John Candy really hated filming this famous scene

Many consider “Stripes” a classic 1980s comedy (/ The film was once described as Ivan Reitman’s second best film), but once the characters complete basic training, the film shifts to Italy where our troublemaking heroes cause an international incident by riding a horse in an EM-50 Urban Assault video, at which point the film suddenly loses all momentum and stops being funny. It devolves into a generic action comedy that doesn’t leave Bill Murray and Harold Ramis much room for excitement. However, the first half of Stripes is such a riot that you can completely forgive the film – that is if you’re not John Candy.

Wonderful Candy He finally began to emerge as a comedic star on the big screen when he appeared as overweight nerd Dewey “Ox” Oxberger. Candy famously did not like mining his surroundings for easy laughs, and this concern ended up being at the heart of his intense annoyance when he filmed the mud wrestling scene in the film. If you haven’t seen “Stripes” before, the raunchy clip shows Murray’s John Winger talking Dewey into a fight with a group of bikini-clad girls in a dirt-filled ring. Given his size, you expect Dewey to defeat the ladies easily, but they surprise him by fighting dirty. He soon finds himself exhausted until he gets so fed up that he rips their bikini tops. See, it was an R-rated 80s comedy; Breasts were obligatory.

The part of the film is too broad and, frankly, too stupid to be laughable today, but when the film came out the audience screamed and screamed in Dewey’s triumph. It is unfortunate that Candy could not share their joy.

In Colin Hanks’ new documentary “John Candy: I ​​Like Me” (which begins streaming on Amazon Prime Video on October 10, 2025), the stars’ friends and former collaborators recall his disdain for the mud wrestling scene. “He was very upset by the scene of Stripes being in the mud,” said former SCTV producer Andrew Alexander.

Dave Thomas, Candy’s friend and SCTV colleague, played the match director and recalls that Candy didn’t want to do the scene at all. “It was like John taking your shirt off and rolling in the mud with a bunch of strippers,” Thomas said. “John wore a long-sleeved shirt because he didn’t want to appear completely naked.”

Bill Murray recalls that women were also very cruel to Candy. He said: “And women got involved in that.” “They were all fit. They started pulling his ears and stuff. People were getting a bit exploitative because they think you can do whatever you want to hurt him. (They thought) He’s too big, I can’t hurt him. He didn’t like that, he didn’t enjoy that. I get that.”

Candy was such a kind and generous person that some people probably felt they could go anywhere with him for a laugh. As Hanks’s documentary makes clear, this was not the case. Obviously there were many beloved films that he enjoyed producing, but “Stripes” was not one of them.