Film

The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear

A 85-minute comedy sprint where Leslie Nielsen's deadpan detective bumbles through an energy-industry conspiracy with the same oblivious confidence he'd bring to ordering coffee. It's pure absurdist slapstick: non-sequiturs, visual gags stacked three-deep, and a script that treats logic as optional. For anyone who loves comedy that swings for the fences without apology.

TMDb rating3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love gags that arrive so fast and deadpan that you're still laughing at the last one when the next one lands, and you don't mind a plot that exists mainly to hang the jokes on.

Skip it if you want your comedy to build slowly or land a few clever lines per scene, since this one throws a visual gag at you almost every few seconds and some of them fall flat in the process.

What it asks of you: Under ninety minutes, with no pause for breath: you keep your eyes on the background and the edges of the frame, because the jokes hide there as much as in the dialogue.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Top Secret!1984

The Zucker-Abrahams team's earlier spy comedy masterpiece, equally committed to wall-to-wall visual gags, ridiculous one-liners, and the kind of silly that makes you gasp-laugh in public.

But It's relentlessly dated in its references and the pacing sometimes favours quantity of jokes over landing them cleanly.

Top Secret! poster

Airplane!1980

The Zucker-Abrahams blueprint: rapid-fire absurdist humour, brilliant supporting performances, and Leslie Nielsen himself proving he's comedy gold when given permission to be ridiculous.

But The gag density can feel exhausting if you're not in the mood to work for your laughs, and some jokes land harder than others.

Airplane! poster

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!1988

The first Naked Gun film that established Frank Drebin's glorious incompetence and Nielsen's perfect deadpan delivery, with nearly the same sensibility as the sequel.

But It's the original, so you'd miss the escalation and new absurdities that make coming back to the series fun.

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Inspector Clouseau1968

Both films centre on a detective whose complete incompetence is played with absolute seriousness—the comedy lives in the contrast, not in the character's awareness.

The Pink Panther universe at its most experimental: Peter Sellers playing the role in a semi-serious mystery that's funnier precisely because Sellers refuses to wink at the camera. It's deadpan taken to maximum weirdness.

But Without the visual comedy and escalating chaos of Naked Gun, some viewers will find it slow and confusing rather than absurdist.

Inspector Clouseau poster
More like this (7)

The Pink Panther1963

Peter Sellers playing a bumbling detective with impeccable comic timing. It's the spiritual ancestor of Frank Drebin: someone completely confident in their incompetence.

But The tone is warmer and less anarchic than Naked Gun; if you want pure absurdism, this is slightly more grounded in character.

The Pink Panther poster

Coming to America1988

Eddie Murphy comedy with the same willingness to be completely silly and costume-heavy, built on character and charm rather than cynicism.

But It's more romantic and sincere than Naked Gun, which might feel slower if you want relentless gag delivery.

Coming to America poster

The Ladykillers2004

Coen Brothers comedy with Tom Hanks playing absurdly against type in a crime caper. Silly premise treated with genuine craft and excellent ensemble work.

But It's structured more as character comedy than pure joke delivery, which is a different flavour from Nielsen's machine-gun absurdism.

The Ladykillers poster

Miss Congeniality2000

Sandra Bullock playing a fish-out-of-water detective with physical comedy chops and warmth. Beauty pageant crime plot that doesn't take itself seriously.

But It's considerably gentler in tone and leans on charm as much as laughs, so the ridiculous factor is more subdued.

Miss Congeniality poster

Hot Shots!1991

Jim Abrahams' parody of Top Gun with Charlie Sheen and Lloyd Bridges, same year as Naked Gun 2½ and equally committed to absurdist military comedy.

But The film-within-film parody structure is tighter than Naked Gun's looser sketch approach, and some topical references have dated noticeably.

Hot Shots! poster

The Kentucky Fried Movie1977

Same writers, same philosophy: comedy as quantity and speed rather than story, each joke trying to out-crazy the last one.

Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker's sketch-comedy film debut: 90 minutes of unrelated comedic vignettes, no plot, pure anarchic gag experimentation. The foundation they'd later weaponise in Naked Gun.

But It's a sketch show on film with wildly inconsistent quality; some bits soar while others fizzle, and there's zero narrative to anchor you.

The Kentucky Fried Movie poster

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen1988

Both films treat the absurd as completely real. Neither winks—they commit absolutely to ridiculous premises, making the commitment itself the joke.

Terry Gilliam's visual fever dream where impossible slapstick and elaborate practical effects are treated with complete sincerity. It's Naked Gun's opposite in structure but same in spirit: a world where logic surrenders to spectacle.

But It's visually dense and narratively convoluted, so if you want joke clarity and pacing over baroque chaos, it's exhausting rather than delightful.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen poster

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Hot Shots!, Police Squad!, Wrongfully Accused, 1% of Anything, Black Scorpion