Troma Intelligence Test

In late 2000, Tribe Enterprises presented seven Troma DVD's to the OFLC for rating. As is the case with the US releases of Troma's titles, the DVDs are loaded with extra material. It was one of these extras, the Troma Intelligence Test that the censors took exception to. Here is an extract of one of the OFLC reports.

"...In the Boards unanimous view this film warrants an RC, "Refused Classification", in accordance with section 1(a) of the Films Table of the National Classification Code as it "depicts violence in such a way that is offends against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that it should be classified RC". The R guidelines state the "depictions of violence which are excessive will not be permitted". Further, strong depictions of realistic violence may be shown but depictions with a high degree of impact should not be gratuitous or exploitative. The elements of the film described below have no context or artistic merit and are considered gratuitous. Accordingly the Board decided that this film warrants and RC classification in accordance with the RC criteria in the Guidelines for the Classification of Films and Videotapes, as it contains gratuitous, exploitative and offensive depictions of violence with a very high degree of impact...."

Report to Applicant-October 2000

So what exactly is the Troma Intelligence Test? Well basically it is a series of twenty multiple-choice questions, each with between four to six possible answers. Answer correctly and you are rewarded with a topless/sex scene from one of Troma's back catalogue of movies. Answer incorrectly, and you get a violent or stupid clip. The sources of the violent clips seem to come almost entirely from the film Beware! Children at Play.

Tribe eventually released the following four titles minus the Intelligence Test.

The other three, 

.....never got to see a release after Tribe pulled out of the DVD market. All three have previously been passed uncut and released on tape with R18+ ratings.

***

In 2005, Stomp Visual began to re-release the Troma back-catalogue. The initial batch of eight titles released in May 2005 were:

On the back cover of every title (apart from THE TOXIC AVENGER 1) the following is written:

"Troma Intelligence Test and Trailers are not available on the Australian version of ..........."

The second batch followed in August 2005. 

....had following is on the back cover.

"Troma Trailers not available on this Australian release."

...and this on: 

"Troma Intelligence Test and Trailers are not available on this release"

Batch number three followed in November 2005. 

All say:

"Troma Trailers for other titles not available on this Australian release."

Says:

"Troma Trailers for other titles and Troma Intelligence not available on this Australian release."

So four and a half years after the initial ban, Stomp decided to play it safe and drop the Troma Intelligence Test from the discs. It is less clear which trailers they have dropped from the discs.

It is worth noting that there is a second TROMA INTELLIGENCE TEST that appeared on some of the later U.S Troma DVD releases. Although this appears to have never been banned by the Classification Board, Stomp still dropped it from their releases.

This is where things get interesting as June 2005 saw Stomp receive an R18+ (High Level Horror Violence, Blood and Gore) rating for BEWARE! CHILDREN AT PLAY. The 95min running time seems to indicate that this is the full uncut version. As mentioned above, this was the title that almost all the violent clips in THE TROMA INTELLIGENCE TEST were sourced. This means either that since the 2003 review of the guidelines the violent material is either now okay to be passed, or the OFLC have no idea where the violent clips came from (they are not labelled) in the first place and are just as inconsistent as ever.

Thanks to Chris G for sending it this correspondence he had with Stomp.

Here is an e-mail that I received from Stomp regarding the censorship of the Troma DVDs which explains their position.

To Stomp
September 2005.
I thought you may like to know that the TIT is made up of clips taken from BEWARE CHILDREN AT PLAY, a film that you have just had rated R18+ by the OFLC. I think therefore that you are being over cautious by removing this extra when the OFLC has no problem with the footage when it is contained in the feature film. Hope you can rectify this for future releases.

From Stomp
September 2005
thanks for the info, but trust us, we are well aware of the classification issues related to troma etc.
the TIT has no narrative and is therefore - just blatant violence, upon children - in short snippets - thus it wont pass. the film has a narrative, and the images in the context of a narrative allowed it pass. ie; if you were to try and release maniac in short snippets of violence, there is no way it would get through - there needs to be a narrative/storyline - not just violence (esp against kiddies).

More Troma Intelligence Test Images
Continue...

   http://www.refused-classification.com

refusedclassification@gmail.com