R-rated comedies like Superbad had their heyday in the 2000s and the early 2010s, with directors like Judd Apatow, Todd Phillips, and Paul Feig consistently delivering hysterical hits. It’s a shame that the genre has sort of died out recently, purely because filmmakers stopped putting in the effort that they used to and audiences were sick of the same tired gags and clichéd plotlines.
There have been some really hilarious and even profound R-rated comedies over the years. Until the genre inevitably makes a comeback (possibly in the streaming world), here are 10 Raunchy Comedies To Watch If You Like Superbad.
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Steve Carell’s career was made by The 40-Year-Old Virgin. It hit theaters the same year that The Office premiered on NBC, so the two combined to make Carell a star overnight. He stars as Andy, a middle-aged man whose friends discover he’s a virgin and make it their mission to take him out and get him laid.
It was the directorial debut of Judd Apatow, the producer who dominated the R-rated comedy wave of the ‘00s and early ‘10s, and who shepherded the script for Superbad, written by Seth Rogen (who plays a supporting role here) and Evan Goldberg when they were kids, to the screen.
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
Superbad’s Seth Rogen stars alongside Elizabeth Banks and Craig Robinson in this hard-R comedy about a couple of friends who are strapped for cash and decide to make an adult movie parody of Star Wars to make some rent money. They face obstacles at every turn and end up shooting a regular porno in the coffee shop where Rogen’s character works.
Kevin Smith wrote and directed the movie to be something of a semi-autobiographical story. Smith has never made a porno, but he did shoot his debut feature film Clerks at night in the convenience store where he worked during the day.
EuroTrip
Right after his high school graduation, mild-mannered teenager Scotty’s girlfriend breaks up with him. Later that night, he discovers that for months, she’s been cheating on him with a punk rock star (played hilariously by a cameoing Matt Damon). He embarks on a summer-long trip across Europe with his friends to take his mind off the breakup, and what follows is a series of increasingly absurd and hysterical gags.
EuroTrip was written by Jeff Schaffer, Alec Berg, and David Mandel – three writers who have worked on classic episodes of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm – and it was directed by Schaffer (although the other two did uncredited directorial work).
Bridesmaids
Oscar-nominated screenwriters Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo proved with their movie Bridesmaids that raunchy, R-rated comedies don’t need to be male-led, paving the way for a string of brilliant female-led comedies. Wiig stars as Annie (presumably named after her co-writer), a down-on-her-luck jewelry store clerk whose life is in total disarray.
When her best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph) gets engaged and makes her the maid of honor, she tries to get her life back on track, although it won’t be easy. Melissa McCarthy is so hilarious in this movie that it birthed her film career and earned her a nod from the Academy.
Risky Business
Imagine if Superbad was made in the ‘80s, starred an early-career Tom Cruise, and had an even cruder sense of humor, and you’ll have a vague idea of Risky Business. Cruise stars as the ironically named protagonist Joel Goodson, who wreaks havoc while his parents are out of town, getting into trouble with a violent pimp and accidentally destroying the family car.
This movie was the source of the iconic shot of Cruise dancing to Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll” in his underwear, which has been parodied countless times since. But there’s so much more to it than that. It’s seriously one of the funniest movies ever made.
Sausage Party
After the success of Superbad, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg had the freedom to make pretty much any movie they wanted. But even then, they had a tough time finding a studio that would make Sausage Party, an R-rated computer-animated movie riffing on the tropes of Pixar’s filmography.
Like a Pixar movie, it’s about the secret lives of inanimate objects. In this case, it’s food, terrified of being ripped to shreds by human teeth. It was the first-ever computer-animated movie to be released with an R rating from the MPAA, and it really earns that R rating – there’s even a graphic food orgy scene that had to be cut down.
Dazed and Confused
Just like Superbad, Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused is set over the course of one day towards the end of high school. Whereas Seth and Evan’s misadventures follow specific lead characters in a tightly structured plot, Linklater’s film is much looser. It has a huge ensemble cast consisting of a bunch of actors who weren’t famous yet, from Ben Affleck to Matthew McConaughey to Milla Jovovich.
The film is constructed out of a series of vignettes, all coming together to form a clear, relatable, endlessly fun snapshot of that chapter of our lives when adult life is just beginning and anything is possible.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Produced by Judd Apatow, much like Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a hilarious and heartfelt romantic comedy. The movie was a starring vehicle for Jason Segel, who also wrote the script. He plays Peter, a struggling musician whose TV star girlfriend Sarah (Kristen Bell) leaves him for a world-famous rock star named Aldous (Russell Brand, in a role that he would later reprise in the sequel/spin-off Get Him to the Greek).
In an attempt to move on from the breakup, Peter goes on vacation in Hawaii, but he’s horrified to discover that Sarah and Aldous are staying at the same resort.
Old School
Before he smashed box office records with The Hangover trilogy (and then smashed them again with this year’s Joker movie), Todd Phillips helmed this hysterical gem. Old School opens with Luke Wilson’s down-and-out businessman returning from a boring convention to find his girlfriend cheating on him with a large group of men.
This causes a midlife crisis in which – along with his buddies, Will Ferrell (pre-Anchorman, in one of the most hilarious roles of his career) and Vince Vaughn – he opens a fraternity near his old college and invites in a bunch of hard-partying local students to recapture the glory days.
This is the End
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg started writing the first draft of what would become Superbad when they were 13 years old. In 2013, when they’d become renowned comedy writers with plenty of experience working on film sets, the duo made their directorial debut. This is the End stars Rogen and his most frequent collaborators (Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, et al) as themselves, all attending a party at James Franco’s house when the apocalypse happens.
The movie even features a reunion of Superbad’s trio of stars – Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse – in which Cera blows cocaine into a panicked Mintz-Plasse’s face.