Audience Participation

There was a time when privileged, and wealthy, members of the theater audience were permitted to sit on the stage to watch the play. But occasionally proximity has its perils…

Marie Dumesnil

At some time in the late 1730s or early 1740s, the great French tragic actress Marie Dumesnil (1713-1803) had an encounter with a general who became so over-excited on seeing her at such close quarters that he strode onto the stage in mid-performance, put her across his knee and spanked her – something she took as a great compliment, and thanked him after the show!

There have been other cases of audience members impulsively spanking actresses on the stage (you can read about one here), and over the centuries many more have wanted to; but audience participation more often goes the other way, and not just in vague reports of the occasional rock star giving a female fan a public spanking during a concert. For something much more systematic, we turn to The Rocky Horror Show (1973), Richard O’Brien’s rock’n’roll celebration of (and satire on) trashy American horror movies of the drive-in era, in which innocents Brad and Janet find themselves caught up in the experiments and machinations of a transvestite mad scientist and his household. There’s no spanking scene in the show, nor in the 1975 movie version – but what we’re concerned with is the phenomenon.

Rocky Horror has a large and loyal body of fans who keep coming back to see it again and again, joining in with the songs, dancing the Time Warp and dressing up as the characters in appropriately raunchy outfits.

Those going for the first time are known as ‘virgins’, and some US productions – there are hundreds running all over the world – have a long-standing tradition of ‘initiating’ them in a pre-show. There are ‘virgin games’, ‘virgin sacrifices’ and sometimes a form of initiation that clearly owes something to college sororities; it’s widely referred to as ‘spanking’, but a respect for semantic precision means that I prefer to call it paddling.

As you can see, skimpy attire is commonplace, though not obligatory.

And as you can also see, wearing a short skirt can be rather hazardous!

To be precise:

Evidently many girls really want to be whacked good and proper on their panties!

So, girls, Tip #1 is: wear your prettiest, most distinctive pair.

Tip #2: if you have to drop your pants to show ’em… so be it!

And Tip #3: simply wear panties… or you might have cause to regret it!

Unless of course that’s the way you want it, in which case, very occasionally, the stage staff may offer a helping hand.

But in any event, remember it might be painful, no matter how little you’re wearing.

So don’t bank on sitting altogether comfortably for the show itself!

In fact, the fear of ‘spanking’ has even deterred some young ladies from coming to the show, or admitting their ‘virginity’ if they do!

It’s become such a recognized part of Rocky Horror tradition that it has now extended itself beyond the confines of the stage.

And it’s used not only for saying hello but also, from time to time, goodbye.

Sammie Day as Janet

In 2017, Sammie Day, who had been playing Janet, left the show in Santa Ana, California. She already had a slight track record in helping to spank one of her fellow cast members at a party:

But on her last night, it was her turn to bend over for the whole company and the loyal audience, to get her good-girl panties spanked – long and hard!

The panties stayed white. Her bottom… didn’t!

You can find a lot of videos on this YouTube channel, with the caveat that (perhaps appropriately for Rocky Horror) there’s no differentiation by gender. If you only want to watch one, this is the one I’d recommend!