SYNOPSIS:

     Ten years after college, most of the guys from the sketch comedy group "Pickle Box" are pursuing different career paths.  Yet Jon can't let the dream die.  When he learns that a major network is hosting a competition where the winners get their own weekly show, Jon is determined to reassemble the group.  This coupled with the fact that, on his deathbed, Jon's grandfather (a famous vaudevillian comedian), tells Jon that it is his destiny to "save comedy".  So, this really is a touching, inspirational, sentimental story - lush with wiener jokes.      With the help of best friend Dirk, Jon gets all the guys to band together and begin where they left off.  They soon learn that their rival group from college, headed by the nefarious Winston, will also be in the competition.  Things are further complicated when Dirk begins to fall for a member of the other group, the comely Michelle.  After one of the members of Pickle Box, Harry, double crosses them and switches to Winston's group, Jon begins to despair.  Realizing they need help, Jon unearths (and subsequently rescues from a nursing home for elderly comedians) their old teacher, Nat: The Comedy Guru.  Things are getting back on track when tragedy strikes again.  The night before the competition, the Guru ends up in a coma after a visit to a gentlemen's club.        Yet the boys come together once more, determined to win it for their fallen mentor.  The final sequence takes place at the competition, as the two warring groups go head to head.  Mano a mano.  Cliche to cliche.  When the guys learn that Winston has stolen one of their best sketches and performs it first, they must think on their feet and improv their way to victory.  They win the contest, with a little help from Harry, who had been secretly planning on sabotaging Winston the whole time.  Winston suffers an ego crushing defeat, as well as a much deserved physical beat down.  Dirk and Michelle are finally free to love each other, and Jon has indeed saved comedy. -Co-written with Robert Dean Klein