Striptease (film)

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A 1996 sex comedy, Striptease features Erin Grant (played by Demi Moore), a former FBI secretary, who has taken up work as a stripper at the Eager Beaver in order to earn the money she needs to afford an appeal for child custody. Adored by two of the patrons in particular, one of them an influential Congressman with an election coming up, a plan emerges to try and blackmail the Congressman about his (ahem) avid interest in Grant, so that she can afford to keep the custody battle going until she wins.

Unfortunately for those involved in the plan, the Congressman's business connections really want him to win the election - no matter who they have to silence in order to make sure his skeletons stay in the closet...

While notable for being one of the (several) roles where Demi Moore appears topless, it's probably more memorable for having been panned by the critics and winning several Razzie Awards, including "Worst Picture of 1996".

Not to be confused with the alternate name for the trope You Can Leave Your Hat On.

Tropes used in Striptease (film) include:
  • Adaptation Distillation: The entire subplot regarding the sugar is gone, as are several scenes that introduce us to the lawyer Mordecai and his cousin Joyce. Killian also loses a proper introduction, and Darrel lives at the end.
  • Badass: The bouncer is a textbook example.
  • Con Man - Grant's ex-husband, Darrel, is notable for this; the first scene we see him in has him using his daughter to help steal wheelchairs from a hospital, in order to sell them to a medical supply shop...which will, one assumes, sell them right back to the hospital.
  • Corrupt Bureaucrat - Dilbeck, the Congressman in question, has several business connections who want to make sure he stays in office - no matter what it takes. And he's not shy about trying to use his own power to get what he wants.
  • Every One Remembers the Stripper: Duh.
  • Feather Boa Constrictor
  • Film of the Book - Based on a novel by the same name, written by Carl Hiaasen. One of the concessions that the critics give is that the screenplay is pretty faithful to the book.
  • Good Samaritan: Garcia, although it takes him until the climax of the movie to successfully do a good deed.
  • Insistent Terminology - Don't call the women working at the Eager Beaver "strippers" where Shad can hear you. Just...don't. They're not strippers; they're dancers.
  • Loony Fan - Jerry Killian is very fond of Grant, although he's never quite implied to have gone to the point where he'd cross the line from Loony Fan to Stalker with a Crush - although that may be because Shad is quite open about being willing to inflict harm on anyone who seems to be a danger to the dancers. But he is the one who tries to blackmail Dilbeck, to try and get Grant's custody case judged in her favor. It gets him killed.
    • Dilbeck has a piece of lint from Grant's dryer.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Grant. And how!
  • Psychotic Lover: Dilbeck.
  • Single Mom Stripper - Basically the whole plot. Grant, a divorcee trying to regain custody of her daughter, is now working at the Eager Beaver in order to earn the money she needs to fight the custody battle.
  • Stalker with a Crush - Congressman Dilbeck. He even goes so far as to have Grant's dryer lint stolen, so that he can have sex with it while it's still warm. Grant is incredibly creeped out when she finds out.
  • Stupid Crooks: All of the bad guys, but mostly Darrell. Everything he does accomplishes little but prove he's an idiot.