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Superbad

year 2007decade 00sdirector Greg Mottolagenre Comedy

113 minutes

Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Jonah Hill Seth
Christopher Mintz-Plasse Fogell / McLovin
Bill Hader Officer Slater
Seth Rogen Officer Michaels
Emma Stone Jules
Joe Lo Truglio Francis
Aviva Baumann Nicola
Carla Gallo Jacinda
David Krumholtz Benji Austin
Martin Starr James Masslin
Joe Nunez Liquor Store Clerk
Ben Best Quince Danbury
Jody Hill Tut Long John Silver
Kevin Breznahan Patrick Manchester

Superbad | The Rewatchables

host Bill Simmonshost Chris Ryanhost Sean Fennesseyproducer Craig Horlbeck format 200th Episode
Explore episodeClose episode

Most Rewatchable Scene

First 32 minutes; Coke party; liquor-store-to-car-accident stretch

In the discussion (18)
Approx. transcript time · 00:25:07Read transcript
  • The first 32 minutes are called unassailable: everything during the day is rewatchable until they get in the car with the guy who hits Jonah Hill and the movie shifts to night.
  • The opening phone call is smart and well crafted; Michael finishes the call five feet away before getting in the car, classic best-friend stuff from the call-only era before texting.
  • The Vagtastic Voyage debuts here, with a co-host joked to be its patient-zero, platinum-club subscriber.
  • Planning which porn site to subscribe to once he gets to college, including the line about who directs the porn he watches, is singled out as funny.
  • The mom cameo and the tits/teeth exchange are called very high-schooly.
  • A favorite comedy mode, traced to Chevy Chase, is someone doing something inappropriate behind a person who does not know; Jonah's home ec monologue about never needing to make tiramisu is the example.
  • The dick-drawings confession goes all in; Evan Goldberg's brother drew hundreds of them, and the Ghostbusters lunchbox treasure chest is a classic.
  • The driver's license scene unleashing McLovin is so funny; it was also the screen-test scene on YouTube, and Jonah's anger ("between that and Muhammad") makes it.
  • A Ringer piece says Jonah was mad at Mintz-Plasse, who did not care and stepped on his lines.
  • Seth telling Evan he got invited to the party has the most great Jonah Hill lines in two minutes: calm down Greg it's soccer, iron chef of pounding vag, Seth's own dressing, DTF.
  • Worked-up Jonah is compared to Chris Farley's energy; he could have done 20 more years of it and does some in Funny People.
  • The whole liquor store sequence could go in; the Seth dream sequence buying vodka is proposed, and at the party Seth coins the verb "perioded."
  • A favorite Hader scene is his bar explanation of his marriage and group sex on the wedding night, guessed to be ad-libbed; McLovin getting cockblocked by the cops, the cops generally, and the ending are also praised.
  • The Coke party with Kevin Corrigan's brother-from-Scottsdale speech is called the most rewatchable scene, better than Boogie Nights, with Cera singing These Eyes compared to Damian Lillard in a fourth quarter.
  • After an invitation to Sean, the dream sequence is chosen for Jonah's line readings such as "That would be lovely."
  • The stretch of McLovin buying booze, the robbery, Michaels and Slater interviewing Mindy and McLovin, the Seth-Evan lube fight and Joe Lo Truglio hitting Seth is called a favorite 15-minute stint.
  • The following party scene captures the high school feeling of being somewhere with older kids where you are not supposed to be.
  • Agreement on the 15-minute stretch, adding the breast-reduction and "warlocks" riff and the plan to go down on her for several hours.

What’s Aged the Best?

Title sequence and 1976 funk song; 70s funk soundtrack; the title; DTF; drunk-women theme; Slater and Michaels; Seth's lines; Cera's performance; McLovin's store terror; slow-motion catch trope; homeless guy

In the discussion (16)
Approx. transcript time · 00:36:52Read transcript
  • The opening title sequence uses Too Hot to Stop, a real 1976 funk song that was licensed rather than written for the movie.
  • The mostly 70s funk and disco soundtrack and title reflect 90s kids trying to be 70s cool in a 2007 movie; confusing if you think hard, and the stars were often asked what super bad means.
  • "One Crazy Night" would not have the same feel; one theory is kids who played the Pulp Fiction soundtrack a lot, and the shirt he wears suggests a setting around 2001.
  • Superbad is just a good title.
  • Rogen tweeted on the 10th anniversary that the movie invented DTF; Jersey Shore people said they got it from the movie and the Situation trademarked it on shirts.
  • The theme that you should not take advantage of drunk women was ahead of its time in 2007, unlike 70s and 80s comedies with Animal House the worst offender; the guys are horny but have a decent moral compass.
  • Rogen and Hader are in their own buddy-cop movie that intersects this one; a Slater and Michaels show or where-are-they-now movie would be watched and crowdfunded.
  • Seth's lines, including anti-poon, the back located on his cock, cargo shorts, who directs his porn and the lube line, are part of his 20 great lines.
  • A request to let others say some lines, followed by the police car running red lights, doing donuts and shooting it while on fire.
  • Officer Michaels on having a gun: like having two cocks if one of them could kill someone.
  • Cera's line about conversing with adults and a man who climbed five mountains cuts to Jonah chugging.
  • Who won between Jonah and Michael is interesting; Cera redefines his one-pitch persona with perfect, singular line readings and facial expressions.
  • The movie nails McLovin's fear in the store, with the camera zooming in on his abject terror.
  • Added late: the slow-motion leap to catch something soaring through the air, like the Risky Business egg, with the Goldschlager bottle here.
  • Also added late: the homeless guy attacking McLovin behind the restaurant and later recognizing him on the bus as McMuffin.
  • Watching with subtitles reveals a line in the bar as they arrive: someone yelling at the bartender to get these nuts out of their shells.

What’s Aged the Worst?

Language; MySpace; Dan Patrick Show McLovin; rogue cops; fake IDs for booze (disputed)

In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 00:44:23Read transcript
  • The language and material that would not fly now, though it came out in 2007; MySpace also stood out.
  • The Dan Patrick Show guy co-opting McLovin has always bothered one host; it belongs to Superbad.
  • Rogue cops, entrapment and police brutality made more sense as a theme in 2007.
  • Buying booze with a fake ID may be antiquated since Euphoria never mentions alcohol, only ketamine.
  • Craig, 27, producing the pod, is asked about fake IDs; the answer is a best friend had one, fake IDs still circulate, and Euphoria is the least accurate high school depiction.
  • One host would react to his son having a fake ID with pride, then pretend to be mad; he used a classmate's lost ID as "Bart Osmond" for two years, slouching to hide the height gap, until a Worcester state liquor store clerk sized him up.
  • Long Island beer distributors sold to kids 80-90% of the time without fake IDs.
  • Working the door at the Middle East in Boston meant seeing lots of Hawaii IDs judged on the hologram; others had Maryland and Jersey IDs, and Rhode Island was the big one in the late 80s and early 90s.
  • Kids with a lookalike older brother had it made; one host's brother used his IDs for years.
  • High school movies rely on parents leaving for the weekend; a single mom going out and a friend, Jim Grady, whose mom was often at her New York City apartment made parties possible, like having a good big man in the NBA.
  • Alcohol delivery now scans IDs, probably making it harder to buy liquor; the lube question for Ben gets the four-inch line as an answer.

The Joey Pants “That Guy” Award

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:54:34Read transcript
  • The fuck-my-life liquor store guy who reappears at the party, Joe Nunez, is loved, with a little Hurley from Lost.
  • Joe Lo Truglio as Francis, from The State and Brooklyn 9-9, is the perfect execution of his itchy, intense, bug-eyed talent, including the nonviolent-warrant line.
  • The Coke guy who cries while Cera sings plays Patrick; it is between him and Joe Nunez, whose IMDb peak is this.
  • Erica Phillips as the clerk taking the veterinary exam, also in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, is liked.
  • Jody Hill and Ben Best, the Eastbound and Down creators, on the couch are a good one, including Ben Best noticing Jonah's pants.
  • The award is a tie between Joe Nunez and Kevin Bresdenhan (transcript spelling).

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:57:48Read transcript
  • Finalists are Carla Gallo as period girl, Joe Lo Truglio, Kevin Corrigan and McLovin's girl Nicola, narrowing to Corrigan and Gallo.
  • Dave Franco gets no love for about 10 seconds of screen time; David Krumholtz pressuring Cera in the scene with Martin Starr is raised.
  • Carla Gallo is the probable pick: she comes in red hot, hits a couple threes and goes off the rails, and the ensuing fight has a bottle hitting Patrick.
  • The homeless guy should probably have been considered for the award.

Apex Mountain

Michael Cera; Martha MacIsaac; comedic cops (possible); McLovin's Hawaiian driver's license

In the discussion (14)
Approx. transcript time · 01:03:45Read transcript
  • Jonah Hill, twice Oscar nominated and now a director, was on a Belushi-like track; 21 Jump Street is offered as his apex, after Moneyball changed opinions, though this may be the movie he is remembered for.
  • Jonah and his peers are thoughtful fans of earlier movies who planned their careers.
  • This is definitely an Apex Mountain for Michael Cera, with Juno the same year and Scott Pilgrim in 2010.
  • His 2010s dip is attributed to not wanting fame and choosing smaller indie parts as an art-house fan; Molly's Game and Twin Peaks show a possible second life in a White Lotus-style series, though at 33 he is too young for the part mentioned there.
  • Research aside: Martha MacIsaac was 23 and Cera 17 during the sex scene.
  • Christopher Mintz-Plasse is raised with an unclear "absolutely, yeah," then credited with more career than expected (Role Models, Neighbors, Promising Young Woman) and a good essay about being trapped as McLovin.
  • Emma Stone no, Martha MacIsaac yes, Bill Hader no.
  • Rogen's 2007 was massive and his mogul career since (shows, weed line, books, pottery, Sony hack, fighting Ted Cruz) is the most impressive of the group; Long Shot shows his ideas, and his apex is probably Neighbors.
  • Pineapple Express got greenlit because of his stardom, from a generation that wanted to make its own Midnight Run or Lethal Weapon; producer Craig is asked about it and it is predicted as a late-300s episode, 383.
  • Comedic cops could be at Apex Mountain since the subgenre faded after this; Observe and Report was darker, and 21 Jump Street is offered by Craig.
  • Apex for flipping a boner into the waistband is asked as a question.
  • A joke Apex for Dartmouth credits the movie for Ringer staffers going there.
  • Goldschlager vodka was not a real vodka; Goldschlager is called an evil liquor, and a modern version would be marketed with an NFT.
  • The Hawaiian driver's license has got to be the peak, a cultural wave with shirts of it; one host's son Ben has a McLovin license flag from Amazon covering a window.

Who Won the Movie?

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 01:26:33Read transcript
  • Before the winner, Greg Mottola gets a shout-out as not the winner but maker of Superbad and Adventureland, which could come in the 200s.
  • Rogen and Goldberg win for the backstory: two buddies writing their big break, which rarely works, leading to their production company and the peak of the Apatow era.
  • Knocked Up (June 1, 2007) and Superbad (August 17, 2007) within 10 weeks were a rocket ship of fame; both were phenomenons, and Goldberg and Rogen is a second vote.
  • Seeing comedies like this in a theater, as with Long Shot or There's Something About Mary, is a rare roof-tearing experience.
  • Asked for Craig's pick, the reply agrees it has to be Rogen and Goldberg, who made every kid think they could write a script about high school.
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