Among the movie promos screened during the Super Bowl, there were teasers for predictable blockbusters-to-be, such as multi-million dollar toy commercials Transformers 2 and G.I. Joe, and nostalgic ’70s TV throw-back, The Land of the Lost. But there was also a teaser for a new comedy from a much rarer sub-genre, the historical comedy. The Year One, set to release in June 19, is an Apatow-produced buddy comedy starring Jack Black and Michael Cera. They play Zed and Oh, two lovable losers encountering various characters from Biblical history, including Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and Abraham. It’s not yet clear how they can meet all these people in a single lifetime (is this a time travel movie?)
But two things are clear: One, Judd Apatow seems to be looking to change-up his formula, at least to a degree. I’m not sure how long I want to watch the aging cast of Freaks and Geeks sit around a bong and talk about sex. Even if The Year One is just Superbad with togas, he’s at least trying to keep things fresh. And two, this film marks the return of a rare breed of comedy. Until now, it looked like historical comedies reached their apex decades ago with the work of Mel Brooks and Monty Python. Now, with the comedy auteur du jour producing a movie set in the distant past, the historical comedy sub-genre could become vogue once more. Or it could just be terrible. There are precedents for both.
Here’s our list of seven notable historical comedies — some great, some utterly forgettable.
Last week, while I was still exhausted from my first real SXSW experience, news broke out that actor/writer Jason Segel (of TV’s Freaks and Geeks and How I Met Your Motherand the upcoming movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall) is planning a new Muppet movie. Though the announcement likely figured into my subsequent quick recovery, I wasn’t in good enough health to write about it at the time. Fortunately, now there’s more details, courtesy of MTV Movies Blog, and I’m even more giddy than before. As I figured, Segel is looking to the original Muppet flicks, specifically The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caperand The Muppets Take Manhattan, which were more centered on the Muppets themselves (rather than having them dropped into pre-written classics like A Christmas Caroland Treasure Island) as they simply set out to put on a show. And as I hoped for, Segel, who is already writing the script with his Marshall co-writer/director Nick Stoller, says he’s planning for a great deal of cameos, particularly from those actors we’d all assume would be involved.
Segel revealed plans to similarly enlist big-name cameos for the flick; in fact, he’s already approached several members of the Judd Apatow stable that includes Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Kristen Wiig and Paul Rudd. “All of our friends that I’ve brought it up to are pretty excited by the prospect of it. Everyone loves the Muppets; they’ve got a warm place in most people’s hearts,” he explained. “We want a lot of cameos. You look back at Charles Grodin, Charles Durning, there were just such great performances in those movies.”
How esteemed is Judd Apatow right now? Apparently enough that he can manage to get blow job jokes — visual and verbal ones — on national television. The new trailer for Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which Apatow produced, premiered this week on Access Hollywood, and has the most obvious fellatio gestures I’ve ever seen permitted on anytime NBC, let alone pre-primetime NBC. Did nobody at NBC/Universal (which is also distributing the movie) notice? Or did they think the old ladies who watch Access Hollywood wouldn’t notice? Well, the execs didn’t really have to worry, because if you actually look at the version of the trailer shown on the air, it ends before the blow job jokes. Regardless, people who watch the show may have decided to go to the Access Hollywood website and watch the trailer again. This time wondering what’s so funny about a newly acquired necklace.
So, did nobody at the MPAA notice or get the jokes? This trailer may not be put on television in its entirety, but it’s certainly going to be playing to theater audiences comprised of all ages. I guess in relation to the general content of Apatow’s movies, as well as his R-rated viral videos and red-band trailers, this ad is considered pretty tame.
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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