When 2001’s Super Troopers came out, it launched American comedy troupe Broken Lizard into the status of comedy cult icons. This success led to films like Beerfest and Club Dread, as well as truTV show Tacoma FD which is entering its fourth season. Super Troopers even got a sequel after raising crazy amounts of money online. All of these projects have something of a blue collar feel, featuring satirical takes on the lives of policemen, firefighters, or regular middle class dudes just partying and living their best lives. This is why their latest film, Hulu’s Quasi, is a far departure from what the Broken Lizard team usually tackles, set in the Middle Ages and providing a silly take on the classic story of lovable hunchback Quasimodo. As it turns out, this isn’t much of a departure for the group at all, as it simply harkins back to their time playing dress-up as an up-and-coming sketch comedy troupe.
I recently caught up with the whole Broken Lizard gang to talk all things Quasi. Kevin Heffernan, whom you may know as Super Trooper’s beloved character Trooper Rod Farva, served as the film’s director, marking a first for Broken Lizard cinema. When I asked why they wanted to depart from their regular blue collar formula, where they found all of their initial success, he gave me the following explanation:
Oh, well, this is something that we wrote a long time ago, and I think, you know, this is what we kind of love about it, is that it's so different. It's such a departure from those stories, and it kind of takes us back to our sketch comedy days where we would put, you know, silly wigs and costumes on. And it's always the kind of film we wanted to make. But the way the industry works, you know, you kind of end up doing things that, you know, leap from one to another. And so after Super Troopers 2, we got the opportunity to try something different, and this was the kind of script we dusted off. And I think we're all excited that we did it because it's so, it has such a different feel to it.
So this blue collar vibe is something the group fell into, and in a sense, they felt stuck all of these years. Now they can go down new avenues with their storytelling, and if you’ve seen the film, you know that they get really goofy with it.
Not that the formula they established previously is a bad thing, as it’s proven to be rather successful. As previously mentioned, Tacoma FD is still going strong, CW rebooted Beerfest as a TV movie, and we can even look forward to a third Super Troopers, which it turns out may happen sooner than you think. (Complete with a ridiculous Marvel crossover).
Additionally, Heffernan's comments imply that the classic Broken Lizard formula also paved the way for Quasi in a very direct way. When he mentions that Super Troopers 2 allowed them the "opportunity to try something different," one can only imagine he's referring to the film's box office take of over $30 million. That might not seem like much when compared to a modern blockbuster, but the film was funded largely through crowdsourcing, and when you consider home video sales it more than doubled the budget that came from private funding. Not to mention, it's a larger take than the iconic first film, which took home $23 million. With Super Troopers 3 presumed to begin filming this year, all those involved clearly considered the second installment to be a financial success.
Aside from all of the projects on the horizon, the group seems incredibly proud of their new film Quasi, which you can watch on Hulu right now! If you’re not yet subscribed, we’ve got the lowdown on everything you need to know about Hulu, as there’s a ton of killer new content on the streamer and plenty that’s coming soon.
