Rabbit Test (film)

Rabbit Test is a 1978 comedy motion picture about a nobody guy who rockets to celebrity status after a cheap one-night stand leaves him pregnant.

Directed by Joan Rivers, Rabbit Test is about a night class teacher- Lionel Carpenter (played by Billy Crystal)- who has the worst luck with woman, remaining a virgin until his brash cousin Danny returns from the army and sets him up with the only woman desperate enough to sleep with him. Afterwards, Lionel starts feeling nauseous and throwing up, eventually doing so over one of his immigrant students- Segoynia. This turns out to be a blessing in disguise, as it gives him an excuse to ask her out for the evening (after she's cleaned up, of course), and he ends up at her family home, where her mother works as a fortune teller.

It is here that it is revealed by Segoynia's grandmother (played by Roddy McDowall in drag, of all things) that Lionel is the world's first pregnant man. The rest of the film is an almost non-stop barrage of pathetic gags- such as the sideplot of Lionel being forced to flee from both the public eye due to harrasment and from the army, as the president is afraid of what effect the widespread ability for men to conceive, carry and bear children will have on the population boom.

A failed attempt at Mel Brooks style humour means Joan Rivers offends just about everyone- most of the jokes are about religion, those that aren't fat jokes. This is most obvious in the ending sequence, which is based around the Nativity, where Lionel goes into labour. The camera shoots to heaven where God announces to the veiwers the successful delivery: "Oh my god... it's a girl!"

The cover consists of Joan Rivers pointing at the bulge of pregnant Billy Crystal. This was Joan River's first attempt at direction, Billy's first starring role and is widely regarded as one of the most unfunny comedies ever produced. Most who see this film quickly ask themselves 2 questions: 1- how exactly did he get pregnant? and 2- why wasn't this movie ever included in the worst film lists?

Rabbit Test's lack of success is due not only to its genuine lack of real humour, but also because its directed like a spoof- so there are a lot of unanswered questions. Whereas Junior at least explained how Alex got pregnant (artificial insemination into a transplanted uterus), in Rabbit Test this area is never delved into; Lionel simply has sex, then the next thing he know's his daughter is playing havoc with his waistline (the film's catchline is: Where can you get maternity jockey shorts?)

This film was the second ever to utilise the idea of male pregnancy, the first being a sci-fi film Enemy Mine, the third was Rabbit Test's karmic successor- Junior, made in 1994 and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger (karmic successor in that not only is the plot almost identical, so is the cover ). This film may have initiated the fanfiction term MPreg.

External link

• Rabbit Test at IMDb