The Smartest Part of Dumb and Dumber

Today I'm going to talk about the smartest part of Dumb and Dumber.

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Scott's Self-Indulgent Movie Podcast · Episode 957: The Smartest Part of Dumb and Dumber

One of the biggest frustrations with modern Hollywood movie making is comedies. Or rather...where the hell are they? As stand-up is arguably as big as its ever been, TV comedy is often free to be as incisive and ridiculous as it wants, why aren't movies matching up? Which is how you can get to people looking at movies like Happy Gilmore or today's movie Dumb and Dumber and opine that "they don't make them like this anymore." And I know my wife would love it, if they did. Because silly-as-hell 90s comedies featuring Jim Carrey are some of my wife's favorite things. Almost no moment of this movie is played seriously. Every moment of tension is immediately undercut by jokes. And there's an emphasis on over-the-top physical gags that even the comedy movies that do get made, tend to avoid. But there's another thing I realized about Dumb and Dumber. As stupid as the action on screen is, the integration of the bits into the plot, is almost flawless. Yes really.

So today I'm going to talk about the smartest part of Dumb and Dumber.

Bits Vs. Plot

Comedies are a historically disrespected genre because they're seen as unserious. But in reality it requires a lot of craft and instincts to construct an effective comedy.

Why? Because crafting bits is comparatively easy. But integrating bits into your story or plot is hard.

Every "bit" in a comedy is essentially a small scale sketch inside a larger movie. Like a weird customer service interaction or an awkward encounter with a former romantic partner.

And generally speaking they work a lot better if there's plot-related or character motivation behind them. For instance, there's an extended montage in Palm Springs where our two leads go from the "figuring it out" portion of the time loop into the "fucking around" portion. Which is crucial to these two characters becoming closer and eventually developing an attraction to one another.

This is where a lot of the riff-heavy comedies can get lost, because the riffs are amusing, but they're not an integral part of the story. They're a distraction from the story.

And as silly as the movie is, at almost every imaginable level, nearly every bit in Dumb and Dumber is either guided by or contributes to the plot in some way. Wait what plot? Exactly.

The Plot You Kinda Forget About

The actual plot occurring in Dumb and Dumber isn't a personal exploration road trip. It's a hostage situation gone wrong. Jim Carrey's Lloyd unwittingly picked up a briefcase full of a ransom payment so now they've got criminals who want to find out who they are and perhaps threaten or kill them. And that is the snowball that gets pushed from the top of the hill and sets everything in motion.

Lloyd picking up the briefcase to chase after Mary gets him fired. It also puts the hitman and hitwoman on his trail, who try to send a message by visiting Lloyd and Harry's apartment, which they believe is a bill collector. Then they kill Harry's bird, and that, combined with losing all of their money, gives Lloyd and Harry enough motivation to hit the road towards Mary to return the briefcase.

Which now means the criminal duo will try to pursue them to see what they know and who they work for, and get the briefcase back.

Everything around the briefcase is woven into the movie's bits either directly or indirectly.

Look At This Progression

The crowning achievement in terms of this mixture of bits and plot momentum, is perfectly demonstrated by the movie's middle third where Lloyd and Harry are on the road having misadventures.

Here's an example.

Shortly after their dustup with Sea Bass, Harry and Lloyd pick up the hit man Joe, who wants to ensure Harry and Lloyd aren't made guys or fellas you shouldn't kill. This is how we get the "wanna hear the loudest sound in the world" bit, singing "Mockingbird" and end up at the hot chicken place. Joe, who it's already been established has an ulcer, gets hit with the hot sauce and ends up on the floor in pain, right after he discovers the dumb truth behind Harry and Lloyd's venture and looking to kill them. 

But they accidentally kill him instead after feeding him not his ulcer medication, but the poison he wanted to kill them with. This puts the F.B.I. on Harry and Lloyd's trail as well, and makes the second assassin back off.

At their next stop, Harry speaks with a nice woman, who is later brought back as an F.B.I. agent that's been checking in/keeping track of these two, while Lloyd goes to the bathroom and hey look there's Sea Bass from earlier (pay off to an earlier bit), Harry catches himself on fire and scares away F.B.I. lady and puts oout the flames in the toilet and inadvertently saves Lloyd who can barely function. Closed one loop and opened another.

And now Harry is both burned and tired and insists Lloyd drives. Lloyd has an extended flight of fancy, which means he misses the turn for Colorado...and also the road block the F.B.I. had prepped for them.

 So now we get a reason for Harry and Lloyd to have a conflict, lose their car (this sets up some more physical gags), and to throw everyone off their trail because no one is looking for two guys on a minibike.

And on and on and on we go.

The Lesson: Script Construction is Important

The biggest fault with a lot of modern comedies isn't a lack of talent, comedic chops or ideas. More often than not it's because the movie isn't well constructed. Which means the movie feels like a series of bits versus a story.

What Dumb and Dumber proves is that structure and how these bits reinforce or push the story forward is important. Open one loop while you close another. Bring back a joke and punctuate it with the end of another joke. It's a bunch of stupid bits tied together by clever script construction.