Can You Stand The Humor Of There's Something About Mary

Sometimes Western civilization declines in deliriously funny style. Why bother to list the myriad offenses given by ''There's Something About Mary,'' the proudly obnoxious new film by Peter and Bobby Farrelly, when it's easier -- definitely much too easy -- to enjoy them? In the raunchy wake of ''Dumb and Dumber'' and ''Kingpin,'' the Farrelly brothers have made a romantic comedy that's a hoot in every sense, worth a smidgen of disapproval and a whole lot of helpless laughter. But the Farrellys are as gleeful as they are crude, and they certainly aren't witless. The film works ridiculously well because it never stoops to being mean-spirited or (despite all appearances) authentically inane.
　　
There's Something About Mary features the immortal story of "boy meets girl, boy loses girl when a certain body part becomes the victim of a freak accident, boy starts stalking girl." The boy in question is a nerdy Ted Stroehmann (Ben Stiller, sporting weird teeth, ears, and hair), and the girl in question is Mary (Cameron Diaz, positively radiating charisma). There are a few more components in this simple and touching love story: a sleazy private investigator, Pat Healy (Matt Dillon with a moustache which looks like a dead earthworm), who starts stalking Mary; a dweeby architect (Lee Evans, previously seen in Mouse Hunt), who starts stalking Mary; Ted's buddy Dom (Chris Eliot, with the award-winning-caliber makeup boiling all over him), who starts. Well, by now you get the idea.
　　
Mixed up into this heartwarming narrative are the jokes, which deal with subjects including, but not limited to: masturbation, various bodily fluids, gays, serial killers, sagging breasts, and, of course, aforementioned attempts to cue humor from mental and physical handicaps and stalking.
　　
Let me make one thing perfectly clear - I don't object to jokes based on any of the above because of the subject matter. One could simply rent A Fish Called Wanda and see a good number of riotously funny sequences which deal with such subjects as marital infidelity and stuttering. No, the reason why I didn't find There's Something About Mary funny was that most of the "envelope- pushing" jokes simply didn't work. I'm somewhat dumfounded pondering how anyone could think it was possible to successfully elicit laughs from this subject matter.
　　
A prom, a crush and a cruel, cruel zipper set ''There's Something About Mary'' in motion. It seems that Ted Stroehmann (Ben Stiller in braces), a kind of Everydweeb, is destined to ruin the biggest night of his young life. Notably unsuccessful in recruiting a prom date (''If everything else falls apart, maybe'' is the best answer he gets), Ted suddenly catches the eye of Mary Jenson, played by Cameron Diaz with a blithe comic style that makes her as funny as she is dazzling. Miracle of miracles, Mary makes Ted her designated prom date for that fateful night.
　　
Stiller's character has had the memory of a disastrous prom date with Mary casting a shadow over his love life for years and decides to track down the "one that got away", only to find he has to compete with much more devious wannabe suitors. The film is completely fearless in its pursuit of laughs – no subject is taboo. You know Mary and Ted will end up together, but the Farrellys make sure that the finale isn't arrived at easily or predictably and, most importantly, that it's a lot of fun to get there.
　　
Sure, the plot may sound like your typical romantic comedy -- but not with the Farrelly brothers at the helm. These are the same guys who brought you Dumb and Dumber, with its toilet humor and political incorrectness. Instead, this is a frat guy's idea of a romantic comedy, full of jokes at the expense of disabled people and women. Sure, the guys who fall for Mary are the ultimate joke; undeveloped man-boy idiots drooling over her charms -- how many leggy blondes are doctors who love beer and football?
　　
If you can't stand this kind of humor, stay clear. And it's certainly not the thing for anyone with dating horror stories -- Chris Elliot's character won't be funny at all. But the film definitely has enough to satisfy adult gross-out humor fans.
　　
To reassure non-Farrelly fans of sound judgment, there are at least as many zit jokes here as other types of witticisms, with Chris Elliott in the abrasive role of Ted's blotchy best friend. As equal-opportunity offenders, the Farrellys also kid about a serial killer, mental illness, wizened old breasts and a half-dead dog, and they make these things unabashedly funny. The dog and its sun-shriveled owner (Lin Shaye) are the film's looniest characters, and Mary's mentally handicapped brother is one of its sweetest. The joke is on Healy when, in trying to impress Mary with his bogus compassion, he cites ''work with retards'' as his cherished hobby.
　　
Destined for instant notoriety is a sequence that starts off with masturbation and ends up with hair gel. But by the time it happens, you're sure to be either in the unaccountably innocent spirit of ''There's Something About Mary'' or on the way home. I hope it's not the latter. The Farrellys display a crazy audacity that's worth admiring, and they take sure aim for the funny bone. ''There's Something About Mary'' may be many things, but dull and routine aren't among them.

Thirteen years pass, and Ted is still pining away for Mary, so his friend Dom (Chris Elliott) persuades him to send a detective named Pat Healy (Matt Dillon) to find her. Except when Healy finds Mary, he decides he wants her for himself.
　　
Like the other Farrelly Brothers' movies, nothing is out of bounds here, and there are a lot of things that, after laughing, you wonder if you should have laughed. But you laugh just the same.A near-perfect script, crack comic editing, and some really great performances synergize here to make one of the great comedies of the '90s (along with the other two Farrelly flicks).