Conall Lynch
Allow me…
3. Pineapple Express
I’m sorry but Pineapple Express has to be the worst of the 3. I don’t hate it, I just like the other 2 more. Following the success of Superbad, Knocked Up, and 40-year-old virgin, It was time for the man behind those massive achievements, Seth Rogen, to begin his journey of “that Jewish guy who makes movies with James Franco and smokes weed”. I don’t really like James Franco in this movie because he really oversells the whole “I’m a drug dealer schtick” while Seth Rogen basically just plays himself which works well in my opinion. I like the absurd conflict of them being “innocently” caught up in a situation surrounding weed. This also conveniently made me scared to buy weed because I always thought it would be some secret strain that someone is after.
2. The Hangover
This movie was the coolest thing to have seen when it came out. People drinking alcohol, going to parties, and being hungover? That’s what popular kids did and therefore if you saw this movie then you are popular. I’m not kidding it was that easy. I once saw a kid rise 3 levels in popularity just by saying “not you fat Jesus” to a fat kid at lunch… Things were different in 2009. Obviously, Zach Galifianakis was the star of this and the other Hangover movies. Ed Helms and Bradley Cooper are more to be Jim from The Office the entire movie and react to all the crazy so that way we as an audience have something to relate to. I also gotta shout out Ken Jeong… who played Mr. Chow because he was hilariously over the top. Did you know he’s a fucking doctor and really funny in the show Community? I honestly don’t even hate the sequels. I think all 3 movies are the exact same thing which I don’t see as a bad thing. When you pay money to see a movie called Hangover 3 and get mad when the same characters deal with another hangover in a very similarway… you can’t get mad at anyone besides yourself.
- Step Brothers
My Favorite of the 3. I remember this and basically any Will Ferrel movie being the funniest thing to me when I was a kid/teen. Step Brothers was one of those movies that you watch and weeks later you are still quoting it with your friends in the hallway. But it’s also one of those movies that you think about years later and can’t remember any quotes or what the plot of the movie even was. “Will Ferrell and John C. Riley being stupid. Bunk beds… white poop… Ave Maria… Catalina wine mixer… balls on drums… was there even a conflict in this movie?” My friends and I would have sleepovers where we would watch this movie, Anchorman, and as many episodes of Family Guy as we could before our 50 turn Mario Party game ended. This movie was basically just Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly being children for an hour and a half and it works so well. Knowing that these 2 basically improvised every scene they are in makes me have faith in humanity.
So there you have it. 3 of what some idiots would argue are the funniest movies of all time. If you think these movies deserve more than a couple hardy laughs and a crisp thumbs up then you peaked in high school. They are all basically the same thing. All feature a male cast with some variation of the “straight man”. They all have an improv-heavy script. And They came out around the time where all you needed to do to make a popular movie is get a hot guy to make dick jokes for an hour and a half in what I call the “Judd Apatow Theory”. I’m not saying these movies are bad, I’m just saying there was a formula that is pretty blatant if you were to rewatch trying your best to remove the nostalgia.
