THE BRAD/RIFF BUTTFUCK SCENE FAQ
By Arthur Levesque
Last Updated 6 July 2005
(c)2000-2005 by Arthur Levesque. All Rights Reserved.

PART I - INTRODUCTION

Q.
The what?!?!?
A.
The "infamous" Brad/Riff buttfuck scene is a scene that was supposely filmed for The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but not included in the final release. Other supposedly "lost" scenes, like "Once In A While", have since come to light, but the Brad/Riff buttfuck scene scene remains a rare and rumoured collector's item.
PART II - HISTORY

2.1
Why was it made?

Q.
Where did the Brad/Riff buttfuck scene come from?
A.
It wasn't in the shooting script or the play; someone (probably Richard O'Brien, but no one is completely sure) came up with it during the shoot. It was one of the things that apparently made sense at the time, but that everyone involved later decided was a bad idea.

Q.
Why?
A.
According to one source, Richard O'Brien was a tad intoxicated; and while watching "Once In a While" being shot, developed the hots for Barry Bostwick and jumped in to improvise the scene. Bostwick didn't object, and Jim Sharman insisted the cameras keep rolling.

Another rumour says that "The scene was totally Richard O'Brien's idea when he realised Riff Raff would do Brad in the movie -- O'Brien wanted an excuse to fuck him, but that's just a rumour..."

As for Barry, it has been said that this was "sort of a rebound thing ... because he was confused from just breaking up with Susan Sarandon." Whether or not he was even aware that the cameras were rolling is debated.

Q.
So Richard O'Brien never considered the Brad/Riff buttfuck scene when writing the play?
A.
Well, there's another theory... In the Rocky Horror Scrapbook, take a look at the page with "They Came From Denton High" at the top. "Joe Vitus" is crossed out and replaced with the character name of "Riff Raff." Now.... go to the previous page and look at the song list: "Once in a While (Joe)". It seems that Richard, initially, thought "Once in a While" should be sung by Riff Raff (possibly to Brad to appease him?) This might make the "tense" of the lyrics make more sense, and could have been meant to lead into the infamous Brad/Riff buttfuck scene...

Q.
Is this the Rocky Porno Video Show I've heard of?
A.
No, that's a completely different thing -- an extremely bad porn movie parody of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Avoid, avoid, avoid.
2.2
What was it like?

Q.
How does the scene go?
A.
This transcript was posted to the newsgroup several years ago:

[There is a knock at brad's door]
Brad: Hmmmmmm.
[A shadow slowly approches Brad's bed.]
Riff: I see you have tried the specilty of the house.
Brad: What, who?
[Brad turns on lights. Riff is standing over his bed.]
Riff: There are rules that have to be followed.
Brad: But... I didn't do anything.
Riff: You've done enough.
Brad: What are you talking about?
Riff: You have tasted the sweet necter of the prince.
Brad: How, how do you know?
Riff: It's my job. And now you must pay for your sins. Magenta and Columbia are otherwise encumbered. So that leaves you.
Brad: For what?
Riff: For this.
[Riff grabs Brad and flips him over on the bed. Unzips himself and starts to penetrate Brad. An evil smile comes across Riffs face]

Q.
Is that really how it goes?
A.
Here's a description of the scene by someone else:

Frank goes after Rocky, leaving Brad alone and confused. Riff, knowing Frank will be gone for a while, goes to Brad's bedroom. Janet finds Rocky and gets in on with him. Frank, pissed that he has lost Rocky, goes back to Brad just to find him getting it up the ass by Riff. Riff takes off with Frank and Brad running after him. Which brings us up to the "mercy" elevator scene with Frank whipping Riff for not only losing Rocky, but also taking Brad...

Q.
Is it nasty?
A.
It's a play on the senses really, and doesn't "show" really anything at all. Kind of like the bedroom scenes, it's done with a lot of shadow-play and such. No sheet in front however.

Q.
What is Riff Raff wearing?
A.
His butler uniform, and some sort of fluffy pink slippers. Some say they have bunny faces on them, others disagree: "Even though that part of the screen is a little blurry, I think that what you are seeing is just more of that white fur that's around the sides of the slippers. You can see this most clearly when Riff's legs fly up as he mounts Brad. You can clearly see that the 'bunny faces' have one inch high white fluff spouting from them. This is what really makes me think they are just fluff and not actual bunny images."

Q.
Any squidgy details?
A.
It appears that Richard O'Brien has a mole on his right buttock, though some say that it's just another blot on the film (like the black spot on Janet's statue's arm) and other's say it's a tattoo of a lightning bolt (it can't be seen clearly enough to confirm that). The face Richard O'Brien makes while coming has to be seen to be believed.

Q.
Who else was involved?
A.
Richard supposedly came up with a few lines to be spoken by the Criminologist after the scene; it is unknown if they were ever filmed.

Q.
Anyone else?
A.
There DOES appear to be someone, or the shadow of someone, off to the side during that scene, it's probably a mistake (just like when you can see the microphone before "Dammit, Janet"). Some think it's a Transylvanian; but they've all left the castle at this point.

CORRECTION: It is NOT a microphone, it is the lantern that hangs from the top of the church door frame. Apparently, all the people who think this is a mic that accidentally got into the shot are mistaken... Interestingly enough, Richard O'Brien himself comments on the DVD that it is a microphone -- it seems Richard O'Brien does occasionally remember or relate details incorrectly; this may be another reason why some of the information in this scene is incomplete and/or contradictory.

Q.
What's this about the Mexican flag?
A.
For some reason, people have spread the rumor that Riff fucked Brad on a Mexican flag. This is clearly untrue; Brad's bedroom can be seen several times in the movie (when he first enters, during the bedroom scene, "Once In A While", when Janet watches on the monitor) and there is no Mexican flag draped over the bed. This is only one of the false rumours about the scene, but it seems to be the most persistent.

Q.
Are there any references to it in the rest of the movie?
A.
No -- since it was added during production, not when the script was written, there are no lines in other scenes which refer to the Brad/Riff scene. Specifically, "Superheroes" was written long before the Brad/Riff scene was created, so Brad's line about "down inside I'm bleeding" has nothing to do with his anal rape (though some audience participation paints it that way).

Q.
Is there any audience participation for the Brad/Riff scene?
A.
Not really -- it hasn't really had a chance to develop any, since it's not regularly shown to any audiences (it took time for AP to develop for "Superheroes" and "Once In A While" when they started being shown); although some tends to be made up on the spot on those rare occasions that it is displayed (Brad crying out "Help me, mommy!" for instance).
2.3
A song for the Brad/Riff buttfuck scene

Q.
Was there a song that went with the scene?
A.
There was no song when the scene was filmed. However, afterwards, Richard O'Brien toyed with the idea of redoing the scene with a song. This may have been sung by Riff Raff, or possibly a duet between Riff and Brad Majors.

Q.
Was the scene ever re-shot with the song?
A.
No. Before that could happen, they'd decided not to do anything else with the scene.

Q.
Was the song ever recorded?
A.
Richard O'Brien apparently did record a demo tape with the song.

Q.
What was it called?
A.
"In The End". One of Richard O'Brien's typical jokes. (In fact, the song is full of double entendres.)

Q.
How did it go?
A.
When I was a kid
I thought as you did
That all would just be right if I'd pretend
I'd bury my head
Ignore those who said
That life is always painful in the end

Time and time again
You can never win
Stabbed in the back by one you called a friend
I have always found
You never turn around
Cuz life is always painful in the end

I just cannot agree with what you say
You(?)I(?) know that there's always another way

Your tears are in vain
As you cry in pain
I hope my explanations don't offend
Sometimes you are broke
The butt of some joke
And life is always painful in the end

You(?) learn the lesson
Life is a mess and
Oak trees all break while softer willows bend
You're feeling the burn
As(?) you sadly learn
That life is always painful in the end

Q.
And that was going to be sung by Riff Raff?
A.
The middle section (the two lines at the bridge) seem like they'd be for Brad Majors.

Q.
Is there any proof that this song was written by Richard O'Brien?
A.
Someone found a piece of paper which Richard O'Brien had apparently scribbled the first verse down on. It does look a lot like his handwriting:
2.4
Why is the scene so rare?

Q.
So what happened to it?
A.
When Richard O'Brien was clean and sober, he couldn't believe he'd done it, and insisted the scene be removed from the film. It's not true that the scene was edited simply for MPAA rating concerns (as some have suggested); it was removed long before the film was submitted for a rating.

Q.
Has Richard O'Brien ever spoken about the scene since?
A.
Someone asked Richard O'Brien about the long-lost Brad/Riff buttfuck scene after Disgracefully Yours in NYC; but all he would say is that he hated the scene and hoped it was gone for good. This has dampened most peoples' hopes of ever seeing it on future releases.

Q.
Is it available?
A.
Not all of the negatives were destroyed; and even though no legitimate release of The Rocky Horror Picture Show contained the scene, it was included in at least one bootleg from China (a the tenth anniversary laserdisc made in Tibet, allegedly). Up until then, it was considered the rarest of rarities, and most people denied that it ever existed.

Q.
Do any theaters have prints with this scene?
A.
The scene was only put on a limited number of early promo prints. Like "Superheroes", FOX didn't think the US audences would take to it, and so the scene was cut from the final release. "Superheroes" however, was at least kept on the overseas prints, the Brad/Riff buttfuck scene was not.

When Rocky started to get really big in the US, FOX started running out of prints. They first pulled prints from overseas (which is how we first got "Superheroes" over here), and then dug up the original promos too (only a dozen or so). Since very few of the original prints (promo or first real press) are still in use; finding one at all, let alone one that was still usable would probably be rather hard. Even the theatres that still have mono prints probably have a copy that was struck in the mid-80's (around the time of the 10th anniversary) and not an "original"

One theatre that was known to have a copy was the Balboa Theatre (whose marquee is on the 15th anniversary video) in New Port Beach, CA. The Balboa later got a newer "Superhearoes" mono print, wore it out in a few years, picked up a new "Superheroes" stereo print, then closed two months later. The cast, Midnight Insanity, moved to the Art Theatre in Long Beach. The print with the Brad/Riff buttfuck scene was sent back to the distributer and more then likely just cut up and thrown away like most old prints...

Q.
Who else had one?
A.
According to a Art Laurie, the Exeter St Theater in Boston had one around 1979. The word is, the first print the theater received during its initial run had the Brad/Riff buttfuck scene in it (like with "Superheroes" prints, Films Inc. did a poor job then of labeling the film cases) but it only ran for one weekend before the film was replaced. "We saw it on saturday," Art said, "spent the next week trying to choreograph it to be as acurate as possible, and by the time the next friday rolled around, it was already gone from the theater. That Riff and I refer to that week as 'The week that will never be spoken of.'" Some have claimed that the print with the scene was not returned, but that the projectionist cut most of it out.

According to Outcast Spice, the Brad/Riff buttfuck scene was shown once at the Bloor Cinema in Toronto as a pre-show. A former cast-member got a copy, but would not say how or from where ("She wouldn't tell me how many people she had to screw to get it"); and they couldn't splice it into the film. "It made for a kick-ass (hehe) preshow."

There is a theater in Washington state that claims to currently (as of March 2004) have a print with the Brad/Riff buttfuck scene in it. The cast calls themselves The Blue Mousketeers.

Q.
Are there any stills or photos from the scene?
A.
Trailers and press kits are often made from dailies while the movie is being made. When the final film is released many of the scenes you saw in the preview are not there... There was a still photo from the Brad/Riff buttfuck scene in an early edition of the press kit for The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was intended to be part of the lobby card/still photo set for the film, but when the scene was cut, they also cut it from the press kits before they were released. Apparently, a college student working for FOX at the time fished it out of the trash, but refuses to make scans or copies of it. Larry Viezel has made him several offers to buy it outright for his Rare Rocky Photo site, but so far he's refused.

There have been occasional badly forged pictures on web pages claiming to be stills from the Brad/Riff buttfuck scene; usually placed there anonymously. These can be easily determined to be false by close inspection. Don't assume you have true stills or video from the scene without examining the evidence, and the identity of the provider. Definitely don't pay any money (false videos of the scene surfaced on ebay a while back) unless you're sure you're getting the genuine article.

At the Cirque Du Rockeil convention, Mick Rock would not comment on the Brad/Riff buttfuck scene, but he did acknowledge (with a sly, lascivious grin) that there were some photos he took that "he was not going to release." These were for his "personal collection."

Q.
Is the scene on the DVD?
A.
Since the Rocky Horror DVD does have at least one other "Easter Egg" on it, some people have speculated that the Brad/Riff buttfuck scene is also hidden somewhere on the DVD. This appears to be wishful thinking, as no one yet has come forward to demonstrate its presence.

Q.
What about the other formats?
A.
Before The Rocky Horror Picture Show. was released on DVD, it was released on a competing (since rendered obsolete) digital disc format known as DIVX. The claim has been made that the Brad/Riff buttfuck scene is hidden on the DIVX disc, but this claim has not been validated. It is, however, extremely unlikely; as DIVX discs, unlike DVDs, very rarely had extra features on them.

Q.
Can I download it?
A.
It is not currently available on any web pages or FTP sites that I know of; around the time that FOX was going after people for distributing the Revenge of the Old Queen script, and others were being warned about certain MP3s on their sites, one person who did have the scene online received a word from some of FOX's lawyers. Apparently someone at FOX and/or someone involved with the movie (Richard O'Brien?) do not want this scene distributed.

Another person, who wishes to remain nameless, claims to have gotten the scene of off KaZaA (a file-sharing program) some time ago -- but has not seen it up there since (nor will she make her copy available there) for fear of being charged with copyright violations or theft.

2.5
What do the fans think?

Q.
What do Rocky Horror fans think?
A.
Most of those how know about it view it as a part of the movie's history, even if they doesn't consider it "canon" (that it actually happened in the story). Some are just as glad that it was deleted.

Q.
Has anything been written about it?
A.
There has been some fanart based on the scene, and Arthur Levesque has written at least one song parody which alludes to it.
2.6
Has it ever been done on stage?

Q.
Has the Brad/Riff buttfuck scene ever been performed as part of a Rocky Horror Show stage performance?
A.
It's not possible to be completely certain, given the number of performances done by small theater groups around the country -- not to mention the number done in foreign countries in other languages. Even if you had the CD of, say, the South Korean production, and it had a full recording of the entire performance (like The Whole Gory Story) rather than just the songs, would you be able to tell if they had squeezed in the buttfuck scene if you didn't understand Korean?

However, any professional group that puts on The Rocky Horror Show is expected to follow the official script (provided by Samuel French, Inc., in the USA and some other countries; and Rocky Horror, Ltd., in Europe). This script has gone through changes since The Rocky Horror Show debuted in 1973, but at no time has it ever contained the Brad/Riff buttfuck scene. Keep in mind that the Brad/Riff buttfuck scene was created during the filming of the movie, which came after the play.

There is a rumor, though, that the producers of the 2000 Broadway revival The Rocky Horror Show LIVE! briefly considered including "a" Brad/Riff scene (which, although inspired by the legendary movie scene, would have probably differed significantly from it) in order to "shock and surprise" audiences; but it never went anywhere. Possibly someone (Richard O'Brien or Christopher Malcolm?) objected. There is no truth to the rumor, however, that Jarrod Emick (the original Brad Majors) or Raul Esparza (Riff Raff) refused to do the scene -- it had already been decided against long before the show was cast.

PART III - Where is it now?
Q.
Why isn't it discussed more on alt.cult-movies.rocky-horror?
A.
According to one collector: "Perhaps its unfair of us to give away so many details about the Brad/Riff buttfuck scene. Part of the thing that makes it so rare, is that so few people have seen it. It's just like the Revenge of the Old Queen script. Many people have never gotten their copy. So we stopped conversation on the newsgroup, because its unfair to those people who missed out on it...

Q.
Who has it?
A.
Someone claimed that Brady Ferguson had it and wanted to have a 35mm print made to splice into his theater's Rocky Horror print; Brady denies this. Zenin had the scene, as an MPEG movie, in his archive for a short time before a mysterious crash wiped it out and forced him to recreate the site from scratch... He had no other copy of the file, and as yet no one has admitted to downloading it from his site or offered to return it to him. No one else will admit to having it, after seeing Brady and Zenin deluged with people begging and pleading for copies.

Q.
Will it ever see the light of day again?
A.
At the June 2001 Frankie Goes To Hollywood convention in Hollywood, California, the audience was shown a clip from the Brad/Riff buttfuck scene. Details of how they found the clip and who it belongs to have not yet been divulged; an air of secrecy (they expected this to be a big surprise) surrounded the exhibition. They have received many requests for a copy, and promise that they will eventually provide some.

Addendum: Almost three years later, they still haven't released the "Frankie Goes To Hollywood" convention videotape, which they've promised will contain the Brad/Riff buttfuck scene that was shown at the con.

PART IV - ANALYSIS
Q.
Is it true that Brad's verse in "Superheroes" refers to this scene? I mean "I've done a lot" doesn't make sense if Brad only had sex once, and "down inside I'm bleeding" could mean that Riff Raff didn't use any K-Y?
A.
The song "Superheroes" was in the original stage play; so it pre-dates the Brad/Riff buttfuck scene which (like cannibalism of Eddie) was added for the movie.

One Rocky fan did an analysis of this scene for a cinema course at Rhode Island College, and argued that the scene was added to provide some balance for Riff and Brad's characters.

RIFF: Riff and Magenta are sibling lovers, but Magenta also has gay sex with Columbia (a human). Allowing Riff to have gay sex with Brad (a human) provides some balance... And you have to wonder if Riff released Rocky just so that he could distract Frank and get his hands on Brad. Why else would he let the creation loose and risk Frank's wrath?

BRAD: After Janet is seduced and deflowered by Frank, she goes on to have sex with Rocky and revels in the experience. The Brad/Riff buttfuck scene, after Brad is deflowered by Frank, allows us to see the negative effect that sex has on Brad.

PART V - THE FINE PRINT

5.1 Disclaimer:

5.2 Permission:

5.3 History of the FAQ:

v1.0
The original creation of the FAQ, after questions had been raised too many times...
v1.1
Answered the "Mexican flag" question.
v1.2
DVD/DIVX, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, and forgeries.
v1.3
Corrected the "Dammit Janet" hanging microphone item, answered a couple of questions about references to Brad/Riff buttfuck scene within the movie, and mentioned Brad/Riff buttfuck scene AP.
v1.4
"In The End" - Richard O'Brien's song for the Brad/Riff buttfuck scene.
v1.5
The Rocky Porno Video Show, Toronto pre-show, The Blue Mouseketeers, KaZaA and other download sites, stage performances.
v2.0
Converted to HTML
v2.1
Mick Rock's non-answer and innuendo

5.4 Contributors: