MAJOR NASTY

Like it or not, at the right is what passes for much of today’s popular entertainment. You want audience-antagonistic, shock-oriented put-down experts? You got ‘em! Left to right, from the top:

Always outrageous GRACE JONES has kept everyone from Conan to James Bond on the defensive. Don’t mess with her, boys.

The raucous BEASTIE BOYS (photo by Glen E. Friedman) continue keeping pop music in a spin with their embarrassing, antisocial behavior.

Tongue-dancing? The DAI RAKUDA KAN dancers from Japan give new meaning to the term lip service in a butoh spectacle. (Photo: Aurelio Barrera.)

The Mouth: JOAN RIVERS. (Nothing more needs saying.) Photo: Peter Borsari.

That ole nasty PREDATOR (played by Kevin Peter Hall in the current Arnold Schwarzenegger actioner). Anyone crazy enough to get in this thing’s way deserves to be skinned and swallowed.

Screamer-shocker comedian SAM KINISON (photo by Bonnie Schiffman). If you can’t hear this guy coming, you’ve got to be out of the country.

The Sly guy’s wife, BRIGITTE NIELSEN, wields her pistol in “Beverly Hills Cop II” with cold-blooded brutality. Not even a sign of remorse.

Directly below Mrs. Stallone, a sign of nastiness on an RTD bus that apologizes for something L.A. radio big-mouth JAY THOMAS just might say. Photo: Jack Gaunt/Los Angeles Times.

The Sneer: Rock’s BILLY IDOL comes across as your run-of-the mill, debauched rebel yeller. Photo: Carol Bernson)

British dance’s bad, bad boy, MICHAEL CLARK. How many other men look this good in a tutu? Photo: Richard Haughton.

Kidnaping as humor? Stranded baby Nathan Arizona, in the recent movie “RAISING ARIZONA,” was the victim. Talk about running things into the pavement. . . .

The Shocker: Performance artist KAREN FINLEY is known as a foul-image maker. She’s proved that yams aren’t just for Thanksgiving anymore. Photo: Nickard/High Performance.

KIEFER SUTHERLAND is a punk in the film “The Lost Boys.” Nothing so bad about that, except he’s sadistic and has this unquenchable lust for blood.

Photo collage by Ralph Fowler.