Remember Superbad? The coming-of-age teen comedy starring Jonah Hill and Michael Cera that dominated theaters across America during the summer of 2007? Seth Rogen co-wrote the film with his frequent collaborator Evan Goldberg, and upon its release, Superbad became quickly noteworthy for, let’s just say, its use of highly colorful jokes. In a new interview with The Guardian, though, Rogen for the first time addressed how particular language from the film could be considered inappropriate.
“It’s funny looking at some movies we’ve made in the last 10 years under the lenses of new eras and new social consciousness,†Rogen said. “And yeah, there’s for sure some stuff in our earlier movies — and even in our more recent movies — where even like a year later you’re like, eh, maybe that wasn’t the greatest idea.†Some jokes, he realizes, simply don’t age well. “There are probably some jokes in Superbad that are bordering on blatantly homophobic at times,†he continued. “They’re all in the voice of high school kids, who do speak like that, but I think we’d also be silly not to acknowledge that we also were also, to some degree, glamorizing that type of language in a lot of ways.â€
We’ll wait and see how Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising fares on the joke front.