So THAT Happened: The Villain Was Likely Raped By A Gorilla In ‘Trading Places’

For the most part, the history of TV and movies has been a wondrous and larger-than-life adventure, expanding our imaginations and our emotions. But sometimes that history has gotten weird. That’s where we come in. Welcome to So THAT Happened, a corner of the internet devoted to dredging up some of the most surprising pop culture moments and reminding you how weird pop culture history actually is.

Privilege checking has been a big theme throughout the past few years. If you were to look at the increased amount of online thinkpieces, exposes, shows, and movies that examine privilege, you would think it’s a relatively new concept. However, as the 1983 comedy inspired by Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper shows, that’s not the case. It’s about time we re-examine Trading Places.

The basic premise of Trading Places is that rich people can get away with anything as long as Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy don’t show up. An upper class commodities broker (Aykroyd) and a homeless street hustler (Murphy) unknowingly become the pawns in a bet between two incredibly rich commodity broker brothers. In order to settle a debate about nature vs. nurture, these two millionaires decide to switch the lives of two people at opposite ends of the social hierarchy — one of their lackeys and a homeless man — you know, like rich people do. Because this is a comedy, the movie plays out how you would expect. There are tons of crazy mixups, Aykroyd has a terrible time adjusting, there’s a friendly prostitute (Jamie Lee Curtis), Murphy uses his street smarts to make him a corporate superhero, a man is likely raped by a gorilla. All typical comedy stuff.

WTF HAPPENED?

Because this is a wacky comedy and not a gut-wrenching drama, Winthorpe (Akyroyd) and Valentine (Murphy) learn about these millionaires’ heartless bet. They hatch a scheme of their own, hoping to bring these two high class crooks down and get rich in the process. One thing leads to another and the Dukes’ main lackey winds up dressed in a gorilla costume and stuck in a cage with a horny gorilla. Uh-oh.

HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?

Story time! After the Dukes’ (the rich manipulators) essentially ruin these two men’s lives for their own amusement, Winthorpe becomes obsessed with framing Valentine and throwing him back out on the street. Obviously, Valentine isn’t too thrilled with Winthorpe, but his opinion quickly changes when he overhears the Dukes settling their wager for one measly dollar and planning to return Valentine to poverty. You know what they say — the enemy of of my enemy is my friend, which is how Winthorpe and Valentine became unlikely besties.

While they’re bro-bonding over this revelation (and while Winthorpe is recovering from a failed suicide attempt), the duo learn some news relating to the Dukes’ frozen orange juice plan. They decide to get their revenge by disrupting the Dukes’ plan, which is how a former high-class broker, a former homeless man, a prostitute, and a butler come to board a Philly bound train for an elaborate switcheroo. The four know that the Dukes’ best lackey, Beeks (Paul Gleason), will be on this train, and they plan on switching out his real report to the Dukes for a fake. This is when things start to get zany.

Beeks uncovers their plan but is knocked unconscious by a gorilla that’s being transported on the same train. While he’s unconscious, the four dress Beeks up as a gorilla and stick him in the cage with a real giant ape. They leave to enjoy the sweet taste of just desserts, but Beeks suffers from some off screen horror. You see, the gorilla is getting horny. I’ll let the baggage handlers explain what happened:

The camera then cuts away, and the two presumably have their one-sided fun.

NO, HOW WAS THIS POSSIBLY CREATED?

It was the ‘80s. What was a little gorilla rape between friends? Overall, Trading Places was a smartly subversive comedy that starred Eddie Murphy  and Dan Akroyd at their A games. For that, we can definitely forgive one bizarre bestiality joke. All of that blackface though …

… is a little harder to forgive.

[Where to watch Trading Places]