Information about There's Something About Mary

There's Something About Mary
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Bobby and Peter Farrelly
Produced by	Bobby and Peter Farrelly
Written by	Booby and Peter Farrelly Ed Decter
Starring	Ben Stiller Cameron Diaz Matt Dillon Chris Elliott Lin Shaye W. Earl Brown Lee Evans Jeffrey Tambor Sarah Silverman Keith David Harland Williams
Cinematography	Mark Irwin
Editing by	Christopher Greenbury
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	July 15, 1998
Running time	Theatrical cut 119 min. Extended cut 134 min.
Language	English
Budget	$23 million
Gross revenue	$176,483,808
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

There's Something About Mary is an American 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.

The movie has made $176 million in the U.S. alone and $369 million worldwide.^[1]

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 Healy (Matt Dillon) to track her down living in Miami, 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 who will use depraved measures to be near her.

Cast

• Cameron Diaz as Mary Jensen
• Matt Dillon as Pat Healy
• Ben Stiller as Ted Stroehmann
• Lee Evans as Tucker / Norman Phipps
• Chris Elliott as Dom Woganowski
• Lin Shaye as Magda
• Jeffrey Tambor as Sully
• Markie Post as Sheila Jensen
• Keith David as Charlie Jensen
• W. Earl Brown as Warren Jensen
• Sarah Silverman as Brenda
• Khandi Alexander as Joanie

Reaction

The movie's over-the-top and sometimes disturbing gross-out humor earned it an R rating from the MPAA, but made it a smash hit at the box office. The most notorious scene features Stiller's character masturbating and losing track of his semen. 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.

Greek Chorus

Proto-punk singer-songwriter Jonathan Richman and drummer Tommy Larkins serve as a two-man Greek chorus, intermittently breaking the fourth wall and singing directly to the audience to further or reinforce the plot. The use of this device was an homage to Cat Ballou^[2], which employed the same technique with Nat 'King' Cole and Stubby Kaye. Richman also contributed the title song. Although they are both skilled at playing their instruments, their characters in the film mime quite poorly to the recordings.

Similar "hair gel" occurrences

• Filmmaker Kevin Smith wrote a scene similar to the "hair gel" scene for Mallrats three years earlier, in which Jay and Silent Bob masturbate while watching Joey Lauren Adams in a dressing room and ejaculate over the wall. However, the scene was heavily re-written after being deemed tasteless by the studio, who said "nobody will ever laugh at cum in the hair". 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, where Smith also explicitly states that this is a coincidence, not the result of somebody stealing his jokes.)
• 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 animated 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. Cameron Diaz, star of There's Something About Mary, was hosting Saturday Night Live that evening.
• As a promotional giveaway item, branded hair gel sample packets were released. The back of the packet lists instructions on use and inserts several sexual innuendos ("work in with hands", "results will come naturally").
• The 'hair gel' scene is also in the Steps' musical video, "Say You'll Be Mine'
• Spencer's Gifts sold bottles of "There's Something About Mary" Hair Gel.

References

External links

• Official site
• There's Something About Mary at All Movie Guide
• Retro Junk
• Killer Movies