The Terrible Raunch Comedy That Spawned NoFap

Lent has just come to an end, the time when devout Christians honor Jesus by giving up one of their greatest pleasures like eating chocolate, going on social media, or complaining about the war on Christmas. But recently, the tradition has been co-opted by another kind of abstainer, acolytes of NoFap, who use the period to trial their epic quest to stop janking their crank and break loose of the bonds of male sex addiction. To know why, we have to turn to their bible, a little movie called 40 Days And 40 Nights.

From ancient philosophers to meditating monks, dudes have always found reasons to think that not jacking is the path to enlightenment. But the principles of NoFap, the recent online community of dudes that renounces pornography and masturbation, are more directly linked to another sophisticated source: a shitty 2002 sex comedy starring Josh Harnett. In 40 Days And 40 Nights, the imminently forgettable heartthrob plays Matt Sullivan, whose sexual obsession with his ex-girlfriend is causing several underoo issues. To cure himself of this addiction, he resolves to abstain from any kind of sexual stimulation for Lent, a decision everyone around him reacts to as if he just said he was going to cut off his dick and eat it raw on live television.

Like a masturbaphobic Messiah, Matt becomes the embodiment of the virtues of voluntary male impotence. That includes all the supposed superpowers that the NoFap community claims come with not coming. While incredibly difficult at first, our hero soon becomes aware that keeping his hands out of his pants makes him more alert, more energetic and even more desirable -- as if the extra sperm have burst through his balls and are reconfiguring his body like jizzy nanobots.

But Matt must also endure those who wish to tear asunder brave nofapstronaughts (their word). We're talking, of course, of evil women. Furious that this not-porking Prometheus has discovered "The Power" of refusing sex, scores of succubi descend upon Matt to break his NoFap streak, undo the male sex revolution and keep them subscribing to OnlyFans accounts.

This results in one of the most disturbing scenes of any raunch comedy where Matt gets raped by his ex-girlfriend just so she can make a bunch of money off the betting pool his incel-y friends have set up.

Since the movie claims to be a satire about people making too big a deal about sex, 40 Days and 40 Nights can be interpreted as the Fight Club or Starship Troopers of dumb sex comedies. Instead of 'getting it,' some audiences saw its obsessive and misogynist themes of men needing to reclaim power from the Hot Girl Porn Illuminati and let it seep into a very troublesome sub-faction of the modern anti-sex movement. Quite a serious legacy for a low-budget boner comedy that also claims you can make women come by rubbing an orchid over their boobies.

For more abstinence-inducing comedy, do follow Cedric on Twitter. 

Top Image: Universal Pictures