Since my dissertation was on early sound comedy, I can't help but put my two
cents worth into this discussion. There are many examples of truly remarkable
sexual innuendos in the pre-code crackdown period. A few favorites of mine:
  In GOLD DUST GERTIE, there is a scene involving two couples sitting down on
park benches, one single, the other married. They do not realize the benches
are painted so that when they get up, the married couple has stripes of black
paint along the back of their clothes. When the single couple get up, we see
not only black paint but a hand print on the woman's butt. This joke thus
leaves little to the imagination.
  In DIPLOMANIACS, six men and two women are seated on the branch of a tree when
 one of the woman proposes that they should all have sex. The mind boggles at
the possabilities, many of which can not be seen in Madonna's new book.
  In SO THIS IS AFRICA, Wheeler and Woolsey are locked into a hut together.
Wheeler is dressed in drag and the natives assume that they are a married
 couple. They demand that they have a "honeymoon together" and Wheeler glibly
 begins
discussing "how far we should go" on our honeymoon.
  Of course, such jokes are not totally absent from later films. W.C.
Fields made a carrier out of pussy jokes, calling the saloon in THE BANK
DICK the Black Pussy and having a spate of kittens emerge from between
the legs of a beautiful woman in INTERNATIONAL HOUSE.
  I can list more examples. We haven't even mentioned Mae West in this
 discussion but the point is made. Early sound films are far from innocent,
 filled with scatological references and more than a few jokes about
 homosexuality as well
as straight sex. I find showing some of these scenes usually surprises
my students who somehow got the impression that their generation invented
sex or at least anything other than the missionary position.
 
--Henry Jenkins