The Patron Saint Of The Dashing Fellows Is...

... Paul Rudd. I sort of knew it in my heart. Mostly from the types of roles he takes, guys who are both healthily hard (NH) and healthily soft. Check out David from the 40-Year-Old-Virgin who's seemingly the most normal of the group, but is so realistically stuck on some sub-average (in looks and spirit) girl. See Paul Rudd is the ideal form of the modern everyman. Good-looking enough that he has to put an effort in to get the girl, but not too good looking that he can't get her. Smart enough to see the line that divides a dead-end job in two: necessity for a paycheck and pointlessness (check Role Models).

And he's also capable of banter, the one quality that's most important in a DF. You need to dish it and take it (to a point) and you have to be pretty funny about it. Banter is equal parts sense of humor, self-deprecation, intelligence, and pop culture savvy. Apparently, it's not just Rudd's characters who are bantering savants. Rudd is, too.

Check this interview with him and Jason Segal going buckwild during an interview for I Love You, Man.

In all the Judd Apatow mayhem of the last five years or so, Seth Rogan and Carell have tried but failed to be that guy. I'm nominating Rudd as our saint and may he grant all our prayers.