Profound Profanimation

Rating: 8/10 (23 April 2007)

"South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut" aims below the belt from its very title and never stops. I wince at posters here who talk about taking their children to see it as if it were some great First Amendment victory rather than a serious lapse of parental responsibility. But give the Devil his due: This is a very funny film that makes you think.
After watching the Canadian comics Terrance and Philip comedy film "@$$*$ Of Fire" with its hit song "Uncle %@*&er," impressionable fourth-grade South Park, Colorado student Eric Cartman tells his teacher "How would you like to suck my *@%%s?" Reaction is swift, as South Park parents blame Canada, and that %#@*^ Anne Murray, too. War is soon on between the United States and its neighbor to the north. Baldwins die needlessly, Cartman's mother appears in a German $^*&%*% video, and Satan and his abusive gay lover Saddam Hussein prepare to conquer what's left of the world.
What the %@*&!
"BLU" uses the universe of the hit Comedy Central television show to score points against censorship, jingoism, and parental myopia. It also is hilariously funny, in a way that uses the vulgarity on screen not as a substitute but augmentation for a broad range of humor that satirizes everything from race relations ("Have you ever heard of the Emancipation Proclamation?" "I don't listen to hip-hop!") to "Les Miserables."
"This is what happens when toilet humor is allowed to run rampant!" says Sheila Broflovski, a mother whose response goes way beyond just saying no.
Sheila is one of several characters voiced by the late Mary Kay Bergman, who also gives life to Cartman's anything-goes Mom and pre-teen love object Wendy Testeberger. Not just funny, there's a lot of heart in her work, which feeds off and embellishes the writing by creators and co-voice artists Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
Is "BLU" the apogee of "South Park"? There are actually funnier TV episodes, and bolder ones, too. But this film has heart to go with its nerve, and works at introducing a larger audience to Stone and Parker's caustic comedy without putting too many people off.
Making the film a musical is pure genius that way. It plays at the whole "kids-putting-on-a-show" thread that has run through children-focused comedies since "Our Gang", but the songs are catchy and well-composed. "Up There" would be a classic show-stopper in a legitimate musical, but it kills with Satan singing it after another spat with Saddam. Philip's Anthony Newleyesque vocal stylings crack me up every time.
How could those "South Park" guys create a story where Satan is the most sympathetic character? Well, it worked for John Milton. The movie puts me off with its smugness, though, and a final act that strains too hard for significance.
Pretending nothing in this movie is offensive is ridiculous. But pretending nothing in this movie is funny is hopeless. "BLU" merits consideration with "Blazing Saddles" and "There's Something About Mary" as one of the great shock comedies of all time.