The movie's epilogue states: "Palmer and Eddie will be back in Tourista. Coming Soon." So the end of the picture informs the audience to "watch out" for a sequel coming soon. This is featured just before the closing credits. The producers intended to make a sequel titled "The Tourista" with Judd Nelson's character returning. But due to the poor performance at the box office they scrapped the idea.
Andrew Dice Clay was cast after being seen at a comedy club by Julie Seltzer (the film's casting director) and Robert Kraft (head of music for Cannon films) and despite his age (the part was for a high school teenager) Clay was cast on the spot. It was also the same comedy club where Jim Carrey was performing and was also approached in the parking lot of the club for a role in the film and quickly turned it down.
The first actor approached for the role of Eddie Keaton was Jim Carrey, who was seen by the film's casting director Julie Seltzer and the head of music for Cannon Films (now music agent) Richard Kraft at a comedy club in Los Angeles. Carrey turned down the part and Judd Nelson was cast soon after.
Contrary to some perceptions, the movie was not the cinema film debut of neither Judd Nelson nor Andrew Dice Clay as the two, according to their IMDb filmography lists, had previously appeared in Rock 'n' Roll Hotel (1983) and Wacko (1982) respectively.
The original composer for the film was Danny Elfman, who was suggested by Richard Kraft who was the head of music of Cannon films at the time and was immediately rejected by the film producers to score the film. Kraft would later become Elfman's agent along with the late Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein and Basil Poledouris among others, after he was fired from Cannon Films after this film was completed in post-production