See The Image That Got' Yoga Hosers' An R-Rating, Kevin Smith Files MPAA Appeal

Kevin Smith has, once again, found himself in a dispute with the MPAA. The Motion Picture Association of America has branded Smith's latest film, Yoga Hosers, with an R-rating. This isn't the director's first time appealing a rating, but in this instance, the reasoning behind the R-rating — a drawn pair of testicles – is laughable, even by the MPAA's standards. 

Below, read what Smith had to say about the Yoga Hosers rating.

Yoga Hosers premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival. The reviews were, as Smith acknowledges in his post, not exactly enthusiastic. Peter was underwhelmed by the film but admired what the director was striving for. As for the R-rating, Peter believes it's uncalled for.

Although Smith apparently doesn't "give a shit about the audience anymore," he still wants his latest film to be accessible to a wider audience and, more specifically, "tween girls." On Instagram, Smith shared the image that's got the MPAA all hot and bothered, in addition to explaining why Yoga Hosers deserves a PG-13:

The #MPAA gave my kids movie @YogaHosers an R rating for a cartoony drawing of testicles on a book cover. So now, for the 4th time in my 22 year career, we will hold an appeals screening with the Motion Picture Association of America's ratings board and try to get the R overturned for a less severe (and far more appropriate) PG-13. I also ran afoul of the MPAA the first time I made a movie set in a convenience store, when they initially slapped Clerks with an NC-17 rating for language. Back then, Harvey Weinstein hired mega-lawyer Alan Dershowitz and turned our rating appeal into a Free Speech case. But on the day of the actual appeals screening, it was just me and the Miramax lawyer getting up in front of the appeals folks to argue for a less restrictive rating without having to change or trim any shots. We won that day and Clerks received the R rating without a single cut. The next two occasions I fought an MPAA rating was on Jersey Girl (won a PG-13 instead of the R they gave us) and Zack and Miri Make a Porno (which went from an NC-17 to an R, without cuts). I don't mind doing this dance with the MPAA a fourth time (hey – at least they even OFFER an appeals screening) but this #YogaHosers R rating is riDONKulous. The core audience for the flick is tween girls (it's Clueless meets Gremlins!), so I refrained from salty language to make a totally kid-friendly movie. And while it's a "horror" movie, there's no blood on display: when our Bratzi bad guys get killed, concentrated sauerkraut explodes everywhere – not guts or entrails. Honestly, this movie is TAME (or "lame" according to some reviews). Even so, next week I'll screen the flick for the MPAA appeals audience and, lawyer-like, plead my case for why the film is really PG-13 – all so that I can keep the graffiti drawing of nuts on a fictional library book in my goofy girl-power monster movie. Weird life. Mind you, this is NOT a First Amendment issue at all; instead, it's the very definition of a First World Problem. But before I can tour the movie in June & July and release it in theaters this August, I'm gonna have to win #TheBattleForTheBalls! #KevinSmith #harleyquinnsmith #lilyrosedepp #johnnydepp

Next week Smith will fight the good fight and plead his case for the "graffiti drawing of nuts on a fictional library book" to the MPAA. Whether you care to see Yoga Hosers or not, at least we can probably all agree that such a silly image warranting an R-rating is pretty ridiculous. Is the MPAA really trying to say anyone under the age of 17 can't handle a drawing of nuts without a parent or guardian present? Can you really not even draw nudity in PG-13 movies these days? The MPAA has allowed similar images to be in PG-13 movies before, but then again, Kevin Smith's name isn't James Cameron.