Funny Business
The Old-School Wedding Crashers and Knocked-Up Virgins Who Changed Comedy Forever
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Funny Business
Pre-order for $23.90
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Matt Singer
If you were a movie-goer in the early aughts, you had a front row seat to a golden age of comedy. Ben Stiller, Seth Rogen, Will Ferrell, Owen Wilson, Steve Carell, and Vince Vaughn became unlikely leading men—a band of rowdy wedding crashers, hungover bachelors, and 40-year-old virgins dubbed the “Frat Pack” that took Hollywood by storm over the span of a single decade. Then, seemingly overnight, Frat Pack movies vanished. Or did they?
In Funny Business, award-winning author and film critic Matt Singer traces the path these gonzo stars and directors took 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 the big screen. Along the way, he shares insider stories of the films that raised a generation, including: The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Zoolander, Borat, Anchorman, Old School, and The Hangover.
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? And can studio comedies make a comeback in our modern digital and streaming world? Funny Business 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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Critic Reviews
“With incisive commentary, sly asides, and a knack for telling detail, Matt Singer takes us on a massively entertaining ride. By taking very silly movies very seriously, he examines how a rowdy band of comics reinvented cinema, the conditions that allowed them to thrive, and the big question of whether it can happen again. An addictive, hilarious, rollicking read.”
—Nick de Semlyen, author of Wild and Crazy Guys: How the Comedy Mavericks of the '80s Changed Hollywood Forever
“They say the easiest way to ruin a joke is to explain it. But in explaining the stories behind so many iconic comedies and the people who made them, Matt Singer’s smart and revealing book made me eager to rewatch and laugh at them all over again.”
—Alan Sepinwall, author of The Revolution Was Televised: How The Sopranos, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Lost, and Other Groundbreaking Dramas Changed TV Forever
“Hollywood has never quite known what to with The Comedy: Do these movies merit the same artistic praise, the same awards, heaped upon weighty dramas? The answer is, of course, is YES! Guess who’s figured that out? Matt Singer, whose book celebrates and defends one of the strongest eras in the history of American comedies.”
—Ben Mankiewicz, Host, Turner Classic Movies
“Only in hindsight is it clear that Seth Rogen, Ben Stiller, Christina Applegate, Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig and Judd Apatow all were swept up in a movement that put the R, and the raunch, back in comedy cinema. The ‘Frat Pack’ was hiding in plain sight, until Matt Singer spotted it. He’s a natural storyteller, and this book is as funny as the films. Two thumbs way up.”
—Daniel de Visé, author of The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic
—Nick de Semlyen, author of Wild and Crazy Guys: How the Comedy Mavericks of the '80s Changed Hollywood Forever
“They say the easiest way to ruin a joke is to explain it. But in explaining the stories behind so many iconic comedies and the people who made them, Matt Singer’s smart and revealing book made me eager to rewatch and laugh at them all over again.”
—Alan Sepinwall, author of The Revolution Was Televised: How The Sopranos, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Lost, and Other Groundbreaking Dramas Changed TV Forever
“Hollywood has never quite known what to with The Comedy: Do these movies merit the same artistic praise, the same awards, heaped upon weighty dramas? The answer is, of course, is YES! Guess who’s figured that out? Matt Singer, whose book celebrates and defends one of the strongest eras in the history of American comedies.”
—Ben Mankiewicz, Host, Turner Classic Movies
“Only in hindsight is it clear that Seth Rogen, Ben Stiller, Christina Applegate, Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig and Judd Apatow all were swept up in a movement that put the R, and the raunch, back in comedy cinema. The ‘Frat Pack’ was hiding in plain sight, until Matt Singer spotted it. He’s a natural storyteller, and this book is as funny as the films. Two thumbs way up.”
—Daniel de Visé, author of The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic
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