Friday, February 15, 2008
If I saw this trailer before a movie, I would no longer want to see that movie. I would want to see Pineapple Express and be grumpy about my inability to do so.
Have you heard about joke jocks? Evidently Seth Rogen and the like are being called joke jocks. Guys who are treated like studs for telling so many good jokes that it makes your head spin (oh nooooooo!). See, the crime is that these Apatow folks are making comedies about guys who need to grow up that are actually funny. I don't remember any critical thinkpieces about '90s comedy blockbusters like Liar Liar or the fucking Waterboy, even though they don't have women as funny as Leslie Mann, Charlene Yi or Kristen Wiig in them. Daring to make small-scale, big-laugh comedies that strike a nerve rather than simpering cartoons, the "joke jocks" are treated like a new low when they're a huge improvement (also, I have never heard anyone say they find Jonah Hill attractive, so there must be a ceiling to this "he's funny so he's cute" thing).
I can't call myself a fan of Diablo Cody, but I like that her announced reaction to Superbad was "hey, women deserve a movie like this. I'll write it," rather than "hey, women deserve a movie like this. I'll write an article on how it sucks that they made a really funny movie where the guys told more jokes than the women." As a whiny armchair chap myself, I'm not saying its wrong to merely criticize. I just wish people put a little more thought into what they're really complaining about.
Sorry if this rant seems outta nowhere and a bit of a rehash. It's inspired by a months-old issue of Bitch my housemate left in the bathroom. And this joke jock trailer that I can't stop watching.
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2 comments:
Thank you.
As much as a Bust/Bitch/feminist publication loyalist as I tend to be, I know when our calling bullshit is bullshit.
I resent the critique of Superbad that runs along the lines of "gee... it sucks that there are almost no raucous teen sex comedies aimed towards women... it must be the damn patriarchy again getting us down again".
There's a rant in the current issue of Bust that runs along the same lines as the Bitch one you speak of, and mostly I have to ask why "Superbad" and "Knocked Up" get so heavily slagged in the "feminists represent!" category. Unlike, Katherine Heigl, I don't think "Knocked Up" was "kinda sexist", but - hey - I also try not to shit where I eat either. And damned if "27 Dresses" isn't 20x more sexist than anything Apatow's done. In "Knocked Up", the portrayals of women were just as a real (and damning) as those of men. Whiny, nagging wives driven to bad behavior by non-committal men who need to grow up exist. I'm living proof (haha). And while we're in the ranting zone I much more vigorously object more to Leslie Mann throwing "fag" around as an insult when she can't get into a "hip" nightclub. Fellow ladies, when we whine about inoffensive shit like the lack of women making funnies in "Superbad" we just give ourselves a bad name. God knows, there are much bigger fish to fry these days. And, also, ahem, why don't smart female filmmakers tackle teen sex comedies more? Amy Heckerling, what's your next project? We need "Clueless" or "Fast Times" up in here with a little more, ahem, balls, stat!
I'd much rather have "Superbad" than the 90s breed of this genre any day.
That said, I'm growing to hate Diablo Cody, and I don't anticipate ever finding Jonah Hill attractive - not even in the "I'd date him in the real world way" that I sometimes find Seth Rogen attractive. Now, Michael Cera is another matter.
Great secondary cast for this one!
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