In 1994鈥檚 The Shawshank Redemption , the brutal "Sisters" gang led by Bogs Diamond provided the film鈥檚 darkest, most visceral terror. Yet, outside of prestige drama, the exact same scenario was played for laughs. In National Lampoon鈥檚 Last Resort (1994), an inmate named "Squash" is introduced purely as a comedic sexual predator. The Simpsons featured recurring gags about Hans Moleman or Homer facing prison assault. Family Guy built entire cutaway gags around it. Even children鈥檚 films weren鈥檛 immune鈥攖he 1990 Steven Spielberg-produced Gremlins 2: The New Batch featured a gremlin being aggressively sodomized by another gremlin in a fax machine, played strictly for slapstick laughs.
