The Hangover: Based on a True Story?

Since The Hangover took its anointed place as the Breakout Comedy of the Summer last weekend, the usual chummy aftermath has followed. In that spirit, Nikki Finke began reporting on Monday that the movie is inspired by the actual experience of a Hollywood producer and a crazed bachelor-party night in Vegas.

“Inspired by” here roughly translates to “people sometimes get wasted in Vegas, black out and have a rough day afterward.” Feel free to judge for yourself with Finke’s original post, but to our eyes, that’s about as far as it goes.

Still, the producer, Tripp Vinson (The Number 23), does offer a fairly ridiculous nightmare scenario: “I remember being a drunken fool, as you're supposed to do at your bachelor party, and having a really good time with all my friends,” he told Finke. “I got separated from my friends, and I blacked out. And when I was revived, I was in a strip club being threatened with a very, very large bill I was supposed to pay. It was not a fun experience at the time, but it made for a funny story.”

That somewhat mirrors the plot of the movie, which follows a group of friends who try to pin down what happened at a bachelor party gone awry the night before. The groom goes missing and is expected to get married the same day (which is not how it went down in Vinson’s case, but whatever). It all makes you admire the restraint Warner Bros. showed by not branding the movie “based on a true story.”