1999, 1 hr 20 min., Rated (very) R for extreme language, vulgarity, offensive material and cartoon violence. Creators and voices: Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

In high school, me and my friends would crack up over the new comedies: Naked Gun, Major League and Hot Shots! being the notables. We would constantly repeat the lines in everyday conversation, and since most of the more humorous ones were free from expletives, we were clean from trouble at school and church.

However, in the fall of my senior year in 1992, "Beavis and Butthead" debuted on MTV, and the rebirth of gross-out comedy is born. In the years to follow, movies would catch on, culminating in such fare as There's Something About Mary. In the fall of 1997 comes a little show on Comedy Central called "South Park." Those first shows were pure gems, forever corrupting youths around the nation, and me as well, enjoying some "intelligent" comedy that happens to involve frequent use of the word "ass". I can't imagine if this show would've premiered when I was still in high school; I guarantee my youth counselors at church wouldn't approve.

That being said, I doubled-over laughing my tail off at South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. The first half hour should be kept for the ages as an example of how to shock an audience. The music is catchy, and some would say worthy of an Oscar nomination (I'm not sure about that, but it is enjoyable).

South Park, the movie, is not for kids. The language and sexual situations are beyond good taste, which is exactly what Matt Stone and Trey Parker want. If a teen already watches the television show, then they can handle the film. Kids under 15, though, may be hard to handle for a few months, at least until they see American Pie later this month.

PLOT: The foul-mouthed foursome (Cartman, Kenny, Stan and Kyle) sneak into an obscenity-laced Canadian flick called "Asses of Fire" starring Terrence and Phillip (if you watch the show, you know). There, the group learns new and better curse words, proceeding to encourage friends to see the movie as well, which leads parents to go overboard, declaring war on Canada and order Terrence and Phillip to be executed, which could unleash Satan on the planet for eternity.

After the foursome sees the movie is when I couldn't stop laughing, as the kids used expletives with impunity, several of them very creative, others the same crude words we know and love/hate. The audience's laughter is no doubt from the shock value, because all we have heard from the TV show are the basics like "ass" and "bitch", and in the motion picture environment Stone and Parker are free to explore the world of foul language to its fullest.

It was a stroke of genius to have Cartman implanted with a V-Chip that shocks him when uttering a curse word. To have the most beloved and foul-mouthed character given this restriction only adds to the humor. Not to mention that we see Big Gay Al sans clothes, naked big-breasted angels and Saddam sports a replica of the male genitalia. Yes, Saddam Hussein. He is in Hell now with a sensitive Satan, where the two become lovers, with Saddam the man in the relationship. You can see where this would lead straight to the funny-bone.

Stone and Parker even touch on race relations, toungue-in-cheek, of course. As the U.S. Army assembles to battle those feity Canadians, the battalions are split up into white and black regiments as the blacks serve as "human shields" for Operation Get Behind the Darkies.

Several viewers may be surprised that South Park is a musical, with the cast breaking into song every ten minutes. Most are quite catchy, ranging from Terrence and Phillip's "Unclef***er" to one sounds as if straight from "Les Miserables", and another that asks the question we all ask when stuck in a situation, "What Would Brian Boitano Do?" I was disappointed, however, that there was no song sung by Chef.

After all the animation advances seen in Tarzan or Toy Story, admittedly South Park is primitive by those standards. But you don't have to spend $100 million with 200 animators in order to make a funny movie. Actually Stone and Parker did use some computer-generated effects for their film, especially noticeable to spice up Hell a bit; they did a good job, too.

I really hope that in the VHS or DVD release the two minutes of cut footage is released, because I really want to know how bad it could have been to warrant an NC-17 rating. With South Park, Parker and Stone are giving parents, the Motion Picture Association and people with strict morals the ever-popular middle finger. And they hope you sit on it and spin as well, I'm sure.

Finally, if you're not in a big hurry to leave, you'll notice that Saddam is listed as "Himself".