10 great gross-out comedies

Created by Igor_Brynner.

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First, a word of advice about gross-out comedies. They’re not to be watched while eating even the most basic of snacks. Popcorn? No. Cappuccino? Out of the question.

They’re not to be watched – by any means – with your parents. With their gags involving urine, vomit, semen and all manner of bodily fluids, these in-your-face foul movies are the kind that you watch, then have to immediately shower after.

This is the sub-genre’s charm, of course: that you weirdly enjoy the ‘eww!’ and the ’too far!!’ and the ‘please God no, don’t eat that!!!’

The roots of the subgenre – one marked not only by insanely gross scenes but by comedies that deal with taboo subjects such as sex and bodily functions – date back to the late 60s, after the MPAA film rating system replaced the industry’s strict Hays Code (which laid out moral guidelines of what was and wasn’t acceptable to show on screen).

Back then, some directors were beginning to dabble with subversive comedies that raised a middle finger to the status quo. Nothing was too OTT, nothing too far. The most notable among them? John Waters, aka the Pope of Trash, whose unashamedly lowbrow and tawdry comedies (including Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble) happily dwelled on humans being gross.

Towards the late 70s, the same shock humour employed by arthouse provocateurs bled into mainstream comedy, with popular movies like The Kentucky Fried Movie and National Lampoon’s Animal House leading to the term ‘gross-out’ being used by critics.

The glory years of the gross-out comedy came in the late 90s, though, with the Farrelly brothers (There’s Something about Mary) and the countless teen movies featuring scenes of sexual embarrassment – remember American Pie’s Jim caught masturbating into a tube sock?

What tethers these movies to their older cousins is, put simply, your reaction, your facial contortions. You worm in your seat, wishing you could unsee the thing you just saw. You want to wash your eyes out with a bar of soap. Ah, to be grossed out!