101 Funniest Screenplays

“We went nine years in Hollywood without getting a movie made,” Peter Farrelly told Newsweek. “But we had a good attitude.” The drought ended with Dumb and Dumber, an unlikely hit in which Jim Carrey, a hot comedic star, and Jeff Daniels, heretofore seen in dramatic roles, half-resurrected The Three Stooges as two surprisingly likable buffoons. If Dumb and Dumber, released in 1994, didn’t alone give rise to the gross-out comedy invasion, it performed some key reconnaissance. “Whether engaged in pranks, or putting the make on women, or stumbling through attempts to finesse, Dumb and Dumber’s two lovable losers blow the lid off pretensions and go on a kind of idiot ride with such amazing dexterity and often bold caprice that the film becomes a surprising satire of American culture,” wrote Peter Stack in the San Francisco Chronicle.

WATCH: The Farrelly Brothers on the line between outrageous and funny