Seth Rogen’s mum is responsible for one of the most memorable jokes in Superbad.
The 2007 teen comedy, which arguably launched Jonah Hill’s career, follows a couple of socially awkward best mates, Seth (Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera), who want to impress their high-school crushes.
Their tactic is to score booze for an underage school party to lose their ‘nerd status’. Of course, we do not advocate for this in real life.
Anyhow, things go horribly wrong when their other friend Fogell, AKA McLovin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), gets a fake ID that says he’s a 25-year-old Hawaiian organ donor.
Dodgy cops (Bill Hader and Seth Rogen) also star in the Greg Mottola-directed film, with Rogen and Evan Goldberg writing the script.
Now, when speaking to Howard Stern a few years ago, the Pineapple Express actor revealed his mum came up with one of the ‘darkest’ lines in the movie.
The funnyman told Stern: “There’s a joke in Superbad where, at the end, one of the kids – McLovin’ – is using a fake ID the whole movie – so the cops think he’s like 23.
Seth Rogen thanked his mum Sandy for the joke (Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
“And then at the end of the movie he finally has sex with a girl who’s actually his age, but the cops catch him and think he’s having sex with an underage girl and arrest him for statutory rape. My mum came up with that joke.”
Rogen added: “She read a very early draft of the script and she’s like, ‘it’s funny if the cops arrest him for statutory rape cause they think he’s too old’. And I was like, ‘that’s a solid joke mum’.”
He went on: “You’re in, I’ll take it. My mum pitched a great statutory rape joke.
“It’s pretty dark, but a solid joke nonetheless.”
Superbad fans were quick to shower praise on Rogen’s mum, with one writing below Stern’s clip: “Lmao that was one of the funniest parts of the movie.”
Superbad follows socially awkward best mates, Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera), who want to impress their high-school crushes (Columbia Pictures)
Another echoed: “Intriguing, that’s so cool his mother is a funny lady.”
While a third penned: “F**king good joke mom.”
Other eagle-eyed fans pointed out that Rogen’s mum’s joke was actually tweaked in the final script, as cops Slater (Hader) and Michaels (Rogen) tell McLovin’ they’ve known all along he wasn’t actually 25, and agree to walk McLovin’ out of the party in handcuffs in a bid to impress his school friends.
“They [actually] confess they knew he was underage the whole time but wanted to show him that cops can be cool too,” one YouTuber wrote.
“Then [they] fake arrest him so he seems like a bada** to everyone at the party.”
Someone else added: “Actually McLovin’ tells them his real name and age and then asks the cops to arrest him to make him look bada**.”