Peter and Bobby Farrelly were complete unknowns in 1994 when they stormed multiplexes with the smash comedy hit “Dumb and Dumber.” It was the third Jim Carrey movie of that year, and by far the funniest. With its unabashed gross-out gags (Jeff Daniels’ explosive diarrhea sequence is a classic of the very low form) and aggressively silly shenanigans, the film ushered in a new era of buffoonish humor that made Jerry Lewis’ work look like drawing room farces. (/Film ranks “Dumb and Dumber” as the Farrellys’ finest effort to date.) The Farrellys then doubled down on their sickening shtick with the box office disappointment “Kingpin” in 1996, only to rise to putrescent prominence two years later with the raunchy blockbuster “There’s Something About Mary.”
While folks inside the industry were semi-familiar with the Farrellys as peddlers of comedy pitches, mainstream moviegoers were struck, well, dumb by their rapid ascent. So, those hungry for more Farrelly comedies while they waited for the brothers’ fourth feature, “Me, Myself & Irene,” took to the IMDb in search of previous credits. What they found was a writing credit for Peter on a 1987 Paul Reiser comedy special and, most intriguingly, a story credit for Peter and Bobby on “Seinfeld.” But while no one was surprised to learn that these two comedy dynamos had written for the funniest sitcom of the 1990s, their go-for-broke gross-out style felt a little over-the-top for the acerbic series.
So, which “Seinfeld” episode was it, and why didn’t they write more?
Peter and Bobby Farrelly were responsible for The Virgin
Peter and Bobby Farrelly share a “story by” credit with longtime “Seinfeld” writer and producer Peter Mehlman on the season 4 episode “The Virgin.” The series has many classic episodes, but if you’re a fan of the show this one should jump out for several reasons. After all, it’s the one where a) George gets Susan fired from NBC for kissing her in front of her coworker, b) Jerry begins dating a virgin, Marla, played by future “Frasier” star Jane Leeves, and c) Elaine creates tension between Jerry and Marla by blurting out a story about her diaphragm.
Nothing in the episode would be considered out of bounds for a network sitcom today, but in 1992 Elaine’s repeated, overtly stressed utterances of the word “diaphragm” probably caused some red-faced parents to abruptly switch the channel to PBS. That rapidly escalating bit of business, which earned crescendoing laughter, feels like early, vintage Farrellys. Was it? Perhaps not.
In a 2014 Reddit AMA, the brothers explained that their involvement in the episode ended with their pitch. In their own words:
PETE: Well, we hate to burst your bubble. But we sold the idea … and were given story credit for that one. But the actual script was written by Peter Mehlman. We sold the idea in a room where we pitched to Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld, and Larry Charles. By the way, those guys don’t laugh when you pitch them ideas; it was very scary. At least, they didn’t with us.
BOBBY: So it was very scary.
PETE: But we were very happy that they bought at least one of our ideas, and that was ‘The Virgin.’
I can’t imagine pitching a comedy to two geniuses like Seinfeld and David, and receiving a stone-faced response. That’s like the nuclear version of bombing on stage at a comedy club (indeed, the “Seinfeld” writers room was not a typical one). But they survived and sold the episode, and had “Dumb and Dumber” making scads of cash in theaters two years later. Thus concludes the Farrellys’ showbiz origin story.