Alan Clark had to have it twice a month. Auberon Waugh claimed "future generations would look back on it as the literature of the age" and Paul Gascoigne said it was "the greatest thing to come out of Newcastle after me and brown ale".
Viz, the adult comic which brought us the Fat Slags and Sid the Sexist, is 20 years old - and shows no signs of growing up. To celebrate it is staging an exhibition more shocking than the Turner prize show of its most enduring "artistic creations".
Billy the Fish, the half-cod, half-man goalkeeper of Fulchester United will be pickled in formaldehyde, a la Damien Hirst; Sid will get his hands on a Speak Your Weight Machine; and - if they can finish it on time - the Fat Slags may display their bed as a homage to Tracey Emin.
But the centrepiece is an installation which encapsulates Viz's contribution to contemporary culture. Johnny Fartpants, the boy with the world's most musical rear, will play a variety of national anthems, depending on where his Wheel Of Fartune stops.
Some may not consider Viz art, but it has long had an avid following among the young stars of Britart. The Chapman Brothers, whose own controversial installations are causing a stir at Sensation in New York, claim the comic was "absolutely seminal" for them.
"I suppose we have a lot to answer for," said Chris Donald, the former DSS clerk who turned the photocopied rag he drew in his bedroom into a million-selling phenomenon.
"We've been blamed for everything from the whole lad thing with Loaded magazine, through to the rise in crudity and dumbing down. There are a few things I feel guilty about - I apologise to any more rounded women who suffered because of the Fat Slags - but I'm not taking responsibility for Jeremy Clarkson."
•Quack, Ooops! 20 Years Of Viz opens at the British Cartoon Centre, central London, on November 27 and then moves to Newcastle.
Characters we love and loathe
Felix And His Amazing Underpants Geordie superhero whose miraculous Y-fronts catapulted him to fame. Often cited as an early role model for John Major.
The Fat Slags Two Geordie lasses who like their drink, fags and chips. "Just look round the streets of Newcastle and it's fairly obvious where we got the inspiration from," said Donald. "I feel a bit sorry for it now, though that doesn't stop loads of women claiming the slags were based on them."
Roger Mellie, The Man On The Telly Foul-mouthed TV presenter with Stuart Hall's taste in terrible suits and vocabulary and hairstyle borrowed from a former northern anchorman.
Millie Tant The archetypal ultra-PC social worker of lore (see The Bottom Inspectors). Like the Modern Parents, she reads the Guardian. "I believe many road protesters still look to her for fashion tips," claims Donald.
