We had to bring back two of our absolute favorite guests, Kevin Gray (The Pacifier) and Doug Tilley (Batman Begins) to cover the absolutely titanic pop cultural event that was The Forty-Year-Old Virgin. We discuss the seismic effect that this film had on comedy, pop culture and the careers of basically everyone who participated in it in the ensuing years, from Judd Apatow to Steve Carell to Seth Rogen to Paul Rudd to Elizabeth Banks and a bunch of folks in between. We also go very deep on the complicated experience experiencing and analyzing this film in 2025, the balance between the humanizing kindness the film does to its characters contrasted with its oafish, casually relentless homophobia, which is simultaneously more and less thorny than the lazy sexism of Wedding Crashers.
This is maybe the best episode we have EVER done, and I'd love for you to check it out!
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Rob's Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/wormsgreenrealm.bsky.social
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Cinema Smorgasbord: https://www.cinemasmorgasbord.com/
Kevin's Twitter: https://x.com/notoriouskpg
Theme Song: "Any Day Can Be Bicycle Day" by Ether Driver ( https://etherdiver.bandcamp.com/ )