“You’ve gotta go with a Cheesy Gordita Crunch,” Dave Chernin says as he scrolls through the options on the digital kiosk at a Taco Bell Cantina in Chelsea. “I’m ordering one for you too, “ he assures John Chernin, his older brother (by 15 months) and writing and directing partner.
The siblings are in New York City to promote “Incoming,” a high school comedy about four nerdy friends that’s a raunchy throwback to movies — like “Superbad” and “American Pie” — that topped the box office back before superhero flicks subsumed Hollywood. And yes, the Chernins know there’s more authentic Mexican food to be had in the neighborhood, but we’re thinking outside the bun as a tribute to an outrageous scene in their R-rated film. It’s one that finds two freshmen (Ramon Reed and Raphael Alejandro) taking an intoxicated older classmate (Loren Gray) on a chalupa run. Given that their fast-food excursion ends with explosive diarrhea and a Tesla interior in desperate need of deep cleaning, “Incoming” probably won’t be part of Taco Bell’s next ad campaign.
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“It was written in the script as Taco Bell,” says Dave. “And there was a lot of talk of like, oh, we can’t actually say Taco Bell. But made-up names like Taco Town just didn’t feel as funny. So we got creative, and we didn’t show the wrappers or an actual Taco Bell establishment.”
The scene, the brothers say, was inspired by an all-too-true story — even if the names and the restaurant have been changed. In fact much of “Incoming,” which follows the kids as they try to score an invite to a blowout bash, draws on the house parties that Dave and John attended growing up. But when they sat down to write the movie, they worried that gravity bongs and beer kegs would seem, well, passé.
“We spent a lot of time debating if kids even go to parties anymore?” says John. “And then we thought about asking our friend’s teenage children, but then that’s kind of weird. You don’t really want to ask them in front of their parents.”
Since the Taco Bell is more crowded than the high school rager that takes up the better part of “Incoming,” we relocate, lunch in hand, to nearby Madison Square Park. The brothers are carrying Modelo Especials with their bag of burritos, so there’s a flicker of concern about walking up 23rd Street with open containers of alcohol. “It will make the article more interesting if we get arrested,” John offers.
The Chernins, whose father is media mogul Peter Chernin, have collaborated for the bulk of their careers, including stints writing on “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and creating “The Mick.” “We just have a shorthand together that goes back decades,” John says.
Despite the brothers’ comedy pedigree, major studios weren’t interested in backing “Incoming.” Instead, the film was produced independently by Spyglass Media Group and sold to Netflix after it was completed. Part of the issue, the Chernins say, was that studios aren’t producing many R-rated comedies, and there’s greater sensitivity about humor that is boundary-pushing and can go viral for the wrong reasons.
“We got a lot of feedback like ‘The script was hilarious, but it’s not really what we’re doing right now,’” says Dave. “There were some concerns about the kids taking drugs,” adds John.
But working on “It’s Always Sunny,” a hugely popular show that has one foot in cringe comedy and the other firmly planted in gallows humor, has helped the brothers learn how to walk the fine line between irreverent and mean-spirited.
“We’re not afraid to navigate those tricky waters,” says Dave. “‘Always Sunny’ is completely unafraid to go anywhere as long as it’s funny. That’s because there’s an unspoken agreement between the audience and the show’s creators — the people who are making this show are on the right side of things, despite what terrible things the characters are doing. We’re poking fun, not glorifying them.”
