I’m trying to talk about how always we use humor to win, not self-righteousness, not telling people they’re stupid, not lecturing people. That’s what I’m so happy to be celebrating. So here’s a movie that actually today is more offensive than it was when it came out, probably, with all the new touchiness, but at the same time, it still brings joy to people no matter what their politics are, in a way. “Pink Flamingos” got named to the National Film Registry this year, which is pretty hilarious and great.

Certainly including the movie business, the way it is today, and how you can last. Certainly reinventing yourself, and reinventing everything. John Waters: Certainly political correctness, and what is funny about that.

What’re you touching on this time around? The ground has shifted for a lot of people in the last few years, which has surely given you more fodder. IndieWire: “False Negative” is an entirely new version of your “This Filthy World,” which you re-imagined for a post-COVID world. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. John Waters Shares His 10 Favorite Films of 2022, ‘Peter Von Kant’ Tops List The special sets out to lampoon political correctness on all sides of the aisle in the spirit of Waters’ championing of free speech even at its most lunatic and outrageous. It’s perhaps filthier than ever now, and it’s a movie he’ll be discussing in “False Negative,” which is a complete reinvention of his 2006 special “This Filthy World,” now re-written for the post-COVID age. At the time, the perverse Divine vehicle was reviled for its scatological sensibilities, its cigarette-in-the-eye of moviemaking conventions and American decorum. Waters, in a phone interview from his Baltimore stomping grounds, is chuffed at the hilarity of the film landing in the National Film Registry this year.

His breakout feature, the gleefully demonic, camp-exploitation classic “ Pink Flamingos,” also celebrates a birthday this year, five decades after its release in 1972. There may even be a new film project in the works, though Waters is loath to spill his secrets. He’s also got a debut novel, “Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance,” coming out from Macmillan May 3. In fact, he turns 76 on this very day, April 22, and is readying to premiere his new one-man, spoken-word special, “False Negative,” in New York and then Atlantic City this weekend. As cinema’s darling purveyor of filth, John Waters, at 76, has heard and seen it all, and he isn’t slowing down. The pope of trash, the duke of dirt, the prince of puke.

The john waters collection