South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)

Maybe I just didn't get the joke, but anyone who has been anywhere near a school playground in the last forty years will know that third graders are highly unlikely to learn any new words in the cinema that they haven't been hearing for ages from their peers. Anyway, this time it's the irreverent Canadians "Terrance" and "Phillip" who entertain the weans - "Eric", "Ike" and "Kenny" and who provide them with some wonderfully naughty new words with which to shock their teachers, their neighbours and their parents. Naturally, there is uproar and so a scenario not unlike the current one between the USA and Canada ensues and believe it or not, Uncle Sam declares war. With the prudes on the warpath, it seems the only way to stop the two comics from ending up in the electric chair is for the very kids who started this whole kerfuffle to step in and rescue their inspirations from the fryer - literally! I confess to liking my humour way more subtle than this, and I've never really found a constant stream of expletives - even when set to a tune, to be especially amusing. In itself that is almost as puerile as children giggling when they talk about tits and bums at the age of five, and as I'm long past that age I struggled to get the appeal of most of the laughs here. That said, there are a few more grown-up moments and the idea that Satan would have to scrape the bottom of the barrel for a lover to the extent that he'd end up with Saddam Hussein (or anyone with a moustache like that!) did make me laugh as they stroked their chins tantalisingly anticipating WWIII. It does poke fun at the hypocisies and double standards that allow people to feign or even feel offence at the trivialities of language whilst turning their backs on far more substantial transgressions against humanity or our planet, and it successfully ridicules a political class who haven't a clue but even at just eighty minutes I felt it just a bit too "Carry On" for my liking.