Features Gross-out is a
subgenre of
comedy films 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
young adults, 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 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 the 1972
midnight movie classic
Pink Flamingos (in which the central character eats dog excrement) and other films by
John Waters, and the 1974
sketch comedy film
The Groove Tube. As these films emerged from the
counterculture movement and gained a measure of audience success, a comedy about the
fraternity experience at
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 ''
Porky's, Billy Madison, American Pie and Van Wilder), while others are targeted at adult audiences (such as Caddyshack, The Nutty Professor, There's Something About Mary and Movie 43''). == Theatre ==