Full spoilers for the first chapter of the Wet Hot American Summer saga, which is the movie. I’ll talk about the shows later. What I realized in rewatching this is that a lot of these jokes are really funny but hard to explain over blog, and I can’t write out each funny bit of dialogue. There are some I had to write, but watch the movie. It’s very weird, you may not like it, but watch it anyway.

Wet Hot American Summer(2001) stars Janeane Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce, Michael Showalter, Marguerite Moreau, Paul Rudd, Zak Orth, Christopher Meloni, A.D. Miles, Molly Shannon, Ken Marino, Joe Lo Truglio, Michael Ian Black, Amy Poehler, Bradley Cooper, Marisa Ryan, Elizabeth Banks, Kevin Sussman, Nina Hellman, Judah Friedlander, Samm Levine and H. Jon Benjamin. It was written by David Wain and Michael Showalter and directed by David Wain.

IMDb, what’ve you got?
“Set on the last day of camp, in the hot summer of 1981, a group of counselors try to complete their unfinished business before the day ends.”
Thank you! That synopsis doesn’t quite nail how insane this movie is, but thank you.

This is a divisive movie. If you don’t like it, you REALLY don’t like it. If you like it, it’s one of the funniest things you’ve ever seen. I have not watched it in a while. I’m interested in seeing what my take is now. I think this is a film that will definitely benefit from my already being aware of what it’s like. If I went in cold, I don’t think this would be a great post. So this is David Wain’s movie, and it relies on absurdist humor. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t. I’ve covered David Wain/Paul Rudd collaborations before, and counting the two TV shows, I’ve got four more to go. We’ll see how they go.

• So, we have the camp counselors, the camp director, and an astrophysics professor who lives in a nearby cabin retreat. It’s David Hyde Pierce. With a beautiful mustache. And the camp director is the wonderful Janeane Garofalo.
• What you have to know about this movie if you haven’t seen it is that everything is something you’ve seen before in a camp movie but it’s been dialed up to eleven. These are camp movie archetypes played by actors in their 20’s and 30’s but they’re meant to be 16 and 17 year olds. Which is why they made a series called “First Day of Camp” fourteen years later to further the joke. Except it doesn’t work when everyone but Paul Rudd looks older.
• There’s a nerd pining after the girl he never ended up with. There’s a guy who’s “had sex with every girl counselor at camp” but he definitely hasn’t. There’s the aggressive cook who can’t calm down. There’s the cool guy. That’s Paul Rudd obviously. There’s the theater people, who care too much. Bradley Cooper and Amy Poehler, at their most unhinged. Speaking of unhinged, the arts and crafts lady going through a divorce, Molly Shannon.
• Here’s a great joke for you. The way Christopher Meloni puts food at Janeane Garofalo’s table. I love that guy. Great comic actor.
• Here’s the first conversation we see between Andy (Paul Rudd) and Katie (Marguerite Moreau) who have been “going steady” all summer:
  KATIE: “Oh, I was thinking maybe we could take a walk later, maybe go out to Gunnar’s Pass one last time.”
  ANDY: (Pulls away and stops making out with her neck) “God damnit, Katie! You’re suffocating me! I’m choking, all right? Give me some breathing room.”
  KATIE: “I just want to spend some time with you, you know. It’s our last day at camp.”
  ANDY: “My butt itches.”
  KATIE: “What are you talking about? Hey. We’re soulmates. Right?”
  ANDY: “What? Yeah. Whatever. If you want. J.J., save me a waffle, man!”
  KATIE: “Andy, I’m serious! Come on. I just want it to be special.”
  ANDY: “Fuck you, dyke.”
  KATIE: “Why are you being such an asshole?”
  ANDY: “I gotta finish my breakfast. I love you, baby. So good talking to you.”
  KATIE: “Yeah, well, see you in macrame.”
  ANDY: (Swings around a pole and flips off his soulmate)
• We here at http://www.toomanyservingsofjohn.com do not support or endorse Paul Rudd’s character’s use of the derogatory term featured above. It was included in the interest of transcribing the scene and nothing more.
• Bradley Cooper is the one who says to all the counselors that they should all meet back up at camp in ten years to see who everyone has become. That’s ironic, for reasons we’ll get into in another post.
• I forgot that they all then have a discussion about when they should meet up in ten years, and one of them says he has something at 11:00 that day that he can’t move.
• That’s the other thing I forgot about this universe, the movie and both TV shows all take place over the course of one day.
• I can’t accurately describe with words the scene in which Paul Rudd decides to throw his plate on the ground and is then forced to clean up. If you’ve seen the movie you get why it’s hilarious. If you haven’t you need to find the scene.
• Most of this is just going to be me listing random lines that are wonderful to the ear.
• “The camp goat took a shit in the infirmary again and I need you to clean it up.”
• “Four lower campers are stuck in the ropes course. I meant to tell you about that yesterday, but could you get to that now?”
• There are some great ongoing gags in this. Random things like the noises breaking glass makes being the same thing every time and Christopher Meloni’s weird sexual accessory references…?
• It should also be noted that Christopher Meloni was still a regular in SVU when they made this and David Hyde Pierce was doing Fraser. I assume the filming dates didn’t conflict but the point is they made this because it was fun for them.
• Paul Rudd smiles in this in a way no man has ever smiled before. He forms a weird small horny triangle with the corner of his mouth.
• Though I don’t always like David Wain’s movies, it should be said this is not a regular horny teenager movie. Just like Role Models isn’t like Hall Pass or Old School or the creepy adult genre. There’s something unique and funny and weird at the core of these. Take the staff meeting, when references to The China Syndrome and 70’s comedian Ruth Buzzi are made. I don’t know what either of those things are. But I do know they’re beautiful weird jokes and those other movies wouldn’t have an ongoing plot point about the impending crash of a satellite from space.
• Paul Rudd is a great camp counselor. He lets a kid drive the speed boat as long as he remembers to fill the gas tank when he’s done. Also he calls his journal a “gurnal” before he cheats on Katie with Elizabeth Banks. As I’m watching this I’m remembering all the insane lore that gets added later on. Oh right, and he lets a kid drown. And drives the kid’s friend out to the middle of nowhere. This is good shit.
• DAVID HYDE PIERCE: “I’ve got them making miniature black holes with paper clips and soot.”
  JANEANE GAROFALO: “Oh, what you do is so fascinating.”
• They’re so awkward and they both ask the Nurse where they can get books about each other’s jobs. And you better believe that when the Nurse is asked first, she’s just started knitting, and two seconds later, when David asks, she’s almost finished a blanket. And the Astrophysics and Camp Directing sections in the library asre right next to each other. Because that’s comedy.
• Also you would assume this, but a trip to town with the camp director and some of the counselors escalates as follows: Eating french fries, bumming a cigarette, director smokes with you, then you’re sneaking alcohol from a liquor store, one of you is passing around a blunt of the marijuana variety, then you’re meeting a guy and buying crack in an alley because you and your camp director have to beat up an old woman and steal her wallet before going to a crack den to shoot up heroin. You’ll look half-dead, but it’s nothing that won’t be solved by standing against a wall for no reason when you get back. God this is funny.
• I know a lot of this is just me listing jokes, but there’s not much else I can do for this. It’s just funny.
• “You listen to me, Mr. Kickass. Mr. Rubber Burner. You wipe that hotshot grin off your face or I’ll shoot it off ya. Now finish off them taters, I’m gonna go fondle my sweaters.”
• Bradley Cooper and Michael Ian Black have passionate anal sex in this movie. It’s played nicely and sensitively and not for jokes because these characters clearly like each other.
• And then they get married, which is equally sweet.
• Wilhelm scream!!!
• ANDY: “You taste like a burger. I don’t like you anymore.”
• H. Jon Benjamin in his starring role as talking can of mixed vegetables that says he can suck his own dick.
• There are some jokes in this I haven’t mentioned that I can’t mention and some I haven’t seen. Like the fact that it’s still broad daylight at 7:35 PM. But let’s be absolutely clear. If you notice a joke I haven’t mentioned that you think I didn’t see? I absolutely saw it.
• “This isn’t the time or place to discuss it. Beth, meet me at the picnic table in ten seconds. I’ll tell you all about it.” Ten seconds later and two feet away. “Beth, hello. Thanks for coming. Let’s get right into it.”
• Training montage. If you don’t want to watch the movie, watch the specific clips I highlight. Like this one.
• Oh, the kids on the raft plotline. Watch that.
• There’s a talent show. The comic book store guy from Big Bang Theory shoots wind at everyone.
• The piece of Skylab technology does not crush the camp.
• Molly Shannon gets engaged to the wise child giving her marital advice.
• And Katie, who tells Michael Showalter she loves him, decides to stay with Andy anyway, because she doesn’t care that he cheats on her. He’s carved from marble and he’s great at sex and she says she wants to “fuck his brains out”.

• To be fair, he looks great.
• Also it turns out I hadn’t seen the entire movie before. I missed a scene at the end of the credits where the ten year reunion does happen after all. It plays out differently to the sequel TV show, since it’s a ten second long scene, and everyone looks like they did then, but in older people clothes.
• I truly wish I had something more substantial to say about this movie. Hold on, let me rack my brain.
• Yeah no, I got nothing. I’m gonna have to do things differently when I get to the TV shows. I just don’t have much to critique or make fun of or point out with these. They are what they’re meant to be. Hrmmm. Sorry if this wasn’t a fun read by the way.

Overall Rating: 8.5/10(It was good to finally rewatch it and make sure I still liked it. Clearly I do.)
Rudd Rating: 9.7/10(This is one of Paul’s favorite movies he’s ever been in and you can see why.)

Next time, something slightly different! Something less Ruddy.