A behind-the-scenes look at the rise (and eventual fall) of the raunchy, blockbuster “Frat Pack” comedy films of the early 2000s—including The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Old School, Wedding Crashers, and Knocked Up—and how the seismic reverberations from that era are still felt in the fractured media landscape of today.
If you were a movie-goer in the early aughts, you had a front row seat to what in retrospect is a golden age of comedy. Ben Stiller, Seth Rogan, Will Ferrell, Owen and Luke Wilson, and Vince Vaughn transitioned from supporting roles to the center of the screen, and comedy became Big Business. Suddenly, surprisingly, a band of rowdy wedding crashers, hungover bachelors, and 40-year-old virgins were at the center of the movie industry. For a brief decade (roughly 2001 until 2011), this once-outsider brand of improvisational comedy took Hollywood by storm, ushering in a new kind of star and record-breaking box office returns. Then, seemingly overnight, Frat Pack movies vanished. Or did they?
In Funny Business, award-winning author and film critic Matt Singer traces the path that took these gonzo stars and directors from the fringes of comedy to the mainstream—beginning on tiny stages like Second City and the Groundlings, then infiltrating into talent incubators like SNL, eventually leading to Big Screen domination in Hollywood. Along the way, he offers insider stories of the films that raised a generation, including: The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Zoolander, Borat, Anchorman, Old School, and The Hangover (perhaps the zenith of the “Frat Pack” movie movement). How did these movies and their stars come to dominate a generation of moviemaking? Who won—and who was left out—of this comedy boom? Can studio comedies come back in our digital and streaming era?
A love letter to a bygone era, Funny Business celebrates the legacy of comedies that came before and points the way forward to a (possible) new future for cinema—never forgetting that the audience always gets the last laugh.
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