--- ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) # 'Dumb and Dumber' Sequel Setback: The End of Gross-Out Comedies? by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Jun 13, 2013 9:45 AM UTC  01 Jan 1994 --- FILM 'DUMB AND DUMBER' BY PETER FARRELLY --- Image by © Bureau L.A. Collection/Sygma/Corbis 01 Jan 1994 --- FILM 'DUMB AND DUMBER' BY PETER FARRELLY --- Image by © Bureau L.A. Collection/Sygma/Corbis© Bureau L.A. Collection/Sygma/—© Corbis. All Rights Reserved. by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Jun 13, 2013 9:45 AM UTC When [_The Hollywood Reporter_](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dumb-dumber-sequel-dropped-by-565702) broke the news that Warner Bros. had decided to give up on _Dumber and Dumber To_, the planned sequel to 1994’s hit _Dumb and Dumber_, fans of _DaD_ creators Bobby and Peter Farrelly must have been upset. The movie was supposed to be shooting right about now, with Jeff Daniels and [Jim Carrey](http://topics.time.com/jim-carrey/) reprising their roles—the pair being conspicuously absent in the 2003 non-Farrelly prequel _Dumb and Dumberer_—and, as of September, the Farrelly brothers had [tweeted](https://twitter.com/farrellybros/statuses/250761754110476288) that they were just about done with the script, a story in which the two stars go on a road trip to find the long-lost child of one character in hopes of attaining a kidney transplant. The movie may still get made, but the directors will have to shop it around for new money and distribution now that the studio doesn’t think it’s worth the time and the $30-million-ish budget that _THR_ reports would be required to get the job done. For those who haven’t been following the Farrelly Brothers, the reaction—even if slightly upset for nostalgia’s sake—was probably much more _huh?_ than _darn._ But yes, the Farrellys are still making movies at a steady clip. They just haven’t managed to re-capture their box-office magic of the ’90s. Gross and stupid doesn’t seem to be selling these days. The pair made their names with _Dumb and Dumber_—though Bobby Farrelly didn’t actually receive a directing credit on the film—and the film has [grossed](http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=dumbanddumber.htm) $127.2 million against a $17 million budget. Though their next film, _Kingpin_, had modest box-office numbers, it was less than four years before _There’s Something About Mary_ came along. Since its 1998 debut, that movie has made [$176.5 million](http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=somethingaboutmary.htm) domestically, having only cost $23 million to make. And it was pretty much all downhill from there: _Me, Myself and Irene_ did pretty well ($90.6 million in 2000), _Shallow Hal_ did a little less so ($79.8 million in 2001) and follow-ups like _Stuck on You_, _The Heartbreak Kid_ and _The Three Stooges_ all earned in the 30-40 million-dollar range. (**MORE**: [High Grossing: Movies That Make Their Audiences Sick](http://entertainment.time.com/2011/11/29/high-grossing-movies-that-make-their-audiences-sick)) Maybe their movies just got worse: compare Richard Corliss’ review of [_There’s Something About Mary_](http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,988738,00.html)to Mary Pols’ take on[ _Hall Pass_](http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2055185,00.html). Maybe it’s the diminished box-office power Farrelly-friendly actors. To look at the chart of [1994’s top movies](http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=1994&p=.htm), by domestic gross, is to visit a past populated mostly by Jim Carrey. The No. 6 movie of the year was _Dumb and Dumber_. At No. 9, _The Mask_. At No. 16, _Ace Ventura: Pet Detective._ They’re not his highest-earning films (hello, _How the Grinch Stole Christmas_) but there’s no denying 1994 was a heck of a year for the actor. His three most recent movies, however, have been disappointments: _The Incredible Burt Wonderstone_ (which _THR_ cites as a reason for Warner’s decision), _Mr. Popper’s Penguins_ and _I Love You, Phillip Morris._ But it’s not just the people involved. Look at the live-action comedies that _have_ been successful in recent years—stats below from Box Office Mojo—and it’s clear that the Farrelly brothers got left behind: --- > “” --- Leaving aside the most superficially awesome thing about this list—that _21 Jump Street_ came in at 21—this is very clearly not 1994\. With a few possible exceptions of (full disclosure: I did not see _Grown Ups_ or _Paul Blart_ or _Little Fockers_) these 15 films represent a broad swath of comedy styles far from that strange combination of sweet-and-gross that the Farrellys traffic in. Sure, there are moments of disgustingness—_Bridesmaids’_ dress-boutique scene, for example—but _Dumb_ and _Mary_ were, in part, _about_ being gross. When _Mary_ came out, Roger Ebert [wrote](http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/theres-something-about-mary-1998) that it was “an unalloyed exercise in bad taste”—and that he liked it. _Entertainment Weekly_ [wrote](http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20454496,00.html) up the trend: for 1998, “goopy bodily substances and odors are the happiest of happy topics among moviegoing adults.” As for _Dumb and Dumber_, the New York _Times_ review noted that the “funniest scene in the movie involves a powerful laxative, a broken toilet and some graphically colorful sound effects.” For better or worse, poop jokes—like so many movie stars of past decades—seem to have lost their box-office luster. There are definitely nice things about the new comedy scene (for example, more room for comedies like _The Proposal_ and _Bridesmaids_ that were made by women). And maybe it means we’re all just a little more sophisticated, even the teenage boys among us. We’re more interested in either the absurdism of Will Ferrell or the jaded cynicism of _The Hangover_ than the naïve, low-brow world of the Farrelly ouevre. Seth MacFarlane is the most obvious heir to their gross-out throne, but _Ted_‘s grossness is a more grown-up, crude and self-aware; he laughs at sex, for example, like a frat boy bragging rather than a high-schooler bewildered. Or maybe it’s not that we got smarter but that, like someone spending enough time in a smelly room that it just stops smelling, we’ve seen so much it’s just not that gross anymore. (**MORE**: [Is There an Epidemic of Nudity on Prime-Time TV?](http://entertainment.time.com/2013/06/10/is-there-an-epidemic-of-nudity-on-primetime-tv)) Dumb and Dumber To, Sequel, Shunned by Studio ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7118615/dumb-and-dumber-sequel-setback-the-end-of-gross-out-comedies/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7118615/dumb-and-dumber-sequel-setback-the-end-of-gross-out-comedies/"},"headline":"'Dumb and Dumber' Sequel Setback: The End of Gross-Out Comedies?","datePublished":"2013-06-13T09:45:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-25T05:55:44.019Z","description":"When The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Warner Bros. had decided to give up on Dumber and Dumber To, the planned sequel to 1994's...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7118615/dumb-and-dumber-sequel-setback-the-end-of-gross-out-comedies/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte97228018484f9b3/698a8ec0b21a9c24df50fb14/wp0000302882-005.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte97228018484f9b3/698a8ec0b21a9c24df50fb14/wp0000302882-005.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"FILM 'DUMB AND DUMBER' BY PETER FARRELLY","caption":"FILM 'DUMB AND DUMBER' BY PETER FARRELLY","creditText":"© Bureau L.A. 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