Paramount eventually brought the guys one they liked, and it became a whole lot more than just some prop in the background of a movie full of random, hilarious detals. “The one was The Whoopee Boys, and we were like, ‘What is this?’ Because we had never even heard of it,” Schaffer explained. “We just knew it was this incredible poster. So we put it up in the room and talked about it a lot.”
While “Hot Rod” might have been originally written with Will Ferrell in mind, it was Sandberg who played the wannabe stuntman Rod Kimble, who ends up trying to save the life of his stepfather, played by Ian McShane, only so that he can finally kick his ass. It’s a ridiculous premise and the commitment to that is what makes it work — right down to filling the background with ridiculous stuff, like this poster.
“There was also a lot of improvisation based around the poster that didn’t make it into the movie,” Schaffer also added, saying that some of the riffing was about “The Whoopee Boys.” Even though there was much to distract themselves with on set, this poster became something they focused on. That’s when producer John Goldwyn came into play, as he was able to turn this into more than an obscure reference for the cast and crew.
“We talked about it so much, John Goldwyn, who was Lorne’s [Michaels] producing partner at the time, kind of the head of Lorne’s Paramount movie making company — he was on set the whole time — and we kept bringing it up to him. He is from Samuel Goldwyn, like MGM Goldwyn, so he knows everything. and he used to work at Paramount as an exec, and he knew a lot about the movie. We were like, ‘Could you get us a screening of it?'”
