Dirty Work

Dirty Work is a 1998 American buddy black comedy film directed by Bob Saget. Based on the short story "Vengeance is Mine Inc." by Roald Dahl, the film follows long-time friends Mitch (Norm Macdonald) and Sam (Artie Lange) who start a revenge-for-hire business, and work to fund heart surgery for Sam's father Pops (Jack Warden). When they take on work for an unscrupulous businessman (Christopher McDonald), in order to be paid, they create a revenge scheme of their own. Traylor Howard also stars and notable cameo appearances include Don Rickles, Rebecca Romijn, John Goodman, Gary Coleman, Chevy Chase, David Koechner, Chris Farley (in his final film appearance), and Adam Sandler as Satan. The film was the first starring vehicle for Macdonald and Lange, and the directorial debut of Saget, coming one year after he left his long-running role as host of America's Funniest Home Videos. Though Dirty Work received largely negative critical reviews upon its 1998 release and was a financial disappointment, it has since become a cult classic and has been reappraised more positively by some critics. Co-star Artie Lange later became a regular on The Howard Stern Show, where the film was sometimes discussed. A sequel was planned but ultimately canceled following both Macdonald and Saget's deaths in 2021 and 2022 respectively. Plot Growing up, friends Mitch Weaver and Sam McKenna are taught by Sam's hard-nosed father, "Pops" McKenna, not to "take crap from anyone". To that end, the pair plant a bunch of guns in a schoolyard bully's desk and have him arrested for gun possession; next, they catch a kid-fondling crossing guard in the act, after having applied Krazy Glue to the seat of Mitch's pants.