Trivia for
Mystery Men (1999) More at IMDbPro »

• Ricky Jay's character tells Captain Amazing, "I'm a publicist, not a magician." Jay is in fact a well-known magician.
  
  
• The two police squad cars seen throughout the film are both 1968 Dodge Chargers with various embellishments.
  
  
• A subtle reference to William Shatner: once, while recording lines for the animated Star Trek series, Shatner pronounced "sabotage" strangely and was asked twice to repeat the line. He finally blurted, "Don't tell me how to act - it sickens me!" In Mystery Men (1999), this line is repeated by Ben Stiller. Later, Janeane Garofalo says to Stiller, "You say 'sabotage', I say 'saboTAGE'," another Shatner quote from the Star Trek recording session.
  
  
• The name of Janeane Garofalo's character's father, Carmine, is also the name of Garofalo's father.
  
  
• On Casanova Frankenstein's release papers (which are stamped "CURED"), one entry reveals that the patient is "unpredictable in bed."
  
  
• When Casanova talks to the gangs about uniting to destroy Champion City, he says, "Can you dig it?", a reference to The Warriors (1979) in which the character Cyrus tries to unite New York's gangs.
  
  
• The bowler's skull ball was a custom ball. After the release of the movie, bowling ball manufacturer Ebonite made a less-detailed version of the skull ball as part of their Super Fun Ball line.
  
  
• One of the superheroes at the superhero audition is Buzz Burgermatic, from Home Fries (1998).
  
  
• The Blue Raja's car, a tiny yellow vehicle with oddly placed headlights, is seen only in a glimpse as the Herkeimer Battle Jitney speeds out of the junkyard. This vehicle seems to be the same car driven by Cousin It in The Addams Family (1991).
  
  
• At one time, Danny DeVito was set to direct as well as star as The Shovler.
  
  
• The two Wonder Women who fight have black and red hair, eerily paralleling the storyline in the Wonder Woman comics where the black-haired Princess Diana is forced to give up the title (and costume) of Wonder Woman to the red-haired Amazon Artemis.
  
  
• Casanova Frankenstein's castle is heavily influenced by the works of Catalan architect Antonio Gaudi, down to details such as railings, capitals on columns, and the alcove in which Spleen and Invisible Boy cower.
  
  
• The Bowler's stream-of-consciousness monologue in support of independent filmmaking at the conclusion of the film was originally not intended to be included in the finished print. Janeane Garofalo was instructed by director Kinka Usher to say whatever came to her mind at the time (Usher simply wanted to use up some excess film.) Usher liked her performance so much he edited it into the final print.
  
  
• Director Cameo: [Kinka Usher] as Moe. Coincidentally, Moe is the name of one of Hank Azaria's (Blue Rajah) many different characters in "The Simpsons" (1989).
  
  
• Casanova's long fingernails were Claire Forlani's idea.
  
  
• Tom Waits' odd hand gestures when explaining the psychofrakulator were the result of him writing his dialogue on his fingers and reading the words as he went along.
  
  
• The Blue Raja's car is a Messerschmit KR200 Kabinenroller, a three-wheeled bubble car designed by the aircraft engineer Fritz Fend and produced in the factory of the German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt in the 1950s and early 1960s.
  
  
• The Not So Goodie Mob is an actual hip hop group, 'The Goodie Mob'.
  
  
• Dr. A. Heller, when met for the second time, is making bizarre noises with objects, for eerie effect. Tom Waits, (Heller), has used the same noises in his music and poetry.
  
  
• During the pursuit of Casanova's limo, Mr. Furious says the line "He's either very smart or very dumb." This is a reference to Jaws (1975), where that character of Quint says the same line during the tense fishing pole duel.
  
  
• Ben Stiller's line "You bet your sweet bippy" was a catchphrase used by Dick Martin on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" (1967).
  
  
• The Shoveler's inspiring egg salad speech to the team is a spoof of William Shakespeare's St. Crispin's Day speech from Henry V, even going as far as saying "Those of us who survive this night will wear our scars proudly," much like Shakespeare's "Then will he strip his sleeves and show his scars."
  
  
• During one of the Mystery Men group salutes, they say, "Zei gazunt," which is Yiddish, derived from the German, "Sei Gesund" or "Be Healthy" and is often used as a toast.
  
  
• The station wagon the Shoveler owns is an early American Motors Rebel.
  
  
• Casanova Frankenstein's limo is a stretched 1978 Limited Edition Indianapolis 500 Pace Car Chevrolet Corvette.
  
  
• The Sphinx was a Golden Age hero who was the creation of Better Publishing; his real name was Ellsworth Forrester, and he first appeared in Exciting Comics #2. Had Better Publishing still been in existence at the time this movie came out, the filmmakers could have been sued for plagiarism. As it is, due to the fact that Better went out of business in the 1950s with no successor, the character is now in the public domain.
  
  
• In the bar where the team celebrates after the successful run-in with Frankenstein, one camera angle shows an orange neon sign on the wall. It is the Chinese expression, "Clothing Shop".
  
  
• The Mystery Men were the supporting cast of an underground superhero called the Flaming Carrot, in a comic called The Flaming Carrot. Mr. Furious and the Shoveler were the only ones from the comic to make it into the movie. Captain Amazing was created as a replacement for the Flaming Carrot, who was felt to be too bizarre to bring to the silver screen.
  
  
• Cee-lo Green, now famous as the singer for Gnarls Barkley, makes a brief appearance as an evil rapper.
  
  
• According to the DVD commentary, the scene where The Spleen (Paul Reubens) accidentally ignites a blast of flatulence standing by a barrel with a fire in it was a happy accident. Apparently, a crew member had tossed a plastic lighter in the barrel. It happened to explode (a small explosion, but an explosion none the less) while filming Reubens. The reactions that followed were created after the fact, capitalizing on the moment caught on film.
  
  
• When Monica asks Mr. Furious for his name, he calls himself Phoenix Dark - a reference to the classic X-Men story Dark Phoenix Saga.
  
  
• When the team are trying to come up with their name, Invisible Boy suggests The Super Dudes. Kel Mitchell, who played Invisible Boy, once worked on the show "All That" (1994), where Super Dude was a recurring character played by co-star Kenan Thompson, a super-hero whose only weakness was lactose intolerance.
  
  
• There is a subtle reference to the old slapstick gag of the watermelon-and-the-hammer - it's when Mr. Furious, during the Sphinx' strange training session, is wearing watermelon on his feet and proceeds to bash them (off screen) with the tack hammer he is supposed to balance on his head.
  
  
• The sign for the diner is written in Cyrillic - it makes no sense in Russian, but the sounds the letters themselves make is indeed the English word 'diner'.
  
  
• There is a great homage to 'Mel Brook''s Blazing Saddles (1974) in Mystery Men. In the scene where Tony P and the rest of Casanova Frankenstein's henchmen have their guns lined up and aimed at the Mystery Men, the Sphinx appears and mentally goes down the line and cuts all of their guns in half. This is a loving remake of the scene in Blazing Saddles when Gene Wilder, as the Waco Kid, shoots all of the pistols out of the hands of the lined up bushwhackers who confront him, Sheriff Bart and the other railroad workers.
  
  
• Artie Lange, who has joked about the poor reception of films he's acted in, considers this to be the worst movie he has made. After seeing his brief scene in the beginning of the film, his mother and sister called him from the theater to ask if he would have any more scenes because they wanted to leave.
  
  
• Cameos: Michael Bay (noted action director) and Riki Rachtman, (former host of MTV's "Headbangers Ball" (1987)) as two of the Frat Boys. Bay asks "can we bring the brewskies?".
  
  

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