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SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER, AND UNCUT
Directed by Trey Parker
Stemming from the success of the hilarious, irreverent, and just plain profane television show
came SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER, AND UNCUT. It’s an obscenity-laced,
uncompromisingly offensive effort to insult every group of people on the planet. Oh, and it’s also
a joyous ode to the First Amendment.
After going to see the Terrance and Phillip movie, ASSES OF FIRE, Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and
Cartman begin to spout out profanities non-stop. Their mothers, getting wind of this after the
boys are sent to their school’s guidance counselor, do the only thing they can think of: Blame
Canada, the homeland of Terrance and Phillip. When Kenny, in an attempt to mimic what he saw
in the movie, tries to light a fart on fire and burns to death, the parents decide to wage an all-out
war against Canada, taking Terrance and Phillip prisoner to execute them during a USO show.
Kenny, who was sent to Hell, finds out that Satan and Saddam Hussein, who are having a
homosexual relationship, will be able to take over the world when the prophecy is fulfilled and
Terrance and Phillip are executed. Kenny comes as a ghost to warns his friends of Satan and
Saddam’s plot, and it is up to the boys to stop their parents.
If the plot isn’t deranged and random enough, the jokes throughout the movie are. After Kenny
burns himself, the doctors in the hospital perform emergency surgery on him. As we see him
waking up from the surgery, the doctor informs him that his heart was accidentally replaced with
a potato and that he had only three seconds to live. At one point in the film, Kyle, Stan, and
Cartman, not knowing what to do, ask themselves, “What would Brian Boitano do?” And to top
off the joke, actor Brian Dennehy appears, asking if someone called for him. This is the kind of
random insanity that, to me, makes both the series and the film so special.
When Kyle’s mom, Sheila Broslofski, who leads all of the other parents in their fight against
Canada, is about to execute Terrance and Phillip, the film makes its best point. She says things
like “Remember what the MPAA says; horrific, deplorable violence is okay, as long as people
don't say any naughty words! That's what this war is all about!” While the satire is far from being
subtle, it’s very effective.
I read a book by a Christian author named Gareth Higgins entitled “How Movies Saved My
Soul.” In that book, there is a passage where Higgins talks about profanity in films. He notes that
many Christians find the “f” word to be the most offensive thing in the world, and that, in his
words, maybe one day we can get the fuck past that. This guy gets it, and considering that most
of the moralists who cry foul every time an obscenity is uttered also come from the Christian
Right, why can’t the rest of them get it?
One of the most unintentionally hilarious websites I have ever come across is the ChildCare
Action Project (http://capalert.com/), which is a site that hosts Christian movie reviews. In their
review of SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER, AND UNCUT, they call this lovable little piece
of animation “INCREDIBLY dangerous,” and rant and rave about the level of profanity in the
film. Not once did they mention that the extreme amount of expletives was necessary for a little
insignificant film aspect called “theme.” With people like this making buffoons out of themselves,
the satire from this film is almost not even necessary. Almost.
My Rating: ***1/2
Review by Jared Mills
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