David Spade has been “pleasantly surprised” with the reception of his new movie, “Busboys.”
On X, which Spade told me garners “the most vicious” opinions, the feedback has been about “96% positive.”
But in that 4%, one guy gave it a withering F-minus.
‘I don’t think we need the minus,” Spade quipped. “I got the picture.”
The “Saturday Night Live” alum, who now hosts the “Fly On the Wall” podcast with Dana Carvey, is particularly interested in what people are saying. After all, both he and movie co-star Theo Von spent more than $3 million of their own cash to make the crude comedy, about two sweet but naive idiots striving to become waiters.
Spade wanted to work with Von, whose “This Past Weekend” podcast is regularly one of the most popular on YouTube, and the pair bonded over their shared experience of working as busboys who never achieved the rank of waiter.
He called “Busboys” an “expensive experiment” because they wanted test releasing a direct-to-consumer movie through Von’s web site.
But as it all came together, theaters actually called. The scrappy production, which feels like a fun fusion of “Dumb and Dumber” and “Waiting,” opened last Friday in 800 theaters worldwide. It reportedly pulled in $1.65 million the first weekend.
Without traditional bosses or gatekeepers, the pair were free to discharge absurd jokes and one-liners that might not have made it past the PC police.
That includes the running gag with Von’s character, Steef, working dirty jobs to buy his mother — a sloppy brute of a lady — what has always eluded her.
That would be a penis.
Steef, whose father is in prison, is desperate for the love of a parent, so he tries in earnest to please his mom.
“It’s sort of nice in a way that Theo wants to help the situation so he can have a dad. It’s heartfelt to him,” said Spade, adding the spirit of the movie and the gender-bending joke wasn’t mean. “That’s the thing we wanted to avoid. But we’re making fun of everything and every situation possible.”
Mean, no. Ridiculous? Certainly.
Comedian Tim Dillon plays a closeted restaurant manager paying men for sex in the restroom when he’s not berating the staff. And Spade’s character’s romantic interest works at a sperm bank.
In other words, it’s vintage Spade, complete with a few ratty wigs to rival “Joe Dirt.”
I hope it’s a sign that we’ve shed the stifling sensitivity of the last decade or so — and can finally acknowledge the wide gulf between what our cultural gatekeepers said was appropriate and what audiences really wanted.
Spade said he felt things loosening up as he made the dark comedy “Outcome,” just released on Apple, with Keanu Reeves and writer/director Jonah Hill — which includes a joke about Kanye West and antisemitism.
“Jonah has some pretty rough jokes, and I was like ‘Oh good’ … at least he’s taking swings and doing things that are a little out of the box for a movie these days,” said Spade, adding he hopes “everyone can just shrug and go, ‘I like it or I don’t like it.’ But it doesn’t have to start problems.”
Despite the small budget for “Busboys,” Spade did splurge to get Poison songs in the flick. And they filmed in Los Angeles, which wasn’t the cheapest option. But it was after the 2025 fires, and Spade wanted to get people working in a town that seems to no longer make many movies.
“I think it’s an important subject, and I sort of ragged on Gavin Newsom about it, and Karen Bass … I’m ragging on whoever is in charge,” he said. “Why do we have these huge studios, where I’ve done many shows, and they’re closing and going bankrupt? You’re like, ‘How could this happen?’
“This is Tinseltown. This is Hollywood. It’s like closing a coal mine in Pennsylvania.”
Would he vote for mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt, who has talked about resuscitating the city’s film business by removing red tape and bringing down costs?
“I don’t know yet until [the race] gets closer,” Spade said. “But I do like that he’s talking about it, because it needs to be talked about.”
Until then, he is interested in seeing how his experiment fares. And he has his own gauge for longterm success: if fans repeat lines from the movie back to him.
“That means a lot to me,” he said. “If I see one Halloween costume, I’ll be happy.”
