In 1994’s Dumb and Dumber, Jeff Daniels and Jim Carrey’s characters, Harry and Lloyd, have a couple of memorable encounters with a menacing truck driver named Sea Bass (as portrayed by former NHL player Cam Neely). The first time the pair cross paths with Sea Bass is at a diner that they stop at on their way to Colorado. Harry hits Sea Bass with a salt shaker by accident, prompting Sea Bass to spit in his food. Lloyd then comes up with a plan to get back at Sea Bass: He tells the cashier that Sea Bass offered to pick up their check, and he and Harry hightail it before anyone realizes what they’ve done.
As Harry and Lloyd laugh about the scam afterward, Harry praises Lloyd and wonders how he came up with the idea. “Saw it in a movie once,” Lloyd tells him. “So the guy tricks some sucker into picking up his tab, then gets away with it scot-free?” Harry asks. “No, in the movie, they catch up with him half a mile down the road and slit his throat,” Lloyd explains, adding, “It was a good one.”
You can take a look at the entire segment below.
One of ‘Dumb and Dumber’s Best Jokes Was Actually a Deep-Cut Jeff Daniels Reference
That whole exchange was actually a clever reference to a movie Jeff Daniels did early on in his career: the 1986 comedy-thriller Something Wild, co-starring Melanie Griffith and Ray Liotta. In the film, Daniels plays investment banker Charlie Driggs, who falls in love with a woman who calls herself Lulu (Griffith). There’s just one problem: Her ex-convict husband, Ray (Liotta), just got out of prison and is looking to rekindle their romance. Toward the end of the movie, Charlie pulls the same trick on Ray that Lloyd did on Sea Bass in Dumb and Dumber:
However, Lloyd’s recollection of how things played out from there is a little off. While Ray does manage to track Charlie down later on, he doesn’t end up getting his throat slit at any point. In fact, it’s Charlie who gets the upper hand during their big fight scene when he accidentally stabs Ray with his own knife. You can check out the sequence in question right here:
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