gross-out

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Gross out describes a movement in art (often comic), which aims to shock the audience with controversial material such as toilet humour or nudity.

Television

Jackass and its UK cousin, Dirty Sanchez, were the pioneers of "grosse out television". Featuring dangerous stunts, nudity, profanity, and furious action never seen before on the small screen, both series started on MTV, and progressed to iconic feature-length movies. Beavis and Butthead and South Park transferred the grosse-out television genre to the media of small screen animation.

Theatre

Grosse-out theatre is increasingly practised on stage, in particular at the Edinburgh Festival, but also in the larger, more adventurous, British theatres.

The prime examples of the above are the stage version of the contemporary drama Trainspotting by bestselling playwright and author Irvine Welsh; the controversial New York musical Urinetown by Kotis and Hollmann; the outrageous anarchistic schlockomedy (shock horror comedy) musical about a Manchester jobcentre Restart by Komedy Kollective; and performances by another United Kingdom-based act, Forced Entertainment, who devised the iconic theatrical gorefest Bloody Mess [1]. Their recent show, The World In Pictures, featured cavemen and women, dodgy haircuts, semi-nudity, and plenty of improvisation, accompanied by an offbeat soundtrack [2].

Art

Controversial American cartoonist and vaudeville performer Basil Wolverton invented his trademark "spaghetti and meatballs" style of artwork.

Various mainly-British artists helped create a flourishing gross-out art scene, which began mainly in the 1990s, the most famous of which were Damien Hirst, known for encasing mutilated rotting cattle in formaldehyde, and making art of endangered marine species such as sharks in formaldehyde tanks, and Tracy Emin, whose exhibit of an unmade bed featured used tampons, condoms and blood-stained underwear. Once he had established his popstar status in the artsworld, Hirst also made a short comedy movie featuring Eddie Izzard.

Music

Grosse out themes are common in popular music genres, especially rap and heavy rock, where shock value helps create marketable notoriety. Bands include Blink182 famous for including breast and fart jokes in their songs, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, and many others, whose material shocks the music world.

Sometimes the line between truth and urban myth is blurred by the sensationalist sections of the media. For example, Frank Zappa never ate steaming excrement live on-stage, and the famed incident involving Ozzy Osbourne biting a head off of a bat was actually unintentional (he thought the bat was a prop).

Similar themes are also sometimes conveyed in music videos, the aptly-named Gross Out, a single from popular indie/garage rock band, The Vines' whose second single from their third album Vision Valley, had a video shot in 16mm, filmed by director Josh Logue.

See also

• Grosse-out film
• Screwball comedy film