Most critics respond positively to Pink Flamingos, with praise centred on Waters’s ability to make deliberate bad taste funny rather than merely shocking. The favourable reviews admire its audacity, comic invention and willingness to provoke, with several arguing that its humour remains effective despite, or because of, the repellent material. The use of music also earns attention for making an obscene scene into a pointed comic set piece.
The spread is wide, however, and the central disagreement is over whether the disgust produces enough comedy to justify itself. Time Out stresses the succession of deliberately disgusting gags, while Variety condemns both the material and the poor cinematography. The Los Angeles Times rejects claims of groundbreaking filmmaking and finds the execution technically inept, but still praises Divine’s larger-than-life performance and the cast’s camaraderie.