Early Live-Action Movie From South Park Creators Too Controversial For Streaming
I think it goes without saying that the “superhero sex comedy,” or, as I like to call it, the “action porn” genre belongs to a niche audience, and for good reason. But you’ve got to give it to a young Trey Parker and Matt Stone for trying to leave their mark on this oddly specific genre with 1997’s Orgazmo, which made its limited theatrical rounds just before South Park became the intellectual property they’re best known for. Marking Parker’s second feature-length directorial effort, Orgazmo’s production value is leaps and bounds ahead of his first film, Cannibal! The Musical, but Orgazmo was always destined to be a cult-classic that’s difficult to track down through streaming due to its controversial subject matter and execution.
At least at the time of Orgazmo’s release, I’ve never seen a film with an NC-17 rating that wasn’t hidden behind a beaded curtain at the video store, only to be accessed by the most deviant of movie watchers. Ironically enough, Parker and Stone were beyond clever with their self-censoring, making the film pretty tame by today’s standards. However, the rating was justified by the MPAA due to their use of sexually suggestive props despite the fact that Orgazmo has less nudity in it than 2016’s Deadpool if my calculations are correct.
Innocent Mormon Turned Porn Star
Orgazmo doesn’t tell a complex story, but its premise is unique enough in the sense that there aren’t many films that start out with an innocent missionary with intimidating martial arts skills who gets recruited by a sleazy smut film kingpin to portray a pornographic superhero, which results in a kidnapping, gang violence, blackmail, and a real-life ray gun that subdues its subjects by stimulating them to the point of, how do I put this … extreme arousal and release.
Trey Parker’s Joe Young is a blissfully naive young man with his whole life ahead of him, and doesn’t want to get into any trouble when he agrees to work for Maxxx Orbison (Michael Dean Jacobs) portraying fictional crime-fighting gigolo named Orgazmo, but agrees to act in his film because he wants to give his fiancé, Lisa (Robyn Lynn Raab), her dream wedding. Taking the job in defiance of his faith, Joe quickly finds himself signing a contract, but under the condition that a stunt double participates in his place during the raunchy scenes, ethically allowing him to star in a film that’s so, so dirty.
The Downside Of Success
Thinking that his portrayal of Orgazmo will simply be a one-off gig that will give him a life-changing amount of money, Joe is locked into a perpetual contract with Maxxx after the film becomes a runaway success. Unlike his co-star who portrays Orgazmo’s sidekick Choda Boy, Ben Chapelski (Dian Bachar of BASEketball and Electric Apricot fame), Joe wants out of the industry, but his hand is forced by Maxxx, who views the world through the lens of greed. Fortunately, Ben only works in pornography because he likes the excitement, and reveals to Joe that he’s an MIT graduate who actually created a real-life version of Orgazmo’s weapon, the Orgazmorator.
Armed with his new weapon of mass-arousal, Joe and Ben learn just how deep Maxxx Orbison’s corruption goes when Lisa gets kidnapped upon Joe’s refusal to fulfill his contract. It’s up to both Joe and Ben to take out Maxxx and rescue Lisa, while Dave the Photographer (Matt Stone) remains blissfully unaware of his surroundings despite the obvious tension on set. Now running through the mean streets of Los Angeles as the real-life Orgazmo and Choda Boy, they need to take out Maxxx and his evil henchman, A-Cup (David Dunn), and save the city from certain doom.
Should Be R-Rated
GFR SCORE
Orgazmo’s NC-17 rating seems a bit harsh looking back at the film from the present day, but I can understand why the censors wanted to err on the side of caution with this film. At the time, Trey Parker and Matt Stone didn’t have nearly as much pull or resources as they do today, and sometimes you have to take your lumps while trying to get your footing in the film industry.
But I will say this: their self-censoring adds a whole layer of comedy to Orgazmo that elevates the humor to the point of absurdity. Whenever a mistress lifts up her shirt to shoot a scene on Maxxx’s soundstage, there’s never a full reveal, but rather a male’s bare posterior end taking over the shot, which is still kind of risky but a lot more safe than full frontal nudity. You can say what you want about the T-Rex lovemaking sequence that I’ll leave to your imagination if you’ve never had the pleasure of watching Orgazmo, but still, you’re mostly seeing provocative facial expressions more than anything else.
At the time of this writing, Orgazmo is not available for streaming, but I’ve recently seen it making its rounds on Tubi before being removed from the platform. For the time being, you can watch Orgazmo on-demand through Amazon Prime Video, Google Play Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.
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