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Hot off The 40-Year-Old Virgin, filmmaker Judd Apatow gave the green light to Superbad. It's another in a long line of comedies about horny teenage boys getting to grips with girls, but it took everyone by surprise with a "pant-wettingly funny", semi-autobiographical script by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.
Bad And Badder
In a short Making Of featurette, Rogen and Goldberg insist they wanted to keep the comedy grounded in reality. That's why, says Goldberg, it had to be "filthy as hell". Director Greg Mottola admits to feeling a little "creepy" after a day's shooting, which is echoed in the production diaries; Much of the time, actress Martha MacIsaac hangs about the set in her underwear. Of course none of this bothers the film's stars Jonah Hill and Michael Cera although footage from early table readings captures a vague sense of embarrassment.
Acres of deleted footage reveal that there was also room for improvisation on set. Rogen and Bill Hader play it fast and loose as the traffic cops who suspect that crime would cease to exist if "everything was covered in a fine layer of semen". Needless to say, their musings are a little hit-and-miss. Jonah Hill dispenses myriad oneliners in Line-O-Rama, none of which can be repeated here. But even the 'TV Safe' alternative takes are too risque. We leave you to ponder the subtle connation's of a bathroom "hand ski".
In The Hot Seat
Other outtakes find Judd Apatow and Justin Long in the back of Rogen and Hader's cop car. They impart some shocking confessions but Ken Jeong takes the biscuit as a transvestite hooker forced to prove his manhood. Sex starved teenagers will appreciate a gentle smattering of soft porn in The Vag-Tastic Voyage (tsk, tsk), but those who prefer their wildlife green and slimy will get a kick out of seeing Hill tightly embraced by a python in Snakes On Jonah. Apparently that was only a tad repulsive compared to hanging around with his human co-star in Everybody Hates Michael Cera.
On the other hand it seems Hill experienced some sexual confusion in the run-up to filming. This is evidenced by a few explicit, homoerotic voicemail messages left on Cera's cell phone. And they seem to enjoy dancing together (very badly) in the green screen shoot of the opening title sequence. There's more bodily dysfunction and awkward silence in the actors' audition tapes.
If you think this all sounds a little too close to the bone then you'll be appalled to discover that it could have been much more offensive. In the cast and crew commentary Rogen explains that every penis sketch drawn by Hill's character (who is based on Rogen) had to be "approved by the legal department" and many of them were binned. He and Goldberg go on to talk about trying to introduce more "heart" (and less of the other organ) into the story.
Other bonus bits include a jamming session with the 'superbad' house band as they record original music for the soundtrack and the Press Junket Meltdown in which Hill loses his rag with a snotty English journo. Thankfully it doesn't get down and dirty, which is more than can be said for the rest of this this two-disc set. It's bound to create a stir - or stirrings - among teenage lads.
EXTRA FEATURES
Superbad is out now.
