ABSTRACT
There is evidence of gross-out films through the history of cinema right from the silent era, and some of the origins of contemporary gross-out cinema can be seen in other genres, such as horror, pornography, and 'gorno' a 'portmanteau' of gore and porno, but it is usually seen as a relatively recent form of comedy, emerging in the 1970s with John Waters' Pink Flamingos and John Landis' National Lampoon's Animal House. Little Britain's character Mrs Emery also has a presumed, but unknown, impairment. As a character who is oblivious to her tendency to urinate frequently in public, she exemplifies gross-out content. Referring to comedy in popular culture overall, Harvey has pointed out, in relation to risk-taking and taboo-crossing characteristic of gross-out, that by the beginning of the twenty-first century, Waters' 'once-singular edge has become everybody'. This chapter explores work of the Farrelly Brothers as a valuable vehicle for examination of disability themes, as influential recent contributors to the gross-out genre.
