Previous Man of the Year Winners

Before the big announcement of this year’s winner, take a look back at the five previous honorees since the Frat Pack Tribute’s launch in 2004.

(All year-end write-ups by Senior Editor and Site Creator Kevin Crossman)

Ben Stiller and wife Christine Taylor at the Dodgeball premiere in Westwood, CA 2004

2004: Ben Stiller

Runner-up: Vince Vaughn

This surely comes as no surprise, since Ben starred in four films that made over $85 million, and had a memorable cameo in another top grosser. The amazing thing is that when the year started, it seemed quite surprising that Ben would have such a great year.

Ben finished 2003 coming off the low grossing The Duplex and the oft-delayed release of Envy (never a good sign). His first film of the year was Along Came Polly, released in the traditional “box office dumping ground” of January. Instead, audiences embraced the movie and it opened at number one and eventually made $88 million! Polly contained the first of two excellent dance numbers for Ben (the other was in Starsky & Hutch) and provided the world with a new word: shart.

Next for Ben was Starsky & Hutch. Playing uptight David Starsky was hardly a stretch for Ben, though he brought great energy, and great hair, to the role. Ben was also an executive producer on the film. Ben provided the film’s best catch-phrase, “Do it!”

Ben next starred with Jack Black in the Barry Levinson-directed Envy. While there were a few funny moments, this movie was a critical and financial flop. This was Ben’s only misstep this year.

Ben produced and starred in Dodgeball, which provided him with his most memorable role of the year. White Goodman stole the show as the villain of the movie, providing the film with the funniest moments not involving balls or wrenches hitting body parts! Check out the DVD for even more hilarious moments from Ben and his portrayal of the “fat” White. Perhaps more importantly, Dodgeball provided Ben’s wife Christine Taylor with a memorable role as the female lead. We’d like to see more of Christine in the coming years, that’s for sure.

One of the best laughs and audience applause moments of the year came with Ben’s portrayal of the Spanish-language newscaster in Anchorman.

Ben’s amazing year ended with the year’s biggest Frat Pack grosser, Meet the Fockers. Here Ben deserves less credit for his acting (though he had his moments) but more for getting Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand to play his parents, to hilarious effect. While this movie won’t be the classic some of his other movies will, it is great to see audiences embrace the movie.

Steve Carell at the premiere of The 40-Year-Old Virgin, in Hollywood, CA 2005

2005: Steve Carell

Runner-up: Vince Vaughn

With Vince Vaughn’s monster year, we can’t believe he is relegated to runner-up status for our award. But based on feedback from The Frat Pack Tribute readers and critical analysis our Frat Pack Man of the Year is Steve Carell.

Steve started the year as a Frat Pack “friend” including a scene-stealing turn in last year’s Anchorman. A brief role alongside Will Ferrell in Melinda & Melinda did nothing to turn heads but his very funny and very “Frat Packish” cameo in Bewitched definitely did. Carell channeled Paul Lynde as Uncle Arthur in the movie and it was a standout performance.

Carell officially left The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in 2005 and took up residence as the Golden Globe-nominated lead in NBC’s version of The Office. The series based on the British show gained steam throughout the year and was met with critical and increasing audience appeal. The show starts 2006 in a prime location on Thursday nights.

Of course, the highlight of Carell’s year was sleeper hit The 40 Year-Old Virgin. The movie starred Carell in the title role, and he served as a co-writer along with director Judd Apatow (a writer/producer of several Frat Pack projects). The movie smartly avoided direct “Frat Pack” cameos but with similar comedic sensibility knowingly acknowledged the connection with direct references to Luke Wilson and Jack Black. The movie, along with Wedding Crashers was heralded in Hollywood as the “return of the R-rated comedy.” The movie opened well and had strong legs, grossing over $100 million in North America. The movie also garnered near-universally positive reviews and made many critics’ top ten lists at year-end.

Carell then famously pledged The Frat Pack with a crowd-pleasing musical number “I’m One of Those Guys Now” while hosting Saturday Night Live in September. With the success of Virgin the comedic peers Carell chose to compare himself to weren’t Sandler, Carrey, or Rock but Stiller, Vaughn, Black, Ferrell, and Wilson — The Frat Pack. Carell is most definitely one of those guys, now.

Will Ferrell at the Talladega Nights premiere, in Hollywood, CA 2006

2006: Will Ferrell

Runner-up: Owen Wilson

2006 did not start well for Will. He failed to win the Golden Globe award for Best Supporting Actor (from The Producers). His supporting role in the quirky independent drama Winter Passing went largely unnoticed as the film was released in few theaters and in just a few markets. The film grossed $100,000 in total (no, that’s not a typo). Later, a false press release was issue indicating that Will had died in a paragliding accident; it was later revealed to be a hoax. Will’s bad luck continued at The Oscars. Although he and Steve Carell were hilarious in presenting the Best Make-Up award, the show misspelled his name.

Things looked up with Will’s next movie, Curious George. The animated tale based on the children’s book series featured Will as The Man in the Yellow Hat, and even gave him a name (Ted) and a love interest (voiced by Drew Barrymore). The movie performed modestly in theaters. But this was just the setup for Will’s knockout punches later in the year.

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby roared into theaters in August and quickly became a cultural phenomenon. The movie opened at number one and eventually made more than $130 million and became one of the year’s biggest hits. Audiences familiar with Anchorman found similar themes and the movie was designated as the second part of a trilogy of films that Will and co-writer and director Adam McKay called the “Mediocre American Man Trilogy.” The Ricky Bobby character combined elements of Will’s George W. Bush impersonation and previous characters to create an arrogant but lovable racing hero. The film’s car race scenes were exciting, as was Will’s chemistry with new Frat Pack Friends John C. Reilly and Sacha Baron Cohen. Talladega also featured familiar faces Jane Lynch, Gary Cole, David Koechner, and Molly Shannon. The film’s improv style of filmmaking was probably best showcased by Ricky Bobby’s sons, Walker and Texas Ranger, who were fed comedy gold by McKay, Ferrell, and Reilly. The experience working with Reilly has led McKay to announce a new 2007 project where Reilly and Ferrell will play Step Brothers.

Will finished the year on a strong note with his Golden Globe nominated role in the comedy/drama Stranger Than Fiction. Playing against type as a mild-mannered tax accountant, Will’s character Harold Crick was challenged by a novelist narrating his life. But he also found love and meaning in life. The film featured a veritable who’s who of Oscar-cailber performers: Dustin Hoffman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Emma Thompson, Queen Latifah, and Tom Hulce. Will not only held his own in the movie, he was the steady center of the quirky fantasy. The film did modest business, the reviews were quite strong, and Will’s performance received credible Oscar buzz.

Will’s singing was on fine display as he sang to hilarious effect at The ESPYs (serenading Lance Armstrong), The Megan Mullally Show, and Late Show with David Letterman. He was also GQ’s Man of the Year. He also began work on two sports comedies, Blades of Glory (figure skating) and Semi-Pro (1970’s ABA Basketball).

Unlike anyone else in the Frat Pack, Will Ferrell starred in both a critically acclaimed film as well as a popular Frat Pack classic in the same year. Despite his comments that the Frat Pack does not exist, we must acknowledge Will’s exemplary body of work in 2006.

Judd Apatow and wife Leslie Mann at the Knocked Up premiere in Westwood, CA 2007

2007: Judd Apatow

Runner-up: Will Ferrell

Yes, we know Judd is not technically in the Frat Pack. But he had one of the most accomplished years in recent memory.

Apatow followed his 2005 writing/directing debut (Virgin) with an even bigger and more critically acclaimed film Knocked Up in early summer. Audiences and critics alike appreciated another raunchy film with a big heart. Apatow relied on familiar faces for most of the key roles, including his wife Leslie Mann, Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, and Jonah Hill from Virgin, and familiar faces from his failed TV projects like Jason Segal, Martin Starr, and Jay Baruchel.

Then “the guy who brought you Talladega Nights and Knocked Up” came back with another hit with Superbad in late summer. The Apatow-produced teen comedy once again featured familiar faces and similar raunchy-with-a-heart-of-gold storyline. Superbad, like Knocked Up, was featured on numerous year-end top ten lists.

Apatow completed his banner year by writing and producing “the most important film of our time,” the biopic parody Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Though the film bombed at the box office, the film featured glowing reviews that were common for Apatow in 2007. Walk Hard included a plethora of familiar faces and cameos from the Apatow players (dubbed the “Apt Pack” by Steve Carell) and the title song cowritten by Apatow was nominated for a Golden Globe.

As if that wasn’t enough, Apatow cowrote the aforementioned “Comedian at the Oscars” song that earned numerous kudos. And Apatow joined Ferrell and McKay by producing videos such as “The Backlash” for FunnyOrDie. The bonus features and deleted scenes from Knocked Up and Superbad also used the internet effectively to both promote the films and to poke fun at the process of making movies (see “Finding Ben Stone”).

And what does 2008 have in store for Mr. Apatow? He has Owen Wilson’s next comedy, Drillbit Taylor, costarring Leslie Mann.  He’s also producing Forgetting Sarah Marshall and The Pineapple Express with release dates similar to his Knocked Up and Superbad precursors. And he is producing Step Brothers with his Talladega buddies Ferrell, Reilly, and McKay and The Year One for Jack Black.

Even though “The Gagfather” isn’t technically in the pack The Frat Pack Tribute editors were unanimous in choosing Judd Apatow as our Man of the Year.

Jack Black at the Kung-Fu Panda premiere in Hollywood, CA 2008

2008: Jack Black

Runner-up: Ben Stiller

It isn’t so much that Jack’s highs were higher than Ben’s during 2008, but that he basically “outpointed” him with great work and numerous projects throughout the year. And, let’s face facts, Jack made several pro-Frat Pack statements during the year and that definitely counts for something in these here parts.

Be Kind Rewind was an anticipated 2007 release pushed back to Winter 2008. The film was marketed as an “indie” and did “indie” box office. The film was a mixed bag with critics as well.

But Jack was front and center in Dreamworks’ animated hit Kung Fu Panda. Voicing the title role and doing most of the promotion, Panda was big hit with audiences and surprisingly with critics as well. The film even made some Top 10 lists. Jack contributed the film’s catch-phrase, “Skidoosh!”

And while Jack’s actual part in Tropic Thunder was really a supporting one, you woudn’t have known it from the film’s marketing that put Jack either first or second billed. In fact, at several points in the summer you would have thought the film starred a single person named “Ben Black Downey, Jr.” And while Jack’s role may not have garned the most screentime, he might have captured the most laughs in Tropic Thunder, especially his hilarious, improved pleas while tied to a tree.

Another key accomplishment for Jack was the release of Tenacious D Masterworks, Vol 2, a two-disc DVD featuring live material from Jack’s musical group along with an insightful documentary D Tour: A Tenacious Documentary. That film debuted early in 2008 at the Santa Barbara Film Festival and covered the group’s 2006 Frat Pack Classic movie and tour, including appearances by Ben Stiller, Christine Taylor, John C. Reilly, and Andy Dick.

Jack continued high-profile award show hosting gigs in 2008, helming the Kids Choice Awards and the Video Games Awards.

Ending the year, Jack starred as Jesus in the viral video hit “Prop 8 the Musical” alongside John C. Reilly for FunnyOrDie.com. The film caused a stir and Jack’s role was a central one. He even did some interviews alongside Reilly to promote the video that was viewed more than three million times in less than two months.

Looking forward to 2009, Jack has Year One for Judd Apatow and Harold Ramis in the summer, along with a very high-profile cameo on The Office.

Lastly, we must acknowledge Jack’s comments that were met with high acclaim here in Frat-land.

“I love it! All of them I think would like to destroy that thing, but I love it. I think those guys are great and I’m in there? Yeah! I’m the only card-carrying member that actually shows up for Frat Pack meetings!” (LA Times)

“This movie puts you in a better club. It’s called the Frat Pack! We unzip the door, we allow you in. We haven’t allowed a new member in, in like ten years since the Frat Pack was formed.” to Robert Downey, Jr. (Moviefone interview)

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 2nd, 2010 at 6:04 pm and is filed under Awards, Ben Stiller, Frat Pack Tribute, Jack Black, Judd Apatow, Steve Carell, Will Ferrell. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.