Strays Director Reveals Dark Jokes Cut From the Film

Strays is hitting theaters this week, casting Jamie Foxx and Will Ferrell as the voice of a couple of foul-mouthed dogs who end up unlikely companions on an adventure together. Directed by Josh Greenbaum of Barb and Star Visit Vista Del Mar, Strays is hoping to endear itself to audiences and earn a spot in the box office’s top five — not an easy task considering that a month into their run, both Barbie and Oppenheimer steadfastly refuse to stop having big weekends. The R-rated comedy cost around $46 million to make, so it shouldn’t have too much difficulty breaking even in the long run, but the production wasn’t without compromises.

Specifically, Greenbaum told ComicBook.com’s Chris Killian that he shot more than he could use, and used test audiences to weed out the jokes that went too far — usually things that were either too dark or too gross. Specifically, he singled out a part of the movie that involves a lot of dog poop and suggested there was more to that at one point.

“I’m not doing my job right if we don’t push it to the edge,” said Greenbaum. “The nice thing about making a film…there is a final arbiter in that decision-making process, which is an audience. So we will always put our biggest foot forward and then put it in front of an audience. For me, my goal is not necessarily to be outrageous, it’s just to make you laugh. If the way to make you laugh is to be outrageous sometimes, it’s great, but if there’s another way to make you laugh, that’s also great. That’s the hope with a comedy, is that you laugh. It’s pretty black-and-white in a great way. I don’t know if I can say any of them or specifically call out any of the jokes, but they would probably be darker in nature. Th emovie has some dark moments and undertones here and there, but if you go too far, it can lose people. There’s also a sequence of the film that involves a lot of dog feces. For any dog owner, you know that poop is a regular part of your life. If you live in a city, you’ve got to pick it up, you’ve got to deal with it. So we’ve got a sequence in the movie that involves dog poop, and it’s a controversial lane of comedy for some people. Some people love it, some people say, ‘No, I can’t watch one second of it.’”

Here’s the movie’s synopsis:

Abandoned on the mean city streets by his lowlife owner, Doug, a naive but lovable dog named Reggie falls in with a fast-talking, foul-mouthed Boston Terrier and his gang of strays. Determined to seek revenge, Reggie and his new canine pals embark on an epic adventure to get him home and make Doug pay for his dirty deed. 

Strays is in theaters now.