Hollywood's Gross-Out Comedies: Cultural Crisis or Festive Freedom?

By THOMAS DOHERTY

When the box-office returns came in for the blockbuster summer of 1999, the pun was inevitable: Gross-out equaled big grosses. Filthy lucre rained down on a series of motion pictures that seemed bent on lowering audience brows to near-Neanderthal levels: Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me; Big Daddy; South Park: Bigger, Longer,...