6 Jokes From the New ‘Naked Gun’ Trailer That Actually Feel Like the Old ‘Naked Gun’
The summer movie season is upon us, and in addition to dinosaurs, superheroes and Fridays of the freaky variety, we’re getting a brand new Naked Gun movie. The reboot of the iconic comedy franchise replaces the late Leslie Nielsen with Liam Neeson, who stars as the chronologically-baffling Frank Drebin Jr.
The movie, directed by The Lonely Island’s Akiva Schaffer and produced by Seth MacFarlane, released a teaser trailer earlier this year. And while audiences praised the teaser’s meta O.J. joke, the rest of it felt a little off. The weirdly violent clips of Neeson’s Drebin dressed as a schoolgirl murdering bank robbers arguably didn’t match the tone of the original spoof.
Well, now Paramount has debuted a full-length trailer for The Naked Gun. Thankfully, this one actually contains some gags that actually feel of a piece with the other Naked Gun movies.
Frank Receives a Cup of Coffee While Driving
Early in the trailer, we see Neeson’s Frank casually driving his car, when a hand reaches through the open window and hands him a cup of coffee. This one actually feels not unlike a joke from another Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker project: Airplane! The scene where Rex Kramer drives to the airport similarly toyed with the falsities of movie car scenes.
“Take a Chair”
When Frank first meets his love interest, played by Pamela Anderson, he instructs her to “take a chair.” Naturally, she takes hold of the seat and drags it down the hallway. A classic dumb joke that feels kind of like the old “Cigarette?” “Yes, I know” exchange from the first episode of Police Squad, which was later repurposed for Naked Gun 33⅓.
“You Served 20 Years for Man’s Laughter”
Perhaps the funniest joke in the entire trailer comes when Frank interrogates a suspect (played by Busta Rhymes) and notes that he served “20 years for man’s laughter.” The man clarifies that it was actually manslaughter. “Must have been quite the joke,” Drebin responds.
Police Squad Becomes a Spirit Halloween
At some point in the movie, Police Squad gets shut down. As Frank’s fellow officers shuffle out of the building, it’s already being transformed into a Spirit Halloween. Sure, this may have been inspired by a modern meme, but the earlier Naked Gun movies were also full of surreal background details.
The Poster
The studio also unveiled a new poster, featuring Neeson and Anderson and a truly staggering number of hands.
This isn’t the first time that the franchise has joked about extra, unexplained appendages.
Frank’s Driving Skills
The trailer ends with Frank inadvertently tearing a hole in a jailhouse wall with his new electric car, cluelessly remarking that “this place is falling apart.” Obviously, Frank’s terrible driving was a staple of the first three movies, so it’s not surprising that the reboot would continue that trend. And the fact that he doesn’t realize that he’s the cause of the disaster feels very on brand.
