Beauty vs Beast: Wet Hot American Rudd
Monday, April 6, 2015 at 1:29PM 
Jason from MNPP here with this week's "Beauty vs Beast" -- you know who's been in love with Paul Rudd for twenty years? This guy's been in love with Paul Rudd for twenty years. Almost exactly - Clueless came out in July of 1995 and I think it's safe to say that 95% of everyone who saw Clueless in theaters fell in love with Paul Rudd that summer twenty summers ago. Well today is Paul's 46th birthday and here on the verge of what's probably his biggest role ever (a literally little superhero movie called Ant-Man) it seems a good time to look back...
... to something small, super small, that changed the course of his career. Even though Wet Hot American Summer wasn't a hit when it came out in 2001 I can still remember it being a topic of conversation, how everybody was a bit surprised at how funny Rudd was in it. He'd done light romantic comedies a la Clueless before but his work in WHAS was diffrent - raunchy, and going-for-broke. And as the Apatow School of Comedy took over the decade, Rudd slipped himself right into the zeitgeist.
As for Wet Hot it was a cult movie pretty much immediately - I've certainly been banging the drum for it from my microscopic corner of the internet for a good long while now, and that dedication's been rewarded with Netflix's upcoming Wet Hot series, which will premiere on the streaming service on July 17th (aka two days before the 20th anniversary of Clueless. Weird right?)
As for this week's "Beauty vs Beast," I'm focusing in on a single scene in the 2001 film (one I've probably re-enacted to my boyfriend's chagrin far too many times when I'm asked to pick up some mess I've made) in order to face off two of my favorite characters in the movie - in the left-hand corner we've got Andy (Rudd), the Camp's bad boy, and in the right-hand we've got Beth (Janeane Garofalo) the responsible-ish Camp Director.
PREVIOUSLY As Nathaniel noted in Friday's edition of April Showers last week was ALL about Mommie Dearest, and this contest was no different - and it wasn't Mommie's first time at the rodeo, and it showed. at 80% Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway) trounced the competition like... well like those rosh buses, and that talcum powder, and Christina herself. Although it was par who made the most sense:
"Team Christopher! [mostly for having the sense to stay out of this mess until the end]"
Reader Comments (8)
Paul Rudd has been the Object of My Affection for as long as I can remember. You'd have to be Clueless to vote against him. Paul, I Love You Man!
sfc -- we see what you did there. I'd be tempted to vote Janeane except for Paul's french kissing technique so...
He's ageless.
I'm team Andy based solely on that scene from which the picture above is taken. His physicality picking up the stuff from the floor is one of the funniest things I've ever seen!
San FranCinema: I'd have ended it off with: And anyone who says otherwise can attend a Dinner for Shmucks! But that would maybe be making the "make sentences stringing together Paul Rudd movie references" a little laboured.
^^ Why stop there? Stringing together Paul Rudd movie titles is an Admission of your Burning Love for him!
Andy cause he's cool.
You taste like a burger, I don't like you anymore.
Mark gets it: http://mayawiig.tumblr.com/post/93015165307
Also super pleased that he's become a bit of a viral hit with his dancing on Fallon. That clip embodies his physical comedic awesomeness in a nutshell