Danny

The last two Grudge Matches hurt Pat’s pride so badly, having  received only 14% and 9% of the votes so far) that I decided to give him a week off to recover.  You could tell in his tearful expression that he just wasn’t up to another beating last week.

This week though, we might have a closer match on our hands with a battle between our respective favourite Apatow Productions movies, Superbad vs. The 40 Year-Old Virgin.

If you haven’t seen both of these movies, stop reading this now, and go and watch them.  If you do that and decide that they’re not two of the funniest movies you’ve ever seen, then you and I can’t be friends.  Sorry.

I have chosen Superbad as my personal favourite Apatow movie, because, well, it’s just more awesome than all the other ones.  It’s a buddy movie about a couple of socially inept high school boys with a highly co-dependant friendship who have been accepted into different colleges and are being forced to accept that life apart is inevitable.  All they want to do during the movie though, is get some alcohol to take to a party so that they can hook up with girls.

Here’s a quick breakdown of why this movie is better than The 40 Year-Old Virgin:

1. The intro is superb.  Note to everyone everywhere: if you want to make something cool, set it to funk and you can’t go wrong, no matter how uncool it started out.
2. Where do you come up with a name like McLovin?  Seriously.
3. You’ve got to love the characters in this movie.  It just seems believable that all they want to do is get alcohol to bring to a party so that they can hook up with girls there.  Maybe Pat just identifies more with a character who is a 40-year-old virgin, I don’t know.
4. The movie is just bursting with awesome quotes (warning – bad language).
5. Look, it’s just funny, OK?  You really don’t need a stupid bullet pointed list of reasons, do you?

You know the only unfortunate thing about Superbad?  It’s virtually impossible to find any clips of the movie that won’t get me yelled at for posting here.  But since I forced you to watch it already, that’s not too big of a deal.  I’ll just assume that you know a good movie from a great one and vote for Superbad.

ppemberton

Well, if we had chosen either of these two movies to go up against any other Apatow flick, it’d be an easy argument to make. Because, really, these two movies are hands-down better than any of the others.

But “40 Year-Old Virgin” is clearly #1.

Now, of course, Danny will argue otherwise. And that’s okay -- he’s entitled to be wrong. It’s just that he needs some help stating his case.

I mean, check out his point #5: Look, it’s just funny, OK?  You really don’t need a stupid bullet pointed list of reasons, do you?

I’m pretty sure that’s not what Aristotle had in mind when he came up with the syllogism. But if we put this argument in syllogism form, it looks like this:

* All movies I think are funny are great.

* I think this movie is funny.

_____________________________

Therefore, my toe itches.

Wait – did I get that right? Crap. Well, it’s been a while since I took that class. So let me just say why I think 40-year-old is better:

1.) The ending.

If Danny is going to refer to the funky “Superbad” intro, then I’ll have to refer to the Bollywood version of “Age of Aquarius” that concludes “40-Year-Old.” It was just . . . out there. And hilarious.

2.) The straight talk express.

There had been “guy” movies before this, but none that dared to have the kind of salty language that “40-Year-Old” had. It definitely pushed the edge, paving the way for “Superbad.” And the thing is? It was so real. And, again – hilarious.

3.) Paul Rudd.

So far he’s been a supporting character in the Apatow movies. But he really needs to be the star in one. Of course, Seth Rogen was great, too. And, oh yeah – Steve Carrell. Did I mention Catherine Keener?  And the guy who played Jay?

4.) “You know how I know you’re gay?”

In these PC times, it was risky doing this improv bit. But it was funny without being offensive.

5.) Drunk girl.

One of the funniest scenes in this movie is the one where Carrell hooks up with Leslie Mann for a wild, drunken drive that starts with her declaring: “Let’s get some f---ing French toast!” and concludes with her barfing.

6.) Chest waxing.

Showing the ultimate sacrifice, Carrell actually volunteered to have a chest wax for this hilarious scene.

7.) Look, it’s just funny, okay?