As the film nears its 15th anniversary, Kevin Smith recalls how Jackass: Number Two's poop scene helped him fight the MPAA for Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Smith's portfolio of gag-worthy set-pieces, potty-mouthed characters, and even dabbles into absurdist horror have put him in the MPAA's firing line on several occasions. Clerks, which was Smith's feature directorial debut, memorably took a significant appeal to be revised down from an NC-17 rating to an R-rating, later becoming one of Smith's most popular films.
Controlling the age certificates of new titles, the MPAA have seemingly branded certain titles with R and occasionally NC-17 ratings for multiple reasons. Vulgar language, sexually explicit content, and extreme violence all appear as core issues the MPAA look to crack down on when reviewing upcoming films. Smith certainly isn't the only director to battle the organization throughout his career, with names as highly regarded as Martin Scorsese, Lars Von Trier, and Nagisa Ōshima all being subject to MPAA controversy during their careers.
While appearing on a recent episode of Steve-O's Wild Ride!, Kevin Smith explained how the infamous Jackass poop scene stunt, involving an astronaut helmet and some rather unsavory gasses breaching it, saved one of his films from an NC-17 rating. The pretty grotesque scene from Zack and Miri Make a Porno in question involved the spraying of fecal matter into a characters' face, which clearly upset the judgment of the MPAA. See Smith and Steve-O's discussion below:
Kevin Smith: When I went up to arbitrate (I said) 'So ladies and gentlemen we all agree that the fake fecal matter that wound up on my actor's face is a product of movie magic? That's not sh-t. We mix up oatmeal and some coloring, so if we all agree that then we know that like we're in the unreality business.' I was like 'There's a motion picture just came out fairly recently, it's called Jackass and in Jackass they wear a fart helmet where at one point somebody farts so hard that fecal matter sprays into a living human being's face and this is not fiction this literally happened ladies and gentlemen that movie is rated R. If that's real, and you let it go, how can you stop fake poop?' And they flipped it, because of you guys.
Steve-O: You're lucky I wasn't there because nothing made it into that mask... That's just the power of my imagination, the idea that something was gross.
The idea that Smith got somewhat lucky in his MPAA fight through an over exaggeration of the Jackass poop scene, is a humorous one, but moreover emphasizes some inconsistencies and contradictions in the MPAA's decision-making process. Undeniably revolting, any use of excrement is likely to cause a stomach-churning reaction from audiences, but Smith makes a reasonable point that it is ultimately harmless. If people have access to the allusion to the real thing in a movie like Jackass: Number Two, penalization for Jeff Anderson being hit in the face with a fake substitute in Zack and Miri Make A Porno does come off as at least a little harsh.
Due to the MPAA's rating system, it is actually rather incredible that such a vast variety of filmmakers, ranging from Smith and Tremaine all the way to Scorsese and Von Trier, share a great deal in common when it comes to the post-production of their films. Amazingly, the brutal violence of a film like Goodfellas shares a link to the ridiculous comedy of Zack and Miri Make A Porno, however small that link may be, which ultimately raises the question of where the MPAA draw their lines and what precisely they draw them for. Regardless, audiences can celebrate Smith's victory with Zack and Miri Make a Porno available to stream on Tubi and VUDU now.
Source: Steve-O's Wild Ride!