Before Troma became famous for toxic waste, mutant superheroes and outrageous splatter, the company spent several years making something considerably different: raunchy comedies. Stuck on You! is one of the strangest examples of that early period, taking the familiar problem of a couple having relationship difficulties and turning it into a bizarre trip through the entire history of romance.

Directed by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz, Stuck on You! was released in the early 1980s and runs approximately 88 minutes. The movie stars Professor Irwin Corey as Judge Gabriel, with Virginia Penta and Mark Mikulski playing the troubled couple at the center of the story.

It’s part romantic comedy, part sketch comedy, part historical parody and part sex comedy. In typical Troma fashion, it doesn’t seem particularly interested in worrying about whether those ingredients actually belong together.

Bill and Carol Have Problems

Bill Andrews and Carol Griffiths are in love.

Unfortunately, they’re also having problems.

Their relationship has deteriorated to the point where they’ve ended up in Family Court, where they meet Judge Gabriel. Played by the legendary comedian Irwin Corey, Gabriel is unlike any ordinary judge.

Instead of simply listening to the couple’s arguments and making a ruling, he decides that Bill and Carol need a history lesson.

His solution is to take them on a bizarre journey through time.

The judge shows them couples from different periods of history, demonstrating that the problems they’re experiencing aren’t exactly new.

Apparently, romantic arguments have been around for a very long time.

Love Through the Ages

This is where Stuck on You! really becomes its own peculiar thing.

The movie jumps through various historical periods and reimagines famous couples and events through the lens of Troma-style comedy.

Among the figures who appear are Adam and Eve, Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella, Napoleon, King Arthur and Guinevere, and other famous historical characters.

Instead of presenting history with any concern for accuracy, the filmmakers use these characters as launching pads for jokes.

The basic message is simple: people have been screwing up relationships forever.

The clothes change.

The locations change.

The historical figures change.

The relationship problems remain remarkably familiar.

Adam and Eve Get the Troma Treatment

The Adam and Eve sequence immediately establishes the movie’s attitude toward history.

Rather than treating the biblical story with solemnity, Stuck on You! turns it into a bawdy comedy sketch.

That’s essentially the formula for the entire movie.

Historical events become setups.

Famous people become punchlines.

Romance becomes an excuse for increasingly ridiculous situations.

The filmmakers clearly weren’t attempting to make a serious historical parody. Their targets were broad, their humor was deliberately juvenile, and the whole thing was designed to keep moving from one outrageous bit to another.

From Columbus to King Arthur

The movie’s historical journey continues with Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella before eventually moving into other periods.

One of the funniest aspects of the concept is how casually the movie throws famous historical figures into the same universe.

Christopher Columbus becomes part of a sex joke.

Napoleon becomes part of a relationship joke.

King Arthur and Guinevere become part of another romantic farce.

It’s basically history class taught by people who would rather make dirty jokes than explain anything.

The result isn’t sophisticated satire.

It’s closer to an extended series of comedy sketches connected by Bill and Carol’s relationship.

Irwin Corey Steals the Show

The secret weapon is Irwin Corey.

Corey was a veteran comedian known for his eccentric, deliberately nonsensical style. His performance as Judge Gabriel gives the movie much of its personality.

He plays the judge with an exaggerated seriousness that makes the increasingly ridiculous situations even funnier.

Corey doesn’t have to behave like everyone else.

He can stand there delivering bizarre pronouncements while the rest of the cast reacts to him.

That contrast works particularly well because the movie itself is constantly shifting between relatively normal relationship scenes and complete nonsense.

Judge Gabriel is essentially the tour guide through all of it.

The Surprise Behind Judge Gabriel

The movie eventually reveals that Judge Gabriel isn’t simply a strange family-court judge.

There’s a supernatural reason for his unusual abilities.

That revelation gives the entire story another layer and explains why he can take Bill and Carol on their bizarre journey through history.

It also reinforces the movie’s central idea.

Their relationship problems aren’t unique.

They are part of something that has existed for as long as humans have been falling in love, fighting, making up and making the same mistakes all over again.

The message is actually fairly sweet underneath all the crude humor.

Unfortunately, Troma isn’t exactly the company you’d expect to deliver that message with subtlety.

Troma Before The Toxic Avenger

For modern audiences, the most interesting thing about Stuck on You! may be its place in Troma history.

The film belongs to the company’s early run of “sexy comedies,” which included Squeeze Play!, Waitress! and The First Turn-On!.

These movies helped establish Troma before the company became internationally associated with The Toxic Avenger.

That makes Stuck on You! an interesting time capsule.

The Troma style is already there, but the ingredients are different.

Instead of radioactive waste and monsters, the filmmakers are working with sex, historical parody, slapstick and deliberately cheap-looking comedy.

It’s basically Troma figuring out what kind of crazy movie it wants to become.

The Mel Brooks Influence

The filmmakers have described Stuck on You! as a tribute to comedy influences including Mel Brooks, Tom Lehrer and Stan Freberg.

That influence is easy to understand.

The movie treats historical figures as toys.

It takes familiar stories and twists them into comedy.

It isn’t interested in maintaining the dignity of famous people.

That’s very much in the tradition of historical parody.

The difference is that Mel Brooks had considerably more money, resources and filmmaking polish.

Troma had enthusiasm.

And enthusiasm can only take you so far.

The Low-Budget Charm

The limitations of the production are obvious.

The sets are inexpensive.

The costumes aren’t exactly designed to fool historians.

The jokes are hit-or-miss.

Some sequences feel like sketches that were stretched into feature length.

But there’s an undeniable charm to the whole thing.

Stuck on You! feels handmade.

It has the energy of a group of filmmakers who simply wanted to make something funny and outrageous without worrying too much about conventional standards.

That approach would eventually become one of Troma’s defining characteristics.

Is It Funny?

That’s going to depend heavily on your tolerance for early-1980s raunchy comedy.

Some jokes work.

Others are painfully dated.

The movie’s humor is broad, sexual and frequently juvenile.

There’s very little subtlety.

But there are also genuinely clever ideas buried inside the silliness, particularly the decision to use history as a way of showing that relationship problems are timeless.

The movie’s biggest weakness is that it sometimes feels like a collection of unrelated comedy bits rather than a fully developed story.

Then again, that’s also part of its charm.

You’re never quite sure what ridiculous historical scenario is coming next.

The Legacy of Stuck on You!

Stuck on You! isn’t one of Troma’s best-known movies, and it has been overshadowed by the much more famous films that followed it.

But for anyone interested in the company’s history, it’s an entertaining curiosity.

It shows Troma before the company had fully established the outrageous horror identity that would make it famous.

It also demonstrates that Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz were willing to experiment with different kinds of low-budget comedy.

The movie may not have aged perfectly, but it remains a fascinating snapshot of independent filmmaking in the early 1980s.

Ultimately, Stuck on You! has a surprisingly simple idea beneath all the jokes.

Relationships are complicated.

People have been arguing about love since the beginning of civilization.

Whether you’re Adam and Eve, Christopher Columbus and Isabella, King Arthur and Guinevere, or just an ordinary couple sitting in Family Court, you’re probably going to have problems.

The only difference is that Bill and Carol get a judge who can take them on a tour through several thousand years of romantic dysfunction.

And only Troma would think that was a reasonable way to save a relationship.

 

Where to Stream

Stream for free on Tubi here