Dumb and Dumber sequel to resume the mantle of stupidity

Filmmakers Bobby and Peter Farrelly talk about how the prequel vindicated them in Hollywood.

LOS ANGELES: After two decades, the hit goofball comedy Dumb and Dumber is back as Dumb and Dumber To, and the sequel owes a big thanks to an unlikely ally: cable television.



The adventure-comedy, based around ‘idiots’ Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey) and his best friend Harry Dunne (Jeff Daniels) became an enduring hit. And writer-director brothers Bobby and Peter Farrelly hold that it wouldn’t have been possible without the boost it got from continuous play on cable networks TBS and TNT.

“People watched it over and over and over,” said Bobby, 56, before the sequel’s US release on Friday. “It had a different life of its own because they [the cable networks] always had it on... a whole generation of kids know every line,” he added.

Similar to the first film, the sequel is a road trip comedy of stupidity and bathroom humour but, this time, the duo is in search of Harry’s long-lost daughter, his last hope for a kidney donor. “There have been a lot of movies about ‘dumb’ people, but I believe the thing that people come back to is they like them,” said Peter, 57.

Although it is unlikely that the sequel from Universal Pictures will eclipse its predecessor’s $127 million in US ticket sales, the first film’s prominent position in pop culture offers a measure of vindication for the There’s Something About Mary directors.

The brothers said they have fought studio bosses to keep some of what have now become the film’s most memorable and ‘stupid’ jokes. “All the things that are popular now are things that weren’t really funny [to the studio executives] at the original test screening,” said Bobby.

The duo believes they found strength in their own numbers when they had to push back against studio demands. “Eventually, you start feeling like a whiny little baby because you’re fighting and fighting, and you start feeling bad,” Peter said. “Then, the other guy says, ‘No, no, no. Keep it up.’ That’s how we do our best, when we hold each other up.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 16^th, 2014.

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