they were connected through the Force.
• In Joss Whedon's film version of Much Ado About Nothing (2012), Don John's minion Conrad is turned into a woman, and his lover, specifically so that his "plain-dealing villain" speech could be turned into this for visual interest.
• In Shakespeare in Love, an early scene with the theatre manager has him discussing the staging of the play while having energetic sex with a prostitute; as with many instances of Sexposition, this one overlaps with Coitus Uninterruptus.

Literature

• Tales from Netheredge: In His Tribute this happens between Blue and his owner Varak, to detail Varak's backstory. As a result of Stockholm Syndrome and being Too Kinky to Torture, Blue has a bit of trouble focusing on what he's being told — but not so much that he can't use the information later to help them both.
• Tigana features an odd, zigzagged example. Devin and Catriana are hiding in a closet, about to overhear an exposition that Catriana desperately doesn't want Devin to hear. So to distract him, she has sex with him, Ten Minutes in the Closet type style. At the time, Devin is thoroughly distracted… but he has a very good memory and replays the scene later, this time getting the exposition.

Live-Action TV

• An early scene of The Borgias has Jeremy Irons' Pope Alexander tracing out the geopolitics of City-State Italy on his bedmate's leg. Traditionally Italy is likened to a boot, but he makes a bold creative decision to work higher up, and sans footwear.
• The Sci Fi Channel Earthsea miniseries had King Tygath and Kossil expositing their plot to take over the temple on Atuan and release the Nameless Ones as Kossil stripped to join Tygath in bed.
• As mentioned above, the Trope Namer is Game of Thrones, via a reviewer. It later got picked up by the show's creators. A lot of the show's exposition takes place in brothels or during private visits in the early seasons. Why they divulge so many secrets and plot-relevant info to their whores and one night stands is anyone's guess:
  • Prince Viserys opens up about his background and Targaryen history to Doreah while screwing her in a tub.
  • Littlefinger is training Ros and another new prostitute in how to fake passion with a client; in doing so he not only provides exposition on his background and motivations but his instructions on how to convince a client he's the best lover in Westeros also mirror how he fools others into thinking he's been swayed to their side.
  • Theon Greyjoy gets two examples. First he reveals much of his backstory to Ros after they have sex. Then he talks about his misguided expectations about going home while having sex with a captain's daughter.
  • Exploited in one episode in season three. Littlefinger sends one of his male prostitute-spies to seduce Loras Tyrell, in order to get him to divulge his family's plan to have Loras marry Sansa. Thanks to Littlefinger's intervention, poor Sansa ends up married to Tyrion instead.
• In Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, they not only did this regularly, they lampshaded it, pointing out that the only reason for having naked women in this scene was so that you'd sit and listen to a boring explanation of this week's topic.
• The Sopranos: There are numerous scenes where The Mafia are discussing important plot points in the Bada Bing strip club. Although if it's something really important or incriminating, they'll take the conversation into the backroom instead.
• A common scene in Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Batiatus and Lucretia would often discuss their various schemes while abusing half-naked house slaves.

Video Games

• Deadpool: In order to lead Deadpool into another area that will give them room to work with, Cable also explains that there's also a big-breasted woman who claims to be his biggest fan. There is none, and when he thinks that there is, he's actually groping Cable.
• In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, there's actually a mechanic where you can press a button to stare at EVA's breasts while she exposits.

Webcomics

• Variation: In the Team Fortress 2 comic "A Fate Worse Than Chess" Saxton Hale explains something he dubbed "Explosition" where you have to make the exposition more interesting. He proceeds to make a video where he describes the current situation to the Mercenaries while wrestling with a Yeti.

Web Original

• This is the idea behind Naked News. Attractive women strip down while reading the news of the day. It also had a Spear Counterpart using attractive men from 2001-2007.

Western Animation

• Done In-Universe in the Futurama episode "A Big Piece of Garbage". The documentary the Planet Express gang downloads about the Garbage Ball is also a porno (because The Internet Is for Porn). The porn only starts after the exposition is over with, perhaps as a reward for sitting through the whole documentary.

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