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Peter and Bobby Farrelly essentially invented the gross-out comedy genre with the 1994
smash Dumb And Dumber. The brothers look back fondly at their first big hit and explain why it
has taken so long to bring Harold and Lloyd back to the big screen in Dumb And Dumber To.
But of all the movies we
have made, Dumb and Dumber sets
itself up for a sequel the best.
passed on us. But we found out years later, they
did not really pass. Their agents passed.
Their agents just saw the title, Dumb and
Dumber, and threw it away.”
However, the Farrellys ended up having the
last laugh: Dumb and Dumb went on to
to become a huge hit and effectively
created a whole new genre, the
gross-out comedy.
Now the siblings have returned
to the characters who started it all,
Harold (once again played by Jim Carrey)
and Lloyd (Jeff Daniels), for a long
overdue sequel Dumb and Dumber To.
The pair may now be a bit older but
they are certainly not any wiser and
the new film finds them embarking
on another disaster-prone road trip
to locate Harry’s newly discovered
daughter.
So why the sequel now?
Peter Farrelly replies: “We
are doing it now because the
stars aligned. But we thought
of it about 15 years ago. Jim Carrey was
unavailable at the time and we kind of dropped
the ball. Then, about five years ago, Jim saw
the original Dumb and Dumber on TV, got the
bug to do another one, called us, and we were
ready to go.”
“We have never done a sequel,” continues
Bobby. “But of all the movies we have made,
Dumb and Dumber sets itself up for a sequel
the best.”
According to the brothers, the great thing
about Harry and Lloyd is they do not change.
They haven’t grown in maturity, they have got
the same apartments, they haven’t got new
jobs, and they still don’t have much luck with
the ladies.
“All they have is each other,” continues Peter.
“Because of that you are able to take a very
similar ride with these guys that you took on the
first one. And it truly is a great ride.”
Although it had been 20 years since Carrey
and Daniels had played the dim-witted duo, it
didn’t take long for them slip back into character.
Says Bobby: “We do not even really rehearse,
do we? We do a read-through, but it is not even
really a rehearsal. I think once the guys get
their hair right, they go right back into those
characters.”
On the first Dumb and Dumber film, Peter
got the director’s credit but on the sequel – as
with most of their other subsequent films – they
shared directorial duties. Peter says they tend to
share film-making duties equally.
So what’s the secret of the long-running film-
making partnership – how do you work together
for that many years and remain on good terms?
“We do not agree all the time,” admits Bobby.
“A lot of times we will see things differently. But
if Peter sees it differently, I respect his opinion
and I will take a second look. You might fight for
a day or two, you do not carry any grudges.”
“W e just wanted to do a movie about
two dumb guys who go on the road to
Aspen,” recalls Peter Farrelly. “And
then as it kept going we started having more
and more fun with the stupidity of these two
guys. Of course, the rest of Hollywood did not
understand it.”
It’s hard to believe now but back in 1994 the
concept of gross-out comedy didn’t really exist,
so when struggling screenwriters Peter and his
brother Bobby first started pitching their idea for
what would become Dumb and Dumber, they
received a very lukewarm reaction.
“People would always read it and say, ‘that’s
funny’, says Bobby. “And then
they would hand it to whoever
at the studio and it would just
get to a point where someone
would say, ‘this is dumb’.”
Peter adds: “Well, we
always thought that a
hundred actors had
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