Common Sense Media Review
Dumb comedy should be cited for bad taste.
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Why Age 14+?
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Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector
What's the Story?
In LARRY THE CABLE GUY: HEALTH INSPECTOR, Larry the Cable Guy enjoys his job going from greasy spoon to Indian restaurant to the office. When a smarmy diner owner sues for a broken coccyx ("hehe, he said 'cock'!" Larry sniggers), he's demoted and given a straight-laced partner. When people at fancy restaurants start getting sick, Larry and his new partner, Amy Butlin (Iris Bahr), are on the case. But can they get to the bottom of the mysterious illness before the $250,000 Top Chef cook-off? And can Larry finally score with the sweet waitress who is inexplicably attracted to him?
Is It Any Good?
In this gross-out comedy, Larry bounces from fat joke to fart joke to gay joke to disabled joke to sexist joke and back again. And since he's a health inspector, there's also plenty of room for gags involving the runs, vomit, and cockroaches. You've been warned. There will be a certain demographic impervious to the gross stereotypes Larry promotes that will cheer for him as the underdog and laugh at all the ways he's inappropriate. And the rest of us will laugh nervously or not at all.
Larry is a kind of everyman for a man of a certain age who feels worried about offending his coworkers and girlfriend simply by being himself. Larry tries to help wheelchair-bound Jack Dabbs (played by Arrested Development's brilliant Tony Hale) reach his beer or open the door for him and only receives offended stares. He eschews his partner's Prius for his ratty and junk-filled monster truck covered in Hooters bumper stickers. He mistakes his partner, a plain, serious woman, for a man and repeatedly says he's OK with him being gay. He seems to mean well, at least.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the appeal of comedies like this that mock people who are different than you. Why is it funny just to point out differences? When is it not funny? How do you feel when people point out ways in which you're different?
Movie Details
- In theaters : January 1, 2006
- On DVD or streaming : August 8, 2006
- Cast : Larry the Cable Guy , Michael Papajohn , Tony Hale
- Director : Trent Cooper
- Studio : Paramount Pictures
- Genre : Comedy
- Run time : 90 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- MPAA explanation : crude and sexual content, and for language
- Last updated : September 20, 2019
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