Peter and Bobby Farrelly have been full unknowns in 1994 once they stormed multiplexes with the smash comedy hit “Dumb and Dumber.” It was the third Jim Carrey film of that yr, and by far the funniest. With its unabashed gross-out gags (Jeff Daniels’ explosive diarrhea sequence is a traditional of the very low type) and aggressively foolish shenanigans, the movie ushered in a brand new period of buffoonish humor that made Jerry Lewis’ work seem like drawing room farces. (/Movie ranks “Dumb and Dumber” because the Farrellys’ most interesting effort so far.) The Farrellys then doubled down on their sickening shtick with the field workplace disappointment “Kingpin” in 1996, solely to rise to putrescent prominence two years later with the raunchy blockbuster “There’s One thing About Mary.”
Whereas of us contained in the trade have been semi-familiar with the Farrellys as peddlers of comedy pitches, mainstream moviegoers have been struck, effectively, dumb by their speedy ascent. So, these hungry for extra Farrelly comedies whereas they waited for the brothers’ fourth function, “Me, Myself & Irene,” took to the IMDb searching for earlier credit. What they discovered was a writing credit score for Peter on a 1987 Paul Reiser comedy particular and, most intriguingly, a narrative credit score for Peter and Bobby on “Seinfeld.” However whereas nobody was shocked to be taught that these two comedy dynamos had written for the funniest sitcom of the Nineties, their go-for-broke gross-out type felt a little bit over-the-top for the acerbic collection.
So, which “Seinfeld” episode was it, and why did not they write extra?
Peter and Bobby Farrelly have been accountable for The Virgin
Peter and Bobby Farrelly share a “story by” credit score with longtime “Seinfeld” author and producer Peter Mehlman on the season 4 episode “The Virgin.” The collection has many traditional episodes, however when you’re a fan of the present this one ought to bounce out for a number of causes. In spite of everything, it is the one the place a) George will get Susan fired from NBC for kissing her in entrance of her coworker, b) Jerry begins courting a virgin, Marla, performed by future “Frasier” star Jane Leeves, and c) Elaine creates pressure between Jerry and Marla by blurting out a narrative about her diaphragm.
Nothing within the episode can be thought-about out of bounds for a community sitcom at the moment, however in 1992 Elaine’s repeated, overtly careworn utterances of the phrase “diaphragm” most likely triggered some red-faced dad and mom to abruptly change the channel to PBS. That quickly escalating little bit of enterprise, which earned crescendoing laughter, seems like early, classic Farrellys. Was it? Maybe not.
In a 2014 Reddit AMA, the brothers defined that their involvement within the episode ended with their pitch. In their very own phrases:
PETE: Effectively, we hate to burst your bubble. However we bought the thought … and got story credit score for that one. However the precise script was written by Peter Mehlman. We bought the thought in a room the place we pitched to Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld, and Larry Charles. By the best way, these guys do not giggle while you pitch them concepts; it was very scary. At the least, they did not with us.
BOBBY: So it was very scary.
PETE: However we have been very blissful that they purchased not less than one in every of our concepts, and that was ‘The Virgin.’
I am unable to think about pitching a comedy to 2 geniuses like Seinfeld and David, and receiving a stone-faced response. That is just like the nuclear model of bombing on stage at a comedy membership (certainly, the “Seinfeld” writers room was not a typical one). However they survived and bought the episode, and had “Dumb and Dumber” making scads of money in theaters two years later. Thus concludes the Farrellys’ showbiz origin story.