What’s funny today isn’t always funny tomorrow. For every Marx Brothers movie or “Dr. Strangelove” that has aged effortlessly, there’s Peter Sellers in “The Party” or something similar which, due to changing social mores, now feels tin-eared and offensive in their humor. And with people, at least on social media, more aware of causing offense than ever before, senses of humor seem to be shifting faster and faster — it’s hard to imagine, say, “South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut” or even “Tropic Thunder” being released today without causing a major Twitter storm.
One major comedy star on the press tour for his latest film has been acknowledging some of that in a way that’s kind of refreshing to see. In a video interview for “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising,” Seth Rogen took a moment to talk about his own misjudgments with his early work, in particular “Superbad,” the smash hit R-rated comedy that was Rogen’s first produced script.
“It’s funny looking at some movies we’ve made in the last 10 years under the lenses of new eras, new social consciousnesses,” Rogen told The Guardian. “There’s for sure some stuff in our earlier movies — and even in our more recent movies — where even like a year later you’re like ‘Eh, maybe that wasn’t the greatest idea.’ There are probably some jokes in ‘Superbad’ that are bordering on blatantly homophobic at times.”
Rogen half-defends the use of language, but also steps up and takes the blame, saying “They’re all in the voice of high school kids, who do speak like that, but I think we’d also be silly not to acknowledge that we also were, to some degree, glamorizing that type of language in a lot of ways.”
While the star was never Andrew Dice Clay when it came to causing outrage — there was usually a good and progressive nature to the films to some degree or another — there certainly was some criticism of both that film and “Knocked Up,” some of which was justified. Rogen’s more recent work, while not avoiding taboo subjects, has often had a surprisingly forward-looking political feel, but props to the star for stepping up and acknowledging that he wasn’t always as thoughtful about this stuff. Watch the full interview above.
Will there be anything to apologize for in “Neighbors 2?” Keep an eye out for our review tomorrow, and you can see the film when it opens on May 20th. [The Guardian]