Why The Naked Gun’s Liam Neeson Thinks the Reboot Is Needed

Liam Neeson, who stars in the new “The Naked Gun” with Pamela Anderson, has a very simple reason why he believes audiences need the reboot of the classic comedy.

“Because we’re all fucked. And we need a few giggles,” he told Variety Monday at the movie’s New York City premiere.

He delivered the line in the deadpan style of his on-screen persona, Frank Drebin Jr., the biological (and spiritual) heir to Leslie Nielsen’s iconic police lieutenant. The character last graced the big screen in 1994.

Neeson did joint interviews with Anderson, who smirked and nodded along with his bleak assessment of the world. But don’t ask about how the sausage is made. When one reporter inquired about how they broke the ice on set, Neeson scrunched his face in confusion. “We broke the ice?” he repeated back, again channeling the oblivious Frank Drebin charm. The pair then laughed in unison and said they jumped right in headfirst.

“It just feels like people are ready to have a big, good-natured laugh about the policing situation in Los Angeles,” producer Seth MacFarlane joked while introducing the film at the SVA Theatre. “We really nailed the timing of this.”

MacFarlane was likely referencing the ICE raids that sparked mass protests in LA. He may not have know that as the “Naked Gun” was getting underway, a gunman had just opened fire in a Midtown office building and killed four people.

Paramount’s “Naked Gun” reboot sidesteps any attempt at satirizing contemporary events in favor of a more absurd plot. Drebin Jr. is racing to stop a deranged billionaire from unleashing a toxic gas that’ll revert civilians to their primal form while the ultra-wealthy hide in a private bunker, where they’ll be treated to a nonstop performance from “Weird Al” Yankovic.

The siren-blaring question, however, is whether this kind of classic comedy will resonate with younger audiences who consume humor in bite-sized chunks on social media. YouTuber-turned-actor Liza Koshy believes the rapid-fire pace of jokes will hook them in. “It’s back to back to back,” Koshy told Variety. “It engages your attention span just like scrolling on TikTok would. So it’s going to be a dopamine rush.”

Yankovic, who’s dared the world to be stupid since 1985, said Hollywood hit pause on goofy theatrical comedies after “the quality maybe went down or we got overly bombarded with movies like that.” He now hopes “The Naked Gun” reboot “heralds a new age of comedy in the theaters.”

“There’s nothing wrong with laughing at stupid things,” he added. “People say, ‘Oh, we live in tough times and we need comedies like this more now than ever,’ but I don’t know that there’s ever been a time in the history of the world where everything has been perfect and we didn’t need comedy. I think comedy is always welcome.”

“The Naked Gun” opens in theaters Aug. 1.