10 DEADPOOL Jokes That Didn't Make the Final Cut of the Film
One of the things that I love about Deadpool is the character's sense of humor. Ryan Reynolds did a hell of a job bringing that humor to the movie, and it is absolutely hilarious. I don't think anyone else would have been able to pull it off so perfectly.
There was a ton of ad-libbing while shooting Deadpool. The filmmakers tried out so many different alternate jokes that didn't make the final cut. We've seen a few variations of these jokes in the trailers and TV spots that were released, but thanks to screenwriters Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, ten jokes that didn't make the final cut have been revealed. I've included five of those jokes below (from EW):
“Alex Trebek” for $500, Alex.:
Originally, in the Deadpool game that he’s playing at the bar, Wade had put money on Alex Trebek to die. “A lot of people don’t know this,” Wade said to Weasel, “but Alejandro’s favorite color is cocaine.”
Wernick explains: “Implying that Alex Trebek is a cocaine addict and he’s likely to die of an overdose — we though that was the most patently ridiculous rumor of all time. But it was so random that we worried if Trebek himself might find that unfunny. We also wanted to hit the story point that Weasel had bet on Deadpool. So discretion proved to be the better part of valor, and we dropped that one.”
Hockey Jockey:
When Deadpool is pursuing a bad guy on an ice skating rink in — what else — a Zamboni, the film’s executive producer Aditya Soodpitched the perfect Schwarzenegger-esque line: “Ice to see you!” It made everyone laugh, but in a photo finish, director Tim Miller chose the “I’m going to kill you…in five minutes!” taunt instead.
Trip off the tongue:
Also cut out was a moment on the carrier flight deck, where one of Ajax’s felled goons reaches for Deadpool’s ankle. Deadpool looks down and stomps the goon’s face with his boot and quips, “Your plan to trip me to death…has failed.”
Says Reese, “Oftentimes the hero’s on a journey in that third act, but because Deadpool is so A.D.D. he makes these jokes even when the plot is more consequential. But there were moments in time when even we had to snap back in and focus on the story. This was one of those. At that exact moment, when Deadpool and Vanessa are seeing each other for the first time, we felt like not telling a joke.”
Keeping off the Green:
Out on the freeway, Colossus offers Deadpool the chance to be a superhero. And Reynolds chooses the opportunity to say a few words about his experience being approached to be a hero in Green Lantern: “It’s not the first time someone’s made that offer to me. And it sounds great. It’s only later you discover there’s no script, they’re trying to hit an unmakeable release date, and the super-suit’s going to look like it belongs in a Saturday morning cartoon.”
Wernick explains that it was crucial that the movie address Green Lantern, but the filmmakers were cautious of overcooking the joke. “It had to do with pacing, as well. Deadpool is this motormouth schizophrenic, but we were careful to spread the references around.” Yet for Reynolds, the sarcasm was curative. “Tim Miller has said that Ryan, when he made fun of Green Lantern, it was almost like therapy for him.”
“Being able to laugh at himself is one of Ryan’s greatest gifts,” says Reese. “And in that way, he really does inhabit the same space as the character. Ryan was born to play Deadpool but I think Deadpool was born to play Ryan.”
Lights, camera, action figures:
In a discarded scene, Wade picks up the action figure of Deadpool from the 2009 movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine (also played, though in sanitized PG-13 form, by Reynolds), with its mouth sewn shut. He examines it with a grimace, and then tosses it to the floor: “This?” he says. “This is the biggest piece of s–t in the history of Earth.”
Explains Reese, “It was in the scene where Wade says, ‘This is my most prized possession,’ and we realize he’s talking about the Wham! album cover. But our director felt that that was enough to make the moment funny. We didn’t need another joke about the Wolverine movie.”
I loved what they ended up using in the film, but it's still fun to see what could have been even if the jokes didn't really work or fit in with what Miller and Reynolds were trying to accomplish. In the end, they succeeded, and that's all that matters! To read the other five jokes, click here.