Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo in ‘Barb and Star,’ ‘Bridesmaids’

A peculiar thing happened after “Bridesmaids” debuted a decade ago and became an undeniable box office success. Hot images appeared in every corner of the internet and on the pages of newspapers and magazines, offering an astute observation: Women can be funny!

It was especially confusing for Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, who wrote the Oscar nominated script and have long admired names like Gilda Radner, Goldie Hawn, Carol Burnett and Lily Tomlin – comedians who knew how to get around a joke while also, you know, passing on be woman.

And yet, the reaction to “Bridesmaids” – a “female film” starring Wiig, Maya Rudolph and Melissa McCarthy who is just as bold, intelligent and moving – presented this surprising conclusion with a bow normally reserved for scientific discoveries.

“As a genre, there is comedy and then there is female comedy”, remembers Mumolo. “We didn’t know that until the release of ‘Bridesmaids’. We’re like, ‘What?’ “

After “Bridesmaids” raised nearly $ 300 million worldwide, the powers that be in Hollywood were eager to profit from the phenomenon. The studios have sped up a wave of comedies aimed at women, such as “Trainwreck”, “Bad Moms” and “Girls Trip”, hoping to replicate their own successes.

“It’s great that more things have been given the green light,” said Wiig. “But on the other side it’s like, ‘Why the hell didn’t you give the go-ahead before?’

Wiig and Mumolo spent the following years on separate creative projects – Wiig appeared in independent Sundance films such as “The Skeleton Twins” and “The Diary of a Teenage Girl” and, more recently, following big budget superheroes “Wonder Woman 1984. ”And Mumolo appeared in comedies like” This Is 40 “,” The Boss “and” Bad Moms “.

Therefore, it is just that “Barb and Star go to Vista Del Mar”, the first film to bring together Wiig and Mumolo since “Bridesmaids”, add another entry to the pantheon of “women’s comedies”. The film, which opens on demand this weekend, is centered on longtime best friends who leave their small town for the first time to vacation in Florida. After arriving at the Sunshine State, the characters find themselves in the sights of an evil plot to destroy the tropical paradise.

The absurd “Barb and Star” is a tonal departure from the ingrained humor of his first collaboration. However, “Bridesmaids” laid the foundation for his characters in “Barb and Star”. While refining the script for “Bridesmaids”, Wiig and Mumolo found themselves obsessively rummaging through the material for Rudolph’s character’s mother (played by Lynne Marie Stewart). Their oral parts were eventually written entirely, but that did not stop them from creating long stretches of dialogue about the wonders of Costco (name another store where you can buy nice pants and roast beef – let’s wait), most of which had nothing to do with the film.

“This planted the seed,” says Mumolo. “When we were really crazy, Kristen was like, ‘Oh my God, our next movie, if we get a chance, we will be women.'”

Filled with evil dens, villains and spontaneous musical moments (led by Jamie Dornan), “Barb and Star” has the crazy energy of an Austin Powers film, instead of being a spiritual sequel to “Bridesmaids”. “We wanted to go in a more silly direction. Something we don’t think about too much, ”says Mumolo. Wiig interrupts: “This is our sense of humor”.

“It’s the same sense of humor,” explains Wiig, “but they are very, very different. We want people to enjoy this on their own. I don’t think there was a deliberate, like, ‘Oh, this has to be very, very different.’ “

With Midwestern accents and neatly combed hair, Star (short for Starbra) and Barb (Barb only) are the type of women who like to relax with a hot bowl of hot dog soup after a long day working a shift set at the local furniture store. They can talk sickly about Chicos and love a good pair of culottes. In short, they are women that you could not take a second look at if you saw them on the street. Still, one could easily imagine the two at the center of a “Saturday Night Live” sketch, as neighbors to – say, Gilly, Target Lady or any of the other crazy characters that Wiig created during his seven years on the night show.

“I don’t know if alter ego is the right word, but we can slip into these voices and characters so easily. Sometimes it seems like we are these women, ”says Wiig.

“For some reason,” says Mumolo, “we can speak from the point of view of middle-aged women since we were 20”.

Mumolo and Wiig have been friends for decades, having first met on the Los Angeles improv group The Groundlings in the early 2000s. They often wrote and acted in skits together until Wiig was hired as a cast member on “Saturday Night Live ”in 2003. To this day, they prefer to write in the same room, with many snacks within reach.

“We are lucky in the sense that we think very similarly. When we’re writing, we’ll finish each other ”- Mumolo pauses, and it’s hard to say if the signal is weak or if the jokes don’t translate well on the phone, but Wiig doesn’t understand what appears to be bait to fill the space in white for it to continue – “phrases”.

Neither can define exactly what makes their partnership so successful. “It is difficult to describe the chemistry,” says Wiig. Mumolo adds: “It’s almost like finding a life partner. You go out with a lot of people and then you meet someone who, for some reason, just gets you. “

Judd Apatow, who produced “Bridesmaids” and participated in some of the most successful modern comedies, says that it all comes down to details: Wiig and Mumolo approach even the most idiotic scenes with an incomparable level of attention.

“I’ve never worked with anyone who cared so much,” says Apatow. “When writing [‘Bridesmaids’], they were hilarious, but they always served the film’s emotional idea of ​​friendship. I think the film went so well because it was so sincere. Underneath the comedy there were many ideas about life, the struggle and the search for love ”.

Skillfully navigating between physical comedy and deeply emotional moments became second nature for Wiig and Mumolo. But it is the seemingly trivial things, the things that can cross your mind if you are not paying attention, that make you laugh. Perhaps it is his background in sketch comedy, where goofy accents and theatrical gestures carry a scene, but Wiig and Mumolo thrive on the minutiae. They remember having extensive conversations about every square inch of their protagonists, even their stylized hairstyles. To the untrained eye, Barb and Star may look similar, although this is not the case deliberately.

“This is probably not interesting for many people,” says Wiig. “But my hair has sideburns that are wavy underneath. I had a lot of volume at the top. Whereas Barb’s hair had more volume on the sides. “

Sometimes, they can get carried away. Lionsgate, the studio behind “Barb and Star”, certainly gave them the freedom to make the kind of crazy comedy that has fallen out of favor in traditional Hollywood studios. Still, Wiig and Mumolo are well aware that they have no carte blanche when it comes to creating comedic moments. They still needed to lobby for some of the film’s specific choices, including a scene with a particularly wise crustacean.

“When we started our script, we knew that there were definitely things in the film that we had to – not defend, but maybe campaign,” she offers. “Some of the strangest choices.”

At one point, Wiig was even going to direct the film. She finally passed the filmmaker roles to Josh Greenbaum, who has directed several documentaries and TV episodes and is making his feature debut with “Barb and Star”.

“Life happens and you get busy with other things,” said Wiig. “I really wanted to take the time to make this film and not think about wearing that third hat. We really wanted to focus on writing and being in the film. [Josh] has a very similar sense of humor. We knew he would get us. “

Wiig introduced Greenbaum in the film over a two and a half hour lunch, describing his vision as “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion” and “Airplane”.

“All three of us like the absurd,” says Greenbaum. “There is something so pleasant about doing something that no one expects and being free enough to turn left.” Working with Wiig and Mumolo, Greenbaum says, “it’s like being in a room with two young children – I mean it in the best way possible”.

With their unbridled optimism and affinity for a good pun, Barb and Star – and by extension Wiig and Mumolo – certainly feel like the antidote to a dark and exhaustingly depressing time in American history. They were initially disappointed that the film was not in theaters because of the pandemic. But in true Barb and Star style, they are seeing the bright side.

“Hopefully,” says Wiig, “we can bring some laughter to people’s homes.”