There's Something About Mary
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There's Something About Mary is an English language film released in 1998 by 20th Century Fox, directed by Bobby Farrelly and Peter Farrelly (the Farrelly brothers). A combination of romantic comedy and gross-out film, it stars Ben Stiller, Cameron Diaz, Matt Dillon, Chris Elliott, Lin Shaye, W. Earl Brown, Lee Evans and Jeffrey Tambor, with cameo appearances by football star Brett Favre (who plays himself), Sarah Silverman, Keith David, and Harland Williams.
This sleeper hit was the third-highest-grossing movie of 1998 in North America—the highest-grossing comedy—and it catapulted Stiller into the limelight. Until Wedding Crashers was released in 2005, There's Something About Mary was the most successful youth-aimed R-rated comedy film at the box office.
There's Something About Mary was placed 27th in the American Film Institute's 100 Years, 100 Laughs: America's Funniest Movies (see the 100 Years Series), a list of the 100 funniest movies of the 20th century. In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted it the 4th greatest comedy film of all time. This film is number 4 on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies.
Plot
An awkward and shy high-schooler, Ted (Ben Stiller) lands a prom date with his dream girl Mary (Cameron Diaz), just to have it cut short by a painfully humiliating zipper accident. Thirteen years later he's still in love—maybe even obsessed—with the one that got away, so he hires sleazy private detective Pat (Matt Dillon) to track her down, only to have Pat fall for the irresistible Mary as well. Ted and Pat resort to lying, cheating and stalking in their competition for Mary, and discover that they're not the only men (or women) who will use depraved measures to be near her.
Reaction
The movie's over-the-top and sometimes disturbing gross-out humor earned it an R rating, but made it a smash hit at the box office. The most notorious scene features Stiller's character masturbating and losing track of his ejaculate. Diaz's character notices it clinging to his ear, mistakes it for extra hair gel, and spreads it in her own hair. The "hair gel" scene spread by word of mouth, and later ads for the movie capitalized on its notoriety.
Trivia
- Coincidentally, filmmaker Kevin Smith shot a similar "hair gel" scene for Mallrats three years earlier in which Jay and Silent Bob ejaculate over a dressing room wall and into the hair of Joey Lauren Adams. However, the scene was cut after being deemed tasteless by the studio. Smith apparently regrets this decision and has since noted that "cum in the hair is gold". (This information is from the Mallrats audio commentary track.)
- The "hair gel" scene was once again spoofed in the TV show Family Guy. In the episode "The King is Dead" from season 2, Stewie Griffin plays Mary and uses the "hair gel" in his hair, causing it also to stand up.
- The "hair gel" scene was also spoofed in a TV Funhouse animatated skit on Saturday Night Live. As Bill Clinton was preparing a videotaped message, a gooey substance (in reference to the Lewinsky scandal) fell onto his head. He then rubbed it into his hair, causing it to stand up.
- San Francisco 49ers quarterback Steve Young was originally slated to play Brett Favre's role. Young later backed out and was replaced by Favre when he objected to the vulgarity of the film (Young is a staunch member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).
- While Ben Stiller was being lifted into the ambulance after his "zipper incident", the ambulance workers drop the stretcher he was on then quickly pick it back up. This wasn't in the original script, but the directors Bobby and Peter Farrelly thought it was much funnier than the original plan, so they decided to leave it in.
External links
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