Review of BASEketball (1998) by Harry W — 25 Mar 2015

Being a comedy film that combined the creators of South Park with legendary comedy filmmaker David Zucker, BASEketball sounded like a hilarious film.

There is no single movie in my life I have seen more times than BASEketball, and the simple fact is that it is one of the funniest movies ever made. Being a film entirely built on embracing the ultimate notion of stupidity, BASEketball takes the notion to an entirely new extent. The ridiculously stupid nature of the film will not appeal to everyone, but it is bound to find an audience. Though David Zucker is commonly associated with the spoof genre, he is able to bring that to BASEketball without deviating from the legitimate nature of the story. There are some sporadic over the top comedic moments in the film which break past the reign of narrative sensibility, but they are always hilarious and unexpected in the best sense of the word. Most of the time they are thrown into the film through its iconic notion of "psyche outs" from within the titular sport. Either way, the random visual gags are hilarious. There is a lot of visual humour in Baseketball, and they are written into the narrative incredibly well. With the titular sport of BASEketball being such a simple and yet entertaining game where there is infinite potential for ridiculous comedy sketches. The sport of BASEketball itself is an exciting and fun one, but most importantly it allows room for all kinds of creative writing. It even maintains an effective underlying message about how inclusive sports are the best kind and how the excessive commercialism of has progressively sullied the name of sports and its concepts of good sportsmanship, honour and general fun. But again, the messages in BASEketball are not why it is important. BASEketball is a hilarious film simply because it embraces the ridiculous nature of David Zucker's taste in humour and combines it with the twisted minds of Trey Parker and Matt Stone. It all rests on them working together because the predictable structure of the sports movie and buddy comedy premise make it simplistic, though the unexpected and over the top nature of the jokes ensure that there is no telling what will come next at essentially any time in BASEketball. The unpredictability is what really renders it a brilliant film because the jokes in the film are thrown at the viewer without any sense of predictability, and they are so consistent due to the fast pace of the story and the involvement from Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Even though BASEketball is the only work of theirs that they did not write or direct, the strong nature of the script and their clear sense of charisma in their roles are a clear source of the laughter.

The main thing that David Zucker ensures in BASEketball is that the energy of the screenplay is consistent, but at the same time he really ensures that the film is a stylishly constructed feature. Contributing to the nature of the visual gags of the film, BASEketball is also an entertaining visual experience in the sense that the production design maintains a nice assortment of simple yet funny locations as well as a really colourful setup for the BASEketball field. A lot of the ridiculous props are thrown in there for successful value as well while the occasional use of cheesy visual effects proves to be a nice touch. At the same time, the soundtrack also has a lot of memorable songs with none laying down any more effect than DVDA's "Warts on your D*ck". But the success of BASEketball is very largely predicated on its cast.

Teaming up Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park as the two protagonists in this buddy comedy sports movie, BASEketball is forever in the debt to their efforts. Due to their natural friendly chemistry, Trey Parker and Matt Stone have no trouble creating all sorts of banter working together as they establish their friendship on screen. Individually, they are both hilarious as well due to Matt Stone's easy ability to capture an over the top egotistical nature and Trey Parker's surprising dedication to character which allows him to shape Joseph "Coop" Cooper into a sympathetic protagonist. Both of them grasp the drama of the story but allow the comedy to take over by pushing their physical involvement in the humour and their line delivery into maximum overdrive. Their performances are absolutely perfect and they are a screen couple with the kind of chemistry which is nothing short of real, making the humourous effect of BASEketball all the more powerful. Though so much of the script is over the top idiocy, Trey Parker and Matt Stone work together to really bring it to life and are able to turn it into a legitimate narrative and pass with flying colours.

Dian Bachar is also hilarious. Being such close friends with Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Dian Bachar's role in BASEketball is absolutely essential due to the fact that he is the butt of all the jokes about his height and his status as a "little bitch". They really push the jokes about him beyond the limit in BASEketball, and his willingness to remain involved in that and embrace all the physical gags make him a key asset to so many of the jokes. Dian Bachar has never made a greater screen appearance than his role in BASEketball simply because Kenny "Squeak/Little Bitch" Scolari is a powerful addition of comic relief in a film which has no end of it in sight.

The presence of iconic actors such as Ernest Borgnine and Robert Vaughn are also hilarious, while the childish charm of Trevor Einhorn is also enjoyable. Yasmine Bleeth's gentle performance also maintains a distinctive and simple charm about it.

So thanks to hilarious work from Trey Parker and Matt Stone coupled with relentlessly hilarious direction from David Zucker, BASEketball is a strong social commentary with an endless array of physical gags and script quips in the smartest sense of dumb humour, making it one of the funniest films ever made.