# The 40-Year-Old Virgin is supposed to be a comedy? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 4, 2013, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-40-year-old-virgin-is-supposed-to-be-a-comedy/673025 "2013-11-04T03:05:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-40-year-old-virgin-is-supposed-to-be-a-comedy/673025/41 "2013-11-04T19:46:16Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > I thougth it was sweet and funny. Loved the speed dating and drunk virgin. Kat Denning was cute and every word out of her mouth was not a single entendre like on her TV show. The guy from Weeds telling Kevin Hart to “Aim high, Willis!”-- that whole exchange. I am wondering if we have Paul Rudd to blame for Mindy Kahling thinking she’s way cuter than she really is. > > P.S. It isn’t the old Indian guy who tried to kill his girlfriend but the younger Indian co-worker-- the one who smoked. Thank you for the correction. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-40-year-old-virgin-is-supposed-to-be-a-comedy/673025/42 "2013-11-04T19:46:40Z")
This just in…Another SDMB member finds that their tastes are different from the general population and takes some particular bit of pop culture as a personal affront. > [@tullsterx](#): > > OK, that’s a low blow. That’s what she said.😃 ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-40-year-old-virgin-is-supposed-to-be-a-comedy/673025/43 "2013-11-04T19:57:55Z")
One of my favorite bits was Seth Rogan describing the wild weekend they had in Mexico: > [@](#): > > Cal: Oh, man, I had a weekend. > Andy Stitzer: Yeah? > Cal: We went to Tijuana, Mexico, you know? And we thought it would be fun, you know, to go to a show. Everybody says you gotta check out one of these shows. And… it’s a woman fuckin’ a horse. We get there and we think it’s gonna be awesome and… it is not as cool as it sounds like it’s gonna be. It’s kinda gross. > Andy Stitzer: Yeah. > Cal: You think “A woman fuckin’ a horse” and you get there and… it’s a woman fucking a horse. > Andy Stitzer: Yeah. > Cal: It was really giving it to her. And you know what? To be honest I just felt bad for her, we all just felt bad for her. > Andy Stitzer: Yeah. > Cal: I kinda felt bad for the horse! ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-40-year-old-virgin-is-supposed-to-be-a-comedy/673025/44 "2013-11-04T20:47:52Z")
I like, “Andy’s pretty cool, he’s really nice . . . but I’m \*pretty \*sure he’s a serial killer.” Also, “ANDY! I DON’T WANT YOUR GIANT BOX OF PORN!!!” And of course the whole [Michael McDonald dialog](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7Vo_t7zbeQ). (FTR, I’m a 40 year old non-virgin female.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-40-year-old-virgin-is-supposed-to-be-a-comedy/673025/45 "2013-11-04T20:48:51Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > One of my favorite bits was Seth Rogan describing the wild weekend they had in Mexico I remember watching him explain why he hired the ninety-pound woman who clearly can’t move heavy stuff for the customers – and if that three-hundred-pound guy ever finds out why he _wasn’t_ hired, I am _soo_ getting my ass kicked – and thinking to myself, _it’s a shame that a guy with his comic timing can’t be a star, what with those looks._ ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-40-year-old-virgin-is-supposed-to-be-a-comedy/673025/46 "2013-11-04T20:53:29Z")
> [@Enright3](#): > > Leaffan, you started this thread, aren’t you going to comment in it? Or was this just a drive by posting? > > Give us an example of movies you think are funny; so that we might better understand your need to come in here and rag on a move that’s almost a decade old. > > BTW, I liked it. A lot. However, like tullsterx said… I just did not get what was supposed to be so good about Knocked Up (and more recently, This is 40; which I coudn’t even sit through.) Funny movies? Well, things like Airplane, The Naked Gun, Monty Python, The Big Lebowski, Young Frankenstein, The Man With Two Brains. I also like the Harold and Kumar movies. Bits of Anchorman that I saw were funny. Napoleon Dynamite. How’s that for beginners? ETA: Almost anything Mel Brooks come to think of it. The part **Bob Ducca** quoted above is not even remotely funny to me. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-40-year-old-virgin-is-supposed-to-be-a-comedy/673025/47 "2013-11-04T21:06:07Z")
> [@AnthonyElite](#): > > I’ll level with you, Leaffan, I haven’t found anything Steve Carell did funny, ever. Not even _Anchorman_ or _Bruce Almighty_? ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-40-year-old-virgin-is-supposed-to-be-a-comedy/673025/48 "2013-11-04T21:23:26Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > Not even _Anchorman_ or _Bruce Almighty_? Oh, god, I hated those two movies. Anchorman was sold to us by a family member with the comment “funniest thing ever” and the only time my SO and I even cracked a smile was the reporter fight. The entire rest of the movie was awful, and not funny in the least. Bruce Almighty was even worse. And _gasp_ I don’t actually like Morgan Freeman all that much, nor his voice. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-40-year-old-virgin-is-supposed-to-be-a-comedy/673025/49 "2013-11-04T21:28:01Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Bruce Almighty was even worse. And _gasp_ I don’t actually like Morgan Freeman all that much, nor his voice. FRIENDSHIP DISSOLVEDstupid anti-yelling software ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-40-year-old-virgin-is-supposed-to-be-a-comedy/673025/50 "2013-11-04T21:30:19Z")
> [@Enright3](#): > > I just did not get what was supposed to be so good about Knocked Up The parts without Katherine Heigl. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-40-year-old-virgin-is-supposed-to-be-a-comedy/673025/51 "2013-11-04T22:37:47Z")
> [@Blaster\_Master](#): > > My favorite scene was the one where Jay’s girlfriend finds out he went to the speed dating and comes in and asks Andy if he said all these obnoxious things like “hurtin’ for a squirtin’” and “ho fo’ sho’”. It’s one of mine too. Here’s the clip: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/PKPn-RFmWG8/hqdefault.jpg "40 Year Old Virgin Clip - Steve Carell telling Jill off(with Paul Rudd and the Amy-cam)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKPn-RFmWG8) Just the way Andy says, “She was a ho, for sho.” cracks me up. and then later in the scene he goes off on Jay’s girlfriend trying to act like he’s all tough. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-40-year-old-virgin-is-supposed-to-be-a-comedy/673025/52 "2013-11-04T22:41:22Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > The part **Bob Ducca** quoted above is not even remotely funny to me. Eh, the way Rogen delivers the line kills me… plus Andy’s follow up story about his own weekend which involved making a whole lot of egg salad for sandwiches that he ended up not wanting to eat, and plus he didn’t have any bread. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-40-year-old-virgin-is-supposed-to-be-a-comedy/673025/53 "2013-11-04T22:53:22Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Funny movies? Well, things like Airplane, The Naked Gun, Monty Python, The Big Lebowski, Young Frankenstein, The Man With Two Brains. I also like the Harold and Kumar movies. Bits of Anchorman that I saw were funny. Napoleon Dynamite. > > How’s that for beginners? > > ETA: Almost anything Mel Brooks come to think of it. Umm, you do know that all those examples are incredibly low-brow and broad comedies\*, right? Nothing wrong with liking that but it is beyond ridiculous for you to not think something is a comedy if it isn’t that style. \*with the POSSIBLE exception of Monty Python. Possible. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-40-year-old-virgin-is-supposed-to-be-a-comedy/673025/54 "2013-11-04T22:57:02Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > Eh, the way Rogen delivers the line kills me… plus Andy’s follow up story about his own weekend which involved making a whole lot of egg salad for sandwiches that he ended up not wanting to eat, and plus he didn’t have any bread. Likewise, out of context there’s nothing funny when you read Carell’s off-putting lines as a speed-dater – but Carell’s delivery, on the heels of being told (a) to just ask questions about her instead of talking about himself, and (b) to act cool and be sort of a dick (“like David Caruso”), is the whole joke. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-40-year-old-virgin-is-supposed-to-be-a-comedy/673025/55 "2013-11-04T23:06:12Z")
> [@AnthonyElite](#): > > I’ll level with you, Leaffan, I haven’t found anything Steve Carell did funny, ever. To me he just piggybacks off of old material to a different audience, and the backs of more talented people. > > I challenge anyone to prove me wrong. Prove you wrong on what you find funny? I’ll get back to you on that. > [@msmith537](#): > > This just in…Another SDMB member finds that their tastes are different from the general population and takes some particular bit of pop culture as a personal affront. Right. Taste is personal. Humor even more so. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-40-year-old-virgin-is-supposed-to-be-a-comedy/673025/56 "2013-11-04T23:08:41Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Umm, you do know that all those examples are incredibly low-brow and broad comedies\*, right? Nothing wrong with liking that but it is beyond ridiculous for you to not think something is a comedy if it isn’t that style. > > \*with the POSSIBLE exception of Monty Python. Possible. Well, at no time during The 40 Year Old Virgin did somebody say “Hey, nice beaver” so already it’s a failure. And I say that as an unabashed fan of the Naked Gun movies. ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-40-year-old-virgin-is-supposed-to-be-a-comedy/673025/57 "2013-11-04T23:16:07Z")
It’s a great movie, very funny. Knocked Up…I don’t think I laughed once. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2013, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-40-year-old-virgin-is-supposed-to-be-a-comedy/673025/58 "2013-11-05T00:14:14Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > Well, at no time during The 40 Year Old Virgin did somebody say “Hey, nice beaver” so already it’s a failure. > > And I say that as an unabashed fan of the Naked Gun movies. On second thought I would say the Big Lebowski is the actual exception on his list. Not meaning it as a snarky comment but Airplane is really more of a “funny if I was 13” movie than 40 year old virgin by about a 100 miles. I mean, it WAS funny when I WAS 13. Lol ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2013, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-40-year-old-virgin-is-supposed-to-be-a-comedy/673025/59 "2013-11-05T00:26:40Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Umm, you do know that all those examples are incredibly low-brow and broad comedies\*, right? Nothing wrong with liking that but it is beyond ridiculous for you to not think something is a comedy if it isn’t that style. > > \*with the POSSIBLE exception of Monty Python. Possible. What’s your point? 😉 _There’s Something About Mary_ was pretty good. Is that low-brow? I have no problems laughing at low-brow. You have me reconsidering my sense of humour now. _Bridesmaids_ was terrible, for example. Early Woody Allen is hilarious. _A Fish Called Wanda_ anyone? ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2013, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-40-year-old-virgin-is-supposed-to-be-a-comedy/673025/60 "2013-11-05T00:33:52Z")
I am notoriously prudish when it comes to humor (bathroom stuff, drug stuff) and I found _40YOV_ hilarious. Actually I think it was this film that lightened me up considerably. It somehow managed to be simultaneously raunchy but sweet. And it was what proved to me that Steve Carrell can really act. The moment right after the “bag of sand” line, where his friends realize he’s a virgin and the camera tightens in on Andy’s face where he’s trying to smile and be a good sport but is dying inside? Every ounce of shameful pain is written in Carrell’s eyes. (He subsequently did this a lot with Michael Scott, which went far in making the character much more than a buffoon.) Plus characters I would normally despise (Rogan’s stoner slacker, Romany’s overcompensating sexual braggart, the stereotypical Indians) were endearing instead of one-note. Took me a while to warm up to Catherine Keener’s character, because as an actress Keener has always left me a bit cold, but I highly appreciated that there was an age-appropriate partner for the lead. Romany watching _Dawn of the Dead_ yelling at Sarah Polley “Bitch get out of the room!” still cracks me up. Oh, and what’s the name of the actress who played the drunk young woman in the hideous Kangol hat whom Andy tried to pick up and he ended up getting barfed on? She was awesome; I think she might be Apatow’s wife, do I have that right? Anyway, despite the fact that this is another of my hang-ups–drunk/body-fluid-gross-out-humor–I still laugh. I just close my eyes at the barfing part and up until then simply delight in Andy’s desperate terror during the car ride, and her trying to sing along to whatever that horrific hip hop song was, as well as recounting some trashy catfight she had with one of her ‘friends.’ If nothing else Carrell earns respect for doing that body wax scene _live_. He should’ve gotten an Oscar for endurance just for that. It was his movie and he sold me on his commitment to it, from Andy singing “Word Up” to his “Age of Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In.” So from this uptight chick whose sense of humor includes everything from films like _All About Eve_ and _A Mighty Wind_ to _Red Dwarf_ and _Peep Show_, I found this to be a silly, charming, gross, bawdy, romantic comedy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-40-year-old-virgin-is-supposed-to-be-a-comedy/673025.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-40-year-old-virgin-is-supposed-to-be-a-comedy/673025.md?page=4)