NBC Rejected This Joke As Too Disgusting For TV — It Became There’s Something About Mary’s Most Famous Scene

54-year-old Cameron Diaz is back on the big screen this summer, once again voicing Princess Fiona in Shrek 5. And honestly, it’s a genuinely fitting return for the previously retired actress who once built her career on finding the funny in the uncomfortable. See, long before she was one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars, she had to say yes to a joke in There’s Something About Mary that everyone thought was taboo.

For many fans, the Farrelly Brothers are the undisputed masters of gross-out humor. With movies like Dumb and Dumber and Shallow Hal, it’s easy to see how much they love gags that make the entire theater gag. Still, when it comes to off-color jokes, There’s Something About Mary easily takes the cake with its infamous “hair gel” sequence. Spoiler alert: it’s not supposed to be hair gel at all.

Easily the film’s most memorable moment, the “hair gel” scene was almost completely scrapped. Neither of the stars involved in the scene wanted anything to do with it – and all it took to convince them was the deafening laughter of test audiences.

The Hair Gel Joke Was Originally Written For Seinfeld

The scene involves Ted (Ben Stiller) getting ready for his long-awaited date with Mary (Cameron Diaz). To ease his nerves, Ted decides to indulge in some, let’s say, manual stimulation. Unfortunately, he loses sight of his “gel” after finishing the act. Once Mary arrives, she notices the “gel” is in Ted’s ear. She uses some of it on her bangs and ends up with a rather interesting hairdo on their date.

The Farrellys actually came up with this joke way before There’s Something About Mary. They wanted to use it in an episode of Seinfeld, but quickly realized it was far too scandalous for television. They also didn’t expect that it would be too gross for both Cameron Diaz and Ben Stiller.

As Peter Farrelly later put it, “It’s hard to beat the hair gel in Mary.” (Rich Eisen Show)

Why Cameron Diaz And Ben Stiller Both Wanted The Scene Cut

Diaz was still a promising newcomer when There’s Something About Mary came out. She had already starred in a few comedies, including The Mask, so she was no stranger to over-the-top humor. However, a scene involving bodily secretions used as a hair product was just a bit too much for the rising actress. She feared such a moment would derail her promising career, relegating her to the realm of raunchy comedies for life.

On the other hand, Stiller’s concerns were purely about the joke’s internal logic. He could not believe Ted wouldn’t feel a glob of “gel” dangling from his ear. He even came up with a complex backstory for his character, arguing he had lost sensitivity in his ear after a childhood incident.

How A Test Screening Saved Comedy’s Most Notorious Scene

The Farrellys were certain the joke would be a success. Finally, they came up with a compromise: they would show the joke to test audiences, and if they laughed, they would leave it as is in the final cut. As it turns out, the “hair gel” dinner was a smashing success. The scene elicited the loudest laughs in the entire film, proving that the Farrellys were absolutely correct.

What audiences didn’t know: the Farrellys had already shot a backup version of the date scene with nothing in Mary’s hair at all, ready to swap in if the joke bombed. It never got used.

Instead of limiting her career, There’s Something About Mary launched Diaz to a whole new level of stardom. She was nominated for a Golden Globe (the first in her career) and proved that she had impeccable comedic timing – just the kind of skill she would need to star in a small animated project called Shrek a few years later. And it was all thanks to a very unique hair styling product.

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You can stream There’s Something About Mary now on Hulu, with rental options available on Prime Video and Apple TV.