A new era in comedy?

Dear Danny,

"The funny thing about my back is, it's on my cock"

This line comes from the summer's last big hit, Super Bad, from the crew of comedy minds that made 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up and if you really know your stuff, you know them from Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared.

The minds are, in no particular order, Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen among others. Judd started off writing television comedy, like The Critic (he actually wrote my favorite episode of The Critic of all time), and then the Larry Sanders show. Then 2 failed series later, it was 3 years and the summer of Wedding Crashers that the 40 year old Virgin was coming out. The movie was marketed as Steve Carrell's big first movie, as before this he was only known for cameo roles and the Daily Show. 40 was supposed to be Carrell Carrell Carrell, but what it actually did was rejustify Apatow's comedy. People started thinking, hey, maybe this guy is pretty funny.

Seth Rogen started off at Undeclared with his acting and writing career. Everyone loved him as the zany pervert against Paul Rudd in 40, so much that he got the lead in Knocked Up. And again, much like 40, this was a movie that was supposed to be Seth's big break. Judd wrote and directed the early summer hit, and maybe now people will finally see that Apatow has some talent. He took Carrell and made him a star, and did the same with Seth. Now Seth's writing his own stuff (Superbad and the upcoming Owen Wilson Drillbit Taylor) and still acting as hilarious as ever.

But enough about their history. What I wanted to talk about was how they're bringing comedy back to movies.

Recently, and this is not a shock to anyone, every movie is a sequel or a remake. I'll even take it a step beyond that and talk about every big movie out now isn't original anymore. Everything is based on a comic or a book or a TV show (Aquateen and Sex in the City). We've had years of superhero movies being topped off by Spidey series and Transformers. There's nothing original coming out of movies anymore. Cue Judd Apatow and crew.

40 wasn't based on anything except Judd. Neither was Knocked Up or Super Bad. And they're funny. It's fresh comedy. Super Bad is a high school comedy. Yes, I know. How many times has that been done before? So many that the genre of "High School Comedy" and movies like it have already had a spoof movie (Not Another Teen Movie). The comedy genre has been in a 5-7 year lull and been awakened. Knocked Up was a hit because it was fresh good character based comedy, something we so rarely see in the big theaters. Just look at Steve Carrell's Evan Almighty. It's a sequel, sort of, and it cost 130M. It lost so much money because people are tired of seeing the same jokes over and over again. Super Bad has been big so far because it's just flat out funny.

We'll see how long it can all be kept up, but if you want to look at crew's and how people are doing, just look at Will Farrell. Took a similar path as Steve, started in TV did some movies and then hit it big with Old School, Anchorman, but fell quickly into the Talladega Nights and that new skating movie. Steve is doing so well at the Office it's hard to think he'll ever be not funny. So what's up next for this new crew without a name?

Well Seth has a couple things. First there's Drillbit Taylor with Owen Wilson, which really can't go wrong. And then there's the more interesting Pineapple Express. It's about stoners running from the law, but Seth's writing it with the same guy he wrote SuperBad with, and it's being Directed by David Gordon Green, someone who only Sushi knows and people that Sushi has made watch his movies know. It has all the right pieces to be a hit, we'll see.

Judd Apatow has a little more unique series of stuff coming up. He's not set to direct anything for a while, but he's written the new Dewey Cox movie, a Walk the Line parody. I'm a little worried about it, but as I discussed with Larke, I have faith in Judd. His next project he's co-writing with Adam Sandler. Adam will star along side rumored Mariah Carey. Can't really be bad, right? Steve Carrell, Seth Rogen and then Adam Sandler? Why not.

So the next time you're going out to rent or Netflix something, I want you to keep this in mind -- Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared are on DVD. They're only 1 season each because no one watched them while they were on TV. Give them a swing. I promise you a good time. And I also promise that you'll watch it and go, hey it's that guy. Hey it's that girl. They were in 40 Year Old Virgin. That guy was in Knocked Up. But they were in these sweet hearted tv shows first.

Farewell for now,

Asher