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Punk rock has long harbored an unpleasant predilection for bodily fluids. Like the trail of a loogie, it stretches back to Iggy Pop, who was known to spill blood (an unintended byproduct of his fearless stage diving) and puke (an unintended byproduct of his heroin addiction) on stage during The Stooges heyday. Tales of his grotesquerie were picked up by subsequent generations, including young, loud and literally snotty Dead Boys singer Stiv Bators, who would eat his own boogers mid-performance and a phalanx of phlegmatic U.K. punks who spit on bands as a sign of approval. But when it comes to disgusting, no one rivals the Pavarotti of poop, the one and hopefully only GG Allin.

Allin’s infamy grew over the course of the 1980s with an onslaught of offensiveness on nearly every level. There were his backing bands, with names like The Texas Nazis, The Aids Brigade, and most famously, The Scumfucs. Then there were his songs, which included such compositions as “Drink, Fight & Fuck,” “Eat My Diarrhea,” and “Bite It You Scum.” But it was in the heat of performance that Allin truly made his name, where, donning little more than combat boots and a G-string, he would defecate on stage, fling his excrement at the audience, and engage in an ongoing fistfight with any and all willing (or unwilling) participants.

As might be expected of someone with his own tombstone tattooed on his chest, GG was not long for this world. He died of from a drug overdose in 1993, soon after the completion of the documentary Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies, which enshrined his legend and launched the career of director Todd Phillips. 25 years later, his story has been revisited in the new documentary, GG Allin: All in the Family, which is currently streaming on Showtime.

Rather than focus solely on GG, All in the Family profiles his surviving family members, who seem to still be wrestling with the life he lived and death he foretold in such songs as “Live Fast, Die Fast.” There is his mother Arleta, who raised him as a single parent after fleeing an abusive husband, and his brother Merle Allin, who played bass in GG’s final backing band, The Murder Junkies.

The film opens with Arleta and Merle bemoaning their inability to properly mourn GG. Much as Christ said, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” fans of the “King of Scum” felt the ultimate tribute was to piss and shit on his grave. We later learn GG was named Jesus Christ Allin at birth, so perhaps their behavior was apt. However, neither the Allin family nor the graveyard appreciated the gestures, and his tombstone has since been removed. It’s a good starting point, since it lets viewers know what they’re in for: if you’re easily offended or grossed out, this might not be the movie for you.

The Allin brothers grew up poor in a New Hampshire mountain town. Their mother left their father after she found him digging their graves, and later worked 3 jobs to support the boys, who were mostly left on their own. Merle and his younger brother, renamed Kevin, spent their free time doing drugs and dreaming of becoming rock stars and played in a succession of bands in and around New England.

As GG’s bad reputation grew, Merle settled down and got married. Arleta says sibling rivalry drove both boys’ interest in music, and Merle admits being jealous of his brother’s fame, while recognizing how his audiences’ expectations of outrageous behavior drove him “further and further and further” over the edge. GG became addicted to drugs and alcohol and landed in prison in 1989, shortly after proclaiming he intended to commit suicide on stage on Halloween, 1990. While he was away, Merle put together The Murder Junkies, and upon his release the band began touring in defiance of his parole conditions.

Touring encouraged both GG’s outrageous behavior and drug abuse, and he overdosed on heroin following a 1993 performance in New York City, which ended with him rolling around on Avenue B, buck naked and covered in his own excrement, stopping an MTA bus in its tracks. Death put no end to The Murder Junkies, who toured for the remainder of the decade and have recently hit the road again. Merle makes his living selling GG collectibles, from his old clothing to reissues of his records, saying, “Everybody loves GG, so I keep his legacy going by pimping his shit.” His mother, meanwhile, thinks it’s a way to avoid dealing with his loss.

If Merle is living a life inspired and funded by his brother’s example, Arleta rejects the “stupidness” that drove GG to his death and others to emulate him. “I loved Kevin but I hated GG Allin,” she says, claiming he had a split personality disorder. She spends her old age grieving over one son, and worrying about the other, fearing he’ll die alone. When Merle visits and plays her a new song The Murder Junkies have recorded called “Sucking On Your Pussy On A Friday Night,” she responds by asking, “Hey Merle, is it my fault that you’re such a jerk?” I would argue that no, it is not.

GG Allin: All in the Family is gross, depressing and ultimately unsuccessful in either explaining Allin’s life or delivering any sense of closure to those who mourn his death. But like any number of gag-inducing live performances you can find of GG Allin online, full of blood, feces and fisticuffs, it’s hard not to watch it all the way through. Even if it makes you sick to your stomach.

Benjamin H. Smith is a New York based writer, producer and musician. Follow him on Twitter:@BHSmithNYC.

Stream GG Allin: All In The Family on Showtime