Luckily, I have now seen it and all my worries were set aside. The Naked Gun is really funny, and smartly, the filmmakers didn’t try to compete with the original in the sheer number of jokes being thrown at the audience. It’s the smartest thing they could have done.

“Because we’re all fucked. And we need a few giggles,” he told Variety Monday at the movie’s New York City premiere. He delivered the line in the deadpan style of his on-screen persona, Frank Drebin Jr., the biological (and spiritual) heir to Leslie Nielsen’s iconic police lieutenant. The character last graced the big screen in 1994.