David Wain and Ken Marino. Courtesy of THINKFilm

DAVID WAIN AND KEN MARINO

PREMIERE: A lot of laughter on set doesn't always translate well onto the screen. Was that true for The Ten?
KEN MARINO: A lot of times, but I've heard if you're having a good time on set and people are getting along and having a good time, that comes across. I think that's what happened. I think we had a great time on set and every day was a lot of fun.

DAVID WAIN: But there were times it felt more serious on set than it came out on screen because a lot of the execution was kind of serious. It was more the whole story that was so silly. But like when Jesus and Gloria say goodbye after having coffee in Mexico in the café, I was very moved. I was, like, in tears.

KM: When Rob [Corddry] was raping me, that wasn't necessarily funny at the time.

DW: Because you were in so much physical pain.

Do you think anal rape is funny?
KM: In the way we did it, I think it's funny.

DW: We wouldn't have included it in our comedy film if we didn't think it was funny.

What's funny about it?
DW: I'll say this, what's funny about getting a woman pregnant, for example, with Knocked Up? What's intrinsically funny about it? I would say the same thing about our movie. It's the execution. It doesn't have to be slipping on a banana peel to be funny. I think any topic can be funny if it's treated in a comedic way.

So what is it about skewering religion that seems to be particularly funny? One just has to think of Monty Python's The Life of Brian…
DW: The Life of Brian, I, think does skewer religion. Ours doesn't and we use the Ten Commandments as a jumping off point.

KM: Our intention was not to make comments or make a statement about religion. We were just trying to write some funny jokes, and that was our jumping-off point, [to provide] structure and thematic element base for the stories, but beyond that we don't have a religious agenda or particular theistic point of view.

What was Winona Ryder's reaction when she found out she was going to have to have sex with a ventriloquist dummy?