These things are funny: drunk basketball; guns pointed at crotches; and orgies. These words are funny: fuck; dick; blowjobs; and cock (as in “suck my cock; I’ll murder your family!”). What do they all have in common? They can be shown and heard in the red-band trailer for Semi-Pro, the new Will Ferrell movie opening in February. Why are they so funny? Because they can only be shown and heard in a red-band trailer, duh. 

When I was growing up, I learned that swearing was a sign of a lack of creativity.  When I was in high school and taking creative writing classes, I learned that swearing was a sign of realism. Now that I’m old, I’m learning that swearing is a sign that something is hilarious. I’m not sure exactly why curse words and other offensive dialogue and subject matter is considered necessary for comedy these days, but between all the red-band trailers and unrated DVD versions, it’s apparent that nothing is at its funniest until it’s allowed to let loose with the F and C words.

I can’t deny laughing at this trailer, but I also must point out that I laughed a lot at the original, non-age-restricted trailer. I also think the funniest things in this new NSFW trailer are the lines without swears. I find the phrase “S my C” funnier than “suck my cock” and I find Will Ferrell’s usage of the word wiener to be much better comedy than any line of dialogue featuring a swear word. Still, there’s something about a red-band trailer that helps a movie appeal to us more than a PG-rated trailer simply showing tired retro ’70s mockery and bear-wrestling jokes.

Most of my favorite comedies have no swearing in them. In fact, many of them feature no dialogue at all (that definitely sounds more pretentious than I mean it to). However, I did grow up in the decade of Eddie Murphy and R-rated comedy, and there’s something about comedy made or taking place since my childhood that just seems more genuine with a lot of swearing. Semi-Pro screenwriter Scot Armstrong probably feels the same way — though he was likely ahead of the game by the time of Murphy and more likely became ingrained with the language from earlier movies like Slap Shot, which many are pointing out as an obvious predecessor to this. It does sadden me, though, that we will assume that a movie like Semi-Pro won’t be funny enough unless it has some R-rated material in it. And it saddens me most that our assumption will be correct.