You Need to See Melissa McCarthy Compete in This Fake Cooking Contest

In the wild world of cooking competitions, anything can happen. A combination of cutthroat competitive attitudes, forgotten ingredients, broken tools, and dropped (read: destroyed) dishes can cause quick descents into madness. But nothing quite captures the hilarious frenzy quite like the forthcoming mockumentary-style comedy, Cook Off!

Starring Melissa McCarthy, the culinary spoof follows a series of wacky competitors (including a sex toy consultant and a lady bug collector), as they vie for the $1 million grand prize in the Van Rookle Farms Cooking Contest. In the two-minute trailer, we first meet McCarthy’s Midwestern character, who will make even the worst of home cooks feel better about their kitchen skills. “My hands … they’re really not that clean,” she says, in a frumpy grey sweatshirt while tossing her disheveled red curls and garnishing her dish. “But it really cooks up nice.”

At one point McCarthy refers to her mystery dish as a sweet potato, but then later stirs it like a soup, only to finally pile a bag of mini marshmallows on top. But there’s no time to process what’s inside the pot before we’re met by a slew of equally quirky contestants including Ben Falcone, Stephen Root, Diedrich Bader, Wendy McLendon-Covey, and Gary Anthony Williams.

To no one’s surprise, mayhem ensues as tensions rise and contestants cry into their mixing bowls, mascots slap TV interviewers, and the giant display check gets stolen. Of course, it wouldn’t be a true McCarthy project without slapstick physical moments, like when she face plants onto the center of the competition floor.

“Good luck!” McCarthy later shouts to a fellow contestant, then looks at the camera and confesses: “I don’t mean that.” We didn’t think so, Melissa.

Cook Off! is slated to open on November 17. And, in all honestly, it looks like a wildly rambunctious movie that will make our cheeks ache from laughter. Watch the entire trailer for yourself.