There’s probably nobody better to direct and write a movie like The Naked Gun reboot than Akiva Schaffer. He has a resume full of brilliant, dumb, joke-a-minute work. Together with Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone he is a member of the comedy trio The Lonely Island.

“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.