‘Dude, Where’s My Car?’ Writer Calls Vision for the Film ‘Marx Brothers’ Meets ‘Cheech and Chong’

One of the most heavily quoted films that came out of the early 2000s was born of pure fun.

Dude, Where’s My Car? screenwriter Phil Stark penned an essay for The Hollywood Reporter discussing the changes in movies and pop culture since the 2000 film’s release.

Stark began by talking about being in his mid-twenties while writing the screenplay, which combined different elements of things he and his friends found funny at the time.

“The idea was to channel the Marx Brothers through the filter of Cheech and Chong, presented via the one-long-crazy-night movie paradigm. It was full of things that made the 25-year-old me laugh: fake rap videos, dogs getting stoned and large-breasted aliens,” Stark recalled.

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It went from a penned project to reality when Stark shared the script with his agent. Fresh off of a writing credit on the first season of South Park [which] landed me a job on the writing staff of That ‘70s Show,” Stark had shown some sizable comedic chops.

Still, he was surprised when the film was picked up. Stark noted how, at that time, comedies were coming out in droves, with studios looking for the next funniest thing out there.

Of the early notes on the film, Stark revealed, “I got a note I could never have anticipated getting: We need a third dude. So I spent six months writing drafts of the script as an homage to ’80s teen comedies, where the two dudes became secondary characters to the main character, an Anthony Michael Hall type whose girlfriend dumped him and who enlists the dudes to help win her back.”

While the project went on to another producer and Danny Leiner signed on as director, they “went back to the original script.”

Next, Stark was asked what he thought of Ashton Kutcher as one of the dudes, recalling, “The producers reached out to ask me about this Ashton guy I was working with. ‘Was he funny? Was he a good actor? Did I think was right for the role?’ ‘Hilarious, totally and absolutely,’ were my replies,”

“Then Seann, who was in the process of experiencing how the role of Stifler in American Pie would completely change his life, came on board, and we had the perfect dudes.”

Dude, Where’s My Car? follows Jesse (Kutcher) and Chester (Scott), two friends who wake up one morning after a night of partying and cannot remember where they parked their car. They embark on a hilarious journey to find it, joined by their girlfriends, Wilma (Marla Sokoloff) and Wanda (Jennifer Garner), along the way.

The film was a success for all parties involved and led Stark to other opportunities, which he explored while continuing to write for That ’70s Show. Eventually, the industry changed, as did the parameters around comedy.

Stark went on to leave the industry and go back to school and get a master’s degree in psychology and become a therapist. He recently revisited the film with his kids and found a combination of nostalgia and “cringe.”

“Comedy has changed dramatically in the past quarter-century. This became apparent to me upon a recent DWMC rewatch, when I was struck by just how much I cringed at the humor. And it wasn’t just because I was watching it with my kids, for whom I am the ultimate source of cringe. What made me cringe is how, 25 years later, some of the comedy feels so dated, even offensive,” he wrote.

“Sure, the tone is light and silly and the humor comes largely from the charming and stone-y performances of Ashton and Seann. But there is plenty of humor that plays at the expense of transgender people, ethnic minorities, women, gay men, religious cults and Fabio. Did it feel this cringey 25 years ago? I don’t think so. The humor seemed appropriate at the time. But then again, so did Matchbox Twenty.”