HAROLD & KUMAR - ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY was passed '18' due to strong verbal and visual references to sex and drugs. Although 'strong verbal references to sexual behaviour' are accepted at '15', the BBFC Guidelines at that category do not permit 'strong detail' in the portrayal of sexual activity. Some moments in this film were felt to constitute such strong detail or otherwise go beyond public expectation at '15' - for example, a shot of liquid resembling semen on a man's face after implied masturbation, and a whole scene set at a 'bottomless' party showing the pubic area of all female partygoers.
The drug content in HAROLD & KUMAR was likewise felt to contravene the published Guidelines at '15' which state that 'the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse'. There is a clear joy and freedom associated with smoking weed in this film that is used to render otherwise unsympathetic characters palatable. There is a comic sex scene in which Kumar imagines a threesome involving a giant humanoid packet of weed. That said, it was felt that the attitude in the film was one of comic endorsement rather than the 'detailed portrayal...of illegal drug use, which is likely to promote the activity' that is stated in the Guidelines as a concern at '18'. Kumar's attitude is somewhat balanced by Harold's frustrated common sense, and these are after all comic characters somewhat divorced from the real world as we know it. Hence the film was felt to be containable at the '18' category.
