"Sturges was unable to find a producer who wanted to mount the play, even though a production at the Wharf Theater in Provincetown, Massachusetts was a local hit, so he and his friends decided to produce it themselves, on a budget of $2,500, which was provided by a rich acquaintance.Sturges later wrote that "The Guinea Pig" contained the biggest laugh he ever received in the theatre, when the ingenue asks the young leading man what a man would say to a woman so that she would instantly give herself to him, and the young man replies, "I wish I knew."