5 Dude Comedies

I am currently recovering from hand surgery and was unable to finish writing my regularly scheduled feature this week, which would have been on the problem with international adoption (I’m writing this brief paragraph with only one finger). Hopefully I’ll have that up next week. In the mean time, I had to dig through the old xanga blogs for this week’s feature. Unfortunately, I was only able to come up with this work-in-progress. As you can see I only got to three movies. So I’m going to let you guys pick slots four and five. But don’t just name any comedy. Tell us what makes this a good dude comedy. And if you don’t like my first three choices, by all means come up with your own.

1) Clerks

Kevin Smith's first and best film is so much more than just a raunchy comedy. It's really a thesis statement on slacker culture, the service industry, and being twenty-something in general – all very dude themes . At its core though, Clerks is the funniest movie I've ever seen, a film that makes you laugh at its crudeness, its intelligence and its charm. This was a movie made for almost nothing ($30,000), funded largely by credit cards, loans, and Smith's comic book collection - and it shows. This is minimalism at its minimalist. But that's what makes it work. The camera never moves, it's in black and white, there's only one location - a convenience/video store. Most of the actors or extras are friends and/or family members. Does any of this make it a great comedy? Not necessarily. But I think it adds a certain level of realness that most big budget movies are sorely lacking these days.

I love the absolute honesty of the film. The characters are obviously based on people Smith knows, and as I think back on it, people I know. I've worked with guys like Randal, tried to avoid guys like Jay, lusted after girls like Caitlin, and been in love with girls like Veronica. And more importantly, I know guys like Dante. I know his lousy job, with the incompetent manager, the rude and mostly idiotic customers, boring work and shitty pay. I know the girl problems and the dilemma of still being attracted to someone you know you shouldn't be attracted too. And I definitely know the feeling of being saddled with an unfulfilling life without the will to change it. I am Dante. We all are.

Clerks is a movie for the college graduate and the college dropout. It's for the single guy and the guy in a relationship. It's for people in their twenties who've grown up relatively privileged, but uncertain what to do with the opportunities they've been given. It's a true guy code movie, and as real a portrayal of slacker culture as any documentary or cultural studies book could ever hope to achieve. But more to the point, it's fucking hilarious.

The first time I watched Clerks I was going through a tough time. I was only sixteen, but man did I hate my life. Clerks showed me what guys in their twenties who hated themselves looked like. In a weird way it predicted my future. Too bad I didn't heed its warning. But at least I didn't feel as alone as I used to.

 Key lines:

"What's up, baby? What's up, sluts?" - Jay
" My love for you is ticking clock BERSERKER! Would you like to suck my cock BERSERKER!” - Olaf
"I hope it feels so good to be right. There's nothing more exhilarating than pointing out the shortcomings of others, is there?” - Randal

My favourite scene:

2) Office Space

There's some good commentary on office politics and corporate culture aka corporate bullshit for good measure in Office Space, but really, this is just a damn funny film. The amount of times people refer to scenes from this movie are proof enough for me (my old boss had a red stapler on his desk).

I find something new to love about this movie each time I watch it. Last time I cracked up at the scene where Peter and his friends try to devise a way to get rid of the money they've stolen, and Michael realizes they could launder it - only none of them know how or what money laundering is!

I also love how their scheme is purposely taken from the plot of Superman III. Of all movies to rip your idea from! Who thinks up this stuff? Mike Judge, that's who. His brand of humour is familiar to most MTV viewers in the form of Beavis & Butt-Head, and of course King of the Hill. But Office Space will always be his most brilliant piece of work.

Key lines:

"I'm thinking I might take that new chick from Logistics. If things go well I might be showing her my O-face. 'Oh... Oh... Oh!' You know what I'm talkin' about. 'Oh!" - Drew
"It was a 'Jump to Conclusions' mat. You see, it would be this mat that you would put on the floor... and would have different CONCLUSIONS written on it that you could JUMP TO." - Tom Smykowski
"What am I gonna do with 40 subscriptions to Vibe?" - Peter Gibbons

My favourite scene:

3) The 40-Year-Old Virgin

This film officially marked the beginning of the Judd Apatow era. Those of us in the know, however, remember Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, and how outraged we all felt when both were respectively cancelled. So it came as no surprise when Apatow's name started appearing on every good comedy out there, from 40-Year-Old to Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Every great filmmaker needs his or her magnum opus, and the 40-Year-Old Virgin is Apatow's. He managed to not only help Seth Rogen achieve star status, but he helped launch Steve Carrell's film career, showed us all that Paul Rudd had comedic chops, and did what I didn't think was possible - create a believable romantic subplot in an otherwise dude comedy. Most of the Apatow or Apatow-like comedies have romantic subplots that primarily exist for no reason other than to a) bring in chicks, and b) follow a tired formula. But 40-Year-Old broke all that by making the romantic storyline as interesting as the rest of the movie. Catherine Keener and Steve Carrell have genuine chemistry. You actually care about their relationship and can believe they genuinely like each other, not like in the countless other romantic comedies where the two leads basically get together because the plot requires them too.

40-Year-Old launched a lot of careers, but it also launched a new type of comedy. It's definitely dude-oriented, but smart dude-oriented. The male characters have tighter relationships, the women are smart, and the humour is relatable. It's not guys humping pies or drinking semen from a cup. It's two black guys arguing over a warranty at an electronics store, or a jilted boyfriend bumping into his average-looking ex-girlfriend at speed-dating, or two dudes battling over whose gay. Yeah, it's coarse and rude, but it's also brilliant, side-splitting comedy.

Key lines:

“Wait, wait, wait, last thing, last thing. I'm also gonna need that extended warranty on it for the price of... on the house. Hmm?” – Smart Tech Customer
“You ever heard of Rollin 20's, nigga? Since I was sixteen, nigga, I'm saying, "frosty." You know what I'm saying? "Spoon", nigga. We fucked dwarves in the ass!” – Jay
“I'm starvin... let's get some fuckin french toast!” – Nicky

My favourite scene:

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