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Main Characters
General tropes (Larry & Richard)
Two best friends, more or less, and accountants who discovered the two-million-dollar insurance fraud at their company. Their boss Bernie, who's behind the fraud, invites them to stay over a couple days at his beach house (a weekend at Bernie's if you will) with sinister intentions, only for him to die on them. This forces the duo to drag Bernie's corpse around, escape dangerous situations and worst of all, dealing with each other.
- Blatant Lies: Tries to convince Paulie they didn't see him shoot Bernie six times. It doesn't work.
Richard: I didn't see anything, I was looking at my watch!
Larry: [Closes his eyes and feels the air] I'm blind.
- Blue Oni, Red Oni: Richard's the rational, timid Blue Oni to Larry's reckless, hard-partying Red Oni. To drive home the point, Larry wears warmer, louder colors (usually red) to go alongside his Impossibly Tacky Clothes while Richard predominantly wears blue and dresses more conservatively.
- Fainting: Both experience this at different points in the sequel, one where Richard was overwhelmed when the corpse he's stealing shoes from hits its head and the other when Larry collapses after extracting blood.
- In-Series Nickname: Both call each other "Lar" and "Rich/Richie".note
- Irishman and a Jew: Larry and Richard respectively and while there's no indication from their Anglo-Saxon surnames of "Wilson" and "Parker", the protagonists conform to these stereotypes to an extent.
- Larry is a confident, outgoing, booze-swilling and not-too-bright merrymaker (who takes to praying the "Hail Mary" under duress and is outright confirmed as Catholic in the sequel). However, his aggressive pursuit of women seems contradictive to the usual stereotype of the prudish Irishman, but he bemoans that "[Bernie] gets laid more dead than I do alive" and admits to being a virgin in the sequel.
- Richard is neurotic and constantly aghast at the horrible things happening around him. His New York Judaism is also strongly implied by the choice of date venue with Gwen (a Jewish-Chinese fusion restaurant called "Hymie's Hunan" with sweet-and-sour matzo balls on the menu) as well as him still living with his parents.
- Like an Old Married Couple: They tend to argue a lot over trivial things but have a bond thicker than blood regardless. It doesn't go unnoticed by Bernie who painted them as lovers in his Forged Message.
- Locked Out of the Loop: A double whammy. At first, the duo thought Bernie died of a drug overdose unrelated to their visit and dragged his corpse around to avoid suspicion. Then they learned the truth of how Bernie was going to dispose of them but only when he's not around, leading them to pretend he's still alive so they can leave the island. Unbeknownst once more that Paulie, their would-be assassin, was given higher orders to only kill Bernie but due to Richard and Larry pulling the ol' Of Corpse He's Alive trick, it ended up driving him crazy and getting him to actually try to kill them for real.
- Mistaken for Gay:
- Had Bernie's note been released exactly as planned, Larry and Richard would be known to the company (and possibly the world if it went on the news) as the guys who stole millions so they can live as lovers. Didn't help that Bernie took inspiration from their dynamic upon meeting them for the first time.
- This also happened in a deleted scene
where Richard was interrupting Larry's first time with a woman (The same one who told Larry to f*ck off during the party) so they can retrieve Bernie's corpse from being washed away by the tides. However, the way Richard phrased it without the context ("Bernie is going in and out sideways." and "I need you Lar, I really need you. Bernie, he needs you too.") causes the woman to be appalled by Larry's deception and leaves in a huff calling Richard "his light-footed friend".
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Because they followed Bernie's advice of not telling anyone about the fraud, Larry and Richard were suspected of stealing the money themselves since Bernie, the only other witness and the true culprit of the crime, is dead. So instead of the promotion they anticipated for discovering the two-million-dollar error, both were fired and secretly hightailed by Hummel in the sequel.
- Straight Man and Wise Guy: Richard (the Straight Man) is constantly exasperated with Larry's (the Wise Guy) antics.
- They Know Too Much: Bernie certainly thought so when they discovered the insurance fraud and told him they were planning to expose it in hopes of promotion. He rewards them by inviting the two to his luxurious beach house... and asks his boss Vito to assassinate them. However, the plan never follows through since Vito decides Bernie is becoming too much of a liability and offs him instead.
Larry Wilson
Played by: Andrew McCarthy
- Afraid of Needles: One tiny prick sends him out cold as seen when Claudia's father extracts blood from him to save Richard's life from a voodoo curse.
- The Alcoholic: Downs all kinds of booze and plenty of it whenever available. The first thing he does upon entering Bernie's beach house is to pop open a bottle of champagne and after Claudia rejected him, had a full-blown Drowning My Sorrows episode until 2 am.
- Chekhov's Skill: Larry manages to forged Bernie's signature to a T in the sequel, allowing the duo to afford the expensive hotel room in the Virgin Islands and access Bernie's safety deposit box.
- Comically Missing the Point: After reading Bernie's note, he's not distraught because Bernie planned on killing him and Richard while framing them for the insurance fraud they discovered but because it portrayed him wanting a sex change operation. Richard immediately calls him out that (a) the note isn't leaked to the public and (b) nobody is having a sex change operation in the first place, let alone Larry.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Most of his actions throughout the film end up making things worse for him and Richard...which is why it's surprising that he single-handedly ties up and punches out a crazed and armed Paulie at the end of the first film.
- Drives Like Crazy: The two times he took the wheel, he manages to wreak absolute havoc with a fair share of collateral damage in his path (And this was on a speedboat and horse carriage no less). Justified since Larry doesn't have a driver's license as revealed in the sequel.
- Foreshadowing: After Tina finished screwing around with Bernie's body, Larry quips "[Bernie] gets laid more dead than I do alive". In the sequel, Richard needs the blood of a virgin otherwise he'll succumb to Mobu's curse. All hope is lost...until Larry sticks his arm out.
- Iconic Outfit: He wears a multitude of Impossibly Tacky Clothes but his unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt, rolled-up yellow sweater, red plaid pants held up by a belt and purple hi-tops are associated with his main outfit (as indicated by the movie posters and DVD covers).note
- Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Seems to have a closet full of mismatched patterned and gaudy clothing by 90s standards, including his Iconic Outfit.
- It's All About Me: Easily the biggest offender of them all. He was more concerned about cutting his weekend getaway short over their host Bernie being dead and went to great lengths to hide this fact.
- Lazy Bum: He wants to earn the most amount of money with the least amount of effort possible, hence his determination to find Bernie's stolen millions, constantly goofs off during work hours and to quote from him - "Why can't you be a lazy shit like I am?"
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Has been called Lawrence exactly once by Richard in a throwaway line.
- Robbing the Dead: Stole Bernie's expensive gold watch under the justification that he doesn't need it anymore. The sequel has him paying expenses under Bernie's name and credit cards although this time he had the decency to pay it off...with the stolen money Bernie took.
- Series Continuity Error: Richard refuses to let Larry drive in the sequel because he doesn't have a license despite driving Bernie's cart with no incident previously. One possibility could be Richard not trusting Larry anymore after the boating incident.
- Shipper on Deck: He encourages Richard to ask Gwen out and taps on Gwen's shoulder for him when he's too chicken to initiate a conversation.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Richard knows better than to follow Larry's cockamamie schemes but does so anyway to prevent him from getting into serious trouble and/or out of desperation.
- Virgin-Shaming: Richard mildly makes fun of Larry for being one in Weekend at Bernies II despite the fact it saved him from certain death.
- Zany Scheme: While the whole fiasco started because Bernie couldn't keep his money or pants to himself, the rest of the movie and the sequel hinges on Larry carrying out one crazy, morally questionable idea after another in order to find Bernie's money.
Richard Parker
Played by: Jonathan Silverman
- Ambiguously Jewish: Moreso than Larry is ambiguously Irish. He is neurotic in nature, still lives with his parents despite having a desk job and when stranded in the middle of the ocean, spent the next two hours angsting and recapping their disastrous weekend to Larry. For his date with Gwen, he chooses a restaurant called "Hymie's Hunan" that serves Jewish-Chinese fusion cuisine like sweet-and-sour matzo balls.
- Basement-Dweller: Turns out he still lives with his parents as Gwen finds out the hard way when Richard's dad walks past them in nothing but his underwear.
- Cannot Talk to Women: It took him nearly two months and Larry's prodding just to muster up the courage to speak to Gwen. And even then, Richard introduces himself by blurting his aunt (which he doesn't have) is terminally ill. Rough start but once Gwen took sympathy and agreed to a date, the trope gets downplayed a bit as Richard gains confidence.
- Dogged Nice Guy: To Gwen but circumstances make it hard for them to properly get together.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After Bernie's death, he gets dragged into Larry's increasingly convoluted scheme to retrieve the money, loses his job in the sequel and nearly died twice (from Paulie's mad shooting spree then Mobu's concoction) within a span of one week. He finally catches a break as he and Larry sail off on a luxury yacht when it turns out Bernie stole three million dollars and Larry kept the remaining million after returning the initial two to Hummel.
- Nervous Wreck: He's way more apprehensive and high-strung about the dead boss situation than Larry is, understandable because of the high risk of being caught and wrongfully charged with murder the longer they keep the body a secret, and tries calling the cops to get the ordeal over and done with.
- Only Sane Man: Richard is seemingly the only one who has an ounce of sense given he's the only person in the first movie to figure out Bernie is dead without anyone else spelling it out for him. Alas in spite of his better judgment, he isn't the one to actually make the plans since he lets Larry do whatever Zany Scheme he has in mind while tagging along.
- Poison and Cure Gambit: Becomes the victim of one after unwillingly drinking Mobu's concoction at gunpoint. He and Larry have until sundown to retrieve Bernie's money otherwise the former will succumb to a slow, agonizing death. Must have been one hell of a poison because within a few hours, Richard turns ghastly pale, all his strength is gone that he could barely walk and is in so much agony to the point of inviting death. Luckily, he was able to be cured with a little virgin blood from Larry.
- Not So Above It All: Richard is appalled at Larry for keeping up the charade to collect Bernie's stolen money but that doesn't stop him from allowing the latter to think of Zany Schemes and going along with it. He also stops himself from calling the police early on because Gwen unexpectedly showed up and spent that time getting back in her good books.
- Snowball Lie: That little white lie of his sick (non-existent) aunt escalated into several of Richard's relatives, including his parents, being dead. This leads to Gwen not trusting Richard when he then claims Bernie's dead (which he is) until it's too late and temporarily wants nothing to do with him again.
Bernie Lomax
Played by: Terry Kiser
- Artistic License – Biology: There was no way Bernie's corpse could last that long without decomposition and rigor mortis kicking in as shown by Larry and Richard dragging his perfectly intact and ragdoll-like body for a whole week throughout both movies. The only nod to the corpse's biology was Larry complaining about Bernie emitting a foul stench and covering it up with air freshener.
- Asshole Victim: Considering he was an embezzler in bed with The Mafia (figuratively and literally) who tried to have two innocent employees of his framed for his crimes and murdered, it's pretty easy to say his death was thoroughly deserved.
- Body in a Breadbox: Since there isn't any place to hide a dead body in their hotel room, Richard and Larry resorted to cramming Bernie in a mini-fridge until he danced his way out.
- Chekhov's Gun: The accidental voice message he left clues in Larry and Richard on his plan to murder and frame them for theft.
- Cool Shades: Seen with his tea shades and various sunglasses at all times. Enforced since Bernie's eyes are a dead giveaway that he's...you know.
- The Dead Can Dance: Thanks to a blotched Hollywood Voodoo spell in the sequel, Bernie is able to walk but only when music is played. His movement of leaning way back while wobbling his head and arms inspired the real-life dance craze "Movin' Like Bernie"
- Death by Irony: He wanted one of Vito's men to assassinate Richard and Larry and framed it as a suicide. Paulie gives him exactly that with a lethal drug dose.
- Fatal Flaw: Greed (and on a lesser note, Lust). Vito finds it pathetic how Bernie has gotten so sloppy at covering his embezzlements that it's easily discovered by two nobodies and goes through so much trouble to eliminate them for a few million he'll squander instantly. Compounded with the fact he's blatantly seeing Vito's girlfriend Tina, Bernie proves to be a liability and was immediately disposed of.
- Forged Message: Inspired by how Richard and Larry argue Like an Old Married Couple, he concocted the following murder-suicide note to pin the blame on them.
Richard: "Richard Parker and I stole this money from the company to pay for my sex-change operation."
Larry: What?! [grabs the note from Richard] "So now he tells me he loves someone else, I can't live with that and neither will he."...It's got my name on it...
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: Bernie begs his boss to kill Larry and Richard once they discovered his two-million-dollar fraud, only for Vito to think he lets the money go to his head and kills him instead.
- Hypocritical Humor: Tells Larry to not smoke in his office all while lighting a cigerette as he berates him.
- Iconic Outfit: Like Larry, the clothes which he died in, a striped white-and-grey t-shirt, blue jacket and tea shades, are commonly depicted as his main outfit.
- Secondary Character Title: He may have provided his name in both movie titles but it's really about his two employees Larry and Richard while they drag his corpse around.
- Series Continuity Error: Bernie wears his tea shades throughout the sequel despite the beach brat stealing it in the previous film.
- Too Dumb to Live: Seriously, not only did he commit a massive fraud that he covered up so poorly that he put not only himself but the boss of a mafia family he was doing business with at risk, but he was also sleeping with the mafia boss' girlfriend. Either one on its own would be enough to get you killed; Bernie decided to do both.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Bernie is popular with everyone on the island, and even the protagonists think he's a pretty Nice Guy before finding out about his corruption.
- The Voiceless: He has no speaking roles beyond the first thirty minutes of the first movie. None of Bernie's "friends" realize his unresponsiveness since they are so self-absorbed and just chalk him up as "playing hard to get".
Antagonists
The First Movie
Vito
Played by: Louis Giambalvo
Bernie's boss who is the reason why he was killed in the first place.- Greater-Scope Villain: He employs Paulie and (unofficially) Bernie and clearly has his fingers in multiple different pies, but he has no direct interactions with Larry or Richard.
- Karma Houdini: There's no indication that he faces any kind of punishment for his criminal activity.
- The Mafia: The powerful boss of an unspecified one but it's definitely Italian as indicated by his name.
- Meaningful Name: Vito is quite a common name for Italian mafia bosses in movies.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He only appears in one scene for 5 minutes and is overheard in a phone call but his order of killing Bernie drives the plots of both movies.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: His whereabouts after his phone call became unknown since he was never mentioned for the rest of the movie and the sequel. The matter of how he would deal with Tina two-timing him with Bernie would also be left unanswered.
Paulie
Played by: Don Calfa
A hitman who finished off Bernie under Vito's orders. He slowly becomes insane throughout the movie when he perceives Bernie won't stay dead no matter what.- Driven to Madness: Paulie is at wits end when his target Bernie would not stay dead thanks to Richard and Larry hauling his corpse around which ends up in a shootout between them as a last desperate attempt. The last that we see Paulie is when the police are hauling him away in a straightjacket foaming at the mouth and delusionally believing Bernie is still alive, truly losing the last of his sanity.
- Groin Attack: Receives one from Bernie after he kicks his leg aside while stalking the boys through the house to the tune of "Vissi d'arte", only for the heel to hit him square in the crotch just as the aria reaches its climax.
- Sanity Slippage: Over the course of the movie, he gradually loses his grip on his sanity due to believing that Bernie just refuses to die.
The Sequel
Hummel
Played by: Barry Bostwick
- Accidental Pervert: Happened to knock into Bernie whilst the latter was paraguilding but unfortunately gave Hummel the bikini tops he snatched from two sunbathers. The sunbathers quickly sic the cops on the mistaken thief and he was escorted to prison (again).
- Butt-Monkey: Gets arrested three times over the course of two days then gets drugged and faces deportation.
- The Cassandra: Nobody believes him when he saw Bernie strolling along the ocean floor without any diving equipment. Didn't help when he tries hijacking the submarine and insists on opening the hatch whilst underwater.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After everything he goes through, he is able to recover the two million dollars for his company.
Charles and Henry
Played by: Tom Wright (Charles) and Steve James (Henry)
Mobu's dimwitted lackeys who were tasked with retrieving and resurrecting Bernie's corpse otherwise they'll be turned into goats.- All for Nothing: Everything they did, the kidnapping of Bernie's corpse, the ritual, retrieving Bernie's body again after losing it, was to make Mobu reverse the curse she cast on them. Alas before she can do so, Bernie knocks her unconscious and was arrested and thus the two couldn't escape their fates of becoming goats.
- Forced Transformation: Mobu threatens to transform them into goats should they fail to retrieve Bernie. They initially laugh it off but soon realize the signs are real (like Charles randomly bleating and Henry finding female goats attractive) and have to find him ASAP. Unfortunately for them, Mobu gets incapacitated before she can undo the curse and they're permanently goats by the end of the movie.
- Big Guy, Little Guy: Charles is the Little Guy to Henry's Big Guy.
Others
Gwen Saunders
Played by: Catherine Mary Stewart
A summer intern that Richard's been crushing on for the past two months. She only appears in the first movie.- Locked Out of the Loop: Up until the climax, Gwen had no idea Bernie was Dead All Along and thought Richard was crazy since his claims cannot be taken at face valuenote and Larry hid the body when he tried showing it to her.
- Satellite Love Interest: She only appears anytime Richard is onscreen or nearby and doesn't properly interact with anyone besides him and (very briefly) Larry.
- Sequel Non-Entity: She doesn't appear in the sequel. While the disappearance can be justified by her going to college as she stated before and it takes the following Monday after the original, this doesn't explain why she's never mentioned. Especially Richard who was pining over Gwen for the entirety of the first movie, only to somehow forget her and sail casually in a yacht full of nubile women with Larry.
Tina
Played by: Catherine Parks
Vito's girlfriend who is not-so-secretly having an affair with Bernie.- Footsie Under the Table: Introduced by shoving her foot into Bernie's crotch during dinner. Right in front of Vito no less.
- Hypocrite: She had the audacity to accuse Bernie of cheating on her when she was doing exactly that to Vito with zero shame.
- I Love the Dead: Unintentionally on her end. When she comes to Bernie's beach house unaware that he's dead, she ends up unknowingly screwing his corpse. This leads Larry to joke that Bernie gets more action dead than he (Larry) does alive.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Unlike Gwen, she never found out about Bernie's murder at the hands of Paulie and Vito didn't inform her, so it led to her storming to his beach house and then screwing with his corpse.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Had she not gone to see Bernie and ended up screwing his corpse, Marty, who had been tailing her, would not have caught her doing so and reported their encounter to Vito, setting up the second act and the final conflict between the main characters and Paulie.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: After happily screwing Bernie's dead body, she took a ferry back and was gone for the rest of the movie. It's unknown if she was confronted or punished by Vito.
- Woman Scorned: When Bernie doesn't come back to her, Tina's first thought is to walk all the way to his beach house and confront him... while brandishing a knife (as if it'll make him deader than he already is). It's subverted when she finds Bernie "waiting" in bed and immediately makes love to him.
- Yandere: It's implied she has some tendencies towards this, considering she takes a knife to Bernie's beach house while planning to confront him. Though she quickly changes tack when she finds Bernie in bed apparently Ready for Lovemaking.
Claudia
Played by: Troy Byer
A native girl of the Virgin Island that Larry befriends and a big believer of voodoo witchcraft. She appears in the sequel.- The Not-Love Interest: Larry took an interest in her but after he dismissed voodoo as mumbo jumbo baloney on their date, she immediately rejected and kicked him out of her house. Rather than pursue her like Richard did with Gwen, Larry just lets it go as he has other things to worry about, namely finding the money and saving Richard from death, and both remain on good terms in the end.
- Serious Business: She is devoted to voodoo magic and witchcraft to the point that when Larry dismisses it, she loses all interest in him and tells him to get out of her house. Once Larry takes her seriously, Claudia is more than happy to lend her assistance to his and Richard's predicament.
