It also marked the feature film debuts for Aubrey Plaza, Ellie Kemper, Neil Casey, Ben Schwartz, and Bobby Moynihan.
The Mystery Team consisting of "Master of Disguise" Jason Rogers (Donald Glover), "Boy Genius" Duncan Wheeler (DC Pierson), and the "Strongest Kid in town" Charlie Day (Dominic Dierkes) began with three children who styled themselves as detectives, solving mostly kid-related mysteries such as missing cats or a lost baseball, but also gaining some local fame.
To prove to themselves and the town at large that they can be "real detectives", the Mystery Team take it upon themselves to solve a double homicide when they are hired by a young girl named Brianna (Daphne Ciccarelle) to discover why her parents were killed.
They ignore her, and go to the local grocery store, where they are told by their friend Jordy (Bobby Moynihan) that a hobo named Sam may know something.
After Kelly thanks Jason, who promises to tell everything to the police, he, Duncan and Charlie return to the lumber yard, where they find Leroy and his girlfriend's dead bodies.
After going to talk to Kelly and Brianna, their dad's friend Robert Finney (Glenn Kalison), who they have been staying with since their parents' death, helps fix his damaged bike.
When Jason, who admits his feelings for Kelly and kisses her, finds a firecracker Jordy gave to him earlier, he gives it to Duncan, who lights it and shoots it at Robert with his slingshot, severely damaging his face.
In January 2008, Derrick Comedy took a hiatus from filming short online sketch videos to produce Mystery Team, which is the group's first feature-length production.
[6] Mystery Team premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival as part of the Park City at Midnight series and was then released by Roadside Attractions in select cinemas on September 11 and 18, 2009.
[9] To promote the film, the group released a new online digital short starring the central characters, titled Mystery Team Adventures: The Case of the Haunted Hotel.
[11] Peter Debruge of Variety called the film "A genuinely funny but amateurishly constructed laffer from Derrick Comedy, a troupe of YouTube-savvy NYU grads with promising writing careers ahead of them.
"[12] Kimberley Jones of the Austin Chronicle wrote: "The twentysomething talents behind Mystery Team are still in the comedy minors, but this nerdy, nutty, perfectly pitched first swing suggests there are major things to come.