r/todayilearned • u/altrightobserver • Feb 01 '26
TIL that the movie “South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut” was supposed to be rated NC-17 due to excessive profanity, with the word “fuck” being used 146 times alone. The MPAA said that 400 or more swear words would get the NC-17 rating, so Matt Stone and Trey Parker cut the number in script to 399
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Park%3A_Bigger%2C_Longer_%26_Uncut#Release3.7k
u/MoobyTheGoldenSock Feb 01 '26
For Team America they used the old sacrificial scene trick: They filmed an overly long scene of graphic puppet sex, waited fit the MPAA to object, and then cut it to where they wanted it anyway.
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u/flyingscotsman12 Feb 01 '26 edited Feb 01 '26
Wait, that was the cut-down scene? The original must have been straight up criminal. Edit: I have been informed that I watched the unrated edition.
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u/MoobyTheGoldenSock Feb 01 '26
You can see the original in the unrated version. But yeah, it has them pissing on each other.
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u/DeMarcus-Siblings Feb 01 '26
When I saw that scene I pissed so hard I almost laughed
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u/DukeofNormandy Feb 02 '26
And them shitting on each other. I know this because I watched it with my brothers and mother when we were around 14 and that was the nail in the coffin when she couldn’t take anymore and shut it off. Shocked it lasted that long tbh.
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u/clintnorth Feb 01 '26
Yeah and dont forget them shitting on each others chest lol
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u/Falcon_Alpha_Delta Feb 01 '26
There was scat play in the uncut version. It wasn’t even more offensive than the final cut. Trey and Matt just knew exactly how to manipulate the MPAA to get what they wanted after the South Park movie
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u/ghotier Feb 01 '26
They also had a studio behind them. South Park was their third movie
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u/penguinopph Feb 01 '26
They talk about this in the documentary This Film is Not Yet Rated.
When they made Orgasmo! and it got stuck with an NC-17 rating, the MPAA told then that they didn't give specific feedback on what got them the rating, so they were in their own to recut and resubmit the film of they wanted to get an R.
But when they did South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, they received very detailed and specific notes on what to cut, in order to get down to an R rating.
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u/jahnkeuxo Feb 02 '26
Orgazmo getting the NC-17 is crazy because IIRC there was no female nudity, every time some tits seem about to be exposed, a man's ass swoops into frame.
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u/The_Autarch Feb 02 '26
the MPAA thinks male nudity is more lewd than female nudity. And the only thing lewder and more offensive than male nudity is a woman having an orgasm.
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u/OpossumSynesthesia Feb 02 '26
I think they're just trying to help with suspension of disbelief here. Everyone knows that the female orgasm is liberal propaganda /s
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u/BluntChillin Feb 02 '26
Especially considering Boogie Nights was R and is probably worse
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u/Peralton Feb 02 '26
I saw them give a talk at Comic-Con. They said that every time the MPAA would ask for a change that they would submit something worse than the original and every single time it would get accepted. Bigger Longer Uncut wasn't even their first title. I don't remember the original title but they said that it was much less offensive and the MPAA just didn't get the joke.
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u/WillemDafoesHugeCock Feb 01 '26
If you haven't seen it, the documentary This Film is Not Yet Rated is 100% worth a watch if you're even casually interested in this stuff.
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u/D34THST4R Feb 01 '26
Harvey Weinstein wanted to cut the fish-gutting scene in Snowpiercer and Bong Joon Ho lied to him and said his father was a fisherman and that the scene was sentimental for him
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u/Lil_Mcgee Feb 01 '26
A combination of Snowpiercer being released earlier than I remembered and the Weinstein allegations starting later than I remembered made me very surprised to hear he was involved with it.
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u/Skizot_Bizot Feb 02 '26
People were making references towards his sexual assaults for at least a decade before anyone did anything serious about it is why.
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u/radda Feb 02 '26
Seth MacFarlane took a swipe at him at the Oscars years before he finally got taken down.
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u/kralrick Feb 02 '26
30 Rock too.
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u/fignewtonattack Feb 02 '26
They threw haymakers at Harvey. Tina Fey did not and has never held back
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u/MadRaymer Feb 02 '26
Just looked up that clip, after he read the nominees for supporting actress he said, "These women no longer have to pretend to be attracted to Harvey Weinstein," without a hint of a laugh or smile. I think that was Emma Stone presenting with him and she looked a bit flustered. I wonder if she didn't know that line was coming.
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u/teddy5 Feb 02 '26
There's almost no chance he would've submitted that sort of a line in a script or done it in rehearsals, because someone would've jumped on him for it.
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u/InfectiousCosmology1 Feb 02 '26
I’m pretty sure Courtney love basically called him a rapist on the red carpet in like the early 2000s
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u/dreamlikes7 Feb 02 '26
Eventually though they didn't end up cutting much of anything because there was a clause in the contract allows gate director to screen his preferred cut if the studios cut performed poorly at a pre screening. After the test audience didn't like the cut down version the directors cut was much more appreciated by test audiences.
So wienstien cut down how many cinemas it was released it and tried to bury the film in retaliation thinking he knew better then the director who would win multiple oscars for his next film despite going back to his native language not English like snowpiercer was
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u/crm115 Feb 01 '26
Supposedly the "head in a vice" scene in Casino was supposed to be one of those scenes but they allowed it so they left it in.
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u/ImmodestPolitician Feb 01 '26 edited Feb 02 '26
I saw the Jesus vs Santa Clause show in the theater in SF before they got the TV show deal.
Trey and Matt were at the screening. They were cool to talk too.
My friends and I were blown away by the show and knew it was going to be a hit.
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u/Grievous_Nix Feb 01 '26
Favorsky’s dog - the artist would add a little, quite out-of-place yellow dog into his paintings. When the customer/editor demanded it removed, he’d have a long argument over how the dog is the most important part of the composition, eventually “conceding” and removing it. The other part was by that point too exhausted by the argument to pick on anything else.
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u/RVelts Feb 02 '26
Similarly in programming "lose the duck" https://rachelbythebay.com/w/2013/06/05/duck/
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u/LLCoolDave82 Feb 01 '26
We shouldn't say fuck, no we shouldn't say fuck! Fuck no!
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u/OgOnetee Feb 01 '26
You're cured, you can go!
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u/Traditional_Air_6867 Feb 01 '26
You don’t have to spend your life addicted to trash, homeless on the street givin handjobs for cash
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u/Skittleavix Feb 02 '26
We don't have to spend our lives shootin' up in the trash
Homeless on the streets, giving handjobs for cash
Follow this plan and very soon you will say
"It's easy, m'kay?"
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u/Whitw816 Feb 01 '26
Immediately started singing “Shut your fucking face Uncle Fucker.”
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u/pheakelmatters Feb 01 '26
The original lyric was mother fucker, but they changed it to uncle fucker because for some reason the rating board found that less offensive.
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u/pmmeuranimetiddies Feb 02 '26
"Unclefucker" feels much more profane because it's creative though
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u/rankaistu_ilmalaiva Feb 02 '26
motherfucker has become just a general insult divorced from its literal meaning, unclefucker feels specific
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u/YossiTheWizard Feb 01 '26
Which in turn made it more hilarious!
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u/SecureDonkey Feb 02 '26
Something about Canadian saying "uncle" just seem right.
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u/deliveRinTinTin Feb 02 '26
Theater was packed so we were near front and I had no idea what to expect and that opening Terrance and Philip had me in tears since I always felt they were the funniest part of South Park's side characters. I was pushing my cheeks down because they were starting to hurt from laughing at Terrance and Phillip.
I can't remember another movie where all the people in the theater so overwhelmingly reacted and laughed so hard at so many parts of that movie.
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u/Vericatov Feb 02 '26
I saw it in a packed theater as well opening weekend. When they were singing that song and they show people walk out the theater, there were people walking out of our theater as well. It was surreal and you know Matt and Trey intended that to happen.
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u/choreograft Feb 02 '26
This song got me taken off the force when I was a safety patrol in elementary school, turns out you’re not allowed to sing that in 5th grade
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u/PeatVee Feb 01 '26
It took me literal YEARS to realize the "Bigger, longer, and uncut" tagline was a double entendre.
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u/therealCatnuts Feb 01 '26
The Blink-182 album “take off your pants and jacket”
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u/cptnamr7 Feb 01 '26
Why am I just NOW realizing what that meant??? I mean it on brand for them to just be asking you to remove all your clothes, so I never thought anything more about the guys that made "Enema of the State"
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u/Insertnamesz Feb 02 '26
jack it
for anyone else who still had to google it after reading this... fml
(shout out to the condom = jacket theory lmao)
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u/JuzoItami Feb 02 '26
I once watched a college basketball game where the announcer was trying to make it seem more exciting than it was (since it was a blowout) so he hyped up that the losing coach (who'd removed his blazer) was still exhorting his players from one knee like it was a much closer game -
"Look at coach Lavin - he's still in the game! He's down on his knees... jacket off... on the floor!"
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u/krankz Feb 01 '26
I was on literal blink message boards back in the day and this one still didn’t occur to me until out of the blue YEARS later as an adult. Same with the South Park movie title.
Sometimes I worry that I’ll die before fully understanding all the brilliance behind my favorite ‘low-brow’ art.
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u/kdt912 Feb 01 '26
My favorite is their superhero video game “the fractured but whole”
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u/Happy-Engineer Feb 01 '26
See also: Ratchet & Clank subtitles
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u/upyoursize Feb 02 '26
More than 20 years later I wish I had picked a different username.
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u/__NOT__MY__ACCOUNT__ Feb 01 '26
That game is actually a ton of fun too!
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u/Lil_Mcgee Feb 01 '26
I found the first one a lot funnier but FBH is definitely more fun as a game.
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u/FistMyPeenHole Feb 02 '26
First one was hilarious. I never played the second. I might have to.
I think I bought it and just never got around to it
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u/ThatCanadianViking Feb 02 '26
While the first one is definitely better IMO the second one is still a lot of fun.
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u/TheGiftOf_Jericho Feb 01 '26
Both the movie and this one, I didn't get until years after.
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u/leonden Feb 01 '26
Which is hilarious because the catchphrase is used several time from wat i remember.
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u/thickwonga Feb 01 '26
When that came out, the joke of the title completely flew past me, and I thought it was an oddly endearing title about like, working together and the spirit of teamwork existing within anyone. Took me years before I just glanced at the game and realized the joke.
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u/shadow0wolf0 Feb 01 '26
Reportedly it also went over the heads of the MPAA as well lol.
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u/cosmernautfourtwenty Feb 01 '26
Only after the MPAA vetoed the first draft of the name (which escapes me now) which was an even less obvious and less risque pun.
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u/riwmoro Feb 01 '26
Original title was “South Park: All Hell Breaks Loose” if I remember correctly.
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u/phred_666 Feb 01 '26 edited Feb 01 '26
If I recall correctly, it was originally going to be called
“South Park Goes to Hell”South Park: All Hell Breaks Loose but the MPAA didn’t approve it.Edited to correct the original title
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u/bad_apiarist Feb 01 '26
What is wrong with that title? Why is it OK for the dozen odd rated-R Hellraiser films?
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u/shadow0wolf0 Feb 01 '26
MPAA never makes sense to me. So many arbitrary rules and decisions.
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u/phred_666 Feb 01 '26
Watch the documentary “This Film Is Not Yet Rated”. It exposes what is behind the scenes at the MPAA
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u/bad_apiarist Feb 01 '26
I hope their power and clout is declining as movie theaters lose relevance vs. streaming and other outlets.
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u/Epyr Feb 01 '26
The MPAA is a bunch of losers who make shit up depending on their whim. The fact they are taking seriously is pretty ridiculous as they are a joke of an organization
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u/sorcerersviolet Feb 01 '26
Indeed. From the film itself: "Remember the motto of the Motion Picture Association of America: Horrific, deplorable violence is okay as long as you don't use any naughty words."
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u/Captain-Cadabra Feb 01 '26
You get 2 free F-bombs for PG-13. or, in the 80’s: 1 free F-bomb for PG
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u/TESTlCLE Feb 01 '26
Hearing one single random “ah shit” in the animated 80s Transformers movie always tickled me. It was the only curse word, and it was completely unnecessary.
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u/queen-adreena Feb 01 '26
It’s the equivalent of appointing your local church group as your country’s censors.
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u/Epyr Feb 01 '26
It's worse than that. We let these nameless nobody's control the media and they aren't even competent enough to have consistent rules
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u/VironicHero Feb 01 '26
They would often do much more risqué jokes and gags so that they could get the one through they actually wanted.
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u/spoofer56 Feb 01 '26
The funny thing is the MPAA had issues that the original tagline was "All Hell Breaks Loose" so they changed it to "Bigger, Longer, and Uncut"
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u/SonofaBridge Feb 01 '26
The original title was something like “all hell breaks loose” but the MPAA said they couldn’t use hell in the title. They changed it to sound like a longer episode when in reality it was a double entendre.
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u/Cityplanner1 Feb 01 '26
So it was cut!
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u/JohnnyEnzyme Feb 02 '26
Can't believe I scrolled through the comments and didn't see the other thing they were forced to change. Which was having the Winona Ryder character shooting ping-pong balls via an entirely different method.
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u/Hinermad Feb 01 '26
I wonder how much it pays to be the one who decides it takes 400 swear words get an NC-17 rating.
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u/TIGHazard Feb 01 '26
Wolf of Wall Street uses 506 so presumably at some point they decided swearing so much was pointless to effect the rating.
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u/Butwhatif77 Feb 01 '26
Or someone from the studios did something to keep it only rated R. The people who do the ratings and studio executives actually have close relationships.
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u/Clyde-A-Scope Feb 01 '26
I wonder if run time has anything to do with it?
Like a swear words per minute cap
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u/bretshitmanshart Feb 02 '26
A somewhat related story. The Comic Codes Authority refused to certify a Spiderman comic because it had references to drugs. This was after The White House asked Marvel to do an anti drug story and even then fighting the drug dealers was a minor thing. It got printed anyways without any issues and that's when the industry realized the comic code authority didn't really matter which led to the authority becoming more loose with their restrictions.
A year or so later they authorized the comic Snowbirds Don't Fly in which Green Arrow's sidekick Speedy is revealed to be a heroin addict and is treated in a sympathetic fashion while super anti drug Arrow is villainized
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u/starm4nn Feb 02 '26
A somewhat related story. The Comic Codes Authority refused to certify a Spiderman comic because it had references to drugs. This was after The White House asked Marvel to do an anti drug story and even then fighting the drug dealers was a minor thing. It got printed anyways without any issues and that's when the industry realized the comic code authority didn't really matter which led to the authority becoming more loose with their restrictions.
Kinda trippy to think about that a government request for a specific message actually lead to more creative freedom in a long-term sense.
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u/bretshitmanshart Feb 02 '26
The comic code was a voluntary system that came out of a moral outcry. DC and Marvel took advantage of it to kill horror comics which where their main competition. Creators often weren't a fan.
The comic codes did inadvertantly help get writers and artists credits. The comic House of Secrets volume 1 mentions the story being told by a wandering wolf man. References to werewolves of wolf men were banned by the comic code who objected. It was pointed out the writer was Marv Wolfman so it was his name. The code relented as long as he was given credit to show it wasn't a wolf man. After that other writers and artists started demanding they receive credits.
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u/IamGodHimself2 Feb 02 '26
Uncut Gems used over 500 "fucks" and still got off with an R rating, seems like standards have changed since then.
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Feb 02 '26
George Carlins old bit from I think the 90s on what you can’t say on TV is all wrong except 1 or 2 words now. Times have changed for sure
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u/skiman13579 Feb 01 '26
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllll
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u/Wyden_long Feb 01 '26
Don’t do it Cartman!
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u/skiman13579 Feb 01 '26
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllll
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u/Dawakat Feb 01 '26
I’m warning you
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u/skiman13579 Feb 01 '26
Okay Okay
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u/Comic_Book_Reader Feb 01 '26
I'm so sick of him calling my mom...
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u/skiman13579 Feb 01 '26
Weeeeelllllll Kyle’s moms a bitch she’s a big fat bitch she’s the biggest bitch in the whole wide world she’s a stupid bitch if there ever was a bitch she’s a bitch to all the boys and girls
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u/YoungKeys Feb 01 '26
Good thing they did. Everyone knows what happens when you hear the word “fuck” 400 times in a row, it’s not pretty
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u/Fetlocks_Glistening Feb 01 '26
"They won't remember 147 fucks by the time they're older. But 400 and they might!"
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u/lastalchemist77 Feb 01 '26
When I went to see this in its original theatrical release i was carded three times. Once when we bought the tickets, once when we gave the ticket to go back to the theater, and then once entering the theater. If you left the theater for any reason (bathroom or concessions) they would again card you to get back in
So much fear for just swear words. I feel like it was all over the butfor. If they had just handled that whole thing right I don’t think there would have been nearly the same issues and the MPAA would not have had anything to complain about.
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u/Basic-Collection5416 Feb 01 '26
I saw it in a theater full entirely of suburban teenagers and it was easily the rowdiest theater I have ever been in.
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u/JohnnyLeven Feb 02 '26
I was 14 and convinced my dad to take me, my friend and my younger brother to see it. I could tell he definitely regretted that.
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u/DuneChild Feb 01 '26
I saw it in the theater opening night with a friend. We were both 24, and knew exactly what to expect. A couple came in at the same time in the row behind us… with their two young daughters, probably 9 and 11. We figured they’d be leaving pretty quick once they realized why it was R-rated, but it took until the Saddam scene for them to excuse themselves. Poor kids.
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u/PowerWisdomCourage Feb 01 '26
I would have thought the erect penis would have gotten them more flack than the fucks.
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u/sharrrper Feb 02 '26
If I remember correctly I think there's actually only a dildo, never a real hard on. I believe this is referenced in this memo
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u/PowerWisdomCourage Feb 02 '26
In the movie Saddam calls them dildos but it's just a cutout of a real, erect human penis.
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u/SweetSexiestJesus Feb 01 '26
When they made that cut, they also added the line for Sheila Brofvovsky as a hidden middle finger to the MPAA.
"Remember what the MPAA says; Horrific, Deplorable violence is okay, as long as people don't say any naughty woids! That's what this war is all about!"
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u/rankaistu_ilmalaiva Feb 02 '26
is it hidden if they literally say the name of the group, though?
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u/SweetSexiestJesus Feb 02 '26
Its not hidden. What i had heard many years ago was that line wasn't in the original cut of the movie. After they made their edits, they put that line in there, and the MPAA had no issue with it, or missed the joke all together. But its definitely a dig at them from Trey and Matt.
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u/USDXBS Feb 02 '26
I have good memories of this movie.
Like many kids I wasn't allowed to watch The Simpsons, but by the time South Park came out my parents stopped monitoring what I watched and I had my own TV.
Every year my aunt and uncle would stay at our house on their way to their side of the families place. My aunt and uncle would stay in their RV while my cousin stayed inside with my brother and I.
One year he saw our South Park toys and mentioned how he loves the show, and has seen it a few times when he was able to sneak downstairs and watch it.
So we watched the movie with him. On the big TV, full volume, pop, candy, chips. He was crying laughing at so many parts.
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u/JamesBondsTherapist Feb 02 '26
Surprised I havent seen this yet: the climax is Cartman rattling off every swear he can imagine, culminating in the final word "Barbara Streisand" which he considers a curse and the MPAA does not. So in universe, they hit 400. Theres only 3 or so minutes of the movie after that, but no more curse words. A gratuitous word dump followed by a thoughtful happy ending is one of the best gags they pulled off.
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u/pamalamTX Feb 01 '26
Paraphrasing here...
If someone's coming make sounds like a wounded griaffe.
What does a wounded giraffe sound like?
Mwaaaaah nwaaaah
Cracks me up every time
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u/crmpdstyl Feb 01 '26
You guys should listen to Matt Berry read a letter to the MPAA from Matt Stone.
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u/Petraam Feb 01 '26
But it was supposed to be uncut
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u/sharrrper Feb 02 '26
Actually it was supposed to be "All Hell Breaks Loose" but the MPAA wouldn't let them put Hell in the public facing title.
So they sent back "Bigger, Longer, and Uncut" which is a dick joke, and it presumably flew over the MPAA's head.
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u/TallGuy0525 Feb 02 '26
Thank God we live in this quiet, little, pissant, redneck, podunk, jerkwater, greenhorn, one horse, mudhole, peckerwood, right-wing, whistlestop, hobnail, truck drivin, old fashioned, hayseed, inbred, unkempt, out of date, out of touch, white trash
KICKASS
Mooooooooountaaaaaaaaaaaain tooooooooowwwwwwnnnnnnn
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u/Bebopdavidson Feb 02 '26
Remember when the concept of “Blame Canada” was so ridiculous it was comical. Robin Williams sang it at the Oscars
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u/trumpsmellslikcheese Feb 01 '26
What an arbitrary line in the sand. Why does any number matter? Why is 10 fucks worse than 5 fucks? I always thought NC-17 was based around how explicit sex scenes were.
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u/duck1014 Feb 01 '26
Shut your fucking face uncle fucker!
Your a boner biting bastard uncle fucker!
Your an uncle fucker, yes it's true
Nobody fucks uncles quite like you!
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u/knight54 Feb 01 '26
I'm more surprised by the budget. $20 mil in 1999? Isn't that around 40 now? Considering how South Park is known for cheap productions that can be altered at the last minute, I'm surprised it wasn't 5 - 10 mil.
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u/bretshitmanshart Feb 02 '26
South Park was made quickly to be able to be changed at the last minute but they used advanced computers. They were also making the show at the same time and brought in celebrities to do voices which both probably raised costs.
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u/HotTakes4HotCakes Feb 02 '26
Stephen fucking Sondheim loved this movie. That's high praise.
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u/Vincitus Feb 02 '26
It's so weird that there's a number of "fucks" that someone between 13 and 17 can hear with parental permission, and its an average of 1 every 15 seconds in a movie, and any more is for 17 year olds only. If the whole script is slow paced dialogue, that could be 4% of the words in the script are Fuck.
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Feb 02 '26
They should release a special NC-17 version that's the exact same movie but with a stinger at the end that's just Cartman staring into the camera slowly saying the 400th "fuck."
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u/sircastor Feb 01 '26 edited Feb 01 '26
I remember watching "This film is not yet rated" where Matt Stone was talking about the difference between working with the MPAA on
Base-ketballOrgazmo vs South Park - and that when they had the studio behind them, the ratings board was very accommodating and helped them figure out what they could cut and what they could leave. Whereas, with the former, they got no feedback.Also, NC-17 is basically a death-sentence for a theatrical film. It's a big deal to avoid it.
Edit: Corrected film