Forgotten Television: The Stupids

Acclaimed by New Line Cinema as the “world’s simplest family,” the Stupids could turn the smallest incident into an epic battle between good and evil—while getting lost inside metaphorical paper bags each step of the way. This film appeared during the 90’s and gave us a comedy beyond the norm in the biggest sense, but it is best to explain it through a basic overview of the plot.

This movie begins when Stanley Stupid (Tom Arnold) notices that every week a truck stops before his house and steals away the garage his family puts out. Determined to track down these trash thieves, he hitches a ride on the back of the truck early one morning. Of course, he has not told the rest of his family about this. His wife, Jean Stupid (Jessica Lundy), immediately goes looking for her husband when she realizes he is gone—without telling the children about it.

When Buster and Petunia Stupid discover their father missing, they conclude he must have been kidnapped and decide to inform the police—assuming their mother is doing some grocery shopping. Of course, they decide to leave a note for her, which states the barest facts and seems to turn into a note saying the “police have kidnapped your children.”

After Jean Stupid returns home, she sees the note and fears the police have become hostile towards her family.

General mayhem ensues, which includes a perceived conspiracy for a guy named “Mr. Sender” (Stanley Stupid used to work as a postal worker) to ransom the garage of everyone in America—to a real conspiracy about a military colonel trying to illegally sell arms to foreign countries.

I really don’t want to spoil too much else about the story, because this is a film that is truly “so stupid it’s funny.” You have got to admire, in a slightly twisted way, the manner in which these people can make everything into an adventure. They are like overgrown children who will never mature.

Their discoveries are awe-inspiring as sliced bread. We might take such things for granted, but the Stupids would take one look at the sliced bread and think, “that’s not natural—someone is chopping the bread of honest people. We must put a stop to it!” Every revelation is miraculous, and it is possible to see their exaggeration of the mundane as a hint to appreciate what we can enjoy in our daily lives.  

Note: The best song from the film is entitled, “I’m My Own Grandpa.”