Orgy joke

Bye Bye Birdie (stage musical) had a joke using the word "orgy" in 1960. It's not an explicit word, and people weren't quite as different from how they are now as you seem to think.

What's funny is that when I saw this movie back when I was around 12 - 13, I thought "orgy" was short for "origami" -- so the Beatles got really excited over an assumed origami activity.
A few years later, I re-watched it on TV and realized the real meaning of the word.

I think most everybody at the time was familiar with the term 'orgy' thanks to the sword-and-sandals and Biblical epic movies out at the time, but for younger folks it would just conjure up togas and grapes and chasing girls around. Still it got us that little exchange as everyone rushes out the door:
Room Service Guy: Wait, what about me?
John: You're too old.

One must remember several points.

First of all, the Production Code (often referred to as the "Hays' Office") was a voluntary agreement among the studio bosses, 30 years before this film was made, that they hoped would save them from a threat in Congress to intact national censorship laws. Throughout the 50s, for reasons too complex to discuss here and now, we see a gradual ignoring of the Code, as films became more and more explicit in their dealing with sexuality and social issues.

By 1964 the Code, though still existing, was more or less dead. Within a few years it was shelved altogether, as the studios agreed upon a new rating system instead.

And, one should remember, this was made in England.

"What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence."

I think it's only recently that the word orgy means some kind of group sex. Historically it was thought of as some kind of wild party where anything goes. Much tamer in comparison to our modern definition. If you look up the word, one of the definitions will be the old one.

You think I'm crazy? Perhaps we're all a little crazy. I know I am.
-Hugo Simpson

It was British. No Hays code.