Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP9l4LP0WPI
“It’s coming out like lava!” A shriek that will go down in cinematic history.
I have never found poop humor funny. I usually disregard it as immature and far too over the top. For example, when I saw Mr. Hankey The Christmas Poop in South Park, I thought it was tiresome and out of place. For some strange reason, the food poisoning scene in Bridesmaids, one of my favorite movies, makes me laugh every time. Although I find the vomit disgusting and the women’s pale faces sickening and very unfortunate, as the characters scramble to find a toilet or honestly anything with a drain, their commentary and situation make it so ridiculous and humorous.
The incongruity of this situation is fairly obvious. These women in beautiful gowns are forced to do one of the most natural things in all the world, something animals do. The bridal shop, a place that stands for purity and cleanliness, is now stained with bodily fluids. The attendant is disgusted by the actions of her customers as she tries to stop them from doing the unstoppable. An event that was planned to be elegant filled with champagne and expensive gowns is turned upside down into a literal shit show. Even the bride cannot escape the food poisoning as Lillian (played by Maya Rudolph) sits in the street and defecates in her wedding gown.
The commentary also adds a great amount of humor to the scene. As Megan begins to do the unthinkable in the sink, she tells her fellow bridesmaid to “Look away!”. The desperation and seriousness in her voice as she sits on a sink in an expensive dress is strangely entertaining. Annie’s comment as we watch her friend suffer in the road is also quite funny: “Boy, you really doing it, aren’t ya? You’re just shittin’ in the street.” These types of comments make a situation that could be seen as disgusting humorous and very entertaining.
I appreciate how compared to the talking Christmas turd of South Park, Bridesmaids makes poop humor realistic. Even with these funny details and the incongruity of the situation, many of my friends find this scene simply disgusting. The fake vomit and simplicity of the humor do not amuse them. I suppose pooping in a sink is not everyone’s taste in comedy. I am curious to know why some find this scene hilarious and others just find it gross. Is there a line that can crossed in fecal humor and has it been crossed in this scene?
Great scene choice and discussion. I definitely agree with you that most poop humor falls flat for me, but this scene of Bridesmaids definitely finds that happy medium between the obscene and hilarious dialogue. Even still, I feel that most of the humor of the scene comes less from being about fecal humor and more so from the colorful character development of the bridesmaids, the incongruity of the Mexican mishap in the bridal gowns shop and the tone of distress in Mellisa McCarthy's cry for privacy. Either way, definitely still a funny scene.
ReplyDeleteI actually find this scene much grosser and more painful than the South Park episode. It's also much more uncomfortable, and I think a lot of that comes from just the pain of watching people have to fight through illness in the worst possible circumstances imaginable. Whereas Mr. Hankey is more just a straight up absurd idea--so perhaps in a strange way poop is the thing that creates the relief rather than the actual gross out factor being relieved.
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