Gross out
Encyclopedia
Gross out describes a movement
in art (often comic), which aims to shock the audience
with controversial material such as toilet humour or nudity
.
of comedy movies in which the makers employ humor that is willfully "tasteless" or even downright disgusting. It usually involves gratuitous nudity, unrealistic aggressiveness towards property or Schadenfreude
. The movies are generally aimed at a younger audience aged between 18 and 25. One boon of this genre is that it provides an inexpensive way to make a movie "edgy" and to generate media attention for it.
and its replacement with the MPAA film rating system
in the late 1960s, some filmmakers began to experiment with subversive film comedies, which explicitly dealt with taboo subjects such as sex and other bodily functions. Noteworthy examples include 1972's Pink Flamingos
(in which the central character eats dog excrement) and other films by John Waters
, and 1974's sketch comedy film The Groove Tube
. As these films emerged from the counterculture
movement and gained a measure of audience success, they inspired more mainstream films to follow their example.
The label "gross-out movie" was first applied by the mainstream media to 1978
's National Lampoon's Animal House
, a comedy about the fraternity
experience at US colleges. Its humor included not only explicit use of bodily functions (like projectile vomiting), but also references to topical political matters like Kent State shootings
, Richard Nixon
, the Vietnam war
, and the civil rights movement. It was a great box office
success despite its limited production costs and thus started an industry trend.
Since the 1980s, gross-out films increased in number, and became almost the norm for US-American comedy films. Some films of this genre could be aimed at teen audiences, while others are targeted at somewhat more mature audiences (such as There's Something About Mary
, Porky's
, American Pie
or The Hangover
).
and its UK cousin, Dirty Sanchez, were the pioneers of "gross out television". The shows featured dangerous stunts, nudity
, profanity
, and furious action never seen before on the small screen. Both series started on MTV
, and progressed to iconic feature-length movies. Beavis and Butthead, Ren and Stimpy and Animaniacs
transferred the gross-out television genre to the medium of small screen animation
largely in the early 90's. Today this continues with such popular shows as South Park
and Family Guy
.
. However, it is also displayed in the larger and more adventurous British
theaters.
The prime examples of the above are the stage version of the contemporary drama Trainspotting by bestselling playwright and author Irvine Welsh
; the controversial New York musical Urinetown
by Kotis and Hollmann; the outrageous anarchistic schlockomedy (shock horror comedy) musical about a Manchester jobcentre Restart by Komedy Kollective; and performances by another United Kingdom-based act, Forced Entertainment, who devised the iconic theatrical gorefest
Bloody Mess.
invented his trademark "spaghetti
and meatballs" style of artwork.
Various mainly British artists helped create a flourishing gross-out art scene, which began mainly in the 1990s, the most famous of which were Damien Hirst
, known for encasing mutilated, rotting cattle
in formaldehyde
, and making art of endangered marine
species
such as shark
s in formaldehyde tanks, and Tracey Emin
, whose exhibit
of an unmade bed
featured used tampons, condoms and blood-stained underwear.
, where shock value helps create marketable notoriety. Bands include Blink182 famous for including breast
and fart
jokes in their songs, Agoraphobic Nosebleed
, and many others, whose material shocks the music world.
Sometimes the line between truth and urban myth is blurred by the sensationalist sections of the media. For example, Frank Zappa
never ate steaming excrement live on-stage, and the famed incident involving Ozzy Osbourne
biting a head off of a bat was actually unintentional (he thought the bat was a prop).
Similar themes are also sometimes conveyed in music videos, the aptly named Gross Out, a single
from indie
/garage rock
band, The Vines
.
Art movement
An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a restricted period of time, or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defined within a number of years...
in art (often comic), which aims to shock the audience
Audience
An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature , theatre, music or academics in any medium...
with controversial material such as toilet humour or nudity
Nudity
Nudity is the state of wearing no clothing. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic. The amount of clothing worn depends on functional considerations and social considerations...
.
Features
Gross-out is a sub-genreGenre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
of comedy movies in which the makers employ humor that is willfully "tasteless" or even downright disgusting. It usually involves gratuitous nudity, unrealistic aggressiveness towards property or Schadenfreude
Schadenfreude
Schadenfreude is pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. This German word is used as a loanword in English and some other languages, and has been calqued in Danish and Norwegian as skadefryd and Swedish as skadeglädje....
. The movies are generally aimed at a younger audience aged between 18 and 25. One boon of this genre is that it provides an inexpensive way to make a movie "edgy" and to generate media attention for it.
History
In the USA, following the abolition of the film industry's censorious Production CodeProduction Code
The Motion Picture Production Code was the set of industry moral censorship guidelines that governed the production of the vast majority of United States motion pictures released by major studios from 1930 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Hollywood's chief censor of the...
and its replacement with the MPAA film rating system
MPAA film rating system
The Motion Picture Association of America's film-rating system is used in the U.S. and its territories to rate a film's thematic and content suitability for certain audiences. The MPAA system applies only to motion pictures that are submitted for rating. Other media may be rated by other entities...
in the late 1960s, some filmmakers began to experiment with subversive film comedies, which explicitly dealt with taboo subjects such as sex and other bodily functions. Noteworthy examples include 1972's Pink Flamingos
Pink Flamingos
Pink Flamingos is a 1972 transgressive black comedy film written, produced, composed, shot, edited, and directed by John Waters. When the film was initially released, it caused a huge degree of controversy and thus became one of the most notorious cult films ever made. It made an underground star...
(in which the central character eats dog excrement) and other films by John Waters
John Waters
-Entertainment:*John Waters , American film director, active 1926–29 and 1947*John Waters , American film director, writer, visual artist, actor and cult figure...
, and 1974's sketch comedy film The Groove Tube
The Groove Tube
The Groove Tube , written and produced by Ken Shapiro, was a low-budget comedy film. It satirized television and the counterculture of the early 1970s. The film was originally produced to be shown at the Channel One Theater on East 60th St...
. As these films emerged from the counterculture
Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...
movement and gained a measure of audience success, they inspired more mainstream films to follow their example.
The label "gross-out movie" was first applied by the mainstream media to 1978
1978 in film
The year 1978 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 1 - Bob Dylan's film Renaldo and Clara, a documentary of the "Rolling Thunder Revue" tour premieres in Los Angeles, California....
's National Lampoon's Animal House
National Lampoon's Animal House
National Lampoon's Animal House is a 1978 American comedy film directed by John Landis. The film was a direct spin-off of National Lampoon magazine...
, a comedy about the fraternity
Fraternities and sororities
Fraternities and sororities are fraternal social organizations for undergraduate students. In Latin, the term refers mainly to such organizations at colleges and universities in the United States, although it is also applied to analogous European groups also known as corporations...
experience at US colleges. Its humor included not only explicit use of bodily functions (like projectile vomiting), but also references to topical political matters like Kent State shootings
Kent State shootings
The Kent State shootings—also known as the May 4 massacre or the Kent State massacre—occurred at Kent State University in the city of Kent, Ohio, and involved the shooting of unarmed college students by members of the Ohio National Guard on Monday, May 4, 1970...
, Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
, the Vietnam war
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, and the civil rights movement. It was a great box office
Box office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
success despite its limited production costs and thus started an industry trend.
Since the 1980s, gross-out films increased in number, and became almost the norm for US-American comedy films. Some films of this genre could be aimed at teen audiences, while others are targeted at somewhat more mature audiences (such as There's Something About Mary
There's Something About Mary
There's Something About Mary is a 1998 American comedy film, directed by the Farrelly brothers, Bobby and Peter. It stars Cameron Diaz, Matt Dillon and Ben Stiller, and it is a combination of romantic comedy and gross-out film....
, Porky's
Porky's
Porky's is a 1982 comedy film about the escapades of teenagers at the fictional Angel Beach High School in Florida in 1954. It was released in the United States in 1982, and spawned two sequels: Porky's II: The Next Day and Porky's Revenge! and influenced many writers in the teen film genre...
, American Pie
American Pie (film)
American Pie is a 1999 teen comedy film written by Adam Herz. American Pie was the directorial film debut of brothers Paul and Chris Weitz, and the first film in the American Pie film series...
or The Hangover
The Hangover (film)
The Hangover is a 2009 American comedy film directed by Todd Phillips and written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. The film stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham, Justin Bartha and Jeffrey Tambor...
).
Television
JackassJackass (TV series)
jackass is an American reality series, originally shown on MTV from 2000 to 2002, featuring people performing various dangerous, crude, ridiculous, self-injuring stunts and pranks...
and its UK cousin, Dirty Sanchez, were the pioneers of "gross out television". The shows featured dangerous stunts, nudity
Nudity
Nudity is the state of wearing no clothing. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic. The amount of clothing worn depends on functional considerations and social considerations...
, profanity
Profanity
Profanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...
, and furious action never seen before on the small screen. Both series started on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
, and progressed to iconic feature-length movies. Beavis and Butthead, Ren and Stimpy and Animaniacs
Animaniacs
Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs, usually referred to as simply Animaniacs, is an American animated series, distributed by Warner Bros. Television and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. The cartoon was the second animated series produced by the collaboration of Steven...
transferred the gross-out television genre to the medium of small screen animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
largely in the early 90's. Today this continues with such popular shows as South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
and Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
.
Theater
Gross-out theater is increasingly practiced on stage, particularly in the Edinburgh FestivalEdinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
. However, it is also displayed in the larger and more adventurous British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
theaters.
The prime examples of the above are the stage version of the contemporary drama Trainspotting by bestselling playwright and author Irvine Welsh
Irvine Welsh
Irvine Welsh is a contemporary Scottish novelist, best known for his novel Trainspotting. His work is characterised by raw Scottish dialect, and brutal depiction of the realities of Edinburgh life...
; the controversial New York musical Urinetown
Urinetown
Urinetown: The Musical is a satirical comedy musical, with music by Mark Hollmann, lyrics by Hollmann and Greg Kotis, and book by Kotis. It satirizes the legal system, capitalism, social irresponsibility, populism, bureaucracy, corporate mismanagement, and municipal politics...
by Kotis and Hollmann; the outrageous anarchistic schlockomedy (shock horror comedy) musical about a Manchester jobcentre Restart by Komedy Kollective; and performances by another United Kingdom-based act, Forced Entertainment, who devised the iconic theatrical gorefest
Gorefest
Gorefest was a Dutch band from the Zeeland region of the Netherlands which was founded in 1988 as a death metal outfit by De Koeyer, Harthoorn, van Schaik and Hoogendoorn.-History:...
Bloody Mess.
Art
Controversial American cartoonist and vaudeville performer Basil WolvertonBasil Wolverton
Basil Wolverton was an American cartoonist, illustrator, comic book writer-artist and professed "Producer of Preposterous Pictures of Peculiar People who Prowl this Perplexing Planet", whose many publishers included Marvel Comics and Mad.His unique, humorously grotesque drawings have elicited a...
invented his trademark "spaghetti
Spaghetti
Spaghetti is a long, thin, cylindrical pasta of Italian origin. Spaghetti is made of semolina or flour and water. Italian dried spaghetti is made from durum wheat semolina, but outside of Italy it may be made with other kinds of flour...
and meatballs" style of artwork.
Various mainly British artists helped create a flourishing gross-out art scene, which began mainly in the 1990s, the most famous of which were Damien Hirst
Damien Hirst
Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...
, known for encasing mutilated, rotting cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
in formaldehyde
Formaldehyde
Formaldehyde is an organic compound with the formula CH2O. It is the simplest aldehyde, hence its systematic name methanal.Formaldehyde is a colorless gas with a characteristic pungent odor. It is an important precursor to many other chemical compounds, especially for polymers...
, and making art of endangered marine
Marine (ocean)
Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...
species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
such as shark
Shark
Sharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago....
s in formaldehyde tanks, and Tracey Emin
Tracey Emin
Tracey Karima Emin RA is a British artist of English and Turkish Cypriot origin. She is part of the group known as Britartists or YBAs ....
, whose exhibit
Art exhibition
Art exhibitions are traditionally the space in which art objects meet an audience. The exhibit is universally understood to be for some temporary period unless, as is rarely true, it is stated to be a "permanent exhibition". In American English, they may be called "exhibit", "exposition" or...
of an unmade bed
Bed
A bed is a large piece of furniture used as a place to sleep, relax, or engage in sexual relations.Most modern beds consist of a mattress on a bed frame, with the mattress resting either on a solid base, often wooden slats, or a sprung base...
featured used tampons, condoms and blood-stained underwear.
Music
Gross out themes are common in popular music genres, especially rap and heavy rockHard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
, where shock value helps create marketable notoriety. Bands include Blink182 famous for including breast
Breast
The breast is the upper ventral region of the torso of a primate, in left and right sides, which in a female contains the mammary gland that secretes milk used to feed infants.Both men and women develop breasts from the same embryological tissues...
and fart
Fart
Fart is an English language vulgarism most commonly used in reference to flatulence. The word "fart" is generally considered unsuitable in a formal environment by modern English speakers, and it may be considered vulgar or offensive in some situations. Fart can be used as a noun or a verb...
jokes in their songs, Agoraphobic Nosebleed
Agoraphobic Nosebleed
Agoraphobic Nosebleed is a grindcore band formed in 1994 in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States. Its line-up has changed often during the years, leaving the only permanent member Scott Hull , also a guitarist in Pig Destroyer...
, and many others, whose material shocks the music world.
Sometimes the line between truth and urban myth is blurred by the sensationalist sections of the media. For example, Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
never ate steaming excrement live on-stage, and the famed incident involving Ozzy Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne is an English vocalist, whose musical career has spanned over 40 years. Osbourne rose to prominence as lead singer of the pioneering English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, whose radically different, intentionally dark, harder sound helped spawn the heavy metal...
biting a head off of a bat was actually unintentional (he thought the bat was a prop).
Similar themes are also sometimes conveyed in music videos, the aptly named Gross Out, a single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
from indie
Indie (music)
In music, independent music, often shortened to indie music or "indie" is a term used to describe independence from major commercial record labels or their subsidiaries, and an autonomous, Do-It-Yourself approach to recording and publishing....
/garage rock
Garage rock
Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name...
band, The Vines
The Vines
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Special:LandingCheck?landing_page=L11_1121_WMUK_Jimmy_DDOptimised&utm_medium=sitenotice&utm_campaign=C11_1121_WMUK_DDvOneOff&utm_source=B11_1121_WMUK_Jimmy&language=en&country=GB...
.