Dear Hollywood Writers: It’s Now Officially a Cliché to Send Your Characters to a Strip Club

A scene at a strip club from Entourage

I’ve been previewing upcoming TV shows, and I’ve noticed one place where viewers will be spending plenty of time in the months ahead.

Straight male strip clubs.

Strip clubs factor into four shows I’ve watched in just the last two days: Drop Dead Diva, Wilfred, Necessary Roughness, and (a show currently airing) Love Bites.

One upcoming show, The Playboy Club, is even set in a Playboy Club — not a strip club exactly, but close enough.

Then again, this isn’t anything new. It’s all part of America’s weird, schizophrenic approach to sex: Puritan by day, sex club troll at night (especially during prime time). Recent episodes of Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Royal Pains, Entourage, and True Blood have all featured strip clubs.

You might think that strip clubs are more common on cable than on broadcast television (and you’re probably right). But last season, Desperate Housewives made Susan, one of their main characters, actually become a stripper. But before that she was actually part owner in a strip club, which naturally meant she had to go there several times to check things out. (Most of the housewives have stripped in past seasons, but usually only for their husbands.)

Julie Benz and Teri Hatcher at a strip club in Desperate Housewives

Strip clubs have popped up on the “teen” shows Greek, Smallville, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and Gossip Girl – Chuck Bass even opened one. Sitcoms like How I Met Your Mother, Cougar Town, and Raising Hope have seen their characters visit strip clubs recently. And I hope it goes without saying that “crime” shows like Law & Order frequently visit strip clubs.

Plenty of shows even manage the impressive feat of having their straight female characters get lap dances from female dancers – thereby combining the requisite strip club visit with the feeding of straight male lesbian fantasies.

Not surprisingly, there have been at least three strip club reality series, including King of Clubs (on Playboy).

In fact, strip clubs are so ubiquitous on TV that all I pretty much have to do is think of a show that might have featured one, search for the title of the show and the words “strip club,” and what do you know? Up pops an episode where the characters visited a strip club.

Even Fringe. No seriously, in a dream, Olivia visits a strip club and kisses the female stripper.

The Walking Dead hasn’t had its characters visit a strip club – yet. Let’s face it: world-wide apocalypse probably isn’t necessarily enough to prevent the writers from figuring out some way to get their characters into a striptease.

People used to tease Charlie’s Angels for the ridiculous lengths it went to get its female characters into bikinis or undercover in some profession where women are objectified. But honestly, is television really so different now?

A scene from How I Met Your Mother ... at a strip club

I hope it goes without saying that movie characters go to strip clubs too. Recent examples include X-Men: First Class, Get Him to the Greek, The Hangover 1 & 2, and Date Night.