Dumb and Dumber

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Dumb and Dumber is a 1994 film starring Jeff Daniels and Jim Carrey, directed by the Farrelly Brothers. Lloyd Christmas is a friendly, though somewhat sadistic and more than somewhat dimwitted, limo driver who lives with his Heterosexual Life Partner, Harry, in their Rhode Island apartment. Lloyd's life is turned around when he falls in love with Mary Swanson (Lauren Holly), a rich female client who leaves her suitcase at the airport. Lloyd talks Harry into going on a road trip to Colorado to return it.

A sequel, Dumb and Dumber To, was released in 2014, directed by the Farrelly Brothers and with Jeff Daniels and Jim Carrey reprising their roles.

Tropes used in Dumb and Dumber include:
  • Anticipatory Breath Spray: Except he misses his mouth entirely
  • Animated Adaptation: The Hanna-Barbera-produced Dumb and Dumber cartoon in 1995, which featured a female beaver named Kitty as the Straight Animal to Lloyd and Harry.
  • Attempted Rape: Sea Bass attempts it on Lloyd.
  • Beat Still My Heart / ...And Show It to You: During his dream sequence, Lloyd rips the Kung-fu Chef's heart out of his chest and shows it to him (before putting it in a doggy bag and giving it back).
  • Big Damn Heroes: Harry has two of these moments: in the gas station bathroom where he foils Sea Bass' Attempted Rape of Lloyd and again in the hotel near the end when he's accompanied by the FBI.
    • Although the first was unintentional.
  • Book Ends: Lloyd grabbing Harry by the head and saying "Do you realize what you've done?!"
  • Briefcase Full of Money: It drives the plot.
  • Brick Joke: The woman that Harry offends at the gas station shows up later in the film and reveals herself to be a FBI agent.
    • The blind kid Lloyd sold the dead bird to appeared in tears in a news report on TV much later in the film.

Mary: "Who are these sick people?"

    • In one of the alternate endings, the blind kid-dead parakeet joke would have been taken even further: in this ending it turns out that the blind kid is the nephew of Lloyd and Harry's butler at the hotel in Aspen and Lloyd and Harry were asked to babysit him.
  • Butt Monkey: Oh so many. Mental, Sea Bass, the blind kid, and Harry and Lloyd themselves.
  • Check, Please!
  • Chekhov's Gunman: See Brick Joke.
  • Comically Missing the Point: So many times.
    • "You mean, not good like... one out of a hundred?" "I'd say more like one out of a million." "...so you're telling me there's a chance!" "Husband!? Wait a minute... what's all that one-in-a-million talk?"
  • Cool Car: The Shaggin' Wagon. They even have it back in the cartoon.
  • Corpsing: During the "Most Annoying Sound" scene (which was ad-libbed by Jim Carrey), it's obvious that the actor who plays Mental is trying very hard not to laugh.
  • Diabolus Ex Machina: Not only does Mary have a husband, Harry and Lloyd stupidly turn down the job opportunity of a lifetime that involves rubbing oil all over supermodels.
  • Diner Brawl: Averted. Sea Bass just spits in Harry's burger, and then gets conned.
  • The Ditz: Lloyd and Harry personify this trope.
  • Downer Ending: Subverted.
    • They had planned on shooting an alternate ending, but Jim Carrey disagreed.
  • Drowning My Sorrows: Lloyd does this when he believes that Mary stood him up.
  • Dyeing for Your Art: Lloyd's chipped tooth is real - Jim Carrey had chipped his years previously, and had it uncapped for this film.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: "You don't kill people you don't know. That's a rule!"
  • Evil Laugh: Lloyd's sadistic laugh after exacting revenge on Harry.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Some people have found that, rather than being funny, the movie is just... dumb.
  • Extreme Doormat: Harry. Throughout the movie, he comes off as a little smarter and more sensible than Lloyd but for the most part goes along with everything Lloyd does partly because he's just very passive.
  • Fan Service: Mary during Lloyd's dream sequence.
  • Greasy Spoon
  • Groin Attack: Lloyd's dream sequence includes an extremely exaggerated one.
  • Heterosexual Life Partners
  • Hey, It's That Girl!: Mary's stepmom is Inga.
  • Hilarity Ensues
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Mental dies after accidentally taking rat poison pills that he intended to spike Harry and Lloyd's drinks with.
  • I Drank What?: The scene where a cop pulls Lloyd and Harry over. He asks for them to give him their "beer", which is actually Lloyd's urine. He drinks it, much to his displeasure after doing so.
  • Imagine Spot: Lloyd has two: one while driving, which causes him to almost crash, and one at the end in a faux-Twist Ending, wherein he blows away Mary's fiancee.
  • Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: "Harry! You're alive! And you're a horrible shot!"
  • Incredibly Lame Pun: "Life's a fragile thing, Harry. One minute you're chewing on a burger, the next minute you're dead meat."
  • Indulgent Fantasy Segue: Near the end when Lloyd imagines killing Mary's husband.
  • I Like Those Odds. Qualifies as sort of a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.

Lloyd: I want to ask you a question... straight out, flat out... and I want you to give me an honest answer. What do you think the chances of a guy like you and a girl like me... ending up together?
Mary: Well Lloyd... that's difficult to say... you really don't...
Lloyd: Hit me! Just give it to me straight! I came a long way just to see you Mary. The least you can do is level with me. What are my chances?
Mary: Not good.
Lloyd: (gulping) You mean, not good like one out of a hundred?
Mary: I'd say more like... one out of a million.
Lloyd: (Beat, then grins happily) So you're telling me there's a chance.

Harry: Freda and I had such a wonderful time. But right after the blue, she send me a John Dear letter.
Lloyd: Did she give you any reason?
Harry: Yeah I called her up. She gave a bunch of crap about not me listening to her or something... I don't know I wasn't paying attention.