15 Not So Bad Stories About The Coming-Of-Age Comedy ‘Superbad’

15 A Script Written By 14-Year-Olds

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg started writing the movie when they were still tweens, and it’s no secret that the jokes and characters were based on their own experiences. In fact, Rogen was originally going to play Jonah Hill’s character Seth, but by the time they made the movie he couldn’t pass as a (believable) high-schooler anymore.

“We wrote some of those lines when we were 14 years old, and they’re still in the movie as it will be in theaters. Which is terrifying, kind of,” said Rogen. “We were trying to tell a high school story that was truthful to our high school experience, which we just weren’t really seeing much in movies. American Pie hadn’t been made when we started writing it, actually.”

14 The Two Main Characters Weren’t Supposed To Have The Writers’ Names

Said Rogen about writing the characters of Seth and Evan: “The straight-up truth of it is, we sat down and were like, ‘Okay, let’s do this thing. First, what are we going to call the characters?’ That was our first issue, which is not the proper way to write a movie, but we just sat down and we literally couldn’t think of names. That’s how poorly we started out. So, we decided let’s just give them our names and change it later. Then someone read the script and was like, ‘Wow, it’s genius how you guys left your names in so people will remember you.’ We pretended, and we were like, ‘Yeah, yeah, that was a good move of ours.’ So we just left it in when it turned out that might be the case.”

13 Seth Rogen Originally Thought Jonah Hill Was Too Old For The Movie

While working together on Knocked Up, Jonah Hill apparently made it his mission to convince Rogen that he could play Seth, but Rogen was worried Hill looked too old. It apparently took an impromptu audition in one of their set trailers for Rogen to see the light. You can watch that audition here (1:55), along with the others:

12 There’s A Book With Superbad’s Drawings (Of Dongs)

Yep, not only did writer Evan Goldberg’s brother draw those peckers in the movie, but he made almost 1,000 illustrations from which to choose. The “phallographics” have been compiled into a book available on Amazon. 

11 McLovin’s Fake ID Caused Some Trouble In Hawaii

When the special edition of the movie hit Walmart stores, Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann wasn’t too happy about the whole fake Hawaii ID thing, and the DVD was reportedly pulled from the State’s seven locations.

10 It Was Emma Stone’s First Movie

Before starring in Oscar movies singing “La La” or whatever, Stone made her feature film debut in Superbad. For years afterward, people would associate her with the film. “The three years after this movie came out, I cannot tell you how many people shouted at me, across malls, across parking lots, 'DTF' (down to f*ck).”

9 The Real Origin Of DTF

Jonah Hill revealed where the term actually came from: “I didn't come up with it — these kids I knew were taggers and their crew was called DTF, 'Down to F*ck.' I just said it in a scene and they left it in.” Hill said that at first, his tagger friends were cool with it, but when The Situation from Jersey Shore adopted the line and started making T-shirts (and coin), “they were really pissed off.”

8 A Movie First

Seth Rogen tweeted a bunch of insider knowledge during the movie’s 10th anniversary, and apparently, Superbad was the first movie to ever use a certain term.

7 Seth Rogen Regrets The Movie’s Homophobic Jokes

Years later, Rogen would go on record saying that “There are probably jokes in Superbad bordering on the blatantly homophobic.” In 2016 during an interview with The Guardian, Rogen said it’s probably his most controversial movie, and that some of the cringing language was “to some degree glamourising that type of language in a lot of ways.”

6 The Cameras Just Kept Rolling

Said Jonah Hill: “We shot high def, which was the greatest thing ever. I literally thought it was the greatest thing. You could just shoot all day. It was so awesome. Like any idea, anything you wanted to try, it wasn’t a waste of money or like time to shoot it. Even if it was crazy like so much stuff in the movie. And I think Greg took a lot of stuff that were like in-between takes and stuff or like reactions or things of us hanging out because they could just keep shooting what they could use in the movie."

5 Bill Hader Had To Deal With Some Weird Actual Cops

It turns out Hader, who plays a cop opposite Seth Rogen, has had to deal with cops approaching him over the years just so they could brag about messing around on the job. Yikes.

4 Parental Supervision On Set

Many of you probably know that Christopher Mintz-Plasse was only 17 when he played the role of that fun guy, McLovin … which meant his mom had to be on set as part of parental supervision during his sex scene. “It was real awkward, but it worked out okay because when I watched the movie with her, the sex scene wasn't awkward because she'd been right there when it happened,” Mintz-Plasse said. “Afterwards, we didn't talk about it; we still don't speak about that moment.”

Speaking of moms …

3 Seth Rogen’s Mom Came Up With A Joke In Superbad

McLovin pretends he’s a twenty-something-year-old, so when the cops walk in on him having sex (for the first time), they pretend like he’s in big trouble for statutory rape, even though they know he’s an underage kid. Rogen revealed on Twitter that his mom came up with that joke.

2 When Michael Cera Fell Out Of A Tree

On his first day of filming, Cera toppled out of a tree and busted his lip right open. Why was he up in a tree? Oh, just hanging around watching the others. “I just fell. And on the way down, I took a branch down with me and it hit me in the face. Everyone was making fun of me, and I had this cut lip and I could hardly smile. I just remember Jonah laughing at me and how stupid I was. We were just having the best time.”

1 The Superbad Sequel That Jonah Hill Wants To Make

“I haven't pitched this to anybody,” Hill told W Magazine. “What I want to do is when we're like 80, do a Superbad 2. Like, ‘old-folks-home Superbad.’ Our spouses die, and we're single again. That's what I want Superbad 2 to be, and that's the only way I would ever make it.”

Thumbnail: Columbia Pictures