Recap / Film Reroll: Weekend at Bernie's

Praise the Sun God! ...yes, this one's had quite a Genre Shift.^note  Art by ReverendVoice.

Weekend at Bernie’s continues! Andy becomes a Sun God! Pitr has a diving accident! Bernie’s still dead!

Episodes 48-50 of Film Reroll. Based on the 1989 comedy movie.

Insurance corporation lackeys Richard Parker and Larry Wilson usually spend their their free time doing cocaine and picking up ladies, but once they discover proof of a serious case of Insurance Fraud committed by one of their clients, they are invited to a beach party by their boss Bernie to celebrate. What they don't realize is that Bernie himself is behind the scam, and that both they and Bernie are now targeted by The Mafia. Joined by a British publisher, a Dominatrix and a rich heiress, our protagonists must use every trick up their sleeves if they want to get through the weekend with their freedom, life and sanity intact... and possibly create a new religion while they're at it.

One thing's for sure, the story is significantly Darker and Edgier than the original film.

Starring Kara Strait^note  credited as “Pitr Strait” as Richard Parker, Andy Hoover as Larry Wilson, and Paulo Quiros as the Dungeon Master.

Followed by John Wick.

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Tropes:

• Adaptational Villainy: Richard and Larry are more overt Villain Protagonists here. Even before Bernie dies, they are willing to break into their manager's office, steal his cocaine and phone number list and only half-jokingly discuss killing him. Eventually, they actually do commit a murder by proxy by tricking Tina into shooting Paulie. Richard's tendency to lie in order to impress his girlfriend is also exaggerated into both him and Larry being a pair of pick-up artist con men. Lampshaded by Paulo, who points out that while they were already pretty self-serving in the original film, they're even worse in this version of the story.
• Adaptation Expansion: The campaign shows what Richard and Larry got up to the weekend before they met Bernie, which the film just skips over.
• A God Am I: Larry puts on the Sun God mask simply as a disguise, but after a while, he actually starts getting into character as the Sun God. Richard also adopts the persona of the Moon God, (or "Moon Guy") but keeps himself more down to Earth.
• Artistic License – Medicine: invoked
  • When pretending that Bernie needs to be "ambulated" to keep his joints healthy, Larry claims that Bernie's doctor "said" his knees could fall off, and his elbows could become "enemies to the rest of [his] body".
    • When Richard asks Baby Destruction to prove the validity of her name, she proceeds to smash a lamp into Bernie's face, something that Larry frantically states isn't good for his therapy.
  • When Richard decides to pretend Bernie has collapsed from an asthma attack (a move complicated by the fact that, because he was still tied to him, Richard fell on top of him as well), Tim tries to force him off Bernie. Larry tries claiming this is a legitimate procedure:
    Tim: Get off of Mr. Lomax!
    Richard: Tim! My sister's an asthmatic, I know how to handle this!
    Tim: You don't lie on top of them, I-
    Richard: Maybe you don't!
• Ascended Extra: Tina has a bigger role than she had in the movie, mainly by being turned into a Sleeper Agent by Richard and sent out to kill Paulie. In return, he offers to make her the new Acolyte, or the new "Gerald."
  Tina: I am become Gerald, destroyer of Paulie.
• Awesome Mc Cool Name: Kara says that she would leave everything for a woman named "Baby Destruction." Her wife, who was in the room at the time, agrees with her. (The pair have since separated ^note  for unrelated reasons but are apparently still on good terms.)
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • As it turns out, Sideways Shoulders is (probably) not an escort but a health insurance client who can't leave home due to their injuries.
  • Boom-Boom is actually working for a company treating people with explosion-related injuries. Richard asks her out anyway, but she never shows up.
• Bittersweet Ending: Richard and Larry get Paulie killed, but never find Bernie's money and are arrested by the cops. Larry gets eight years in prison which he sits out before becoming a Reformed Criminal. Richie is declared innocent, and it's implied that his lawyer Jimmy might give him a new job; Kara even concludes that Richard and Larry's friendship is over due to the whole debacle. However, his reputation is ruined and he Did Not Get the Girl, as Gwen is seeing someone else. Though it is made clear that they are on good terms, and that she never believed that he killed Bernie.
• Calling Your Attacks: Variation: Because Andy was abusing Larry's Fast Talk skill when trying to get a pair of sunglasses out of Bernie's bedroom while Richard was fending off Tim, upon punching Tim in the face:
  Richard: Oh, oh my god, I am so sorry, Fast Talk. (rolls dice)
• Cannot Talk to Women: Richard suffers from extreme social awkwardness around women, and his crush at work just considers his attempts at flirting with her creepy. There are however times when he manages to loosen up and act more natural.
• Canon Foreigner:
  • Tim Short, Richard and Larry's rather corrupt immediate supervisor.
  • The majority of the women our protagonists try to woo — with varying levels of success — most notably "Margaret Thatcher"/Rachel Uselton, "Baby Destruction"/Olna and Laura Harris.
  • Gerald, a random guy chosen to become acolyte of the gods, (i.e. bartender.)
• Cliffhanger: Just as it seems like the campaign is about to end quietly by Part 2, with Richard and Larry managing to ditch Bernie and escape to Rachel's house with Laura (barring Richard accidentally smashing his head when attempting to land in a pool by jumping out of a helicopter), the cops pay Rachel a visit, to inform her that Richard and Larry are suspected of having murdered Bernie. But what makes the situation all the worse is that, when Rachel is informing the others (not yet knowing their real identites) what she learned, things quickly become tense as Laura (having nodded off) comes awake... and starts referring to Rachel's friend "Robert" as "Larry"...
• Cloudcuckoolander: David Byrne is portrayed as having no issues with participating in a Knife Fight while wearing a duck mask and going up against an opponent dressed like a half-naked sun god, just for fun. He doesn't really care about losing, either.
• Co-Dragons: Arguably, Baby Destruction and Tina are this for our "heroes", the former being somewhat sadistic but otherwise sane, while the latter is an outright demented but tragic killer.
• Crazy Enough to Work: Richard tricks the robber into thinking that instead of giving him Larry's wallet he'll give him the code to his safe at home. At first, he actually seems to fall for it.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Discussed. Richard feels that the story Larry wrote to impress his crush was actually really good, leading to a slight Heel Realization where the guys ponder over how shallow their lives have become. Andy believes that he eventually takes up writing after the events of the campaign.
• Darker and Edgier: Compared to the film. Mostly by taking the protagonists hedonist tendencies even further and then forcing them to deal with the fallout of their actions.
• Drugs Are Bad: As a telling sign of the Adaptational Villainy on display, Larry decides to take advantage of the heroin that was used to kill Bernie to try and at least get rid of Baby Destruction, but also introduce Laura to it. But when Paulo reminds them it's still down in Bernie's study, Richard decides to stall for time by first having them do coke, something that Larry is unsure mixes with heroin.
• Embarrassing Middle Name: This campaign gives Bernie the middle name "Juniper." There's no telling how he feels about it, as it's only mentioned by the police during their investigation.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Having not seen the film, Kara Strait thought — among other things — that it was a teen comedy, not realizing that it actually Averts Dawson Casting by having young adults play people of their own age.
• Everyone Has Standards: Richard and Larry manage to get Baby Destruction out of the room (and away from Bernie) by pretending to be so kinky that even she has a Screw This, I'm Out of Here! moment.
• Failed Attempt at Drama:
  • Larry tries attacking the robber, but misses and ends up just running past him instead. This does however lessen the tension and leads to Larry and the thief parting ways on surprisingly good terms.
  • As the players haven't seen the film, Paulo manages to replicate the scene where Richard and Larry jump onto the moving ferry, only to realize that it's arriving, not leaving.
• Fall Guy: After the janitor catches Richard and Larry with their hands dirty, they give him the number to Long Nails in the hopes that they will be able to blame their theft on him.
• Fan Sequel:
  • Reddit user therascalking0000 made a mockup of what the jacket proof to Larry's book might look like, implying that he became an Unreliable Narrator who, among other things, covered up Laura Herris's role in the story.
  • Fellow redditor ymcameron soon responded with a mockup cover of a book written by Laura Herris, telling her version of the story.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Larry's story about the mafia boss who was found dead foreshadows certain later reveals about Bernie.
  • One of the confessions Richard extracts comes from a partygoer who lost a Knife Fight with David Byrne. Later in the story, David Byrne actually appears (voiced by Paulo Quiros) and challenges Larry, whom he mistakes for his Friendly Enemy Horizon, to one such fight.
• God Guise: Richard and Larry manage to convince the (rather drunk and coked up) partygoers that they actually are gods, and get them to join their Cult by promising them godhood if they reveal their darkest secrets. This actually leads to them finding Bernie's killer, but it also gets them in trouble with the police.
• The Heavy: Paulie, the mobster who actually killed Bernie after being hired by him to kill our protagonists is technically this, but he is The Ghost up until the end, where he shows up just to get shot in the head.
• Hero Antagonist:
  • The police, who are really just trying to arrest a bunch of killers.
  • The Security Guard even more so. He's simply looking for his boss' lost daughter, and only ends up fighting Larry at all because of a misunderstanding.
• Hope Spot: Towards the end, it seems like Larry and Rachel will be able to escape on the ferry, but then they run into both Tina and her target Paulie, and are approached by the police when the former kills the latter. Larry then tries getting away in Laura's helicopter, but doesn't make in onboard and gets arrested.
• In Spite of a Nail: As Paulo points out towards the end of Part 1, Andy and Kara unintentionally speed through some of Richard and Larry's plans from the movie by immediately deciding to pretend Bernie's still alive by tying their shoelaces and belts together, and discretely moving his head around.
• Internal Reveal: Throughout most of the campaign, Rachel only knew Larry by his alias "Robert De Niro". This quickly becomes an issue towards the end of Part 2, when she's informed that "Larry Wilson" is suspected of having murdered Bernie Lomax... and Laura, not knowing the full situation yet, starts calling Larry by his real name.
• Interplay of Sex and Violence: This is the whole schtick of Baby Destruction, who certainly lives up to her name. Most noticeable when she throws a lamp at Bernie's face before claiming that he likes it.
• Kiss of Life: Defied. While in the Dogpile Of Doom, Richard ends up face to face with Bernie. Larry then tells him that a kiss isn't going to bring him back to life.
• The Klutz: Richard constantly trips over his own two feet which is added character trait he previously didn't have in the movie.
• Lampshaded Double Entendre: Courtesy of Rachel, when meeting Larry at Bernie's party.
  Rachel: Do you have a sample for me?
  Larry: Is this drug or writing-related?
  Rachel: A little of both.
  Larry: Well, then yes and yes!
• Long List: Tim Short has a long list of phone numbers to people he's implied to have affairs with. (Though not all of them. See Bait-and-Switch above.) The list, which is pretty much a series of human Noodle Implements, reads: Long Nails, Soft Hips, Wednesday Addams, ^note  Hopefully he means Former Child Stars Lisa Loring from the TV show or Cindy Henderson from the first animated series (or some woman who reminds him of them) and not a girl the same age as the character. Margaret Thatcher, Boom-Boom, Sideways Shoulder, Fake Beard, The Plumber, No Morals, Baby Destruction, and Pouts Like Jesus.
• Metaphorgotten: When Richard and Larry interrupt him from having sex, Paulo describes Tim Short as being "nude as the day is young", something that not even he understands.
• Micro Monarchy: Larry suggests to the gang that they use Laura's money to buy an island and turn it into an independent nation. (Though he technically suggests making it a republic.)
• Minimalist Cast: With only three players (including the DM), it has the smallest cast since Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.
• Mistaken for Murderer: Once the police realize that Bernie is dead, Richard and Larry become the prime suspects.
• National Stereotypes: Rachel wears a beefeater hat, simply to show that she's British.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Richard and Larry accidentally erase the recording with the evidence that Bernie wanted them dead.
  • At the first possible opportunity, Richard and Larry manage to get rid of Bernie's body by pretending to tuck him in bed, before leaving with Rachel and Laura to head to the former's house. This winds up biting them in the ass when the cops pay a visit to Rachel, informing her that Bernie's body was discovered, and that "Richard Parker" and "Larry Wilson" are suspected of murdering him.
• Not His Sled: When our protagonists find Bernie's corpse, Paulo tries to create a fake-out by having Bernie actually wake up, only to clarify right away that no, That Didn't Happen.
• Not So Above It All: Rachel. She wants to call the police when believing her newfound friends to be murderers, but later gladly partakes in some of their criminal activities. In the end, she doesn't seem more moral than them as much as more pragmatic.
• Not What It Looks Like:
  • Larry and Richard keep ending up in suggestive positions with Bernie. Eventually they just run with it and start posing as his lovers.
  • After punching Tim in the face to prevent him from discovering Bernie's dead, Larry manages to fast-talk Tim into believing that he meant to punch Richard instead.
• Of Corpse He's Alive: Unsurprising, given that Weekend at Bernie's is the Trope Codifier. Paulo, however, feels that the premise makes more sense here than it did in the film, as Richard and Larry now happen to almost immediately find the recording where Bernie orders an assassin to kill them once he leaves, making the whole ruse a kind of Scheherezade Gambit. Our protagonists then leave the body behind at earliest opportunity. They are also guilty of theft and possession of cocaine, making it more believable that they wouldn't want to call the police.
• Oh, Crap!: When Richard and Larry decide to fool around with Baby Destruction and "Bedsheet"^note as Laura's name was not yet revealed by Paulo, Larry decides to ask if either woman has ever tried heroin. Not only does Paulo struggle to keep his composure, but Richard near-pleadingly reminds him that they have cocaine.
  Larry: I gotta ask you ladies, uhhhhhh, what percentage of you ladies, 'cause I know it's at least 50 and I'm hoping it's 100, are into heroin?
  (Paulo starts aggressively chuckling)
  Richard: (mortified) Oh my god... Holy shit... Dude, we have coke.
  Larry: (to Richard; quietly) No, bu- we wanna get 'em knocked out.
• Railing Kill: A non-fatal version occurs when Baby Destruction punches Tim Short in the face hard enough to knock him over a railing, causing him to crash through a table on the ground floor.
• Red Herring: Richard and Larry briefly suspect that Baby Destruction might be the assassin. As anybody who has seen the film knows, this isn't actually the case.
• Shout-Out:
  • Richard livens up the party at Jerry's by asking them to play the theme song to Ghostbusters (1984).
  • When Andy/Larry starts looking for a mask, he wonders if there is something along the lines of Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin mask from Spider-Man, or the cultists' masks from Eyes Wide Shut.
  • Rachel's fancy house is compared to a similar building from She's All That.
• Soft Water: Double Subverted. The gang jump into a swimming pool from a helicopter yet are all completely fine. (Granted, it's said that they're flying at a fairly low height.) The only exception is Richard, but only because he hits his head on the side of the pool. Still, it only gives him a severe headache, not any of the crippling or even lethal injuries it might have caused in Real Life.
• Sorry, I'm Gay:
  • Laura says that this is why she won't be able to seduce Steve the helicopter pilot into giving them a lift to the house with the swimming pool. They manage to convince him anyway.
  • Later Inverted when Laura — who is now entirely convinced that Bernie and Richard are lovers — apologizes for making a pass on the latter, given that he is gay. He assures her that he is far from being averse to relationships with women.
• Straight Man and Wise Guy: A tell-tale sign of how Off the Rails the plot becomes is when Larry's the Straight Man (marginally) and Richard's the Wise Guy. This is because Richard's nervousness, lying and inability to talk to women gets amplified ten-fold while also taking a level of dumbass. Inversely, Larry makes the majority of rational decisions like wanting to leave the party ASAP upon finding the recording of Bernie wanting them dead. That said, both are prone to crazy schemes and shenanigans since they're the protagonists of a wacky 80's comedy movie.
• Swapped Roles: Due to the players not seeing the movie beforehand, Andy and Kara somehow ended up giving Larry and Richard each other's roles and certain personality traits from their movie counterparts.
  Paulo: I like how you guys have completely switched the personas of the movie where Larry is the one who is like fucking crazy planned and Rich is the one who is like "I don't know!".
• That Man Is Dead: It's Implied that when Larry throws the Sun God mask into the sea, that's the death of that identity.
• Those Wacky Nazis: Apparently, they're frequent visitors at Jerry's, which makes Baby Destruction reluctant to visit the place. Richard suggests that they could beat them up if they find any, but BD seemingly gets cold feet and never makes it to the bar. (Though it's also possible that Richard simply didn't find her, as they never actually told each other what they looked like.)
• Two Lines, No Waiting: Downplayed: Richard and Larry wind up getting separated in Part 3 when Richard crosses paths with Gwen again and leaves with her. As such, while Larry gets caught up in more Sun God nonsense, up to and including getting into a knife fight with David Byrne, Gwen accidentally causes Richard to get arrested by the cops in relation to Bernie's death.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • Baby Destruction drifts in and out of the story, but isn't accounted for in the end. Though chances are that she was arrested off-screen.
  • It's also not stated what becomes of Rachel Uselton, including whether the police consider her to be an accomplice of Richard and Larry or just a victim/witness.

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