TUESDAY 20 AUGUST 2019The schlubby slacker who
saved mainstream comedy
As Seth Rogen’s goofy ‘Good Boys’ makes waves in the US, Adam
White charts the rise of Hollywood’s toking joker
Woke jokes: Canadian’s humour has evolved with the times (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty)
In Good Boys, the sweet and dirty pre-teen comedy currently at the top of the US box office, its three young
heroes find themselves in possession of a prescription bottle full of MDMA. It’s a set piece that immediately
conjures images of some rowdy tweens spiralling out of their minds while under the influence. But that
moment doesn’t come, because no matter how hard they try and crack the bottle open, they can’t manage
to pop its child-proof cap.
It is one of the funniest jokes in the movie, but one that also speaks to the eagerness of the film’s producer
Seth Rogen to evolve from the pot-smoking man-child persona he cultivated in his early career, where
trippy, drug-fuelled set-pieces were de rigueur. If he were lazier, he could have driven those gags and tropes
into the ground years ago, but Rogen has also been quietly saving comedy for more than a decade at this