# What Is The Appeal of The Toxic Avenger Movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 31, 2002, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-the-toxic-avenger-movies/121729 "2002-07-31T17:46:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2002, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-the-toxic-avenger-movies/121729/1 "2002-07-31T17:46:32Z")
Help me out here, y’all! I rented this from **netflix** because I had never seen it, and would have asked for my money back had I seen it in a theater. It is incredibly badly acted, shlocky as all getout and gross as hell. What am I not seeing here, Dopers? Is it the sex scenes? Or is it my age that won’t allow me to appreciate whatever humor might be in the flick? Generation gap! Gotta be! Whatcha think? Quasi ---
**Author:** ![grendel72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/91b2a8/32.png) [@grendel72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grendel72)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2002, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-the-toxic-avenger-movies/121729/2 "2002-07-31T18:19:21Z")
The Toxie movies are incredibly funny, while at the same time being crass, crude and poorly made. A large part of the appeal of Troma is that they are anti-corporate, the movie equivalent of those bands with T-shirt slogans about how “Corporate Rock Still Sucks”. ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2002, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-the-toxic-avenger-movies/121729/3 "2002-07-31T19:49:13Z")
Don’t forget the massive violence, cheesey violence, and Troma in-jokes. The movies refuses to take themselves seriously at times, which usually is a good thing in my book. Plus, in TA2, he went to Japan. ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2002, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-the-toxic-avenger-movies/121729/4 "2002-07-31T20:55:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Quasimodem \* > \*\*It is incredibly badly acted, shlocky as all getout and gross as hell. > \*\* I know, isn’t it great? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2002, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-the-toxic-avenger-movies/121729/5 "2002-07-31T20:59:18Z")
If I’d seen it in the theater, I’d have been amazed, as I think Troma only does direct-to-video. What’s the appeal? Gross-out humor, liberal T & A, production values so amazingly bad they’re twice as entertaining as a George Lucas billion dollar digitalpallooza… It’s like asking why people like The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The appeal is that it has no appeal. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2002, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-the-toxic-avenger-movies/121729/6 "2002-07-31T23:22:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Miller \* > \*\*The appeal is that it has no appeal. \*\* I think you just answered a very important question about why I might have rented this piece of shit movie! :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D Quasi ---
**Author:** ![Lorenzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4da419/32.png) [@Lorenzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorenzo)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2002, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-the-toxic-avenger-movies/121729/7 "2002-07-31T23:38:22Z")
They are so bad, it is just laughable. Very juvenile, very over-the-top, just nothing subtle about it. The “acting” is so cheezy, just awful. It seems like they’re making fun of themselves and they probably had fun making the movies. As stated by Miller, sort of the anti-big buget movie. I laughed my head off the first time I saw it. ---
**Author:** ![richardb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/96bed5/32.png) [@richardb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/richardb)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-the-toxic-avenger-movies/121729/8 "2002-08-01T02:55:18Z")
I saw what I think is the latest “Toxic Avenger” movie this year. I don’t remember the name off hand. I am on a sacred quest this year to see every single movie released (in the LA area, at least) and this one was playing at a local “art house” type theatre as a Friday and Saturday midnight show (one weekend only). I had certainly heard of the Toxic Avenger series, but had never actually seen one before. I actually laughed at this film. Not the whole time, of course, but a laugh here and there is more than some mainstream “comedies” get out of me. Some times I laughed because a joke was actually funny. Some times I laughed because a joke was so BAD it was funny (that they did the joke). Sometimes I laughed because the gore and violence was so “over the top.” Sometimes I just laughed because the movie was so bad. OK: I was curious, so I just looked it up on The IMDB. It was _Citizen Toxie: the Toxic Avenger Part 4_ and it was released in 1999. I don’t know why it was playing this year; either it never got released to a theatre before or it just took this long to get out of movie-legal-limbo or they just needed something to add in at Midnight. Whatever reason, I left feeling that it was certainly better than I had expected, and that I wouldn’t mind seeing another one. ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2002, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-the-toxic-avenger-movies/121729/9 "2002-08-01T13:50:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tars Tarkas \* > \*\* Plus, in TA2, he went to Japan. \*\* . . . And hooked himself up with the luscious [Phoebe Legere](http://www.phoebelegere.com/), who is still, I believe, the only actress/comedian/accordian player ever to pose for _Playboy_. Heaven help us if Judy Tenuta has done it.