Paul Rudd, “Frat Packagers” Also in GQ
Paul Rudd in GQ
Okay, okay… I guess Paul Rudd is telling me something.
Look, you can understand why I gravitated to the bright, shiny object that is Emma Stone’s pictorial in the August issue of GQ, right? But, I guess we ought to acknowledge that Paul Rudd, Zach Galifianakis and Tracy Morgan are actually on the issue’s cover and featured in a rollicking interview.
Rudd says:
“Zach was one of my favorite stand-ups. Patton Oswalt is hilarious. Louis C.K. is one of my absolute favorites. One of the funniest jokes, and it’s so politically incorrect, was this one he told right after September 11. The joke was about how you could gauge how good a person you were by how long you waited before you felt comfortable masturbating. He said, “It took me a while. For me it was after the first tower fell but before the second one.”
Both Rudd and Galifianakis appear in Dinner for Schmucks, coming to theatres on July 30.
The GQ issue also features a profile of influential comedy filmmakers, three of which are “kind of a big deal”: Todd Phillips, Judd Apatow, and Adam McKay (once called “The Frat Packagers”).
Gross Prophets: These five men are responsible for the vast majority of movie hilarity over the past thirty years.
Todd Phillips, John Landis, Judd Apatow, Adam McKay, and Edgar Wright.
GQ: Judd, did you feel smacked around when you tried to step outside pure comedy with Funny People?
Apatow: No. I felt it was just a very intense subject, talking about how people deal with terminal illness.
Landis: I was very disappointed that he didn’t die.
Apatow: A lot of people felt that way.
Landis: I thought the movie was terrific, but then I thought, you’re cheating! A happy fucking ending!?!
Apatow: The funny part is, lots of people didn’t see it as a happy ending. A lot of people were disturbed that he didn’t change at all.
I thought Todd Phillips’ open animosity towards Jack Black for dropping out of Man-Witch was interesting. We all know people harbor those kinds of feelings when someone drops out, but it’s rare that we ever hear it.
The other really interesting point was McKay pointing out how freely destructive the third male lead in buddy comedies can be (using Galifianakis in the Hangover, Ferrell in Old School and Carell in Anchorman as examples.)
It’s true: McBride in Pineapple Express, McLovin in Superbad AND Role Models, Corddry in Hot Tub, Ferrell in Zoolander. Not always true (Wedding Crashers and Dodgeball come to mind), but for the most part it is.
Wedding Crashers-Bradley Cooper Dodgeball-Rip Torn….BOOM
Nicely done
Rick - you don’t always have a third lead like that, I think that’s why it’s not always true. Nathan - Bradley Cooper was the villain, not associated with the lead buddy pair. And Rip Torn was a funny take on the Guru (the Miyagi, the Yoda…), I don’t necessarily know if he was the third or even fourth or fifth male lead in that. Alan, Frank, Brick, McLovin etc were all associated with the main pairing. In Wedding Crashers it would rather have been Chazz, had he not been a cameo. Imagine if there had been more Chazz in the movie, as a proper third lead, then he would have been the destructive, reckless one in their wedding crashing business. Am I right?
In Dodgeball, Ben Stiller was the villian AND wasn’t apart of a buddy pair so it makes sense to say Bradley Coopers character could be considered as a strong 3rd male lead like Red, Alan, McLovin…Rip Torn had the strongest association of the males with Vince Vaughn or dodgeball in general and in my opinion had the strongest performance out of any of the supporting actors (Justin Long, Joel David Moore…). All I’m saying is those 2 characters were the most definative of a 3rd male actor in those movies.
I don’t know how you couldn’t say that Stiller wasn’t the 2nd buddy in Dodgeball. Sure, he functioned as the villain but he and Vaughn shared a number of scenes with the kind of back and forth dialogue typical of the buddy comedies.
Would agree with Rick’s initial assesment that it is atypical compared to Old School, Anchorman, *Talladega Nights*, et. al. (Blades of Glory is another one that didn’t really have a third lead).
well if a villian who shares scenes with the star can be considered a 2nd lead buddy, i would say sacha baron cohen could be considered the 3rd lead of talladega nights since she shares most if not all of his scenes opposite will ferrell. Blades of Glory doesnt really have one, but a good example of some that dont would be The Pick of Destiny, Step Brothers, Year One, Land of the Lost which could be borderline if you consider Jorma Taccone, who was hilarious in Hot Rod and in The Lonely Island, a third male actor.