Entertainment
Raunchy, R-Rated 90s Comedy So Filthy That Its Stars Want You To Forget It Exists
By Robert Scucci
| Published
Mid to late 90s sci-fi comedies had a lot of fun with the “unsanctioned medical experiments going terribly wrong” plot, and with pretty solid results. 1996’s PG-13 rated The Nutty Professor cleaned house at the box office with $274 million, as did 1997’s G-rated Flubber with $178 million. Both of these family-friendly remakes proved there was a real market for this kind of humor. So much so that Marlon Wayans wanted in on the action, but with a little more R-rated edge in the form of 1998’s Senseless.
If there’s ever been a word to describe Senseless, look no further than the title. All of the familiar “unsanctioned medical experiment gone wrong” beats are here, but with a whole lot more flatulence, low-brow humor, and sexual innuendo. Senseless earned just $13 million at the box office against its reported $15 million budget, effectively putting it in the red. Even worse, it currently sits on Rotten Tomatoes’ wall of shame with an unthinkable 6 percent critical score, alongside a slightly more forgiving 45 percent approval rating on the Popcornmeter.
If you’re looking for the kind of punisher that performed so poorly it now only exists on ad-supported streaming, probably in a last-ditch attempt to recoup losses, Senseless is exactly what you should seek out. Personally, I don’t hate the film, but you really have to be in the right mood to choke this one down.
Co-Written By Craig Mazin
Co-written by Craig Mazin, best known for Chernobyl and The Last of Us, Senseless is a far cry from what the filmmaker would later prove himself capable of. Honestly, you can say the same about Marlon Wayans, David Spade, Matthew Lillard, and Rip Torn. The problem with Senseless is not the talent involved, but the cinematic experiment they embarked on here. They are all funny people in the right context, but somehow never quite figure out how to channel that energy.
Senseless centers on Darryl Witherspoon (Marlon Wayans), a struggling economics student working multiple odd jobs to make ends meet while also supporting his family back home. To stay in the black, Darryl engages in questionable practices like selling blood, plasma, and other bodily fluids to the appropriate venues for extra cash. When he learns about a controversial drug experiment overseen by Dr. Thomas Wheedon (Brad Dourif), Darryl jumps at the chance to get paid.
The experiment is simple on paper. Darryl injects a glowing green substance into his butt, which increases each of his five senses tenfold. Here’s the catch. If he messes up the dosage, he will lose one sense entirely while the remaining four go completely out of control. As you’d expect, this is exactly what happens in Senseless.
David Spade Doing His Usual Slappable Jerk Shtick
The primary conflict outside of the questionable chemicals coursing through Darryl’s bloodstream comes in the form of David Spade’s Scott Thorpe. Scott comes from a life of privilege and serves as Darryl’s direct competitor in an academic competition overseen by Randall Tyson (Rip Torn). Whoever wins gets fast tracked to a high paying Wall Street job, something Darryl desperately needs.
Spade is fully typecast as the same slappable jerk he played in films like PCU, Tommy Boy, and Black Sheep, and you get more of the same here. As much as I hate Scott Thorpe as a character, I have to give Spade credit where it’s due. He plays this kind of role so convincingly that I genuinely hated him as a person for years because I didn’t think it was humanly possible to fake that level of smugness.
At first, Darryl uses his heightened senses to impress Randall and undermine Scott, seemingly recalling stock figures from memory when he’s actually just reading a newspaper planted across the room that he can zoom in on. But things quickly spiral when Darryl is struck with sudden bouts of blindness, hypersensitive smell and taste, and the ability to hear what goes on in the women’s room in graphic detail as his love interest, Janice (Tamara Taylor), chats with her gassy friend behind closed doors.
Meanwhile, Darryl’s roommate Tim (Matthew Lillard), a straight-edge punk and hockey player, suspects he’s abusing hard drugs and intervenes whenever possible to keep him from going down the wrong path. If I had to describe Lillard’s vibe here, it’s what Machine Gun Kelly thought looked cool and then based his entire pop punk persona on.
Why It Failed
Senseless is a fascinating failure because everyone involved reliably brings exactly what you expect from them. The problem is that in this context, we get too much toilet humor and too many gross-out gags without fully leaning into their characterization. There are plenty of cheap laughs, most of them built on farts and funny faces. As a concept, Senseless has potential, but it simply does not work as a feature-length film because those gags can only stretch so far without being properly grounded.
I could easily see Senseless working as a recurring sketch where Darryl, or someone like him, keeps getting into ridiculous situations thanks to the drug, with the whole thing wrapped up in a few minutes. Some of the standalone gags would absolutely work in that format, but that’s not what we got. Instead, the film becomes an exhausting exercise in seeing just how far it’s willing to push things.
Senseless is streaming for free on Pluto TV as of this writing.
Entertainment
Microsoft Office 2024 for Mac and PC gets smarter with AI, now 60% off
TL;DR: Microsoft Office 2024 Home & Business for Mac or PC is on sale for $99.97 through March 1 at 11:59 p.m. PT, offering 60% off Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and more.
$99.97
$249.99
Save $150.02
If your work revolves around documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and email, Microsoft Office 2024 Home & Business brings those core tools together with updated features designed to keep everyday tasks moving efficiently. The lifetime license for Mac or PC is priced at $99.97, representing a 60% discount off the regular price, and ends on March 1 at 11:59 p.m. PT.
Included are Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook — the familiar lineup, installed directly on your device for both online and offline use. Office 2024 brings performance improvements across the whole software. In Excel, for example, working with large datasets or handling multiple workbooks is quicker and more reliable. For anyone who routinely works with numbers or builds reports, this added speed can make daily tasks less tedious.
Mashable Deals
Content creation tools have also been refreshed. PowerPoint now supports recording presentations with voice narration, video, and closed captions, which is a plus for remote meetings, online classes, or sharing presentations after the fact. Word adds Focus Mode to help reduce distractions as you write, alongside AI-powered suggestions to sharpen up your prose. Built-in research features keep citations and references at your fingertips, so you can stay in the zone without switching tabs.
Microsoft’s Fluent Design system brings Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook a cohesive look and feel. Touch and pen support is now smoother on tablets and convertibles, and customizable templates and themes make it easy to create polished work without a designer’s eye.
Collaboration tools are built in as well. Real-time co-authoring allows multiple people to work on the same file simultaneously, with chat, comments, and version history helping track changes and feedback. Deeper integration with Microsoft Teams centralizes file sharing and communication within the Office environment.
Mashable Deals
Microsoft Office 2024 Home & Business is designed for users who already rely on Microsoft’s core apps and want updated features without changing how they work. For $99.97 through March 1 at 11:59 p.m. PT, the current deal makes it easier to step into the latest version at a lower cost, especially if those tools are already part of your daily routine.
StackSocial prices subject to change.
Entertainment
Super Bowl LX performers: Who is singing the anthems
The Super Bowl LX halftime show featuring Bad Bunny and the Super Bowl pre-show featuring Green Day may be taking up all the attention when it comes to Super Bowl performances — and rightfully so! Everyone is looking forward to what the internationally known artists will do or say regarding President Trump and ICE.
However, other musical artists are performing at this year’s Super Bowl as well.
Charlie Puth to sing national anthem
Kicking the show off with the U.S. national anthem “The Star-Spangled Banner” is the Grammy-nominated singer Charlie Puth. Puth’s debut single, “Marvin Gaye,” featuring Meghan Trainor, was a Billboard chart hit upon its 2015 release. Puth has since had other hits, including “We Don’t Talk Anymore (feat. Selena Gomez),” “Attention,” and “Nothing But Trouble.”
Mashable Top Stories
Brandi Carlile to perform patriotic song
Next up, singing “America the Beautiful” is singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile. Carlile has a whopping 11 Grammys and two Emmy awards. Her biggest hit was 2007’s “The Story,” but she is also known for songs like “Broken Horses” and “The Joke.”
Coco Jones to sing Black national anthem
Grammy Award-winning R&B artist Coco Jones will sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” also known as the Black national anthem. “Lift Every Voice and Sing” has become a Super Bowl staple since 2021, when Alicia Keys performed it at the event. Singer and actress Ledisi performed the song at last year’s game.
Entertainment
How A Star Wars Set Malfunction Caused A Cast Member To Meet Jesus
By Chris Snellgrove
| Updated
Would you believe that arguably the most recognizable figure in the entire Star Wars franchise once ran into Jesus? This was no Jedi, although it’s admittedly fun to imagine what the Son of God might have had to say to someone else who could come back from the dead as a powerful ghost. No, the Star Wars character in question was R2-D2, and he had an accidental meeting with the divine when a remote control malfunction sent him to the set of Franco Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth tv movie!
A long time ago (1977, to be precise), in a desert far, far away (Tunisia), two very different filmmakers were working on two very different projects. Franco Zeffirelli (best known for his Oscar-nominated Romeo and Juliet) was working on Jesus of Nazareth, which blended the four Gospels of the biblical New Testament into a single TV movie. Meanwhile, fresh off the success of American Graffiti, rebel filmmaker George Lucas was working on Star Wars, a movie that would effectively define his life while reshaping pop culture history as we know it.
Meeting The Maker
Aside from the involvement of James Earl Jones, these projects didn’t have much in common, and Lucas and Zeffirelli generally stayed out of each other’s way despite their sets neighboring one another. That all changed thanks to a scene requiring R2-D2 to be piloted using a remote control. While actor Kenny Baker was often inside the droid for scenes where R2 had to stay relatively still, there were some scenes in which George Lucas simply needed to move the little astromech from Point A to Point B.
In this case, Lucas intended for R2-D2 to exit a scene by rolling out from behind a sand dune. To do this, they intended to use a remote control, but the unit malfunctioned. Therefore, instead of stopping where the filmmakers intended, R2 just kept going until (as if guided by a higher power) he ended up on the set of Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth.
Fortunately, the runaway astromech didn’t cause any damage to the set of the Jesus TV movie, something that we can only assume would be some kind of sin. These days, the whole incident has become a bit of amusing trivia for Star Wars fans to share among themselves. At the time, though, R2 encountering a savior from heaven was just one more reason that filming this sci-fi blockbuster had become a living hell.
When Droids Move In Mysterious Ways
Reportedly, this is one of many incidents in which the droids weren’t doing exactly what the filmmakers needed them to do. On top of that, the droids were powered by exotic batteries that were hard to replace, and those batteries were soon drained in the hot Tunisian sun. Making matters worse, the truck storing R2-D2 and other droids once caught fire, damaging valuable props and costing George Lucas money he couldn’t really afford to spend.
Fortunately, it all worked out: after all these onset issues, Star Wars became one of the most successful films ever made. There are many reasons for this, including its perfect cast, killer effects, and charming story. However, we can’t discount the possibility that the movie’s success is a product of divine intervention; after all, his excursion to meet Jesus proves R2-D2 is a droid with friends in very high places!
Microsoft Office 2024 for Mac and PC gets smarter with AI, now 60% off
Sam Darnold Is 60 Minutes Away From Erasing His Past
