The Naked Gun Popcorn Bucket Directly References The Original Film's Best Joke

Novelty popcorn buckets are in no way the "hail mary" savior of getting people to leave their homes and go see a movie in theaters, but I appreciate the effort anyway. The buckets act as this bizarro memento of the moviegoing experience that often takes all sorts of shapes, sizes, and utilities. While theater chains had participated in creating these elaborately designed snack receptacles prior to 2024, the infamous "Dune: Part Two" sandworm opened the floodgates for theater chains to just go buck wild. "Deadpool & Wolverine" didn't waste any time with its risque design of what you're able to do with, erm, the Marvel character's mouth. (Put butter in it, of course, you sickos.)

I know some folks groan and scoff at the trendy concept behind these things, but I find them pretty amusing, especially if it's for a movie that has no business getting one. If you somehow never knew that "The Accountant 2" received a popcorn bucket of Ben Affleck's Airstream Camper, then now you do. Post-movie usages of popcorn buckets usually land in three categories: souvenir collectable ("Dungeons & Dragons"), potential sex toy (you know the one), or safety hazard. I remember laughing out loud at the tie-in design for "The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim," which was just a hammer that you could feasibly use as a weapon to bonk your friends on the head. Everyone's trying to make the next big viral sensation and while many of them come and go without a trace, the one for Akiva Schaffer's upcoming "Naked Gun" reboot made me giggle for a whole number of reasons.

Regal Cinemas revealed that the popcorn bucket for "The Naked Gun" will be a smiling beaver holding a log that says "nice beaver." Lift the flap on its back and *boom* you're eating that sweet corn of pop. This is one of those cases where, if you haven't seen the other movies in this series, the joke of its existence may be slightly lost on you. But for those that have seen 1989's "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad," this is a hilarious reference to one of that film's best visual gags.

I've seen "The Naked Gun" more times than I could feasibly count, to the point that I have many of its jokes committed to memory. Having to single out the best gags in a David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker flick seems like a Herculean task, but one of the most memorable bits is when Det. Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) meets Jane Spencer (Priscilla Presley) for the first time. The secretary walks up a ladder, which prompts Frank to tell her "nice beaver" in a casual tone while appearing to look up her skirt. Jane responds rather hilariously with "thank you, I just had it stuffed," before passing down a literal stuffed beaver to the bumbling detective below.

Other popcorn buckets have attempted to push the limits of decency, but this one lets the innuendo speak for itself. It got a good laugh out of me this morning, and that's not nothing. But now it has my mind scrambling as to how it ties into the new "Naked Gun." The only conclusion I can make is that the stuffed beaver from the '89 film will somehow appear in the film as a gag centered on legacy sequels revering an object from past installments. I can already envision Liam Neeson dusting it off while looking through his dad's stuff as if it were Luke Skywalker's lightsaber.

Nice beaver. 🦫

Get your tickets now for #NakedGun, arriving in theatres August 1. The Beaver Bucket is coming soon to Regal.

🎟️: https://t.co/QKhyst2dYB pic.twitter.com/hKkiVXRzT7

— Regal (@RegalMovies) July 14, 2025

The marketing team for the new "Naked Gun" has been on fire with its promotional material, with the O.J. Simpsons joke selling me on the whole affair. If this movie is successful, it could pave a triumphant return of goofy comedies getting wide release in movie theaters again. They're so few and far between on account of most of them being relegated to streaming services these days, and that's a shame because the Coolidge Corner recently showed a 35mm print of "Jackass: The Movie" and I can't tell you how much catharsis came from a full auditorium of people laughing at pure dumb nonsense. "The Naked Gun" (2025) has the power to do the same.

The beaver popcorn bucket will unite the masses. Even better is once the movie's over, there's a great alternate use for it. Sure, you can eat out of it in the comfort of your own home, but in my eyes, the collectible has even greater potential for repertory screenings of one of the funniest comedies ever made: "Hundreds of Beavers." If we get enough people to buy these beavers and bring them to a showing en masse, the prophecy will be fulfilled.

"The Naked Gun" is set to hit theaters nationwide on August 1, 2025.