How to Craft a Dumb Joke That's Actually Funny
'The whole assignment of the movie, the moment it was Liam in 'Naked Gun,' is: Honor the spirit of the originals, but now it's starring the 'Taken' guy,' Schaffer said in a video call. 'What can you make him say and make him do?'
But their interrogation isn't just about Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr. delivering a hilarious monologue about the perils of going viral in prison in front of a bad guy's henchman (Kevin Durand). Instead, it became about an elaborate set piece. Once Frank gets the hospitalized criminal to confess, he asks an unseen colleague on a wire, 'Did you get all that?' The walls of the hospital room fall down, revealing it was all an elaborate ruse. But then Frank is caught in a trap. Turns out his style of information gathering isn't exactly legal. His fellow cop announces she's actually from internal affairs, and asks another unseen figure if they got 'all that.' The walls of her structure rise to show that the deception is twofold. But then it's revealed that she also broke the law, and so on.
It's a complicated sight gag that the writers hoped captured the spirit of the original 1988 movie, which starred Leslie Nielsen and was part of the Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams and David Zucker stable of comedies. 'The essence of these movies is that hopefully there's a joy in the audience being like, 'I can't believe this is what they spent their money on, something this stupid,'' Mand said.
So how did they accomplish a scene this ridiculous? Schaffer, Gregor and Mand broke down the steps of their comedic process.
Step 1: Do your research
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