1998’s A Fish Called Wanda was a zany heist comedy starring Jamie Lee Curtis as the title character. It had a script written by Monty Python alumni John Cleese, who also featured in a lead role opposite Curtis. The movie was a major success in its time and led to accolades for almost all of its major players. Screenwriter Robert McKee references it multiple times in his script-writing manifesto: Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting. To this day, it’s considered by many to be a near-perfect comedy.
Curtis would eventually win an Oscar for the comedy-drama Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), but her performance in A Fish Called Wanda showcases her comedic prowess perfectly. Cleese himself was immensely impressed with Curtis before he ever cast her in the film. The over-the-top nature of A Fish Called Wanda was considered so hilarious by certain members of its viewing audiences that it famously induced a medical emergency.
A Man Died From Laughing While Watching A Fish Called Wanda
While there are many scenes in A Fish Called Wanda that are memorable, one in particular sent a member of the audience over the edge. Sources differ at what point in the film the incident took place, but the result was the same: a man in the audience passed away while watching the film. A year following the film’s initial release, a 56-year-old Danish audiologist (Dr. Ole Bentzen), in supposedly good health, laughed himself to death while watching the movie in a local cinema. In an interview with Stephen Colbert in 2018, Cleese said of the man’s death, “I’m not sure how one should go, but I think laughing is probably the best.” In the same interview, Cleese talked about how when he related the incident to Kline, Kline’s first response was to ask which scene induced the man’s cardiac event. Thought Catalog claims it was the scene in which Kline stuffs French fries up Michael Palin’s nose.
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Still, Cleese has generally maintained that the breadth of the film’s humor contributed to the man’s passing. Bentzen’s assistant was quoted as stating, “I was shocked to hear him break out laughing like that. The next thing I knew, he was dead.” According to Cleese, in both his interview with Colbert and a 2018 Vanity Fair article, the man’s escalating laughter throughout the entire run of the film is what caused his death. Said Cleese, “I think it is the ultimate compliment. He started laughing after about 15 minutes in, and literally never stopped. We tried to contact his widow, because we wondered about using this in the publicity. I think we decided it was in too bad taste.” Cleese also referenced the fact that this came 20 years after the Monty Python sketch “The Funniest Joke in the World,” about a man who writes a joke so funny, he dies from laughter. A true case of art imitating life.
Indeed, the hijinks in A Fish Called Wanda earn every laugh they receive. The film still ranks highly on Rotten Tomatoes with a 96% critics score and 84% audience score from audiences. The critics’ consensus calls it a “smartly written, smoothly directed, and solidly cast” and adds that it “offers a classic example of a brainy comedy with widespread appeal.” Indeed, the film combines both highbrow and low-brow elements of comedy. From the stolidly straight-laced awkwardness of Cleese’s Archie Leach (the real-life moniker of classic film icon Cary Grant) to the cartoonish escapades of Palin attempting to unsuccessfully murder an old lady. A Fish Called Wanda genuinely strikes a balance for its viewership.
One of the most surprising aspects of the success of A Fish Called Wanda is its ability to impress both American and British audiences. While the two countries share a language, the same cannot always be said of their sense of humor. Even the popular Ricky Gervais creation, The Office, had to go through some major adjustments to please audiences “across the pond” and become a marketable television series in the United States. But Cleese’s script manages to balance the slapstick elements of American humor with the dry and even outrageous, borderline absurdist, nuances of the British. Cleese admitted in the Vanity Fair article that there were times when he was trying too hard to make Archie funny, and he had to “take the character down a bit.” What viewers end up getting is a superb interplay between Archie’s uptight Englishness and Wanda’s American forthright attitude.
The Role of Wanda in A Fish Called Wanda Was Written for Jamie Lee Curtis
Curtis had left an impression on Cleese with another performance of hers. Cleese had gone to see a movie with one of his daughters, and he was completely taken with her performance in Trading Places (1983). When he approached Curtis, she did not believe him at first. Curtis assumed that when Cleese called her home he was actually trying to get to her equally famous husband, Chris Guest (This Is Spinal Tap actor and writer). Cleese assured her, “I’m writing this movie for you, and Michael Palin, and Kevin Kline, and myself. I’d like you to do it. I promise you you’ll have a great time. It’ll be very funny, and it’ll be very successful. I’m sure of it.” Cleese was not a prophet so much as he seemed to know how to assemble the right sort of talent for his project.
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What Curtis showcases in her performance is her knack for comedy. Daughter of Hollywood legends Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis, she has spoken about her desire to prove herself as a “nepo baby” in the industry. It took her years of putting her prowess as a legitimate actress on full display to receive the highest honors the film industry has to offer. Something Cleese seemed to hone in on earlier than others. And when watching her performance with Cleese, she manages to match energy and stand toe-to-toe with one of Britain’s most well-known humorists. Like Cleese and Palin, she does not seem to consider herself above anything — such as writhing on the floor in ecstasy as Cleese spouts Russian.
It’s almost unsurprising that Curtis won the Oscars and Screen Actors Guild Award for her performance as Deirdre Beaubeirdre in Everything Everywhere All at Once. The seeds for that role were planted in A Fish Called Wanda. What works in Curtis’ comedic performances is that she grounds her characters in reality while playing the comedy. Of playing Deirdre, she said, “I know women like Deirdre Beaubeirdre. I think we all do. We all have had so many disappointments, so many opportunities that then break your heart. And I think that Deirdre’s heart has just been broken. I know her. And I love her.” And while she plays a somewhat pathetic IRS worker in that film, she still manages to gain sympathy in its dramatic moments. With Wanda, you truly believe she’s cunning, somewhat eccentric, but also truly in love with Cleese’s Archie by the end of the movie (impossible as it may seem).
Kevin Kline Won His First and Only Oscar for a Fish Called Wanda
Although Curtis would not receive high accolades for another film until years later, Kline got his Academy nod for A Fish Called Wanda. Kline played an egocentric conman named Otto West who hates to be considered stupid. He is, in fact, not the brightest bulb in the box. It’s not often that the Academy acknowledges comedic performances for the feats they truly are, and Kline’s was the only one in the Best Supporting Actor category that year. Cleese related that he based the character on a Zen Buddhist teacher that he once saw in an advertisement. He said the man looked “singularly unimpressive” and that he wanted to write Otto as “not smart enough to realize how stupid he was.” And Kline makes an entire meal out of that idea.
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A Fish Called Wanda has a genuine powerhouse of comedic talents. It returned to the cultural zeitgeist in 2018 when it celebrated its 30th anniversary, allowing audiences more peeks behind the scenes of how the proverbial sausage was made in crafting one of the most memorable comedies of all time. The cast reunited in 1997 for the film Fierce Creatures, which did not end up packing quite the same punch as A Fish Called Wanda. Still, it serves as a tie-in and pseudo-sequel with Cleese playing Rollo, Archie’s twin brother. If anything, it serves as a passable appetite suppressant for anyone hungry for more of the magic served up in its predecessor.
A Fish Called Wanda
- Release Date
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July 15, 1988
- Runtime
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108 min
- Director
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Charles Crichton, John Cleese
- Writers
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John Cleese, Charles Crichton
