Co-stars Pierre Richard and Gérard Depardieu also portrayed characters named respectively François Pignon and Jean Lucas three years earlier in Les compères (1983), writer/director Francis Veber previous film. Despite this, they are not meant to be the same characters and the films are unrelated.
A near fatal accident happened on set when a stunt went wrong after a technician didn't properly secure a steel cable to a ten ton truck driven by star Gérard Depardieu, leading to the cable snapping and the truck slamming straight into actor Jean Benguigui. As a result, producers Depardieu, Pierre Richard and Les compères (1983) decided to double Benguigui's salary.
The last of three films in a row for writer/director Francis Veber to co-star Pierre Richard and Gérard Depardieu, after A Cabra (1981) and Les compères (1983). It is also the last of Veber's films to star Richard, who had been in all his films as a director up to that point, and several of those as a writer. As for Veber and Depardieu, they would reunite 14 years for O Closet (2001).