The Class of 1999: 'South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut'
Don't think this movie is great? Shut your f***ing face, uncle f***er.
1999 was a historically-great year for film and dramatic narrative as a whole. I’m using my 2024 to look back at, reconsider, and celebrate these stories as they all celebrate their 25th anniversaries. I recently re-reviewed Run Lola Run; next up on the docket is Eyes Wide Shut. But first… it’s time for…
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut - directed by Trey Parker - written by Trey Parker & Matt Stone and Pam Brady - June 30, 1999
Going into the summer of 1999, many pundits predicted that South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut would tank. The Trey Parker and Matt Stone-created television show from which the film sprung debuted on Comedy Central just two years prior, and detractors argued that audiences would never pay for something they already got for free; after all, The X-Files was a much bigger hit than South Park, and that program’s companion movie had barely eked out a profit the previous year (never mind that Beavis and Butt-Head Do America was a hit in ‘96). Furthermore, BLU was R-rated, which meant that the teenagers who were presumably the movie’s target audience wouldn’t even be able to see it.
Those pundits, however, were on the wrong side of history: the movie made $83 million worldwide - nearly four times its budget - and retained the record for highest-grossing R-rated comedy of all time for a whopping 17 years.
What’s more, the song “Blame Canada,” written by Parker and composer Marc Shaiman, was nominated for an Oscar. They got Robin Williams to sing it live on national television and everything.
South Park’s critics, both then and now, mistook the show’s sophomoric, vulgar tone for stupidity. This line of thinking asserts that because Parker and Stone are being silly, they can’t possibly be saying anything important.
But South Park has always been known for having its finger on the pulse. BLU is about moral panic and jingoistic propaganda. It was released less than ten weeks after the mass shooting at Columbine High School (in Parker and Stone’s hometown of Littleton, Colorado, no less), which incited a moral panic regarding video games, action movies like The Matrix, and the music of Marilyn Manson; and while its suggestion that the U.S. might ever revert to World War II-style propaganda films seemed outrageous at the time, just a few years later, Karl Rove asked Hollywood to do exactly that.
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut has a lot of stupid jokes in it. But it is not a stupid movie.
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut is more than a little meta. The inciting incident for this musical cinematic adaptation of a television show with simplistic animation is the release of a musical adaptation of a television show with “crappy” animation: Asses of Fire, starring mononymous Canadian comedians Terrance and Phillip. Answering the question “How will kids get in to see an R-rated South Park movie?”, the four kids at the center of the South Park series - Stan Marsh (Parker), Kyle Broflovski (co-writer/co-producer Matt Stone), Eric Cartman (also Parker), and Kenny McCormick (also Stone, save for the character’s one intelligible line in the whole movie, which is voiced by Office Space writer/director Mike Judge) - get into the R-rated Terrance and Phillip movie by bribing a homeless guy to pretend to be their guardian.
Asses of Fire seems to expose the boys to swearing for the first time, and it’s not long before they’re using all kinds of naughty words at school. Moral panic ensues, reaching DEFCON 5 after Kenny is killed trying to recreate a scene from Asses of Fire (the doctor to fails to save him is voiced by George Clooney, who had recently left ER, and would soon become the subject of Parker and Stone’s scorn despite being one of South Park’s earliest supporters).
Kyle’s mom, Sheila (Mary Kay Bergman), leads the charge by founding M.A.C. (Mothers Against Canada). She has a doctor (Eric Idle) implant a V-chip into Cartman, giving him an electric shock every time he swears…
…and even convinces President Bill Clinton to jail Terrance and Phillip as war criminals - which happens as they’re being interviewed by Conan O’Brien (voiced by Brent Spiner) alongside Brooke Shields (voiced by Minnie Driver).
In retaliation, Canada bombs the Baldwin brothers (all voiced by Kids in the Hall’s David Foley - himself a Canadian). America and Canada go to war, and Terrance and Phillip are condemned to be executed as part of a U.S.O. show. Stan, Kyle, and Cartman thus set about trying to stop the execution; they do this by starting a guerrilla group, La Résistance, with the help of a cigarette-smoking, misotheistic French kid, Ze Mole (Parker once more), who wears a watch ticking down to the movie’s last act (another fourth wall-breaking gag).
Meanwhile, now trapped in Hell, Kenny learns that if Terrance and Phillip are executed, it will bring about the Apocalypse, led by Satan (Parker again!) and his lover, Saddam Hussein (the role is credited to “Himself,” but is most likely Stone). Needless to say, Kenny takes it upon himself to try and prevent this from happening - mostly by befriending Satan, who is upset about how Saddam treats him.
Although the boys fail at preventing the execution of Terrance and Phillip, Kenny’s relationship with Satan ultimately saves the day: after Kenny encourages Satan to stand up for himself and dump Saddam, Satan thanks the dead little boy with a single wish. Kenny uses the wish to undo the Apocalypse, thus gaining himself a spot in Heaven and allowing the people of America and Canada to go back to being allies. And they all live happily ever after.
Despite its success in 1999, I’m not sure that BLU gets due credit for how influential it’s been. In a reality where BLU is never made, do The Simpsons and Bob’s Burgers ever get theatrical films? Does Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights ever get produced? What about 2016’s Sausage Party, the movie that finally broke BLU’s box office record?
For that matter, where would the modern movie musical be without BLU? Keep in mind that in 1999, musicals had become purely the domain of animated children’s films (most made by Disney); after more than a decade of live-action musicals consistently flopping at the box office (see: One from the Heart, Pennies from Heaven, Little Shop of Horrors, Everyone Says I Love You, Evita, etc.), the conventional wisdom became that musicals aimed at adults were bad for business.
But BLU is a legitimately good musical (Stephen Sondheim reportedly loved it). It’s the kind of parody that could only be made by people who are earnestly knowledgeable and passionate about the thing they’re lampooning (targets include Les Misérables, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Oliver!, The Music Man, and It’s a Small World). And after it became a huge hit (the soundtrack peaked at 28 on the Billboard 200), some executive somewhere felt ballsy enough to greenlight Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge!; a year later, Chicago did big business, and suddenly live-action musicals were a viable endeavor again. More live-action musicals have been released in the past four months (Wonka, The Color Purple, and Mean Girls) than were released between the years of 1996 and 1999 (and two more, Joker: Folie à Deux and Wicked: Part One, will be released this fall). Even though BLU is animated, I’d argue it began a domino effect by proving to the suits in Hollywood that they could successfully market musicals to people over the age of nine.
Even if BLU hadn’t been so well-received, it would still be a miracle of a movie. It’s the kind of film with a ton of jokes that make you think, “Well, you couldn’t do that today”… except you couldn’t do that then, either! The fact that Paramount, a major studio with a long and storied history, released a movie with a giant sentient clitoris, a gag about using a coat hanger to perform an abortion, and a scene where Saddam Hussein waves a prosthetic penis at Satan before making a joke about Liza Minnelli’s ass seemed just as bonkers 25 years ago as it does now.
But BLU is more than simple edgelordism; it’s a legitimately funny movie. Parker and Stone have wrung more humor from the tension between wholesomeness and profanity than any other creators in the past thirty years. From their first film, Cannibal! The Musical to their political marionette action-movie spoof Team America: World Police to their juggernaut Broadway hit The Book of Mormon, half of their whole deal has always been to tell what would ostensibly be family-friendly stories if not for their XXX details: what if Martha Stewart taught her viewers how to shove a turkey up one’s ass, or The Lion King had a song flipping the bird to God, or the hero’s inspiring end-of-movie speech used dicks, pussies, and assholes as its central metaphor?
The other half of their deal - and what elevates their humor above provocation for its own sake - is that it’s all astutely observed satire. As I said before: these fellas have their finger on the pulse (they are also completely fearless with regards to the possibility of being canceled). BLU’s cup runneth over with dark humor addressing issues that are still relevant today: systemic racism, rigid morality, fanatical nationalism, corporal punishment, the contrast between America’s puritanical views towards mass media depictions of sex versus America’s leniency towards mass media depictions of horrific violence, and the insufferable nature of tech magnates.
But here’s what may actually be the most remarkable thing about BLU: structurally speaking, it has a legitimately excellent screenplay.
Think about how many movies struggle to properly balance a large cadre of characters with the practical necessities of plotting. Just recently, films as varied as Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, The Iron Claw, and Rebel Moon failed to give most members of their ensemble casts anything meaningful to do. Compare that with BLU, which manages to give every major character their own storyline and arc, each of which is well-developed enough to land with the audience:
Stan wants to win over Wendy (Bergman yet again!), the girl on whom he has a crush.
Kyle wants to save his adopted Canadian brother, Ike, and reconnect with Sheila, who has become so overwhelmed by fear for her son that she has stopped doing any actual mothering.
Cartman wants his V-chip to be removed; eventually, the chip malfunctions, as swearing becomes his superpower, as it weaponizes the chip, thereby allowing him to combat Saddam.
Kenny learns to be selfless and thus SAVES THE GODDAMN WORLD.
Ze Mole becomes a martyr of La Résistance.
Satan learns to stand up for himself against Saddam.
Sheila comes to realize that she’s using Terrance and Phillip as scapegoats because she’s in denial about her failings as a parent.
Even more minor characters, who Parker and Stone presumably used at least partially out of obligation, get something to do: Chef (Isaac Hayes), Mr. Garrison (Parker once more!), and Uncle Jimbo (Stone once more!) and his friend Ned (Parker!) all join the army, Wendy has her own little subplot going on with this annoying British kid, and Mr. Mackey and Big Gay Al each get a number of their own. Frozen Empire can’t find any place to shove in a kid you don’t even remember was in the last movie, but BLU smoothly integrates all of its characters in ways that feel organic and unforced.
There’s a level of mechanical complexity here that is undeniably impressive. The movie is juggling a whole lotta balls, and making it look easy, no less. Parker and Stone may revel in fart jokes and cuss words, but they’re still consummate craftsmen - and South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut may very well be their masterpiece.