Use the blog this week to post a quick thematic response to Superbad. Next week, we’ll be talking in more depth about formal questions and bringing them together.
Use the blog this week to post a quick thematic response to Superbad. Next week, we’ll be talking in more depth about formal questions and bringing them together.
After watching Superbad for probably my one-hundredth time, I did realize some subtleties that I did not pick up on before. After critically watching the film I noticed that the lack of demographics is evident do to the primarily white cast. The main characters in the show, Seth and Evan, both seem irritated at their social standings in high school with the innate attributes that they have. In other words the fact that both of them are white males, yet very low on the social ladder, upsets them because they see themselves as far below their potential. Without question Seth and Evan’s co-dependence on each other come from their anxiety issues which restrict them from expanding their friend circle along with their overly high expectations of who they should hang out with. Their love of each other seems to come from their miss belief that they should be more recognized socially simply because of their races. Furthermore the portrayal of women is somewhat complex in Superbad as some of the girls are stereotypical high schoolers while others seem to break the orthodox lifestyle. For example, Jules comes across in the beginning as a typical popular teenage girl yet defies commonly held beliefs when she explains at a party that she does not drink. This act of bravery gives all females a good name and role model as it shows that not all young girls have to conform into a certain lifestyle.
I have watched Super Bad many different times since its release in 2007. While I still think that the jokes by Jonah Hill and Michael Cera are clever, I realized that their comments are incredibly demeaning to women. In the duration of the movie, Seth (Jonah Hill), constantly references girls giving him oral sex and always talks about “fucking”. Seth’s explicit language reveals his lack of respect of women. Also the need for alcohol in order to build a relationship (emotionally and physically) shows the shallowness of the values of seth. I completely agree with Paul that Seth and Evan’s relationship is based on co-dependence. However, as the movie progresses we see that Seth becomes a lot more dependent on Evan, than even is on seth. I think that these two males are an interesting representation of white males. While Seth is an obnoxious asshole, the viewers are able to see that Seth (and evan) are both incredibly vulnerable people. It is a representation that deviates from normalcy due to the fact that most white males are usually portrayed as strong, independent, and successful people in society. For instance, Seth is always talking about how he needs to be good at sex in order to get steady action in college. Seth’s insecurity shows that not all white males are as strong and stable as one might see. Even though Evan is protrayed as the weaker character, he seems to have more confidence in himself and his rela
relationship with becca*
While I am generally a fan of Judd Apatow’s films, I spent the majority of the movie cringing as I listened to Jonah Hill’s character constantly make demeaning remarks about the girls at his high school. I desperately hoped throughout the film that when they inevitably made it to the party, the girls would refuse to have sex with them, forcing Seth to realize that girls are not objects and sex is not the ‘prize’ for bringing the alcohol. Fortunately, that is exactly what happened, and Seth learned that Jules is a dynamic human being who won’t have sex with him just because he wills it. The fact that Michael Cera’s character showed respect for the girls was refreshing in comparison to his crude and disrespectful best friends. The scene where he refused the sexual advances of the girl he liked who was clearly too drunk to make informed decisions showed him behaving as a decent human being, despite him spending much of the film hoping that he would finally get to have sex with her.
The film also showed vulnerability in the two leads, which is unusual as it is rare for Hollywood films to show men expressing feelings of love or fear. I did also notice, however, that there were very few non-caucasian characters except for the one African American woman, who was only cast as such to give the cops a comedic line about her ethnicity.
Another of Judd Apatow’s films, another waste of my time. I sat and watched the entirety of Superbad for a second time, and all I can say is wow. I truly find it amazing that they can put so much sexual humor into one movie. Every few minutes there was some form of sexual joke thrown in, and they would last for minutes at a time. It just seems childish for this humor to be the most common thing in the movie. I also have to agree with Dylan that this movie seemed misogynistic in a way, because most of the sexual humor, especially Jonah Hill’s character’s humor, was derived from talking about some form of intercourse with a woman, but it was done in a way that was horribly offensive to women. I just really do not enjoy this type of sexual humor and since the movie consists almost entirely of that, I could not help but tune out of the movie.
The redeeming theme in the story is of the two best friends, Jonah Hill and Michael Cera’s characters (I cannot remember their names). They bicker with each other like the two different sides of the brain, and yet through their differences they work together and stay best friends, despite the challenges they have been put up against. The end scene really is a warm fuzzy Hollywood moment when they are finally comfortable going their separate ways, knowing they will still be friends. McLovin does not really play much of a role into the two other friends, because he is more so a comedic relief than anything in my opinion. I would say I enjoyed the storyline, but the humor I could do without.
I usually like these sort of bad humor films, but as I sat down to watch this last night, I realized how stupid and not funny it really is. The entire movie was just stitched together of crude humor, that don’t get me wrong was entertaining at some points, but seemed a bit over the top to me. I also noticed that the entire cast was primarily white, so I was confused at first about how to approach the fact of looking for racial difference. I also noticed how they make women seem like objects and not real people–just as an object for sex. I was obviously not expecting there to be much substance while watching this movie, but I realized just how terrible it really is.
This was my first time watching Superbad, and I’m surprised at how boring it was to me. I felt a little detached from the main characters, partly because I already graduated from high school, and also because the stereotype the main characters played were almost insulting to me. The graphic language and actions are over the top and definitely do not portray the typical high school boy’s mannerisms accurately. The situations were unrealistic and dry to me, I feel as if 21 Jump Street did a better job of making things interesting (then again, 21 Jump Street is newer and therefore has more mainstream ideas and things in it). Had I watched this movie when it first came out, I probably would have enjoyed it more since the context in which I would be watching from would be a younger, more naive age.
It has been my 5th time watching Superbad and i can honestly that the characters still have not failed to make me laugh. Now that I a little more about race and gender i feel like there definitely is some highlighted parts of the film that represent those categories. For one the whole film was taken from the perspective of males and their point of view, specifically Jonah Hills and Michael Cera’s characters. I thought the movie definitely amplified the stereotypical view of masculinity in the eyes of teenage boys. The idea of what it is to be/become a man is definitely thrown to extremes through Seths obsession with penises as well as his obsession with sex itself. The use of his vulgar language was to show the language of youth trying to be/sound older. The tougher the language the tougher the man. I did feel a bit insulted as i felt a bit labeled with just this idea that all teenage boys are just horny, extremely disrespectful and have a strong urge for alcohol. (On Seths part) I found myself liking more of Michael Ceras character. I also liked how the cops were portrayed as these reckless and careless officers who seem quite oblivious to the law. I thought they definitely mirrored the two protagonists in what they would look like if they didn’t mature. All in all I enjoyed the movie and the “bromance” that came with it.
I love Superbad and have seen it at least six or so times. The relationship between Seth and Evan always reminds me the relationship I have with my best friend from high school. It’s easy to laugh at their comments and interactions with each other because I can relate to that so well. The movie is obviously about masculinity and coming-of-age. The quest to find a girl before the school year ends is something is something a lot of guys feel the need to do to become a man (at least that is what they think). Although I never had that issue because I had a girl friend for most of high school I know of a lot of guys that had that moment of trying to find a girl before college. Something this movie has that other coming-of-age movies don’t have is the aspect that what happens when you don’t grow up? Superbad shows that scenario with the two cops. They appear to have never “grown up” and matured. Everyone seems to bash on the humor in this movie, but lets be honest. We all have seen that type of behavior plenty of times throughout high school. That’s just what it was like, or maybe that was just for me. The ending of having the nerd of the group actually get the girl is perfect. Something none of us expected yet I loved it. I don’t know but the scene that killed me was when Evan and Seth took their separate ways on the escalators. It was a metaphor for them leaving on their separate lives in college. Honestly, that got to me because I remember saying bye to my best buds and knowing college will change our relationship and it probably will never be the same.
Contrary to popular belief, as a female viewer, this movie doesn’t make me feel uncomfortable to any extent. Yes, the movie does portray extensive objectification of women, but in my perspective the humor overrides any offensiveness that I could/would feel. That being said, the male dominance in the movie is extremely prominent, as it is essentially a bildungsroman story of two high school boys eagerly searching for maturity, acceptance, and sexual interaction. Gender roles are definitely explored, to which the stereotypical high school boy thought process of sex and partying is exemplified. The dichotomy between Seth and Evan explores the differing male opinions of treating women with respect or completely objectifying them; basically wanting to have conversations with women or wanting them for sex. I found myself hating Seth and constantly being annoyed by his (for lack of a better term) “asshole-ish” attitude of superiority. He believed that the world revolved around him and no matter what happened he found a way to relate the situation back to himself and his wellbeing. The film also explores the concept of race to an extent, as the cast is predominately white and there are a few racial slurs that are made. In addition, the cops basically portrayed additional versions of the stereotypical high school boy, as they never truly grew up themselves/don’t want want to grow up. Overall, I think the film is hilarious and I believe that films like this with slapstick and dirty humor aren’t necessarily supposed to be taken as seriously as some do.
I had never seen the movie Superbad before. During high school, I had heard many references to the term “McLovin” but had never seen the film where these qotes came from. When we were assigned to watch the movie, I was excited because I had heard it was very funny, plus who wouldn’t want to watch a movie and have it count as doing homework? I’m lucky enough to have a roommate who has the movie on her lap top, so we decided to make a night of it! We invited a bunch of guys and girls from our dorm and connected the laptop to the big screen in our lounge. I have to admit, I was very shocked by the content even in the first scene. I am not a very sheltered person… its not like I hadn’t heard these words before. But it was the fact that one, I was watching this to talk about in class, and two, I was watching it with a bunch of my guy friends! Am I the only one who finds it extremely awkward to watch a movie talking about sex with the opposite gender? Now, I will admit I was cracking up a ton during the movie. Although the humor was crude and not something I would tell my grandmother about, I did find it very funny and entertaining. In terms of race, immediately I noticed that all of the main characters were Caucasian. Seth, Evan, and McLovin were all white, as well as the two cops, and the love interests in the film, Becca and Jules. In the scene at the liquor store when the cops are interrogating the black woman who works there, they are trying to uncover if the robber was white or of another race. They do so my asking the woman- “Was he like me… or like you…?” This was kind of poking fun at the fact that race is almost a taboo to talk about now a days because people have to be so careful not to be considered racist. In terms of gender roles, the film absolutely portrays men as pigs. Seth and Evan are very concerned with having sex with these girls, and not so much about their feelings. Evan has a little more compassion that Seth about the topic, but even Evan brings a condom the night of the party. The cops who are supposed to be men in a higher position of power are also shown being highly irresponsible and crude most of the time in the movie. Overall I think it will be interesting to talk about Superbad in class. I think its easy to watch the film and laugh it off, but what is it really saying about men, specifically young men in our society today?
I could go on for hours about why I love this film so much. I’ve seen this movie well over 20 times and that is just because it is so enjoyable to watch. The humor in this film is very crude, but the script is so well written that one can’t help but laugh throughout the whole viewing. I do not feel that women are negatively portrayed because the film is from the point of view of the three main characters. These are typical high school boys trying to get laid at a party. It does not surprise me that they view women as more like objects than people. Also, the only sex crazed kid in the film is Seth, also the most unlikable character. After watching the film for the first time, I hated Seth for the way he talked to his friends and the women, but the director obviously intended that. Eric is actually a moral person because he chooses not to take advantage of Beccah when she is intoxicated. Fogell also is just a nice kid without a lot of common sense. These characters are very relatable because there are just so many kids in high school who are in the same position as them. Even if you are not one of these kids, the dialogue is just so funny and over the top that anyone can enjoy it. I could also relate to Seth and Eric having to go there separate ways at the end of the film, just like I did with my friends in August. Many people have pointed out that the cast is predominately white. However, what do people expect middle-upper class neighborhoods to be like? I also love the cops in this film. I’ve never seen cops portrayed in that way before, as like kids in a Halloween costume. It is not realistic in any way, but it makes for some very hilarious scenes.
This was my first time watching Superbad and it was exactly how I knew it would be. Several guys with nothing but sexual humor, getting wasted, and having sex with girls on their minds. While watching this film, several people claimed to feel uncomfortable because they felt that the constant sexual language and jokes regarding women was degrading and awkward. I however, did not feel uncomfortable at all because in my opinion this is how guys of our generation act on a normal basis. In general, guys are never thinking with their heads and they can make any topic, subject, or story sexual. Girls of our generation have learned to ignore the constant sexual humor and get used to it because we cannot change how a guy thinks. To me, this movie showed us what we already know about how guys think and it was definitely a movie that guys would enjoy more than girls.
After seeing this move after completing high school, I was able to look at this through a different perspective than when it first came out. This was about two guys who didn’t have the best high school experiences and wanted to make a name for themselves before they left and went off to college. They resulted to doing crazy things to get the attention they never had. I believe that the jokes in this movie were made because this was a comedy largely made for teenagers and young adults. I cannot put a number on how many times I hear super bad references in conversations. This is because, as crude as the jokes may be they are funny. They do cross lines, but they are very careful when doing so to make sure they do not go overboard where people can take personal offense. This is the reason this show was so successful is because its about the “nerds” or “dorks” coming of age. This is the same reason why other shows like American pie have been so popular.
On the surface, Superbad is known as being a comedy that guys and girls can sit down and enjoy a good laugh at. Looking at the film in closer depth, however, the messages that it sends are appalling. The entire movie is based around the mission of guys trying to get girls alcohol in order to ultimately take advantage of them. In reality, this is a very serious issue and is not something to laugh about. There are many incidents in the film that come across as demeaning towards women. Examples of this are scenes where the boys look at the girl’s thong as she bends over, or when the girl starts her period while dancing with Seth. Although this movie does display messages such as these, typically anyone (including girls) will say that this movie is funny. This shows that movie watchers care more about the entertainment and humor of the film rather than the messages it sends. I agree with Randall that this movie was definitely targeted towards a teenage audience, which I’m sure led to the huge success of Superbad.
Out of all the times I’ve seen Superbad, I never thought of looking more in depth at the values and themes underneath the storyline. It was always one of those movies that I watched simply to laugh and be entertained. However, watching it again and really thinking about what the movie was showing made me realize that it probably has a stronger influence on the audience than many acclaimed movies. While it’s easy for most to say that they don’t want to be like the Superbad characters, let’s be real they do. Who doesn’t want to share the story of the time they torched a police car WITH police? People look up to the characters, even try to emulate them, and you can’t emulate a certain aspect of a character. So someone that sees the unforgettable night that Seth and Evan shared, they’re going to subconsciously act like them: the jokes, gestures, etc. However, this completely correlates to the intended Superbad audience. It seems bad, but Superbad most likely influences its audience more than a movie like Invictus does to that audience.
Watching Superbad before was completely different than the way I watched it now. WHen I first watched the film I did not look into it in such depth but I only watched it for the surface jokes. The film does have many demeaning scenes geared towards the film but it is all in the comedic nature of the film. Most comedies focus on stereotypes and milk that stereotype to make as many jokes possible from it. An example of one of these scenes was when Seth was performing absurd gestures behind a girl while she was turned around. This was disrespectful but was used as a joke. I believe the humor in the film out ways many of the offensive scenes.
The two main characters, Seth and Evan, have a very great friendship that may be a little closer than the typical friendship. They spend all of their time with one another and seem to never want to be apart. The two characters compliment each other because they are total opposites. They almost complete each other and that makes the film a lot more interesting. If they were the same it would be less enjoyable.
I had actually never previously watched Superbad before. While I was at first taken aback by the graphic language and all the sexual references, it began not to faze me. I found this movie to be very similar to 21 Jumpstreet, in that it is both about two male best friends while also involving the same graphic language and sexual content. So even though it was my first time watching Superbad, it was not that new to me. While I would say that this movie is humorous in a crude way, it is definitely not my kind of humor. I do not enjoy seeing women being portrayed as objects by men. This was not my cup of tea.
This was my first time watching the movie and I actually liked the movie. I really think the movie is funny and I find it very interesting on how the producer chose the two lead roles played by two white cast (Jonah Hill and Michael Cera). Not only the main characters, but also all of the characters are white, and this shows how the racial point of view of the movie is based more on a white race point of view compared to other races. I also realized that from the two main characters, Seth and Evan, it seems like there is some kind of representation of white people that shows that white people does not have any authority in the society. To watch them get bullied at times and seeing them not doing anything about it seems to give some kind of race representation of white people. The last thing that I want to touch upon regarding the representation of white people is that, the set of the movie is basically in an organized neighborhood and community. This to me is interesting because I really think this was a way for the producers to give another representation of white people. Since if compared to movies having African Americans in it, their community and environment would most likely be less privileged than this.
Like a lot of others, I had seen Superbad several times before. It was never my favorite movie, but I did find humor in the immature comedy and depiction of high school life. Analyzing this movie critically opened my eyes to some things I hadn’t realized before. This first is the lack of representation of races. I hadn’t realized that the only African American character was the clerk at the liquor store. There is no variety in the characters. They are all white middle class, most are in high school with the exception of the two cops and some of the partiers who are a little bit older. Race is never mentioned except for in the liquor store scene were the police keep assuming the thief was African American when he was really Caucasian. Also, every main character is a male. They do talk about women and have interest in them but the women only appear for a few minutes throughout the movie and have very little dialogue. A lot of the jokes are about women. In class some people were talking about the fact that they took offense to some of the gestures and mannerisms as well as jokes made in the film toward or about women. I agree with some of the other girls in class that say they didn’t find it offensive. I laugh at the jokes most likely because they aren’t directed at me and I don’t see them directed in general toward the female population. I think Superbad is really funny. t think the relationship shown between seth and Evan is unique. There are not a lot of movies where the two main characters are male and have such an intense and close friendship. I don’t think they are codependent but their relationship is a lot stronger than the normal male-male bond. This doesn’t weaken my view of them as men but it does create different situations in the film because they openly care about each other so much.