Pink Flamingos - Television Tropes & Idioms

"Kill everyone now! Condone first degree murder! Advocate cannibalism! Eat shit! Filth are my politics! Filth is my life!"

— Divine

The film that launched John Waters as the world's leading authority on bad taste, Pink Flamingos is a 1972 transgressive comedy starring Divine, David Lochary, Mink Stole, Edith Massey, Danny Mills, and Mary Vivian Pearce. It follows the adventures of Divine (living under the alias of Babs Johnson), a fat, style-obsessed criminal who lives in a trailer with her mentally ill mother Edie, her delinquent son Crackers, and her traveling companion Cotton. Divine, however, is furious when a pair of perverts, Raymond and Connie Marble, try to steal her title of "filthiest person alive." Hilarity Ensues.

Pink Flamingos contains examples of:

Always Chaotic Evil
Bloody Hilarious
Broke The Rating Scale: Roger Ebert refused to give the film any stars on the grounds that he wasn't sure it counted as a film.
But You Screw One Goat!: "Hold it! Hold these goddamn chickens!"
Camp
Card-Carrying Villain: Divine is EXTREMELY proud of being called "The Filthiest Person Alive".
Chewbacca Defense: "Is there any cross-examination? No? A very strange defense, I must say. Gentlemen, the verdict is guilty on all ten counts of first-degree stupidity."
Cloudcuckoolander: Edie
Dead Baby Comedy
Drag Queen: Channing. Also the actor, but not the character, Divine.
Everything's Better With Chickens
Evil vs. Evil
Evilly Affable: Both Divine and Connie & Raymond
Exploitation Film
Fan Disservice
Fat Bastard: Divine
Fetish: Cotton is a voyeur, Crackers loves chickens, and let's not get started on Raymond and Connie.
Foreshadowing: There are several allusions to eating shit before someone actually does it.
A God Am I:
Mr. Vader: Do you believe in God?
Divine: I AM GOD!
Gorn
Groin Attack: "He's been...CASTRATED. His penis is GONE."
Gross-Up Close-Up
I'm a Humanitarian
Kangaroo Court: Described as such.
Masochist's Meal: Dog feces. They fed the poodle on steak for three days beforehand.
Narrator: John Waters himself.
"Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: Before the final scene, the narrator exclaims, "What you are about to see is a real thing." Even though everything that preceeded it (except for the murders) was, too.
Parental Incest: "Do my balls, mama!"
Plot Hole: The Marbles sending the gift to Babs is "Phase one" of their plan. The attack on the trailer is "Phase three". There is no phase two.
- There is a plan two; the Marbles go to Divine's home and torment her mother, dressing her like a baby and breaking all of her eggs. The scene was cut due to a continuity error, as they forgot part of Edie's baby outfit when they filmed Divine finding her mom.
- Another plot hole is how they find out the home and identity of the Marbles; while they are tormenting Divine's mother, Divine and Crackers visits Patty Hitler and get the intel. The scene with Patty Hitler was filmed but cut from the final version of the film, replaced with a vague naration bit.
Plot with Porn: All of the sex, including chicken rape, is unsimulated. It isn't exactly sexy to most people.
Rape as Comedy
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Connie and Raymond.
Refuge in Audacity
Refuge in Vulgarity
- The "Filth Politics" speech is a Crowning Moment of Awesome for many.
  Reporter: Divine, are you a lesbian?
  Babs: Yes, I have done everything!
  Reporter: Does blood turn you on?
  Babs: It does more than turn me on, Mr. Vader, it makes me come! And more than the sight of it, I love the taste of it, the taste of hot freshly killed blood!
  Reporter: Could you give us some of your political beliefs?
  Babs: Kill everyone now! Condone first degree murder! Advocate cannibalism! Eat shit! Filth are my politics, filth is my life!
Road Apples: "Someone has sent me a bowel movement."
Scenery Gorn: Many, many scenes of the trailer burning.
Serial Escalation: To say that it pushes the limits of bad taste is an understatement.
- The actual production of the film counts, as well, as everything you see in the movie actually happened. Unsimulated.
  - Except for the deaths, of course.
  - Which is just a darn shame.
- In his Stand-up Comedy routine, This Filthy World, he claims that he showed the film to a group of prisoners , when he was teaching a class in prison (emphasizing that many of them were murders), and they all declared it one of the sickest things they'd ever been exposed to.
Soundtrack Dissonance: Patti Page's "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window" plays while Divine eats dog shit. Yeah, the song is about a dog, but it's a cutesy '50s pop hit.
Tagline: "An exercise in poor taste."
Tar and Feathers
There Are No Police
Those Wacky Nazis: Patty Hitler, a character who didn't make the final cut of the film, although she can be seen as a party guest.
Torture Cellar: The Marbles kidnap young women, lock them up in their basement, have Channing impregnate them, and sell the babies to lesbian couples.
Torture Porn: Supposed to be a disturbingly funny parody.
Trademark Favorite Food: Edie and eggs.
Transsexual: One of the women that Raymond exposes his penis to flashes hers back.
Villain Protagonist: Divine
- Of course, with their sex slave ring, which they use to sell babies to lesbian couples, and the fact that the money they get is used on illicit drugs to sell to inner-city grade schoolers, the Marbles (the main antagonists) are MUCH worse as villains, which is why Divine feels justified in killing them for first-degree stupidity and assholism.
Villains Out Shopping: The trip to the butcher shop.
What Do You Mean, It Wasn't Made on Drugs?: Half Subverted. Waters said he was high while writing it, but not while making it.
- On the other hand, he did say that, to save on catering, he gave everyone "some good speed" instead.
  - Also, during the party scene, Divine and a party guest are shown doing poppers.
World of Ham