Bathroom blockbuster: five surprising toilet scenes from film and TV
Ah the bathroom break; a critical part of our lives yet so often overlooked in film and TV.
Frodo must have gone to the loo on his way to Mordor, but it’s not featured in Lord of the Rings, and Luke Skywalker goes from farm boy to Jedi without once answering the call of nature.
We think this is a shame. We go out of our way to make the UK’s most sustainable toilet rolls, so we’re always looking to shine a spotlight on the possibilities of the bathroom. Today we’re saluting the visionaries of film and TV who do the same!
So grab some popcorn and enjoy a summer blockbuster edition of our blog, as we dive into five famous toilet scenes that have left their mark on cinematic history.
“Shrek” plays with our expectations from the jump. We first meet our hero, the ogre Shrek, in his outhouse, reading the story of a princess and a dragon in a book of fairy tales. The beautiful illustrations and classical music that plays as Shrek tells the tale echoes the storybook openings of classic Disney films. When he gets to the end of the story, though, our hero rips out a page to use for toilet paper. Cue the smash of the outhouse door and the introduction of Shrek in all his green glory.
This toilet scene sets the tone for the entire film. By introducing our hero in such an unglamorous location, an outhouse in a swamp, the film tells the audience that this fairy tale will be about a very different kind of Prince Charming.
2. American Pie: Finch gets caught short
In the 1999 teen comedy "American Pie," one of the most memorable gross-out scenes involves Finch, played by Eddie Kaye Thomas. Finch, who fancies himself as more sophisticated than his peers, avoids using the toilets at his high school, claiming they’re unhygienic. His nemesis, Stifler (Seann William Scott),decides to bring him down a peg or two by spiking Finch's mochaccino with laxative.
As the laxative takes effect, Finch frantically searches for a bathroom and is ultimately forced to use the dreaded high school toilets. But he’s disgusted by the facilities, and spends precious seconds constructing a toilet-paper barrier on the seat before finally relieving himself. The ensuing scene is a blend of physical and cringe comedy, capped off with Finch realising that he’s been in the girls toilets instead of the gents, and there’s a crowd of his classmates waiting outside.
It’s a horrifying predicament (and a terrible waste of toilet paper!) but for a real burst of bathroom based horror we need to roll back to 1960…
3. Psycho: The Shower Scene
No list of famous toilet scenes would be complete without mentioning Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 masterpiece "Psycho." Psycho features one of the most iconic twists in movie history as (spoiler alert!) the main character meets an untimely end at the halfway point of the film. Secretary-on-the-run, Marion, played by Janet Leigh, steals $40,000 from her work and makes the unfortunate decision to stay for a night at the Bates Motel, where the atmosphere is strange and the facilities are to die for.
The shower scene has been dissected in countless books, essays, and articles, but audiences today might miss one detail of the scene that made waves at the time. Before Marion enters the bathroom she calculates the money she has stolen in a notebook, before ripping up the page and flushing it away.
This is the first time a flushing toilet was actually featured in a film, and Hitchcock’s decision to show the notepaper being flushed away was so jarring to audiences in 1960 that some people complained it was indecent. It seems odd to us now, particularly given what happens when Marion steps into the shower, but the flush of the motel loo adds a touch of mundane realism that makes the scene all the more unsettling.
We also feel we should point out that notepad paper is not tested for wet strength and disintegration like our toilet paper is, and you should never flush it! Norman Bates probably had a blocked toilet to deal with on top of everything else.
4. Jurassic Park: The Outhouse
Next up, a true summer blockbuster. In "Jurassic Park," one of the most memorable scenes involves a man, a toilet, and a dinosaur.
Donald Gennaro, a cynical, money-hungry lawyer, is out on a tour of the dinosaur park when a huge storm hits and the electricity is cut. When the park’s Tyrannosaurus Rex breaks free of its enclosure, Geranno abandons the children he’s on the tour with and runs to a nearby bathroom structure for safety.
But a portaloo is no match for the king of the dinosaurs. With a powerful swipe, the T-Rex demolishes the flimsy structure, exposing the terrified Gennaro before chomping down. The scene contrasts the everyday sense of security we get from a closed toilet door with the colossal threat of the giant beast. There’s not a “occupied” sign in the world that can save you when T-Rex comes knocking.
5. Friends: Ross and the Leather Pants
Our final entry isn’t a film, but we couldn’t resist throwing in one of our favourite scenes from the classic sitcom “Friends." In the episode "The One with All the Resolutions," Ross (David Schwimmer) decides to make a fashion statement by wearing tight leather trousers on a date with the lovely Elizabeth Hornswaggle. Things quickly go awry when he finds himself overheated and unable to pull the pants back up after using his Elizabeth’s bathroom.
Desperate, Ross calls Joey (Matt LeBlanc) for advice. Joey suggests using lotion or powder to help slide the pants back on. The result is a disastrous mix of baby powder and lotion that mix to form a kind of paste, preventing Ross from getting his trousers back up. It’s a fantastic bit of physical comedy scene that Schwimmer sells beautifully, culminating in Ross shamefacedly leaving the bathroom with his leather trousers clasped in a bundle to protect his modesty, paste all over his legs, and Elizabeth’s bathroom covered in talcum powder and lotion.
(If only Naked Sprout had been around in the late nineties, we could have sent some unbleached kitchen roll to clean up the mess!)
Roll Credits
Aaaand cut!
Hopefully you’ve enjoyed this roundup of classic moments from film and TV that took us behind the bathroom door. These toilet scenes are so memorable because they subvert expectations. Bathrooms are typically private, mundane spaces, but all these scenes transform them into stages for drama, horror, and comedy. They remind us that no place is too ordinary to be important.
So next time you settle in for a summer blockbuster, keep an eye on those bathroom scenes. And if you fancy stocking your toilet with unbleached, sustainable, toilet rolls that are sure to steal the show, step right this way…
