It was like "Wow, we're getting away with this!"
July 31, 2015 10:06 AM   Subscribe

An oral history of Wet Hot American Summer. (And, hey, First Day of Camp premieres on Netflix today.)
posted by box (91 comments total) 13 users marked this as a favorite
 
July 31, 2015 1:06 PM

We said 12:30 so we could be here by 1:00.
posted by Navelgazer at 10:12 AM on July 31, 2015 [22 favorites]




Wet Hot American Summer’s Wild, Triumphant Return (The Atlantic)
posted by box at 10:19 AM on July 31, 2015


One of the characters is the fucking burp king of westchester, so you know you can't go wrong.
posted by tittergrrl at 10:29 AM on July 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


Man.. this movie...

I love everyone in it, I really love comedy/comedians, the idea is great... watched it twice... I.Just.Don't.Get.It.

It's not funny, ever, not once, I feel like there is a flavour everyone I like can taste but I can't.

(not just me either, amoung friends, who all love the group of funny people in WHAS, the response rate has been 100% baffled and disappointed by the movie, I literally do not know a person who likes it)

Still excited to see the show though.
posted by Cosine at 10:31 AM on July 31, 2015 [15 favorites]


Can You Tell Which Paul Rudd Is Older?

I really thought I could. Apparently, I can't.
posted by aabbbiee at 10:36 AM on July 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


I love everyone in it, I really love comedy/comedians, the idea is great... watched it twice... I.Just.Don't.Get.It.

I think you have to enjoy cheesy 80s summer camp movies, including summer camp horror movies, in a sarcastic sort of way.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:38 AM on July 31, 2015 [2 favorites]


I managed to watch one episode this morning before I had to leave for work... really wish I didn't have to be at the office today, or that it was workplace-acceptable behavior to hole up in an empty office to watch Netflix on my phone all day.
posted by palomar at 10:41 AM on July 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


You taste like a burger. I don't like you anymore.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 10:42 AM on July 31, 2015 [6 favorites]


That was my experience exactly, Cosine. I was like gee, on paper I really should have liked this.
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:45 AM on July 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


Cosine: I think ti truly is the culty-est of cult movies. You are either on its comedic wavelength or you aren't. From the side of "this is some of the funniest shit I've ever seen," I can absolutely still understand somebody not laughing once. Don't worry about it.

On another note, when I was watching WHAS for the first time in a while yesterday, it was missing what was, in my memory, my favorite scene, and the internet doesn't seem to remember it either, so I come to all you trustworthy beautiful people.

Basically, the "indoor kids" are laying around outside, and something like the following exchange occurs:

MEDIEVAL KID: I miss my mom.
CURE GIRL: Yeah, well, your mom sucks kitty litter... Just kidding.
MEDIEVAL KID: Are you? Because my mom actually does have a problem with the kitty litter.
CURE GIRL: I know. That's what makes the joke funny.

Am I insane? Is google gaslighting me on this? Was it a deleted scene that nobody else cared to put on youtube? Help!
posted by Navelgazer at 10:49 AM on July 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


I love everyone in it, I really love comedy/comedians, the idea is great... watched it twice... I.Just.Don't.Get.It.

I watched a bit today, and realized:
1) if I really cared, I should probably watch the movie first,
2) the best stuff may have been in the trailer ("And Introducing Jon Hamm"),
3) at this point it's all about watching the people who went on to greater fame, and winking at the over-40s playing teens,
4) now I can't get "Jane" out of my mind.

Also, Roger Ebert's review of the original.
posted by NorthernLite at 10:51 AM on July 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


WHAS is a very very silly, goofy series of connected skits that at casual glance looks like it might be an actual serious 80s Summer Camp movie. The camera plays it straight and never lets on that its in on the joke with the characters. That causes the tonal confusion a lot of people get watching it.
posted by The Whelk at 10:59 AM on July 31, 2015 [3 favorites]


WHAS is absolutely fucking dumb. It's a dumb movie and it was critically panned for being dumb when it came out. It's also completely hilarious if you can let go of all pretensions and appreciate the stupidity and absurdity of it all.

It's one of those movies that you had to see for the first time when you were a teenager so it can hold a special place in your heart for the rest of your life no matter how dumb it is. Everyone should have movies like that. That's healthy.

I think very few people see it for the first time as a grown adult and enjoy it. They might be expecting some smart and stylish throwback to 80's summer camp movies like Meatballs. Like there is substance behind the hype. Nope. Just stupid and hysterical, and insanely quotable. And more like a bunch of sketches from The State that have been loosely tied together with a rad summer camp theme.
posted by windbox at 11:04 AM on July 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


What's all this I hear about 80's summer camp movies? That was a thing? There was Meatballs, and, ... ???

Were there ones other than Meatballs?
posted by Cookiebastard at 11:04 AM on July 31, 2015


Friday the 13th.
posted by NoMich at 11:06 AM on July 31, 2015 [2 favorites]


Poison Ivy!
posted by atomicstone at 11:07 AM on July 31, 2015


Even though we ain't got money, I'm so in love with ya' honey, and everything will bring a chain of looo-oo-ooo-OH FUCK!
posted by codacorolla at 11:08 AM on July 31, 2015 [10 favorites]


A little movie called Ernest Goes to Camp, maybe?
posted by Navelgazer at 11:08 AM on July 31, 2015 [2 favorites]


Am I insane? Is google gaslighting me on this? Was it a deleted scene that nobody else cared to put on youtube? Help!

Obviously you just slipped through a Bernstein Bear dimension.
posted by maxsparber at 11:08 AM on July 31, 2015 [10 favorites]


Can You Tell Which Paul Rudd Is Older?

I got 12/17. That may be the hardest internet quiz I've ever done.
posted by LionIndex at 11:09 AM on July 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


What's all this I hear about 80's summer camp movies? That was a thing? There was Meatballs, and, ... ???

Take your pick!
posted by maxsparber at 11:09 AM on July 31, 2015


Meatballs itself had three horrible sequels, the first of which had an alien among the campers and the second of which featured the ghost of a porn star trying to get into Heaven.
posted by Etrigan at 11:10 AM on July 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


Obvious stunt double is obvious.

What I especially love about that is how unnecessary and incompetent the stunt double is.

The other brilliant thing is that the double is wearing a really noticeably mismatched wig (as they are wont to do), which makes you totally forget that the real guy is also wearing a wig; the obvious artifice makes the rest of the movie -- which is only very slightly less over-the-top fake [*Paul Rudd pout*] -- feel more real.

There was Meatballs, and, ... ???


Every slasher flick ever? Sleepaway Camp definitely gets a nod.
posted by Sys Rq at 11:11 AM on July 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


Surely you mean the Berenstain Bears.
posted by hippybear at 11:11 AM on July 31, 2015


There are no such things in my world.
posted by maxsparber at 11:12 AM on July 31, 2015 [2 favorites]


And seriously, FYI you guys, this thread is not an excuse to just shit on a film a lot of people like- this is an excuse to have a good online discussion. So be prepared, be enthusiastic, AND LEAVE YOUR BULLSHIT ATTITUDE AND BAGGAGE AT THE DOOR, BECAUSE WE DON'T NEED IT!
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 11:12 AM on July 31, 2015 [45 favorites]


If you enjoyed Camp Camp, which coincidentally features some anecdotes from David Wain, WHAS will be right up your alley.
posted by dr_dank at 11:13 AM on July 31, 2015


McKinley/Ben forever. Is there another movie with this level of star power where two main character dudes have a fairly graphic sex scene, get married at the beach, and their friends (surprised by the outing of two friends) buy them gifts from Pottery Barn?

Also, EVERYTHING with David Hyde Pierce and Janeane Garofalo. "So...slacks?" Also, her teen girl stupid hairdo. Oh man.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 11:16 AM on July 31, 2015 [5 favorites]


hippybear: Berenstein Bears
posted by Etrigan at 11:17 AM on July 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


(Oh, but, full disclosure: I own a signed copy of the Stella Shorts DVD, so I am far from neutral on this topic. Or anything Stella-related or -adjacent.)
posted by a fiendish thingy at 11:19 AM on July 31, 2015 [2 favorites]


McKinley/Ben forever.

I just re watched the movie and thought " I know this is being played for laughs, but this is a legit good gay sex scene which you don't see very often."
posted by The Whelk at 11:21 AM on July 31, 2015 [12 favorites]


The Whelk: WHAS is a very very silly, goofy series of connected skits that at casual glance looks like it might be an actual serious 80s Summer Camp movie. The camera plays it straight and never lets on that its in on the joke with the characters. That causes the tonal confusion a lot of people get watching it.

Yeah, unlike Wain's Childrens Hospital and They Came Together, there really is no winking to the audience that, hey.. this whole movie is just an absurd joke...well, not until the visit to Waterville sequence, which is when the film starts really going nuts. Before you get there, though, the movie really can be easily confused with any other, if slightly-askew, 1980s camp film. It's why I'm always afraid to show friends it, and kind of have my eyes on them until Waterville.

But man if WHAS isn't one of my favorite films that just keeps getting better every time I see it.

And I'll always be sad that the hothouse corn deleted scenes never made it into the final cut. I'll be sad if hothouse corn doesn't show up in First Day At Camp. Just the PHRASE hothouse corn makes me laugh out loud at this point.
posted by tittergrrl at 11:30 AM on July 31, 2015 [5 favorites]


i rewatched WHAS a few weeks ago and have been unable to stop listening to danny's boy since then

and i'm frustrated that i haven't been able to determine definitively if that is actually ken marino singing in that scene because i need to know how and why he happens to have the voice of an actual angel
posted by burgerrr at 11:31 AM on July 31, 2015


What's all this I hear about 80's summer camp movies? That was a thing? There was Meatballs, and, ... ???

While some people probably remember Little Darlings for starring Kristy McNichol and Tatum O'Neal, for me it was Matt Dillon that made the lasting impression...
posted by dnash at 11:36 AM on July 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


Just fired up the series, and damned if they don't have Josh Charles playing the opposite of his Knox Overstreet side of the triangle. Good show, Wain and Showalter!
posted by Navelgazer at 11:38 AM on July 31, 2015 [2 favorites]


McKinley/Ben forever.

I just re watched the movie and thought " I know this is being played for laughs, but this is a legit good gay sex scene which you don't see very often."


I remember watching this for the first time and commenting with my friends how weird it was that there would be such a romantic and lovey-dovey scene in the middle of a completely ridiculous movie. I didn't get the sense that it was being played for laughs at all - it seemed totally deadpan serious and sweet.
posted by chainsofreedom at 11:40 AM on July 31, 2015


I didn't get the sense that it was being played for laughs at all - it seemed totally deadpan serious and sweet.

1. the socks
2. the grappling/knocking over of sporting equipment
3. the fact that all the hetero dudes are running around desperate for girls to kiss them while Ben and McKinley sneak off for their R-rated scene
4. the fact that McKinley's friends are talking about how it is so sad that he's a virgin right before the scene
posted by a fiendish thingy at 11:43 AM on July 31, 2015


Can You Tell Which Paul Rudd Is Older?

I failed that test because I couldn't get my brain to stop thinking, even after I noticed I was doing it, that the question was, "Which Picture is Older?" ("Look at that outdated hairstyle, that one's obviously older." Click. Bzzt!)
posted by straight at 11:44 AM on July 31, 2015


Hah, the socks! I totally forgot about the socks. Level of romance mentally adjusted down a few notches.
posted by chainsofreedom at 11:52 AM on July 31, 2015


I think that WHAS goes beyond just being a camp movie parody to being a teen movie parody in general. You have the lovelorn loser going up against the jerk-ass rebel narrative (Coop), you have forbidden love (McKinley and Ben), you have a ragtag group shaping up to do something amazing (the baseball game gag, but more generally the play), you have the nerds saving the day (the indoor kids), you have a master / student training dynamic (coop and the chef), you have the sex roadtrip (Abby)... that's just a few off the top of my head. Wet Hot is a loveletter to the teen movie genre that stretches across the whole spectrum of 80s film.
posted by codacorolla at 12:04 PM on July 31, 2015 [3 favorites]


BTW my theory on Paul Rudd's agelessness involves him turning Michael Showalter into a Dorian-Gray-style portrait.
posted by Navelgazer at 12:13 PM on July 31, 2015 [9 favorites]


I thought this was a really interesting--and kind of important--moment in the article:
Showalter: We generated a lot of material around the movie idea, and what was happening very simultaneously was the emergence of Netflix. There was a decision to switch gears away from a movie and into a television idea instead. But very much predicated on Netflix being interested in doing it. If Netflix wanted to do it as a series, that would be the best-case scenario.
This is not Netflix outbidding a network (cable or otherwise) for a show (House of Cards, OITNB), or resurrecting a show nobody else wants (Arrested Development, Kimmy Schmidt), this is a showrunner saying "I could make this thing, but only if Netflix wants it."

Be afraid, networks. Be very afraid. Netflix murdered an entire industry pretty much single-handedly. Now they're coming for you, and the people who provide your content like them more than they like you.
posted by dersins at 12:17 PM on July 31, 2015 [10 favorites]


I really don't think it's a movie you have to have seen as a teen, or you have to have gone to camp to appreciate. I saw Wet Hot American Summer for the first time when I was probably about 30. This would have been... roughly last Saturday or so. And it's great! The best film ever made? No. The best comedy? Sure! It's hilarious. I guess you do have to have an appreciation for a very specific style of sincere absurdity in your comedies.

Also I had never been to camp as a kid. There is basically no nostalgia associated with this movie for me, in any form. Unless you count... remembering when Janeane Garofalo was in more films?

And in case you think I'm some schmuck who just has weird taste in movies, I'll have you know the only other film I've ever deigned to enjoy is Werner Herzog's Nosferatu. So you can tell I'm highly discerning.
posted by branduno at 12:34 PM on July 31, 2015 [4 favorites]


I think very few people see it for the first time as a grown adult and enjoy it.

I'm 45. I enjoy things that are enjoyable and do not enjoy things that are not enjoyable. I did not go to camp as a kid. I watched Meatballs as recently as last month with my son, right before he left for camp. I plan on seeing this movie for the first time tonight.

I will report back.
posted by bondcliff at 12:36 PM on July 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


I got 15/17 on the Rudd quiz, and I honestly feel pretty proud of myself.
posted by nonasuch at 12:52 PM on July 31, 2015


I will report back.

Please do - really curious to know if my theory holds.
posted by windbox at 12:58 PM on July 31, 2015


I'm happy for anything that gives me more Christopher Meloni goofing around and not being ThickNeck McRageMaster
posted by Ferreous at 12:58 PM on July 31, 2015 [7 favorites]


I'm happy for anything that gives me more Christopher Meloni.
posted by dnash at 1:05 PM on July 31, 2015


Another part of my rewatch yesterday was remarking to myself just how much the kid playing Arty "The Beekeeper" Solomon sounded like Samm Levine, and then today I was shocked that they found a lookalike kid who also sounded like Samm Levine, and now I feel like an idiot.
posted by Navelgazer at 1:07 PM on July 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


I think very few people see it for the first time as a grown adult and enjoy it.

Well, I guess I must be one of the very few. I saw it when it came out and instantly loved it, despite being in my late 30s at the time.

I love that it never winks at the audience or breaks character or over explains the jokes. There are so many love letters to the way the medium works that I sometimes feel like every frame is a joke. Sometimes I think just of the way the raft heading to the waterfall was shot and chuckle.
posted by lumpenprole at 1:12 PM on July 31, 2015 [7 favorites]


Holy Shit the Cameron Crowe riff... When is the Fanfare for this going up?
posted by Navelgazer at 1:13 PM on July 31, 2015


It's one of those movies that you had to see for the first time when you were a teenager so it can hold a special place in your heart for the rest of your life

I was 30.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 1:17 PM on July 31, 2015 [2 favorites]


I think very few people see it for the first time as a grown adult and enjoy it.

So I'm recently 40, not American, and decided that after hearing about this movie randomly for the last two years I should finally watch it for the first time. The end credits are running in another tab. And actually, it was the people in this thread that didn't like it that pushed me over the edge, because everything else I heard or read was adulatory and that can be a bit intimidating.

I liked it a lot. I laughed out loud in a few places, mainly at Paul Rudd and at the training montage in the middle. I liked the end and Katie's priorities, probably because I still remember clearly being 16 and feeling that way. It's well acted, totally cheesy and over the top and tongue in cheek, brightly coloured, and overall a lot of fun. I probably won't suggest it to others I know (again, not American so I don't know anyone with the context to get it who hasn't already seen it) and I don't know if I'll watch it again. But I'll probably look up the Netflix series next time I'm bored. So thumbs up in general.

I had had two good German beers before it started and one during plus I'm in a good mood, all these things help I think. Yeah, it's dumb but so pretty and well made and everyone seems to be having a great time. It was a good ride.
posted by shelleycat at 1:21 PM on July 31, 2015 [5 favorites]


I think very few people see it for the first time as a grown adult and enjoy it.

I was in my mid-twenties the first time I saw WHAS and I loved it right out of the box. Still love it, and I'm pushing 40. It's not my age that made me like it. Never been to summer camp, either, so it's not my fondness for my childhood days canoeing and sleeping in cabins that did it, either. I was a big fan of The State, though, so maybe it's just my appreciation for this kind of humor that makes me like it.

Actually, I don't know anyone who loves this movie and saw it for the first time as a teenager. Most of the people I know who saw the movie and liked it right away are the same age as me or older.
posted by palomar at 1:22 PM on July 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


Details magazine's Ultimate Oral History of Wet Hot American Summer addresses a couple things that keep coming up in the thread"

On the intimacy of McKinley and Ben's sex scene:

DAVID WAIN: We liked the notion that the only sort of real and powerful and intimate sexual moment in the movie is between two men.

MICHAEL IAN BLACK: The maturity of that relationship, oddly, is the joke—the fact that it's the only relationship that is treated with any genuine humanity. Believe me, it's not a political statement. It is, obviously, in its own stupid way. But like so many things in Wet Hot, it's an incredibly meta joke.

MICHAEL SHOWALTER: It's the opposite of a gay joke. The joke is entirely on the people who are expecting us to be making fun of it.

MICHAEL IAN BLACK: I mean, that scene where we're just fucking the shit out of each other is the most lovingly lit and overtly directorial scene in the film.

DAVID WAIN: It was something I talked about with Ben Weinstein, our director of photography, from moment one. This is the one scene where there is no time limit—let's take the time and really light it, really make it beautiful. It's also one of the only two scenes that we built a set for, because we wanted to have the space to move the camera and really get it right.

On the seemingly generational divide in "getting it" vs "not getting it":

DAVID WAIN: Wet Hot has the outer trappings, by design, of a certain kind of comedy, and it doesn't deliver on that at all. And so if you're going in with the mind-set of wanting to see a regular comedy, this movie is going to disappoint you.

KEN MARINO: The first line that makes you realize, "Oh, this is a slightly different movie than I was expecting" is when Showalter says, "I want you inside me."

JANEANE GAROFALO: What does start out great is the opening song, "Jane." That gets people going. And then it sort of just powers down. Until Michael Showalter says that line, many people have little to no reaction, and they wonder why I'm raving about this movie. Sometimes with reviewers, the damage is done in the first 20 minutes.

DAVID WAIN: It got not just bad reviews, but savage, hostile reviews, like we did something personally bad to every reviewer. And maybe there was something revealing about the fact that reviewers took extra time and care to find ways to explain how much they hated our movie. Roger Ebert wasn't the only one.

PAUL RUDD: Owen Gleiberman [of Entertainment Weekly] gave it an A. When you're dealing with very good, specific comedy, and you get those kinds of opposite reactions, you're probably doing something worthwhile. If somebody didn't like it, I knew for a fact that I just so did not agree with that critic—and I bet you anything that person is older than me.

CHRISTOPHER MELONI: I'm about 10 years older than these guys. The people I brought to the premiere didn't get it. And that kind of shocked me. Because I could admit there were certain things where I was like, "I'm not quite getting it," but that's okay, 'cause I'm behind the curve. This was the underground cutting-edge comedy that us old folks can't get.

MICHAEL IAN BLACK: I do think this movie was a little bit ahead of the curve. I'm reluctant to say that any film is directly influenced by this one, because it sounds very presumptuous, [but] Anchorman springs to mind almost immediately—that kind of heightened, absurd insanity. That anarchic tone. We were sort of on that territory with Wet Hot, even if the producers never saw it. I hope there's some direct correlation.
posted by unsupervised at 1:24 PM on July 31, 2015 [11 favorites]


Chris Meloni the beautiful and delicate flower of a human being doesn’t come up often enough, so I will tell this story here:

When I was an undergrad, a good friend of mine was OBSESSED with Meloni, specifically because of Oz. She talked about Oz a lot. A LOT. So one day she was walking along the sidewalk that ran past campus, and there were trailers set up outside, which wasn’t unusual. But on this particular day, the door to the trailer opened, and lo: Meloni came forth.

She gasped, and said, gazing up at him, “I LOVE YOU!!!”

And instead of retreating into his trailer and calling security, he said “Thank you! Would you like to walk with me to the set?”

And she walked with him (they were filming SVU on location, hence the trailers), and she talked a lot about how Keller COULD NOT DIE, and he asked why not, and she said “Because what would Beecher DO??” and he thought that was very sweet. And he asked her if she wanted to hang around while they filmed, and was generous and kind (and did not hit on her), and it is one of the reasons I have deep and abiding love for Meloni for always.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 1:29 PM on July 31, 2015 [34 favorites]


i am always amazed at and envious of meloni's flexibility and i am glad the trailer for FDAC highlighted it
posted by burgerrr at 1:42 PM on July 31, 2015


Perhaps you don't actually need to be a teenager to become part of the cult of WHAS, but I think Kristen Bell put it best - you just have to be open to it's ridiculousness:

When someone has an open enough heart to accept this silliness - and that's what it's about for me, an open heart - if someone's heart is open to Wet Hot American Summer, they love it. And that's when I know that me and them, we've got an unbreakable bond. Together forever. Like camp counselors."

I guess I just remember watching it with friends when I was 14 or 15 and everyone loved it. I think people are more open to the humor at that age. When I watched it with other friends in my 20's, people didn't get it.
posted by windbox at 1:42 PM on July 31, 2015


I'm 42 (!) and it is easily one of my favorite movies. I can, I suppose, understand not really liking it, but not finding it funny at all? Not one joke? It's like an onion of jokes, layers of jokes intertwined on other jokes and about jokes and NON jokes delivered like jokes and jokes delivered like non jokes and non jokes pushed so far that they become jokes. It's a nowhere conversation, impossible, but, like, if Wet Hot American Summer isn't funny what could possibly be funny?

Kitty Litter scene is in the deleted scenes reel on the DVD.
posted by dirtdirt at 1:47 PM on July 31, 2015 [6 favorites]


I was going to say I'm about Meloni's age and that I got it, but...1961, OK. I saw this in my late 30s at the earliest, and it struck so many chords even though it's overdone in places. Molly Shannon's scenes kill me. My comedy-nut brother who is closer to Meloni's age doesn't get it, but he doesn't really have the nerd-outsider gene.
posted by rhizome at 1:49 PM on July 31, 2015


I'm actually in the middle of watching it, almost exactly the middle in fact, out of a desire to give it a whirl with the Netflix series coming out. It's definitely a comedy being broadcast on a different frequency than most. I'm in my thirties and while I was generally chuckling and what not as I progressed through, it completely sold itself with the in town montage that went from generally harmless beer purchase to mugging an old woman and the long shot inside the crack house...before leaping back to the camp an "hour later." And okay, Paul Rudd's on going disposal of nuisance kid witnesses is also growing on me.
posted by Atreides at 2:19 PM on July 31, 2015 [2 favorites]


I liked it a lot. I laughed out loud in a few places, mainly at Paul Rudd and at the training montage in the middle. I liked the end and Katie's priorities, probably because I still remember clearly being 16 and feeling that way.

That is one of the best parts of the movie. Coop also seems to more or less understand it, and isn't resentful or demanding.
posted by codacorolla at 2:53 PM on July 31, 2015


And okay, Paul Rudd's on going disposal of nuisance kid witnesses is also growing on me.

Whenever my ex-girlfriend would ask me where we were going, my response was, invariably, "Secret pizza party." "I love pizza!" "Yeah, well..." That she stayed with me for four years is proof that altruism exists. That she made me a bracelet for my birthday with those lines inscribed on it is proof that sainthood is possible.

Come on, though. "Secret pizza party." That's amazing.
posted by Errant at 3:47 PM on July 31, 2015 [4 favorites]


Netflix reeeeeeally wants me to watch this, and I don't understand why. In fact, this post makes the third time today it's been promoted mentioned to me.
posted by wintersweet at 3:51 PM on July 31, 2015


This is seriously the first time I ever even considered the *possibility* of people seeing WHAS and not loving it. I'm fairly sure I was weeping with laughter the first time I saw it, and have been giggling all through this thread just remembering various scenes. Highlights for me - the ludicrous panicky wrecking of the nurse's office, and the repeated semi-inaccurate use of the exact same breaking pottery sound about fifteen times (which lead to my fascination with foley tropes outside of the Wilhelm and such).
posted by FatherDagon at 4:02 PM on July 31, 2015 [6 favorites]


No one ever mentions David Hyde Pierce and Janeane Garofalo's discussion about having children at the end of the movie when we have these WHAS love-ins and goddamn if I don't love that stupid joke.

Also I like the gay sex scene has three payoffs: the fact that it is genuinely loving and hot, the ridiculous lake wedding, and then the chaise lounge from Crate and Barrel. Just more and more ridiculous.

Lastly, God it sounds weird hearing Jon Benjamin's voice coming out of a real person.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 5:57 PM on July 31, 2015 [6 favorites]


If I turn away while H. Jon Benjamin is talking for even an instant the mental image immediately switches back to Sterling Archer.
posted by Navelgazer at 6:11 PM on July 31, 2015 [3 favorites]


When I woke up today I wasn't expecting to see David Hyde Pierce call Richard Schiff a "fuck dick of a shit butt" but apparently my day was destined to turn out great.
posted by jason_steakums at 6:25 PM on July 31, 2015 [4 favorites]


Oh, fuck my cock.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:33 PM on July 31, 2015 [2 favorites]


If I turn away while H. Jon Benjamin is talking for even an instant the mental image immediately switches back to Sterling Archer.

Same! But it's Coach McGuirk for me.
posted by dialetheia at 6:34 PM on July 31, 2015 [2 favorites]


Ok, watched it.

I really enjoyed it. Not, like THE BEST MOVIE EVER, but it was decent and I think it might even be better on repeat viewing. There were plenty of moments when I had sustained, loud laughs. Not too many movies do that to me these days.

I can see why not everyone would like it. My wife would probably watch 20 minutes of it and go "I don't get it" because she is a terrible person has a slightly different sense of humor than I do. But it worked for me and my wacky brand of humor.

Loved the body disposal and the trip to Waterville the most.

Glad I watched it.

Also, I once canoed the Moose River in Maine.
posted by bondcliff at 7:08 PM on July 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


I saw it in the theater with my then-girlfriend and we laughed our asses off. Near the end we realized that we were the only ones laughing, which made this strange little movie completely surreal. It felt like we were getting a lot of weird looks as we left the theater.

My wife and just watched it again tonight, to prep for the prequel. My favorite scene is when Coop is all like "Hey wait up!" to his friends, and then takes his place in line to press his face against the wall.
posted by hydrophonic at 9:05 PM on July 31, 2015 [2 favorites]


It's like an onion of jokes, layers of jokes intertwined on other jokes and about jokes and NON jokes delivered like jokes and jokes delivered like non jokes and non jokes pushed so far that they become jokes.

I didn't see WHAS when I was in middle school/early high school, which is too bad, because I think i would have loooooved it then. I was really into the State then, and Kids in the Hall, and other absurd, silly humor. I remember my sense of humor in middle school as being sort of manic and super-saturated. My friends and I would be constantly making jokes on top of jokes and zinging tons of inside-joke references to each other and tumbling through a million thoughts at high speed all the time and it was all just very over the top, like WHAS is.

I did finally see WHAS recently and liked it, and will probably watch it again, but I think it would have been EXACTLY up my alley as a teenager in a way that it's not quite now.
posted by aka burlap at 9:05 PM on July 31, 2015


Haha, the indoor kids all have a cameo in the 4th episode as a group of troublemakers.
posted by cazoo at 9:28 PM on July 31, 2015 [3 favorites]


Lake Bell is hilariously good at selling every line in the most cringe-worthy faux-"deep" way imaginable here.
posted by Navelgazer at 9:32 PM on July 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


Her half-mumbled explanation of why she wrapped the shofar in such a strange way had me laughing way too much.
posted by jason_steakums at 4:27 AM on August 1, 2015 [2 favorites]


It's better for multiple takes.
posted by Navelgazer at 5:40 AM on August 1, 2015 [3 favorites]


(Anyway, I've got the FanFare pending approval, so that should be up by tomorrow.)
posted by Navelgazer at 6:45 AM on August 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


Fanfare is up.
posted by Navelgazer at 8:02 AM on August 1, 2015


So I just binged the whole Netflix series. The series as a whole is perfectly and utterly sublime, especially in those odd little throwaway moments. Lake Bell is a wonderful addition. Christopher Meloni is a genius.
posted by mochapickle at 9:00 PM on August 1, 2015 [2 favorites]


Today I found out my mom thought I was Zak Orth on an episode of the good wife

I don't see it in WHAS cause no beard but now I'm worried that I'm just a pair of glasses and a beard to some people.
posted by The Whelk at 9:15 PM on August 1, 2015 [2 favorites]




I was 29 or 30 when the woman I was dating insisted I watch it with her. I loved it, she married me.
posted by Mick at 1:02 PM on August 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


If you immediately follow up the show with the movie and suddenly see the difference 15 years made for Michael Showalter it's hilarious. And while, of course, Paul Rudd didn't age, the crazy thing is that Ken Marino looked exactly the same in the movie and the show and yet looked much older in the things he did between the two, like Veronica Mars and Party Down.
posted by jason_steakums at 7:08 PM on August 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


I was distracted in the show how Ken Marino went from looking reasonably shoulder-y muscles in the movie to having crazy basketball pecs in the movie. it's like he just did chest flys for ten years .
posted by The Whelk at 11:05 PM on August 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


8 Awkward ‘Wet Hot American’ Looks, Explained - “Blake is the ruler of Camp Tigerclaw, with all the preppy kids. All those pastels, the classic polo, the sweater over the shoulders — that’s just the uniform of prep. It’s a little bit elitist. We really went for it with his triple-popped collar. The popped collar is such a rich-boy look. He’s got three popped collars, which means he’s in charge.”
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:16 AM on August 6, 2015 [2 favorites]


oh god I hadn't even noticed the triple popped collar when I watched. That's just beautiful.
posted by palomar at 12:00 PM on August 6, 2015 [1 favorite]


I've only watched a couple of episodes so far, but that was an excellent nuance because double popped collars was an actual thing in those days where I lived.
posted by rhizome at 2:09 PM on August 6, 2015


(Dammit. I finally watched the movie thanks to this thread. It's funny.)
posted by wintersweet at 2:19 PM on August 6, 2015


Wet Hot American Jewish Summer Camp - "Unlike a lot of classic teen comedies, the original ‘Wet Hot’ and its new Netflix revival series do not wash out the Jews. Is this a good sign or bad?"
posted by the man of twists and turns at 4:10 PM on August 6, 2015


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