WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER 2001
36%
Directed by David Wain
Written by Michael Showalter and David Wain
Starring Michael Showalter, Janeane Garofalo, Michael Ian Black, Paul Rudd, Ken Marino, Elizabeth Banks, Marguerite Moreau, David Hyde Pierce, Amy Poehler, Bradley Cooper
Synopsis
It’s the last day of camp in the summer of 1981, and a host of horny counselors try to hook up—oh, and save the planet from a space station barreling towards Earth—before heading back to reality.
Why We Love It
If you had told a fan of this flop upon its release that one of its stars would become an Oscar winner (Bradley Cooper), another a TV power player (Amy Poehler), and yet another a friggin’ superhero (Paul Rudd), they wouldn’t have believed you. (That those three Wet Hot alums would grace the same stage at the 91st Academy Awards? Also mind-boggling.) In fact, back in the early aughts, referencing this loopy spoof of randy camping flicks like Meatballs was something of a badge of honor, an indication to fellow devotees that you, too, dig fucked-up, askew comedy (at least when it’s this good).
The culture did eventually catch onto Wet Hot (it spawned two Netflix series, and there was even talk of a sitcom spin-off for Fox). But in 2001, it was a cult film in the truest sense: misunderstood by many who saw it, unnoticed by everyone else (tons of people, with less than $300,000 in box-office pull), and an absolutely acquired taste. How acquired? Basically, if you don’t find the idea of a can of mixed vegetables talking about sucking his own dick or children cheering on a grown man to hump a refrigerator funny, this movie is not for you.
Wet Hot’s polarizing nature is by design. The comedy’s director and cowriter, David Wain, said in an interview that film has an ethos similar to the one laid out in the lyrics of off-Broadway musical [title of show] (yes, that’s the name): “I’d rather be nine people’s favorite thing / Than a hundred people’s ninth favorite thing.” And despite nearly universal disregard upon its release, it eventually became a lot of people’s favorite thing, including Kristen Bell, who gushed during a segment on NPR that the film is her all-time number one.
If Wet Hot is your cup of tea, the absurdist spoils are everywhere. There’s a running joke about dead campers, complete with a bit where a kid drowns while counselors (Paul Rudd and Elizabeth Banks) make out; some crafty non sequiturs, including a gateway-drug montage where the gang (among them, Poehler, Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black, and Janeane Garofalo) head to town only to graduate from sneaking smokes to robbing an elderly woman for heroin money; and did we mention the courtship between Molly Shannon’s recent divorcee and one of her prepubescent students? What’s more, Wain and Showalter’s script is a veritable assault of quotable dirty lines (a brief sample: “I want you inside me,” “I’m gonna go fondle my sweaters,” and “my butt itches”).
It’s a weird, wonderful stew, with an ensemble comprising the cast of MTV sketch show The State and an impressive array of future comedic and dramatic big deals, the sort of dumb movie only very smart movie-makers could cook up. For proof, there’s even a DVD audio commentary track that’s solely composed of fart noises, a move that flaunts its own kind of silly-yet-brilliant defiance.