Orgazmo

Toronto International Film Festival Program Book
1997

Orgazmo
Trey Parker
USA, 1997
90 minutes
Colour/35mm
Production Company: Kuzui Enterprises/MDP Worldwide/Avenging Conscience
Executive Producer: Kaz Kuzui, Mark Damon, Noriaki Nakagawa
Producer: Fran Rubel Kuzui, Jason McHugh, Matt Stone
Screenplay: Trey Parker
Cinematographer: Kenny Gioseffi
Editor: Trey Parker
Production Designer: Tristian Bourne
Sound: Jon Alletcher
Music: Paul Robb
Principal Cast: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Dian Bachar, Michael Dean Jacobs, Robyn Raab, Ron Jeremy

Trey Parker’s first feature film, studiously ignored by all major film festivals (including this one), was a splatter gore remake of Oklahoma. Last year, fame was his with The Spirit of Christmas, a short animated film featuring Santa Claus and Jesus Christ kickboxing in front of impressionable and obnoxious children. These characters are now stars on Nickelodeon in a show created by Parker over the last year. His just-completed new feature, Orgazmo, heartily follows in this iconoclastic tradition and may well dive into entirely new areas of questionable taste.

Joe Young (Parker), a struggling Mormon actor, has been sent to Los Angeles for his door-to-door missionary work. After being rebuffed at every turn, he is invited into the house of Maxxx Orbison, legendary porno director, who sees a new star in Joe and his well-endowed slacks. Maxxx eventually talks Joe into performing with promises of big bucks and stardom. He will play superhero Orgazmo, defender of scantily-clad women against villains of all stripes. The next day, Joe learns much about the porn business, especially from his sidekick in the film, Choda-Boy. In real life, Choda is Ben Chapelski, an MIT graduate who has developed a secret weapon known as the Orgazmorator, a ray gun which stuns people with an intense orgasm. The film becomes a huge success and Young (now known as Joe Hung) a huge star. But an unexpected visit from his Mormon fiancée Lisa derails his career. Shenanigans ensue, with Maxxx taking Lisa hostage, the arrival of a rival superhero bully and the Orgazmorator put to serious use.

Orgazmo is a sure-fire entry into the pantheon of great films which relentlessly stack up the most recherché gags imaginable until our defences are shattered. One of the film’s many moments of sublime ridiculousness involves a martial-arts confrontation between Parker and the legendary Ron Jeremy. (The film contains cameos from numerous porn legends, mostly clothed.) But, like all great comedy filmmakers, Parker has woven serious social considerations and a sharply observed political critique into his deftly ironic film. Or at least that’s what he told me.
—Noah Cowan