Jim Carrey Pulled a Terrifying Prank on Six-Year-Old Damon Wayans Jr.
When Damon Wayans Jr. was only about six years old, he had a memorable encounter with his dad’s In Living Color co-star Jim Carrey that sounds like it was lifted directly from a horror film. Some guys will go to any length for a laugh.
“There was one time we were coming home, at night coming home,” Wayans Jr. said on Sirius XM’s The Spotlight With Jessica Shaw. “We were waiting for the gate to open, and Jim Carrey drops out of the tree onto the windshield of our car and slides down. His face is just smeared down. That’s why he was so funny ‘cause he was just wild.”
That’s why Carrey was so funny? A man drops out of a tree… onto your car’s windshield… in the dark of night? If that constitutes “hilarious” at the Wayans’ house, they must have a blast on Halloween.
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Damon Wayans Sr., who was appearing along with his son to promote their new CBS sitcom Poppa’s House, jokingly complained that his own children were convinced that Carrey “was funnier than me.”
“Jim Carrey was more desperate than you,” Damon Jr. clarified with a laugh.
“He was funny,” insisted Damon Sr. “A human cartoon.”
The elder Wayans was responsible for Carrey making his way onto In Living Color in the first place. The two had costarred in the movie comedy Earth Girls Are Easy, and Damon approached his brother Keenen Ivory Wayans about including Carrey on his new show, Marlon Wayans told Shannon Sharpe on his Club Shay Shay podcast. “They were friends, okay? And Damon was like Keenen’s right-hand man on In Living Color,” Marlon said. “He was like, ‘You got to trust me, this white boy is funny. He’s like Silly Putty. This white boy’s crazy. And Keenen was like, ‘Okay let me see him.’”
After the failure of Carrey’s first sitcom, The Duck Factory, Hollywood wanted nothing to do with him, according to Marlon. But Damon got Carrey that audition, Keenen thought he was hilarious and In Living Color history was made. The next thing you know, the Dumb and Dumber comedian was dropping out of trees onto the Wayans family car.
The prank “was so funny. That’s one of my earliest memories,” Junior remembered.
And what was Dad’s reaction? “He turned on the windshield wiper, actually.”