This Is Why Ben Stiller’s ‘Happy Gilmore’ Character Never Got What Was Coming to Him
One of the oddest things about the original Happy Gilmore is the fact that Ben Stiller’s villainous nursing home attendant, Hal L., faces zero repercussions for his crimes. We all cheered when a smarmy pro golfer was chased down and pulverized by a small army of violent fans, yet the guy who ran a literal sweatshop full of seniors was just allowed to continue his campaign of elder abuse?
As many fans are aware, the movie very nearly included a moment in which Happy informs Hal that his grandmother blew the whistle on his scam. In the deleted scene, Hal then tries to claim that Grandma Gilmore can’t be believed because she’s “in the advanced stages of senility.” Happy responds by throwing Hal L. out the window.
Why would the movie exclude such an important scene, which resolves a key plot point? Well, apparently the blame should be placed squarely on us, the audience.
Christopher McDonald, Shooter McGavin himself, and his Happy Gilmore co-star Allen Covert recently appeared at Steel City Con, and chatted about the film’s production. The two explained that their only scene together didn't make the final cut, nor did a lot of other scenes. And many weren’t even included as DVD extras “because as Sandler would say, ‘They were deleted for a reason,’” Covert noted.
According to Covert, the final Stiller scene was scrapped because of the reaction it elicited from audiences during pre-release test screenings. “People are like, ‘Why wasn’t Hal L. ever given his comeuppance? And we have that scene, but when we tested the movie, the movie tested significantly lower when he beat up Hal L,” the Grandma’s Boy star revealed. “And then we would take it out again, and everyone would ask for the Hal L. scene. So we ended up not having it in there.”
“Interesting. He sent a lot of people to kick my ass, I’ll tell you that much,” McDonald added.
It’s unclear why exactly the movie would get a worse reaction from audiences with the Hal L. scene included. Possibly it was due to the extremity of the staging: Happy doesn’t simply punch Hal, or call the cops on him, he hurls him through a second-story window. That could easily be lethal. And the scene abruptly cuts before we get to see what actually happened to Hal.
So while the final cut may have been slightly vexing, at least it didn’t leave audiences wondering whether or not Happy had committed cold-blooded murder between rounds of golf.
Although, even if he had killed Hal, Happy Gilmore still wouldn’t be Subway’s most problematic spokesman.
