Over Your Dead Body's Lonely Island Easter Egg Was A Total Improv Accident [Exclusive]

This article contains minor spoilers for "Over Your Dead Body."

On the one hand, Jorma Taccone's new film as a director, "Over Your Dead Body," is a notable departure for the actor/comedian/filmmaker. His prior two features as a director, "MacGruber" and "Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping," had close ties to his history on "Saturday Night Live" and with his comedy music collective, The Lonely Island; he even co-directed "Popstar" with another Lonely Island member, Akiva Schaffer. By contrast, "Over Your Dead Body" is a gritty, character-driven, dark action comedy, with notes of drama and even horror peppered in. It stars neither him nor any of his SNL or Lonely Island cohorts, and instead of being a parody of '80s TV series or music documentaries, it's a remake of the 2021 Norwegian film "I onde dager" aka "The Trip."

On the other hand, "Over Your Dead Body" is very recognizably a Taccone joint. It's secretly a very savvy media/showbiz satire like his prior features; it's frequently hilarious; it features some banging original pop songs (some of which include guest vocals from the cast); and overall, it's a rollicking crowd-pleaser of a picture. As if there needed to be more proof that the marriage between director and material was a match, it turns out that there's a Lonely Island Easter egg in the movie, one which even Taccone himself wasn't aware of until his chat with /Film's Ethan Anderton. Ironically, as Taccone revealed, the Easter egg wasn't a planned reference but rather a bit of kismet. A certain vulgar insult heard in the opening minutes of "Popstar" also appears near the end of "Over Your Dead Body," and the line in question was improvised on set by actress Juliette Lewis!

Late in "Over Your Dead Body," Allegra (Juliette Lewis) is in a heated confrontation with Dan (Jason Segel), whose home she and her cohorts have invaded after absconding from a local prison. Allegra's a hardened, violent, emotionally volatile ex-prison guard, a woman who doesn't mince words. So it's not a surprise when she fires a nasty invective Dan's way, calling him "a mother-f—ing, t—ty sucking, two-ball b—ch." 

Yet as colorful as that phrase may be, it's not quite unique. When speaking with director Jorma Taccone, Ethan Anderton pointed out that the exact insult was used in the opening moments of "Popstar," specifically in the Style Boyz song "Rock Roll Skate." As Taccone explained, this wasn't a planned reference, but was Lewis' own improv, proving that the phrase had legs even he didn't realize:

"And by the way, that was Juliet improving. [...] And when she did that, I was like, 'Oh, s—t!' Because everybody has their own version of that from third grade, or I do, but I was very surprised when she said it. [,,,] I didn't realize that — I was like, 'I thought this was just a Northern California thing.' In normal life as an adult, you don't say that to someone. That doesn't come up as something that you say. [laughs] So yes, I was thrilled when she said it."

Although the reference was unintentional, it still counts as an Easter egg that ties "Popstar" and "Over Your Dead Body" together under the Lonely Island umbrella. This proves that Taccone and his Lonely Island cohorts don't need to try too hard to reference their previous work in their new films and shows. After this example, it seems the phrases they popularized have permeated pop culture so thoroughly that they might just show up eventually.