The comedy that offends

What classifies art as inappropriate has been debated heavily over the years.

Is nakedness improper or tasteful? Are paintings portraying religion in less than a positive light innovative or improper? Are dancers being too suggestive or are they taking control of their own bodies?

Perhaps no work of art has existed without at least one person taking offense.

NIC’s Film Club ran into a debate on what defines an inappropriate movie during the showing of “Step Brothers” in the CDA Library last Friday night.

The raunchy comedy, starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, not only led to a discussion on inappropriateness but also led to many people leaving the event.

In fact, several audience members were offended by the content of the movie and left early on in its showing.

Students display a wide rage of responses while watching film club’s featured movie “Step Brothers.” -Lily Anderson/Sentinel

“The movie wasn’t what I expected and it wasn’t funny at all,” Caroline Allen said, 17, Art, Post Falls.

She said the club shouldn’t be allowed to show such raunchy movies–at least without a clearer warning beforehand. The showing left such a bad taste in her mouth that she does not plan on going to another Film Club showing, she said.

Club Vice President John “Risky” Boltz, Film, 26, Los Angeles, defended the club’s pick of the movie.

“I picked the movie because to me it’s one of the funniest movies of the 21st century and definitely the most quotable, I wanted something different than the most commonly chosen movies. I don’t think that everybody in the audience enjoyed it but that’s what’s so great about the discussions,” Boltz said. “With a movie that not everybody likes, it creates a more engaging discussion. Rather than sitting around and talking about the stuff we like, we were able to debate the things that we disagree on.”

The movie wasn’t the only thing that dealt with a touchy subject matter.

The club’s short film shown before the feature film also could have also been questioned for its appropriateness.

The film created by club leadership, entitled “A Mysterious Thing,” featured a masked man in a cape that roamed around campus at night pleasuring himself.

Although the short film wasn’t overtly explicit in nature, a few audience members were so uncomfortable that they left the library before the feature film even started.

“People have the right to feel however they choose to,” club member Diana Smith said, Communications, 21, Melba, Idaho. “Reacting in that way [leaving early] is offensive, I believe, but that is still their choice. I guess if they had nothing to contribute and felt there was nothing they would gain from watching, that was by their own design, accurate.”

As one of the members of film club that voted for the screening of “Step Brothers,” Smith said she hoped the movie would have generated a different tone in conversation during the discussion after the movie. Certain she would not have liked the movie, Smith said she voted for it to discuss the components of comedy.

“I wanted to discuss what makes good comedy because in a world of fart jokes and sexual innuendos, it’s a subject I’ve often considered and have been opinionated on,” Smith said. “So as far as the choice goes, I am glad we went a new route and tried that out; the discussion, I felt, was worth it.”

For those who stayed through the entire movie and joined in the discussion afterward, the general consensus was that the movie had many good one-liners but was too much of a comedic Hollywood stereotype with its poor portrayal of women and its fairytale-like ending.

One vocal older man even warned the discussion group that society and youth are demoralized and this movie was merely a reflection of that.

A lively student-lead discussion after the movie showing. -Lily Anderson/Sentinel

No matter what the movie was reflecting, Film Club members ran into the question a population of artists face–can art ever be completely without inappropriateness? Is offending audience members the price artists must pay for the right to expression?