During a scene midway into “The Waterboy,” Adam Sandler’s character walks away from a confrontation with his Mama and soon-to-be girlfriend.

The camera pans from Sandler to his flustered Mama to the girl, who shrugs her shoulders, picks up a roasted baby crocodile from her dinner plate and bites the head off like a sizzling bratwurst.

It is scenes like this that set Adam Sandler movies apart from other comedies. His movies are more than Adam Sandler jokes. They are outrageous collages of the lifestyles of the sick and twisted.

And like its predecessors “Billy Madison” and “Happy Gilmore,” “The Waterboy” succeeds in painting the collage with comedic brilliance.

Sandler plays Bobby Boucher, a socially inept 31-year-old from the swamps of Louisiana. He is home schooled and sheltered by his over-protective Mama (played marvelously by “Misery” lady Kathy Bates).

Boucher’s only contact with society is via a waterboy job for a college football team whose players relentlessly pick on him.

When the malignant coach fires his H2O-obsessed aide, Boucher goes job searching and lands a gig with the cowardly Coach Kline (Henry Winkler) and his Mud Dogs, who are on the verge of one of the worst losing streaks in college football history.

Boucher and Kline are quick to bond, and when players on the Mud Dog squad start picking on the stuttering waterboy, Kline steps in and encourages Boucher to fight back.

The waterboy finally unleashes years of pent-up rage with a the kind of tackle any linebacker would be jealous of.

Boucher becomes Kline’s prot‚g‚ and is transformed into the most devastating tackler in the league.

Mama’s not too down with her scrawny son playing football or going to college, so Boucher is forced to go behind the back of the only person who has never picked on him.

“The Waterboy” storyline is predictable, unrealistic and holier than church on Sunday. But it lends itself perfectly to the kind of post-“Animal House” college humor Sandler has instituted.

Boucher is not only hilarious, he’s lovable, which makes laughing at him that much more fun.

His fetish for clean water is cleverly amusing, while his pro wrestling tackling techniques conjure up images of Happy Gilmore throwing fists with Bob Barker.

Sandler also gives Boucher a speech impediment that never seems to get annoying and serves as the punch line for many a stab.

Like “Billy Madison” and “Happy Gilmore,” “The Waterboy” has a hilarious supporting ensemble.

There’s the unintelligible Farmer Fran, the cross-eyed lineman, the unshowered fans, the lonesome kicker, and, of course, the ex-con nympho girlfriend.

All of the characters provide an ideal stupid-humor backdrop for Sandler to shine on.

“The Waterboy” also consistently draws laughs from the stereotypes of Southern living. The Boucher household has a mule living in their home, and they have a strictly amphibian diet.

One of “The Waterboy’s” best scenes, and there are many to choose from, is when Boucher takes “seeing a girl” literally and leads two of his hottest fans into thinking he has numerous sexual relations, including one with his Mama.

After getting tough in “Bulletproof” and soft in “The Wedding Singer,” it is good to see Sandler go back to his roots in gag comedy.

On a scale of Sandler movies, “The Waterboy” ranks a pitching wedge above “Happy Gilmore” and a buffalo, live or stuffed, below “Billy Madison.”

4 1/2 stars out of five

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Corey Moss is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Urbandale.