Although unmentioned in the official description of the movie, the screenplay and characters are based on the classic comedy masterpiece by The Marx Brothers - Una notte all'opera (1935).
In 1991, Paramount Pictures was preparing to release the film under the title "Lame Ducks" with a major ad campaign, playing up the fact that it was produced by David and Jerry Zucker who produced L'aereo più pazzo del mondo (1980) and Una pallottola spuntata (1988), but when the brothers bailed on the project, the movie was shelved, the publicity campaign was scrapped and the title was changed to "Brain Donors". It was released in a few theaters to some positive reviews, but it really made it's money on home video where it has attracted a small cult following.
The line "You're excited? You should feel these nipples!" was later reused by producer David Zucker in two movies he directed, Baseketball (1998) and Scary Movie 3 - Una risata vi seppellirà (2003).
The name Roland T. Flakfizer, John Turturro's character, is inspired by Rufus T. Firefly, Groucho Marx's character in La guerra lampo dei Fratelli Marx (1933).