Spring Break
Superbad: the genders weigh in
By: Janet Wu
Issue date: 8/30/07 Section: Recess
Last update: 8/30/07 at 9:01 AM EST
Last update: 8/30/07 at 9:01 AM EST
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Superbad is superadorable, a prepubescent quest to be manly-unfortunately emasculated by this female critic.
What I got from this tale of a wannabe macho boydom is that men aren't so much from Mars as they are from Phallusland, where any picture, reference or even reference to a reference of a penis is hilarious. What would make the famed "unknown rebel" of Tiananmen Square funny? Answer: If the rebel were represented by a-well, you fill in the blank.
Don't get me wrong, even though I lack the necessary "fifth appendage" that connects to the hormonally hyperactive synapses of the brain, I still laughed. Maybe not as much as the 40-year-old man with the Fu Manchu in front of me, but still a lot.
In the same way you can't tell an offensive joke unless you're part of the offended party, I could only giggle and squirm in my girly way from a distance. After all, Superbad is unadulterated male bonding. It's the boys' night out where porn and beer and destroying things and lighting them on fire and then shooting them with a gun you took from a drunk police officer rule all.
Curse my female ways, I couldn't help but find the vagrants in question adorable. I'd love to coddle and cuddle Evan (awkwardness perfected by Arrested Development's Michael Cera) and toothpick-sized friend Fogell, aka McLovin. Even sloppy Seth (Knocked Up's Jonah Hill), carrying booze in detergent jugs and scamming on the high school chicklets, was huggable.
What it comes down to is that, Superbad is an endearing buddy story embellished with a sexual reference and/or penis allusion approximately every 20 seconds. And I'll admit it, there are some pretty clever uses of the form. So even though I may not quite get the joke, I can still appreciate the jock strap culture.
What I got from this tale of a wannabe macho boydom is that men aren't so much from Mars as they are from Phallusland, where any picture, reference or even reference to a reference of a penis is hilarious. What would make the famed "unknown rebel" of Tiananmen Square funny? Answer: If the rebel were represented by a-well, you fill in the blank.
Don't get me wrong, even though I lack the necessary "fifth appendage" that connects to the hormonally hyperactive synapses of the brain, I still laughed. Maybe not as much as the 40-year-old man with the Fu Manchu in front of me, but still a lot.
In the same way you can't tell an offensive joke unless you're part of the offended party, I could only giggle and squirm in my girly way from a distance. After all, Superbad is unadulterated male bonding. It's the boys' night out where porn and beer and destroying things and lighting them on fire and then shooting them with a gun you took from a drunk police officer rule all.
Curse my female ways, I couldn't help but find the vagrants in question adorable. I'd love to coddle and cuddle Evan (awkwardness perfected by Arrested Development's Michael Cera) and toothpick-sized friend Fogell, aka McLovin. Even sloppy Seth (Knocked Up's Jonah Hill), carrying booze in detergent jugs and scamming on the high school chicklets, was huggable.
What it comes down to is that, Superbad is an endearing buddy story embellished with a sexual reference and/or penis allusion approximately every 20 seconds. And I'll admit it, there are some pretty clever uses of the form. So even though I may not quite get the joke, I can still appreciate the jock strap culture.
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