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Talkin' 'Superbad': Comedy Isn't Pretty

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Video clip: Watch the trailer for Superbad:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So it doesn't seem like there's been any shift in audience's tastes in your direction?
JUDD APATOW: A change in America? I don't think so at all, other than they allowed us to make a couple of movies and before they didn't allow us to make any movies. These are the same movies that have been rejected for the last half-decade.
SETH ROGEN: The people who didn't make Superbad the last 10 years will probably claim the audience's tastes have shifted, but I don't think they have.
JONAH HILL: [To Apatow] So why did they let you make 40 Year-Old Virgin? Was it because of Anchorman?
APATOW: Yes, after we did Anchorman, it seemed clear that Steve Carell was awesome every day and could handle a starring role. And so it was a little easier to get that made. I think Elf also opened the door in a big way, because that and Old School seemed to get people excited about Will Ferrell and the people in Will's world. But I don't think anything's changed.
ROGEN: It's funny, I'm noticing when you do a lot of interviews, often the reporters go in with something they want you to say and they'll keep asking questions until you say it. And the two things that people seem to want us to say more than anything is that audience's tastes have changed and that we are all unconventional guys to be in comedies — both of which I very strongly disagree with.
APATOW: Don't they remember Jack Klugman?
ROGEN: Exactly!
APATOW: I always talk about Jack Klugman. In fact, when I was trying to get ''unconventional'' kids on Freaks and Geeks — that's a code word I use —
ROGEN: — for Jewish. [Laughs] ''There are too many goddamn unconventionals at this country club!''
APATOW: ''I've got to go to temple with my unconventional friends.'' But I always talked about Jack Klugman. Like, if you looked at all the great old television comedy, it was always Jack Klugman and Tony Randall and Phil Silvers.
ROGEN: We're the new Phil Silvers, Jack Klugman, and Tony Randall!
APATOW: I don't know when it became that people thought funny people were all so handsome. That's just an idea that I've always rejected. But what happens is that when people become popular, then people think they're sexy also for some reason.
HILL: Thank God. Well, I think it's funny because every interview they say, ''You guys are leading men now and you're so unconventional,'' or whatever the hell the word is —
MICHAEL CERA: Untraditional.
HILL: And I go, like, ''Do you guys think Will Ferrell and Jack Black look different from us? Those guys are big movie stars!''
ROGEN: If every comedy star is unconventional, doesn't that then become conventional?
APATOW: Do you guys get insulted by that?
ROGEN: No, I honestly just think they're crazy. It makes me feel like they've never heard of Albert Brooks or Woody Allen or W.C. Fields or the Marx Brothers or any other comedian.
HILL: They're acting like we're making movies like Bourne Ultimatum. It's not like we're in like f---ing Ocean's 11 or something like that. We're making comedies!
ROGEN: It's a weird stance to take.
HILL: And it's everybody's stance.
APATOW: I never even thought that was one of the main jokes of Knocked Up. I didn't think it was that Katherine Heigl would be horrified at the sight of Seth. Because I think we're all cute.
ROGEN: I think we're fine.
APATOW: I think we're adorable.
HILL: And what's funny is that all of us date women that are far more attractive than we are. I feel like we're funny or likable and so that's what life is like. My whole life I've dated women that were considerably more attractive than I was comparatively.
CERA: Yeah, if you stood me in line with all my ex-girlfriends and said who's more attractive, it's always them.
APATOW: How long a line is that?
CERA: I don't know, maybe four feet.
ROGEN: If they lie down and lay head to toe?
APATOW: Or just one four-foot-long girl? [Laughs] I thought the joke of Knocked Up was that it was a guy that, after he slept with her, would talk about how much he loved smoking pot and how it was better than Tylenol. I didn't think it was a visual joke. Although I think when I first indicated to my wife [actress Leslie Mann] that I had interests beyond being friends, I don't know if she was thrilled about it.

NEXT PAGE: ''One time Judd sent me an e-mail during shooting: 'You should try not to curse so much, because you need to make it emphasize more when you do curse.' I just wrote back: 'F--- that.'''

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