MPAA Bearish on Puppet Oral Sex

Now that I do a quick search, I’ve written quite often about the stupidity of the MPAA’s rating system (and, in truth, our Canadian provincial equivalents). Don’t miss such entires as Ratings Creep, We’re Bullish on Actual Sex in the Movies, Sex Doesn’t Sell? and MPAA Ratings are So, So Broken.

As the Guardian and BoingBoing report, the latest bafflegab is over the NC-17 rating which South Park creator’s Team America: World Police received. The NC-17 rating is generally considered to be a kiss of death by the studios, as it restricts access to those all-powerful teenage dollars. As the Guardian point out:

The makers of Team America: World Police have reportedly gone to great lengths, modifying the offending scene nine times for submission to the Motion Picture Association of America, the US film classification authority. They are keen to secure an R rating, which would allow under-18s to see the film when accompanied by an adult.

The makers, directors Matt Stone and Trey Parker and producer Scott Rudin, are contesting the MPAA classification, saying that the film doesn’t show anything that’s not been seen before in other R-rated movies. And besides, Rudin told the Hollywood Reporter, “our characters are made of wood and have no genitalia. If the puppets did to each other what we show them doing, all they’d get is splinters.”

Director Trey Parker goes on to say “we blow Janeane Garofalo’s head clean off, [but for the MPAA] it’s all about the positions of the dolls having sex.”