Exclusive Book Excerpt: How Two Unknown Kids Wrote ‘Superbad’

“Holy shit, we could write a movie better than this.”

That’s what 13-year-olds Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg thought anytime they rented a crappy movie, and as it turned out, they were right. In his new book, I Am McLovin: How Superbad Became the Biggest Comedy Hit of Its Generation, author Andrew Buss does a deep-dive into the young friends’ 10-year journey to creating one of the last comedy-movie blockbusters. 

In this exclusive excerpt from I Am McLovin, out on February 18th, find out how two comic-book-loving teens with no industry connections wrote a story that proved “as surprisingly touching as it was downright filthy.” Many of the film’s stories were based on their actual experiences — and in the case of one party, real life was much crazier than the movie version. 

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia. Both were heavily influenced by the films and pop culture of their youth. They also shared a mutual bond, as they were both drawn to writing pretty early on. Their first encounter happened in Bar Mitzvah class when they were 12 years old. Only a few months apart in age, they suddenly clicked over their common interests. As Rogen would later recall, “We became friends pretty fast. I was interested in writing and comedy, and so was he. He wrote short stories. And when you’re 12 and you like writing, and you meet another kid who likes writing, it’s a very easy connection. And we both liked comic books. We had a lot in common, and we started hanging out.”

Soon after meeting, the duo made what Rogen refers to as a “bad Star Wars spoof.” Back then, however, their roles were reversed. Goldberg was the star of their galactic send-up while Rogen was the one behind the camera. This venture foretold, in a way, what was to come. Rogen would later point to this moment, saying that it “sparked our love of film and us spending way too much time together.”

The foundation for their screenwriting partnership — and ultimately what would become Superbad — starts, though, with that really bad movie. There was a local video store they’d frequent that operated on a “seven” principal: you could rent seven movies for seven bucks for seven days. Rogen and Goldberg were frequent customers of this particular store, where they’d scour the shelves to land upon the worst movies they could find.

Up until that point, they were simply fans. But when the instinct kicked in to create, the preadolescent wheels were firmly set in motion. They went up to Goldberg’s sister’s bedroom, which is where the computer was. They weren’t familiar with any screenwriting programs, such as the industry-standard software Final Draft. Instead, they opted for the readily available Microsoft Word. That’s how they would write the first draft of what would eventually become Superbad.

At the core of the first draft — which was finished while the duo was still in their early teens — was the germ of the idea that would find its way into the finished product. From day one there was always a party, with the film centered around our heroes trying to score alcohol through any means necessary. The other blanks would be filled in over time. But the party and the alcohol were linchpins from day one.

“The first draft that we wrote — we probably finished it when we were 14 or 15 — it didn’t have a truly discernible story versus plot, and the things that I as a writer who has been writing for a long time understands as the mechanics that great films have,” said Goldberg. “What it did have was an A plot and a B plot. It had things that it was cutting between. It had setups and payoffs for jokes. It had plot lines that intertwined. It had beats that would offshoot from one another then meet back up in funny ways. As I think back to the first draft, that is actually kind of amazing both how much and how little it had.”

Goldberg later said, “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.”

Just because the characters are named after Rogen and Goldberg — and just because their experiences inspired the events of the film — doesn’t mean that they were writing themselves into it from a literal standpoint. The characters aren’t actually based on who they were at that point in their lives. The names Seth and Evan were merely placeholders until they thought of better ones. But they never did, and over time people seemed to like that they named the lead characters after themselves, so Seth and Evan stuck.

But there was one story that was deemed too crazy even by Superbad standards. In the script, the Seth and Evan characters wind up at a party where they encounter people doing cocaine. This was based on something that actually happened to Rogen and Goldberg. However, what ended up in the movie was much tamer than what happened in real life.

A comic Rogen knew was moving away and threw a party. A lot of people from the local comedy scene were there, all in their 30s and 40s. As Rogen and Goldberg were 14 and couldn’t drive, Rogen’s mom had to drive them to the party and had to stay until Rogen and Goldberg decided to leave. Not only did they notice people going to the basement to do a bunch of blow, but there was also a live pig at the party. One guy decided to walk up to Rogen and start insulting his mom, telling him “Your mom’s a real bitch, isn’t she?” Then the pig bit Goldberg on the foot. Goldberg later recalled, “It was one of the only things where we were like, This DID happen, but people won’t buy it, so let’s tone it back a little.”

Fogell is based on Sammy Fogell, an actual friend of theirs. Fogell went to school with Rogen and Goldberg at Point Grey Secondary School and was present for lots of the stories that wound up in the film, including the cocaine and pig party. Sammy Fogell would later say that his onscreen depiction was “much nerdier” than he really is. However, Sammy Fogell did have a fake ID, much like his cinematic counterpart.

As for the McLovin moniker, Rogen later stated, “That’s something we always felt was bullshit. We didn’t think anyone would actually do that. We tried to keep it pretty real, and we were aware that McLovin was pushing it a little bit. But people seem to like it. So, why not?”

In the earliest drafts of Superbad, there was another big difference. The characters were 13 years old because Rogen and Goldberg were 13 years old. Movie Seth and Evan sort of grew up with them, until they got to age 17. That allowed them to eventually introduce the subplot about the characters going away for college, thus bringing even more meaning to why this one particular party was so important to the duo. 

Once that crucial element was in play, Superbad found a brand-new leg to stand on.