The Comedy of the Schlub

Posted by Maximum Fun on 7th May 2007

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Sharon Waxman, a former TSOYA guest and a reporter with a great talent for finding the angle, has an interesting piece on the Judd Apatow ouvre in the Times today.

The question she introduces to the debate is an important one, and she quotes Mike White (the man behind such wonderful films as “School of Rock” and “The Good Girl”):

“To me, I definitely stand in the corner of wanting to give voice to the bullied, and not the bully. Here’s where comedy is catharsis for people who are picked on,” he said.

“There’s a strain in ‘Knocked Up’ where you sort of feel like something’s changed a little bit,” he continued. “My sense of it is that because those guys are idiosyncratic-looking, their perception is that they’re still the underdogs. But there is something about the spirit of the thing, that comes under the guise of comedy, where — it’s weird. At some point it starts feeling like comedy of the bullies, rather than the bullied.”

Apatow writes to Waxman:

“I think there is a nerd’s fantasy involved in many of these films. We all wish that somebody would take the time to get to know us, and love us, warts and all.”

He added: “I always wanted to be given a shot. And the sick part is this: No matter how many shots I get, I never completely lose the feeling of inadequacy that makes me wish I would get a chance to prove myself.”

The line between nerd-schlub and bully-schlub is a fine one. I think a great illustration might be the films of Adam Sandler, where while the protagonist is often a weird outsider type, and invariably a man-child, there’s little attention paid to the real feelings that are so central to “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.” Often in Sandler’s films, acting like an emotionally stunted jerk is almost the reason for his triumph.

I haven’t yet seen “Knocked Up,” and I’m very excited to, but this will give me something to consider between now and then.