A sexless* paradise

The conflicted, connected plight of sexual liberation and the nudist movement

In 1996, Weird Al Yankovic released his music video for “Amish Paradise,” a parody of Coolio’s 1995 hit “Gangsta’s Paradise,” in which Weird Al swaps lyrics and visuals to fit the theme of life in Amish country. In one brief scene in the music video, two teenage Amish boys can be seen ogling a copy of “Amish Babes,” a fictional dirty magazine for the Amish set, unfurling a centerfold that showcases a fully-clothed young Amish woman lifting the folds of her dress to expose her bare calves to the lyrics, “There’s no time for sin and vice, living in an Amish paradise.” Without the accompanying music video, the lyrics are pretty benign but, much like many of the other visual gags in the video, the imagery adds a comedic touch that twists our initial understanding of the words. In this case, Weird Al pokes fun at the modesty culture of the Amish by playing into the old-timey ankle taboo, a fairly common trope in comedy which, despite being perhaps a little exaggerated here, hits on some tr…