Hoo boy.

Whenever you hear the two innocent freestanding words “south” and “park” strung together, beware. If you’re a censor, parent, educator, politico, civil rights advocate, celebrity, minority, voter – in short, anyone who’s ever taken a stand on anything – be prepared to be offended. Highly offended. Outraged, in fact.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone are the creators of Comedy Central’s irreverent animated series “South Park.” Whether you consider them comic geniuses or the devil incarnate, the fact is undeniable that they’ve created an entertainment empire out of poking fun at society’s shortcomings. For example, where else than a November 2000 episode of “South Park” would you see parodies of celebrity activists Rosie O’Donnell and Johnnie Cochran taking sides with kindergarteners divided over the deadlock in their vote for class president, with the tiebreaking vote falling to a girl named Flora? (And how did they get that on the air so fast?)

Building upon seven successful seasons of the show and other similarly controversial projects, Parker and Stone now present “Team America: World Police.” Reversing the gimmick of this summer’s “Thunderbirds,” which used live actors in place of its precursor TV series’ puppets, “Team America” aims to be a Jerry Bruckheimer-sized kick-butt shoot-’em-up spy thriller/action movie using marionettes instead of actors.

In another marvel of political timing, “Team America” follows a group of high-tech commandos who take it upon themselves to rid the world of terrorists – never mind that they wantonly destroy world landmarks or major cities to get the job done. (Their theme song is a pounding 1980s rock anthem with the chorus, “America! F@#% yeah!”) When public sentiment finally turns on them and leading celebrities in Hollywood band together to support a “peace conference” called by a duplicitous North Korean despot, the team must race against the clock and their own misgivings about each other to thwart the mastermind’s fiendish plot of world destruction.

The umbrella joke of the whole thing is, of course, that all this deadly serious warfare and political intrigue is being played out by two-foot-tall plastic puppets. No matter how you stand on America’s real foreign policy issues, I guarantee you will spend about 30 minutes of this movie’s running time laughing uproariously at the visual gags. Hand-to-hand combatants swing toward each other, flailing on their fishing line strings. The main character, a Broadway actor-turned-spy named Gary, takes a long, solitary motorcycle ride and the camera pulls back to reveal the model-sized bike on a real, full-sized road. A scene where Gary hits rock bottom in an alley behind a bar generated extended screams of laughter not heard in theaters since “Jackass: The Movie.”

The rest of the movie’s humor requires more cognitive effort, and will undoubtedly be viewed as anything but funny by at least half the nation’s populace. For all their gross-out exploitative self-indulgences, Parker and Stone have a definite message to sell, and anyone who leans ever so slightly to the left had better be prepared for some hits below the belt. Their sendups of the liberal Hollywood elite like Tim Robbins and Alec Baldwin are tame enough, but Michael Moore is portrayed as a boorish hot dog-chomping suicide bomber, and all non-American nationalities are purposefully as un-P.C. as they can possibly get. Plus, Gary clearly delivers the the film’s message itself in a critical speech at the climax, but it uses at least five more words that are unprintable in a family newspaper.

Then there’s the sex. The Motion Picture Association of America threatened to give “Team America” an NC-17 rating unless the filmmakers cut out some of the graphic puppet sex scenes. Based on the version that’s currently in theaters, I’m guessing they didn’t mess with the very graphic and very lengthy heterosexual sequence. On the other hand…

I will caution everyone to think twice before paying to see “Team America: World Police.” If you don’t appreciate stupid sight gags, if you’re a Michael Moore fan, if you have a weak stomach or just can’t take a joke, put your wallet away. Then go rent some back episodes of “South Park,” sit down and actually watch them, and decide for yourself if these guys are wickedly astute or just plain horrible human beings.

“Team America: World Police”

Rated R for graphic, crude and sexual humor; violent images; and strong language; all involving puppets

Starring: Voices of Trey Parker and Matt Stone

Directed by: Trey Parker

Length: One hour 45 minutes

Now playing at: Astoria Gateway Cinemas, Cannes Cinema Center in Seaside

Short take: The creators of “South Park” take on action thrillers, Hollywood liberals, gung-ho commandos and terrorists worldwide as they skewer every political faction in an all-marionette knee-slapper.

Rating: Two and a half stars (out of four)

Movie trivia: Filmmakers Parker and Stone are quoted as creating “Team America” as “the perfect way to send up all those Jerry Bruckheimer movies.” What other recent big-budget movie did they consider spoofing at first?

Answer: Parker and Stone originally wanted to do a parody of “The Day After Tomorrow,” but ran into legal problems with the studio that owned the rights to the film.