Gross out is described as a movement in art (often with comical conotations), which is intended to shock the viewer(s) and disgust the wider audience by presenting them with controversial material (such as

toilet humor Toilet humour, or potty or scatological humour (compare scatology), is a type of off-colour humour dealing with defecation, diarrhea, constipation, urination and flatulence, and to a lesser extent vomiting and other bodily functions. It sees sub ...

and

fetishes A fetish (derived from the French , which comes from the Portuguese , and this in turn from Latin , 'artificial' and , 'to make') is an object believed to have supernatural powers, or in particular, a human-made object that has power over ot ...

) that might be ill received by a mainstream audience. The content of the movement is not for the average art appreciatist.

Cinema

Features

Gross-out is a

subgenre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

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 24. 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 United States, following the abolition of the film industry's censorious

Production Code The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the ...

and its replacement with the

MPAA film rating system The Motion Picture Association film rating system is used in the United States and its territories to rate a motion picture's suitability for certain audiences based on its content. The system and the ratings applied to individual motion pictures ...

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'' is a 1972 American film directed, written, produced, narrated, filmed, and edited by John Waters. It is part of what Waters has labelled the "Trash Trilogy", which also includes '' Female Trouble'' (1974) and '' Desperate Liv ...

'' (in which the central character eats dog excrement) and other films by

John Waters John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films, including '' Multiple Maniacs'' (1970), '' Pink Flamingos'' (1972) and '' Fe ...

, and 1974's sketch comedy film ''

The Groove Tube ''The Groove Tube'' is a 1974 American independent comedy film written and produced by Ken Shapiro and starring Shapiro, Richard Belzer and Chevy Chase. It features the song " Move On Up" by Curtis Mayfield in its opening scene. The low-budget ...

''. As these films emerged from the

counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...

movement and gained a measure of audience success, they inspired more mainstream films to follow their example. However, long before the Production Code, early silent comedy film makers produced and attempted several 'gross-out' pictures to the disdain of early film reviewers. One such example is the

lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography *Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland * Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

'' Nell's Eugenic Wedding'' starring

Fay Tincher Fay Tincher (April 17, 1884 – October 11, 1983) was an American comic actress in motion pictures of the silent film era. Early years Tincher was born in Topeka, Kansas, and was the daughter of George Tincher and Elizabeth Tincher. She had th ...

and Tod Browning. The label "gross-out movie" was first applied by the mainstream media to 1978 in film, 1978's ''National Lampoon (magazine), National Lampoon's Animal House'', a comedy about the Fraternities and sororities, fraternity experience at Higher education in the United States, US colleges. Its humor included explicit use of bodily functions (like projectile vomiting). It was a great box office success despite its limited production costs and thus started an industry trend. Since then, gross-out films increased in number, and became almost the norm for American comedy films. Some films of this genre could be aimed at teen audiences (such as ''Superbad (film), Superbad'', ''Porky's'', ''American Pie (series), American Pie'' or ''Eurotrip''), while others are targeted at somewhat more mature audiences (such as ''Borat'', ''The Hangover (film), The Hangover'' or ''Wedding Crashers'').

Theatre

Gross-out theatre is practiced on stage, particularly in the Edinburgh Festival. However, it is also displayed in United Kingdom, British theatres. The prime examples of the above are the stage version of the contemporary drama ''Trainspotting (novel)#Stage adaptation, 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;komedykollective.com
/ref> and performances by another United Kingdom-based act, Forced Entertainment, who devised the Cultural icon, iconic theatrical gorefest ''Bloody Mess''.

Art

American cartoonist Basil Wolverton invented his trademark "spaghetti and meatballs" style of artwork. Various 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 (ocean), marine species such as sharks in formaldehyde tanks, and Tracey Emin, whose Art exhibition, exhibit of an unmade bed featured used tampons, condoms and blood-stained underwear.

Music

Gross out themes are common in popular music genres, such as Hip hop music, hip hop and hard rock, where shock value helps create notoriety. Bands include Blink-182, Cannibal Corpse and Agoraphobic Nosebleed. GG Allin Allin was infamous for his transgressive music act, which included eating excrement, mutilating himself and attacking audience members. Similar themes are also sometimes conveyed in music videos, such as Gross Out, a Single (music), single from indie (music), indie/garage rock band, The Vines (band), The Vines.

References

External links

* {{Film genres Visual arts genres Comedy Film genres Theatrical genres Censorship