# Farrelly brothers
The Farrelly brothers, Peter and [Bobby Farrelly](https://www.edgepedia.org/bobby-farrelly), are American filmmakers from [Rhode Island](https://www.edgepedia.org/rhode-island) who wrote and directed a string of commercially successful comedies in the 1990s and 2000s, including *Dumb and Dumber* (1994), *Kingpin* (1996), *There's Something About Mary* (1998), and *Me, Myself & Irene* (2000).[1](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/a-fresh-pass-from-the-farrelly-brothers-2231450.html) Their mix of sweet, befuddled heroes, boundary-pushing gags about the human body, and warm sentimentality became identified with the "gross-out" comedy genre, which commentators credit them with establishing in the 1990s.[2](https://filmfarm.de/en/gross-out-comedy) Peter later directed the Academy Award-winning *Green Book* (2018) on his own.[3](https://time.com/5754196/dumb-and-dumber-25th-anniversary/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Who they are | Peter Farrelly and his younger brother Bobby Farrelly, comedy writers and directors raised in Rhode Island[1](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/a-fresh-pass-from-the-farrelly-brothers-2231450.html) |
| Debut | *Dumb and Dumber* (1994), co-written with Bennett Yellin; made for $16 million and grossing $300 million worldwide[1](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/a-fresh-pass-from-the-farrelly-brothers-2231450.html) • [3](https://time.com/5754196/dumb-and-dumber-25th-anniversary/) |
| Biggest hit | *There's Something About Mary* (1998), which took $176 million at the US box office[1](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/a-fresh-pass-from-the-farrelly-brothers-2231450.html) |
| Signature genre | Gross-out comedy combining bodily gags with romance and sentiment[2](https://filmfarm.de/en/gross-out-comedy) • [4](https://www.dga.org/craft/dgaq/issues/1003-fall-2010/profile--the-farrelly-brothers) |
| Directing partnership | Peter talks to actors while Bobby watches the monitor; they resolve decisions together after each take[4](https://www.dga.org/craft/dgaq/issues/1003-fall-2010/profile--the-farrelly-brothers) |
| Later solo work | Peter directed *Green Book* (2018), an Oscar winner, and *Ricky Stanicky* (2024) for Prime Video[3](https://time.com/5754196/dumb-and-dumber-25th-anniversary/) • [5](https://apnews.com/article/9719af7529251967921cbf36132839d9) |
## Origins and early career
Peter and Bobby Farrelly were raised in Rhode Island by their mother Mariann, a nurse, and their father Robert, a doctor. After college they worked unfulfilling jobs as salesmen and waiters while hoping for writing careers, and moved to Los Angeles in 1985, where they began turning childhood pranks into a comedy style built on toilet humor and a love of sports.[1](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/a-fresh-pass-from-the-farrelly-brothers-2231450.html) Peter studied in Columbia University's writing program, where he met his first writing partner Bennett Yellin; Bobby worked as a punch-up man on their scripts before leaving Rhode Island for Hollywood in 1989.[6](https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/never-think-of-somebody-else-when-you-write-the-farrelly-brothers/) Sources differ on the exact age gap: the [Directors Guild of America](https://www.edgepedia.org/directors-guild-of-america) profile calls Bobby the younger sibling by two years,[4](https://www.dga.org/craft/dgaq/issues/1003-fall-2010/profile--the-farrelly-brothers) while a Creative Screenwriting interview puts the gap at seventeen months.[6](https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/never-think-of-somebody-else-when-you-write-the-farrelly-brothers/)
Their first major credit came in 1992, writing two episodes of the television series *Seinfeld*.[1](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/a-fresh-pass-from-the-farrelly-brothers-2231450.html) Early mentors included the Zucker brothers, the slapstick team behind *Airplane!*, who taught them, in Peter's words, that comedy lies in how a character reacts to what happens rather than in what happens.[1](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/a-fresh-pass-from-the-farrelly-brothers-2231450.html) Peter has also cited *The Andy Griffith Show*, which they watched as children, as a tonal model: every episode made you laugh and also feel something, an approach he describes as taking time to make the audience love a character "so we can get away with murder."[4](https://www.dga.org/craft/dgaq/issues/1003-fall-2010/profile--the-farrelly-brothers)
## The films, 1994 to 2014
After a decade of rejected scripts and nearly abandoned projects, a producer suggested they direct their own screenplay, *Dumb and Dumber*, themselves. Neither brother knew what a director technically did; they hired experienced crew, admitted what they did not know, and kept the job.[7](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/11/farrelly-hilarious/) Starring Jim Carrey and [Jeff Daniels](https://www.edgepedia.org/jeff-daniels), the film became the biggest hit of its year's Christmas season.[3](https://time.com/5754196/dumb-and-dumber-25th-anniversary/) The first cut ran three hours and forty minutes; after repeated trimming, and some material added back, they settled on a running time of one hour and forty-eight minutes.[4](https://www.dga.org/craft/dgaq/issues/1003-fall-2010/profile--the-farrelly-brothers)
The AFI Catalog lists [Peter Farrelly](https://www.edgepedia.org/peter-farrelly)'s directing credits as *Dumb and Dumber* (1994), *Kingpin* (1996), *There's Something About Mary* (1998), *Me, Myself & Irene* (2000), *Osmosis Jones* (2001), *Shallow Hal* (2001), *Stuck on You* (2003), *Fever Pitch* (2005), *The Heartbreak Kid* (2007), *Hall Pass* (2011), *The Three Stooges* (2012), *Movie 43* (2013), and *Dumb and Dumber To* (2014), all shared with Bobby.[8](https://catalog.afi.com/Person/257739-Peter-Farrelly?isMiscCredit=False) *There's Something About Mary*, an R-rated romantic comedy starring [Cameron Diaz](https://www.edgepedia.org/cameron-diaz) and [Ben Stiller](https://www.edgepedia.org/ben-stiller), became the third highest-grossing film of its release year after a rocky debut.[5](https://apnews.com/article/9719af7529251967921cbf36132839d9) Bobby attributed its success to unexpectedness: there had not been an R-rated romantic comedy in a long time, so nobody saw it coming.[4](https://www.dga.org/craft/dgaq/issues/1003-fall-2010/profile--the-farrelly-brothers)
The run was not uniform. *Fever Pitch*, *Stuck on You*, and *The Heartbreak Kid* underperformed; their combined US gross did not approach *Mary*'s $176 million, and the brothers spent several years away from directing before returning with *Hall Pass* (2011).[1](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/a-fresh-pass-from-the-farrelly-brothers-2231450.html) They also worked as producers on films they did not direct, including *Outside Providence* (1999), *Say It Isn't So* (2001), and *The Ringer* (2005), a comedy in which [Johnny Knoxville](https://www.edgepedia.org/johnny-knoxville) plays a man who pretends to have an intellectual disability to fix the [Special Olympics](https://www.edgepedia.org/special-olympics).[8](https://catalog.afi.com/Person/257739-Peter-Farrelly?isMiscCredit=False) • [9](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2006/mar/24/9)
## Style and working methods
**The formula.** The brothers describe their method as building a character the audience loves before hanging outrageous gags on him. In *Dumb and Dumber*, they resisted studio pressure to cut an early, uncomedic emotional scene with [Jim Carrey](https://www.edgepedia.org/jim-carrey), arguing that the audience had to care about him before he sold a dead bird to a blind boy two minutes later.[4](https://www.dga.org/craft/dgaq/issues/1003-fall-2010/profile--the-farrelly-brothers) They reject the "gross-out" label as a simplification, arguing the humor fails without humanity in the characters, though Peter concedes they are "not bashful about pushing the envelope."[4](https://www.dga.org/craft/dgaq/issues/1003-fall-2010/profile--the-farrelly-brothers)
**On set.** Peter, the talkative one, deals with actors; Bobby, quieter, watches the monitor, and they confer after each take. Peter compares their partnership to other sibling teams such as the [Coen brothers](https://www.edgepedia.org/coen-brothers) and the Zuckers, arguing that two directors can hold a comic vision steady where one would eventually be ground down by studio compromise.[4](https://www.dga.org/craft/dgaq/issues/1003-fall-2010/profile--the-farrelly-brothers) They shoot from longer-than-usual scripts so they can trim in editing, and they rely on test screenings to learn what is funny; the snowball fight in *Dumb and Dumber* drew no laughter on set and only worked once cut together with a sound effect taken from the crack of [Hank Aaron](https://www.edgepedia.org/hank-aaron)'s 715th home run.[4](https://www.dga.org/craft/dgaq/issues/1003-fall-2010/profile--the-farrelly-brothers) Visually they favor bright but realistic contemporary locations, and they still set most films in their native Rhode Island and its environs, substituting similar-looking locations when weather does not permit filming there.[4](https://www.dga.org/craft/dgaq/issues/1003-fall-2010/profile--the-farrelly-brothers) • [1](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/a-fresh-pass-from-the-farrelly-brothers-2231450.html)
**Casting and representation.** They prefer trained actors over stand-up comedians, citing Jeff Daniels, Ben Stiller's ad-libbed mangling of [Brett Favre](https://www.edgepedia.org/brett-favre)'s name in *Mary*, and [Bill Murray](https://www.edgepedia.org/bill-murray)'s wholesale rewriting of his *Kingpin* role as examples of performers improving the material.[4](https://www.dga.org/craft/dgaq/issues/1003-fall-2010/profile--the-farrelly-brothers) After their friend Danny Murphy, paralyzed in a diving accident, complained that *Dumb and Dumber* had no disabled actors, the brothers made a practice of hiring actors with disabilities; on *Stuck on You*, about conjoined twins, they hired conjoined twins Lori and Reba Schappell as technical consultants and raised $1 million for charities by auctioning walk-on roles.[10](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-dec-07-ca-goldstein7-story.html)
## Reception and later careers
Critical reception of the brothers' work has been divided. The *Irish Times* laid blame for the decline of the American studio comedy at their door,[11](https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/has-film-comedy-been-dumbed-down-1.941449) while Richard Brody, film critic at *The New Yorker* since 1999, acknowledged the mechanical brilliance of their gags even in a negative review of *Dumb and Dumber To*, arguing that directors such as [Wes Anderson](https://www.edgepedia.org/wes-anderson) and Jared Hess had surpassed them in comprehensive cinematic style.[12](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/limits-gags-dumb-dumber) A 25th-anniversary retrospective in *Time* called the brothers genuinely open-hearted filmmakers while noting criticism of choices such as putting Gwyneth Paltrow in a fat suit for *Shallow Hal*.[3](https://time.com/5754196/dumb-and-dumber-25th-anniversary/)
The partnership later loosened. Peter directed *Green Book* (2018), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and *The Greatest Beer Run Ever* (2022), and returned to broad comedy with *Ricky Stanicky* (2024), starring Zac Efron and John Cena, which streamed on Prime Video after its script spent more than a decade in development with various stars attached.[3](https://time.com/5754196/dumb-and-dumber-25th-anniversary/) • [5](https://apnews.com/article/9719af7529251967921cbf36132839d9)
## References
1. [A fresh pass from the Farrelly brothers, The Independent (2011)](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/a-fresh-pass-from-the-farrelly-brothers-2231450.html)
2. [Gross-Out Comedy, Filmfarm Lexikon](https://filmfarm.de/en/gross-out-comedy)
3. [Revisiting the Genius of Dumb and Dumber 25 Years Later, Time](https://time.com/5754196/dumb-and-dumber-25th-anniversary/)
4. [We're Not Bashful, DGA Quarterly, Fall 2010](https://www.dga.org/craft/dgaq/issues/1003-fall-2010/profile--the-farrelly-brothers)
5. [After a decade in limbo, Zac Efron and John Cena's buddy comedy 'Ricky Stanicky' hits streaming, AP News (2024)](https://apnews.com/article/9719af7529251967921cbf36132839d9)
6. [The Farrelly Brothers: Career Interview, Creative Screenwriting](https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/never-think-of-somebody-else-when-you-write-the-farrelly-brothers/)
7. [Farrelly hilarious, Harvard Gazette (2010)](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/11/farrelly-hilarious/)
8. [Peter Farrelly filmography, AFI Catalog](https://catalog.afi.com/Person/257739-Peter-Farrelly?isMiscCredit=False)
9. [The Ringer review, The Guardian (2006)](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2006/mar/24/9)
10. [Are the kings of bad taste really a pair of softies?, Los Angeles Times (2003)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-dec-07-ca-goldstein7-story.html)
11. [Has film comedy been dumbed down?, The Irish Times](https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/has-film-comedy-been-dumbed-down-1.941449)
12. [The Limits of Gags: "Dumb and Dumber To", The New Yorker (2014)](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/limits-gags-dumb-dumber)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Film and television directors › Directors of the United States and Canada › Contemporary film directors › Directors debuting in the 1990s and 2000s*
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