Number One With a Mullet: David Spade on the Return of ‘Joe Dirt’
David Spade has carved out a long showbiz career by sticking to the sidelines — a six-year run on Saturday Night Live during the Adam Sandler-Chris Farley years, in which his best-known characters were a smarmy flight attendant (“Buh-bye”) and an even smarmier celebrity reporter for Weekend Update; playing the straight man/second banana to Farley in the hit Tommy Boy (1995) and its follow-up, Black Sheep (1996); a sitcom supporting player on ensemble shows like Just Shoot Me, 8 Simple Rules and Rules of Engagement; one of the many dudes that make up the cinema du Sandler‘s rep company (yup, that’s him as the uncredited transvestite groupie in I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry). He may kill as a stand-up comic, but his solo turns in the spotlight don’t tend to showcase his strengths or inspire his fans to squeal with giddiness — with one notable exception.
Since its release in 2001, Joe Dirt has slowly but surely morphed into a cult hit, the kind of movie that’s passed from one friend to the next like a puff-ready spliff (how much such recreational items can be credited for the movie’s reappreciation over the years, of course, is anyone’s guess). Playing the titular mullet-sporting, broom-brandishing janitor at an L.A. radio station, Spade found an absurdist story that seemed to fit his sensibility. A sequel wasn’t exactly an inevitability, but 14 years later, another Dirt-y adventure — Joe Dirt: Beautiful Loser — will hit TV screens on July 16th, courtesy of Sony’s Crackle streaming network.
Still, as much as Joe Dirt has inspired its own devoted fanbase of “Dirtheads” — one that the 50-year-old comedian deeply appreciates — he appears extremely nervous about the prospect of another go-round. On the phone with Rolling Stone, he sounds confused that anyone would want to hear about the movie. “At eight minutes, you’re gonna wanna tap out on me,” he jokes. “But hey, let’s give it a shot.”
So why does this movie exist?
[Laughs] The “why” is probably because I really liked it. The character’s a little different from other sarcastic, snarky things I’m known for. [Co-writer] Fred Wolf and I based Joe on these guys walking around Arizona or Montana carrying a gas can with their shirt off, you know? I would always see these guys; one time I saw a man walk into a bank, he had his shirt tucked into his back pocket, and he asked for an application. I was thinking, this guy doesn’t even have his shirt on — is he going to say, “If they hire me, they know I’m going to put it on.” Like, who are these people? In the first draft of Joe Dirt, he was sort of a methhead guy, a little sketchier. Then we decided to make it more this nicer guy who just can’t catch a break out there in the world.
A lot of people seemed to relate to that — besides Tommy Boy, I hear about Joe Dirt the most. We always wanted to do another one, and this guy Steve Mosko, who runs Sony TV, said “This might help get attention to Crackle if you want to do a sequel.” It’s not Star Wars, I understand that — there’s people that don’t like it. But the people who do like it, like it a lot, and there’s a loyalty there. I thought, this is the best one I have that could live on a bit.
At the end of the movie, you understand who the character is and what he’s doing; the second movie is sort of just him walking in place a bit. Was that a problem you had writing it?
Well, he’s an older guy who’s hooked up with Brandy (played by Brittany Daniel), and he’s got that part of him that doesn’t think that bad things should happen to him. That’s the part, I think, that hit a nerve with people — everyone’s mean and this guy’s just trying to be nice. People were like, “Where’s the dreadlocks?” and we sort of realized that if he was married to Brandy, she’s not putting up with that forever. She would say, “No, no, back to the mullet that I like.”