“Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain” is the weirdest and most fever dream-like film of the year. From the masterful timing of its jokes to a seemingly improvised plot, this movie hearkens back to the old “Saturday Night Live” we all know and love.
“SNL” has declined in recent years, but when the Please Don’t Destroy trio — Ben Marshall, John Higgins and Martin Herlihy — were hired in 2021, “SNL” regained the off-color comedy which made it famous. After three years of work, “Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain” pays homage to classic “SNL” skits such as “Toonces the Driving Cat” and “Scoutmaster.”
I have adored Marshall, Higgins and Herlihy’s work since they made their first video, and this movie mostly made me proud to be a fan. From the unbearably cringey love scenes, laughable CGI and incessant use of Soulja Boy, this film had its faults, but I could not stop watching it. It’s so strange that I felt compelled to watch the plot develop into a chaotic comedy mess. The run time is only an hour and 32 minutes, so I never found myself getting numb to any running jokes or bored of the plot. The characters are charming, and the trio has three separate yet cohesive personalities.
This film details the lives of Marshall, Higgins and Herlihy as they discover the compass needed to find the treasure of Foggy Mountain was in their possession since they found the compass on a camping trip. The treasure is a priceless bust of Marie Antoinette the trio named Marge. They are chased by tour guides and kidnapped by a cult led by “SNL” actor Bowen Yang, but Marshall and Herlihy escape. The two attempt to sell the statue to Gaten Matarazzo after saving Higgins, but a comedic fight breaks out between the trio and the cult.
This movie is divided into four parts: “part one boys’ life,” “part two the way up,” “part three they got what they wanted” and “part four two weeks later.” This organization was completely unnecessary because of how cheap it looked. I genuinely believe each of the screens separating the sections was done at the last minute on an iPhone, but this adds to the randomness of the movie.
The most remarkable part of this movie is the characters’ game of sanity ball. Higgins starts as the classic straight man, for his story arc mainly drives the initial plot forward. However, this changes in the fourth part, when Marshall and Herlihy attempt to sell the treasure. When the two go to rescue Higgins, they suddenly become the less funny straight men. I thought this was especially impressive because Higgins had always been the straight man in the movie and in the troupe’s traditional dynamic. But throughout the fight scene, the game of sanity ball switches between the three simultaneously.
The straight man of a comedy trio never gets as much praise as the wise guy, but it is necessary to have one to make the audience laugh. Even though Higgins does not stand out, he is arguably more essential to the movie than Marshall and Herlihy because he is the straight man. By setting up the majority of the jokes, he makes the movie comical.
As much as I love Yang, Matarazzo and John Goodman, Conan O’Brien, who plays Marshall’s father, shines over all other celebrity cameos with his surly and dry attitude. Marshall’s only motivation is owning his father’s store, and most of the comedy in this side story is from O’Brien making fun of Marshall’s childish character.
Though all of the men in the trio have funny character arcs, Herlihy’s side story, which focuses on his overbearing girlfriend Amy, is my favorite. She converts him to Christianity, baptizes him and forces him to get “Jesus hair.” During the fight scene, he breaks free from her and turns into his drunk alter-ego, Lawrence. Besides some cheap jokes about Christians, Herlihy’s delivery makes his story the most memorable.
Overall, this movie is so weird it is impossible not to gather up loose change to buy Peacock and watch it. I cannot see this movie winning any awards, but I consider it a hidden gem with my favorite up-and-coming comedians.
