Baseketball (1998)

Directed by David Zucker. Starring Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Dian Bachar, Robert Vaughn, Yasmine Bleeth, Jenny McCarthy, Ernest Borgnine, Trevor Einhorn, Bob Costas, Al Michaels. [R]

Following the runaway success of their Comedy Central adult animated series “South Park”, Trey Parker and Matt Stone were hot commodities, but the whiff of “cash grab” hangs over this hit-and-miss sports comedy, mostly because neither Parker nor Stone had a (credited) hand in its writing, producing or direction (past his-prime parodist David Zucker handled most of those duties). They’re at least aware of how stupid and puerile most of the material is, and act accordingly. It’s not that there aren’t periodic big laughs, it’s that so much is recycled and repeated—half as many “psych(e)-out” gags would have been twice as tolerable. Far-fetched story (sorta) shows how a “backyard game” mashing up baseball and basketball rules makes the jump to the national stage, which makes it a target for greedy corporate interests who want to monetize the sport and turn it into the same amoral, profit-first mess that the pro baseball and basketball leagues are. Mostly, it’s just a delivery system for immature jokes about blind kids, “dude” lingo, enormous penises, “salty and warm” liposuctioned fat, pubic hair-coated vibrators, etc.; it’s a shame the movie didn’t follow through on the insightful satirical jabs found in the prologue, since hanging sophomoric material off of clever ideas is a win-win for the wide world of comedy. Hardly a home run from behind the meatballs, but this La-Z-Boy laffer at least gets on base. Numerous celebrities (mostly sports figures) make cameo appearances. Title is sometimes stylized as BASEketball.

56/100