When the pop culture phenomenon that is South Park exploded on the American scene a few years back the show succeeded by not simply pushing the envelope of bad taste, but in tearing the envelope wide open and running it through a paper shredder. A cult developed around the series quickly because its sheer outrageousness compelled people to rush out and tell all their friends about what they'd just seen. But just as fast as South Park took off, it started to fade. Movies like There's Something About Mary came out and the rest of the world caught-up, or shall we say lowered itself to South Park's level.

With the show's ratings in a nose dive, a big screen version seemed an idea that's time had passed. That's why it's a surprise South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut works so well. Since the show these days is barely funny for 28 minutes, I was skeptical the movie could keep the laughs coming for three-times that length. But creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone (who also do most of the voices) found a way to make it funny and fresh: they made it a musical. It's wall-to-wall songs -- dirty, silly songs that you'll no doubt soon hear people singing at parties.

Like it or not, there's something about the F-word that's just plain funny. Hearing the f-word in a song is even funnier. And you hear it sung enough times in the first ten minutes alone to make Tipper Gore's head spin around and vomit pea soup. Freed from the restraints of TV standards, Parker and Stone cut loose. They get to be as sick and lewd and crude as they want to be. The movie is so ludicrously low-brow, it's surreal. Stop me if I sound like a movie ad, but this is pound-for-pound, the sickest, grossest, funniest movie you'll see this year. You'll be laughing so hard at times as the oxygen struggles to make it into your convulsing body that you may find yourself in genuine pain. Unless you're a prude.

The laughs are big and Parker and Stone also do a good job of making the movie feel "big enough" for the big screen. The story, as "South Park" storylines go, is epic. It features - among other things -- a mission by the boys to save their TV idols, Terrance and Philip from certain death, a war between the U.S. and Canada and a trip to Hell for Kenny (surprise -- he gets killed!); not to mention Saddam Hussein and Satan as a pair of bickering gay lovers. I won't even get into the talking clitoris.

The producers also mix-in some high-tech computer animation which works in nice contrast to the low-tech paper cut-out style of animation used for the most of the characters and scenery. But film's strongest element may be its running statement about the hypocrisy of censorship. Parker and Stone go after parents and political groups who use their program as a scapegoat for all of society's ills -- they get in some good jabs at the MPAA.

But ultimately, they've made what may be one of the greatest Midnight Movies ever. Like The Rocky Horror Picture Show or the Monty Python films. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut seems destined to become a cult classic, with fans learning all the words to the songs and singing along. It's the perfect kind of film to be enjoyed late at night somewhere on a college campus. And I'm willing to wager that's how this film will live-on in years to come.

(c) Copyright 1999