The History of the World Episode 10: The Discovery of Language (2004) User Reviews

Genitally obsessed

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 13 September 2009]

I have now seen most of the shorts by Phil Mulloy and am amazed that in almost all of his animated films he seems 100% obsessed by genitals--and I do mean obsessed!! While his painting style in films is very, very crudely done (almost like a tribal drawing that has been brought to life), what is bound to get your attention is that there are so many penises and vaginas.

The film is apparently set 1000000 years ago. In the first scene, a bunch of naked women are digging and pull up letters. The word they unearth and arrange is 'vagina'--at which point all the women suddenly realize they have vaginas and start running amok. In the next scene, naked men are unearthing letters that eventually should spell out 'penis' but they mess up the final letter. At which point, once again, they run amok. Whatever.

Overall, I just don't get it. What's so exciting about drawing naked childish drawings and obsessing about genitals? It all seems a bit boring after having seen several other similar films from Mulloy.

Two Dirty Words

[Michael_Elliott · 14 June 2012]

The History of the World Episode 10: The Discovery of Language (1994)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The second in director Phil Mulloy's "History" series takes a look at how men and women discovered language and of course it has to do with sexual parts. Basically what we have is a bunch of women digging up letters that when they put them together it spells out vagina. At the same time the men dig up words that eventually spell out penis. There are many jokes scattered throughout the film but of the two I think this here is the weakest. With that said, there are still some funny moments and I especially liked the way that when the women figure out their word it's immediately looked at as being bad, which leads to the invention of clothing. It's moments like these that I found quite clever and it's one reason why I've come to enjoy the work of Mulloy, although I can see why many would just find it to be offensive. There's no question that his work is for adults with a dark sense of humor but if you don't mind the dirtiness I think you can have a good time with this film. It's certainly something to show at a party where everyone is drunk and looking for some dirty laughs.