Behind the Scenes

The film began with a conversation between Daryl and Sasha that quickly spiraled into the kind of bad idea Dollars & Donuts has always found irresistible.

Daryl was stunned to discover Sasha had never heard the infamous Mel Gibson voicemail tapes, which had long since entered sacred text territory for Daryl, Ray, and Nathan during the late 2000s. Back when the tapes first surfaced, the three of them would play them in the car instead of music, laughing in disbelief at the sheer operatic insanity of it all. There was something about the scale of the meltdown that pushed it beyond scandal and into absurdist comedy.

Somewhere in that conversation came the hook: what if these calls were coming out of a Dream Phone board game?

The old 90s commercials had lived rent-free in Daryl’s head for years. It always looked like the most alluring toy in the world, even if it was aggressively marketed toward girls. The collision of innocent toy-commercial nostalgia with celebrity disgrace was too perfect to ignore.

A vintage Dream Phone set was quickly sourced off eBay, Daryl’s daughter’s bedroom was transformed into the set, and the fake commercial was shot with all the bright-eyed enthusiasm of a lost toy ad from 1993. Comedian Lea'h Sampson joined the cast fresh off connecting with the crew during Night Dicks: Miami, while Kirsten stepped into the third role,

Originally, Daryl intended to recreate the celebrity calls through imitation and voice performance. But during the rough cut, it became immediately obvious that the original tapes were funnier, uglier, and far more dangerous than anything that could be performed. So the real voicemail recordings stayed, while Daryl instead slipped into the role of the fake commercial narrator, giving the piece its pitch-perfect infomercial veneer.

Then came Tom Arnold.

After hearing the premise, Tom insisted he be included. When Sasha and Daryl pointed out that he never had an infamous leaked tape on the level of Gibson or Baldwin, Tom reportedly shrugged and said he had plenty of bad behavior to draw from. Soon after, he left Sasha a voicemail riffing on his own public history and Roseanne-era baggage, effectively creating a brand-new Celebrity Dreamphone exclusive. A fresh scandal tape for the collection.

One of the film’s most notorious moments remains its opening swerve. The candy-colored commercial tone holds for just long enough to lull the audience into the joke before the Mel Gibson tape detonates with one of the harshest words possible, timed precisely to a hard music drop. It’ss the moment that decides the room. Either the audience recoils into stunned silence or erupts into horrified laughter. Usually, by the end, they’re on board.

The short became one of Dollars & Donuts’ biggest online successes, flirting with a semi-viral run and nearing 100,000 views. It likely could have gone even further had the profanity been censored for broader reach.

But where’s the fun in that.