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.

Lt Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson) is the son of…you guessed it, Frank Drebin, played by Leslie Nielsen in the original Naked Gun films. But that’s not all. As revealed in a hysterical gag, the entire police force, including Paul Walter Hauser’s Capt Ed Hocken Jr, is the son or daughter of someone from the original cast.

“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.