#10 being a dick to martha just a bit generally. like man I can understand you're grieving but stop comparing her to rose? out loud?

[raziraphale]

I have never understood people that think love & monsters is the worst dw episode (I like it, sorry) but now that I'm 3 series deep into my rewatch I think the shakespeare code might be the worst one, or at least the most poorly aged. but I haven't even left rtd era yet so I might change my mind idk different horrors still await me

[chimeraspark]

Ok I just finished reading the Absolute Batman online and after reading that I got a bit of an idea on how Dick and Jason can be introduced to the story

So we know that the absolute universe is basically taking the most important thing to a character or switching places like the joker and Bruce cause he is obviously rich (cause who else can buy their own personal helicopter). So what if we switch Dick and Jason's places?

So we know that Bruce lives in crime ally with his mom (a universe where at least one parent of his is alive unbelievable) and friends, so what if one night when he's like a year or two into the batman thing he goes fighting whoever while a young boy no older then 10 stealing the motherfucking wheels of his motorcycle and what if it was in the same zoo that he's dad died so you know it goes as usual batman finds the tires missing, he full on belly laughs cus those were some high grade tires or something and now they gone, Jason goes to back to get the tires batsy sees him blah blah blah now suddenly he's got a kid and he absolutely has not idea how to raise him

Now if mama Martha is still alive after a year she's got some questions to say to her son cause why is there a random kid in their house?? Where are his parents?? Of course she's not mad she's just worried then Jason explains his entire situation and she's like ok you can stay her and all and now she helps Bruce raise her new grandson.

He also doesn't become Robin cus i don't think this batman wants a kid running around in gotham, instead he raises him as a normal kid to the best of his abilities and Jason's living his best life he's got a loving dad and grandma, a roof over his head, food, and he gets to go to school so like cool😃😃 and generally it's all fluff

Course I still want him to die and it's all the same except this time he's not Robin and instead of the joker killing him its members the court of owls and you know he dies Bruce was to late. But I want it to be more angst cus that was a boy not a hero or sidekick or anything it was a little boy who died in his father's arms hearing him cry out his name

Now on to Dick! He's backstory is the same but Bruce couldn't come to the circus so he wasn't adopted and after his parents death he became a talon turning him into the court's newst weapon (Dick hates the court of owls for what they've turned him into)(he just wanted to be the greatest acrobat in he world).

Now one day he was ordered to kill a young boy nearly the same age as him (he felt a shiver down his spine with how similar they look) cus he's dad was causing the court some trouble and they needed to get rid of him but they were going to mentally destroy him first and ok he can do that so he stalks the two for a few months waiting for the right moment to strike (seeing these two interact with each other makes him miss them, he wonders if they'd still love him for the things he's committed)

After sometime he's got the kid and the other talons are torturing him and he's off to the side watching this watching this bull headed, stubborn kid bite, kick, and scream at the members cause the kid wasn't gonna go down without a fight and saying that his dad is gonna beat their asses while being whipped and... he didn't really know how to feel about it cause it was fun seeing the kid fight back but he knew the outcome, he knew the kid ain't gonna live and his dad's not gonna be fast enough still he felt kinda bad seeing the man cry out his son's name (he remembers it so vividly his mom calling out his name as they plummeted to their deaths the horror in their eyes a look he can see in his nightmares)

And yeah that's all!! I still have an idea on how Dick become Bruce's Robin since Jason was his son not Robin but I'ma explain that in the next post ✌️ (also sorry about my english, still have a hard time forming understandable sentences)

[mbtimemes]

brutally honest descriptions of the mbti types based off my experiences with them via a very sleep deprived infp

enfp:

-commitment issues? haha i’ve never heard of those :))))

-will literally punch a toddler in the throat if they say they support trump

-so i took the mbti test 7 times and i got infp twice and entp once?? i don’t really know, because i kind of fit into the infj sterotypes more, but if you really think about it i’m kind of an enfj? but i also really relate to isfps, but then again i think i’m too opinionated and logical to be a feeler, so entp isn’t out of the question, but i also feel like the entj cognitive functions really fit m

-genuinely love animals and it’s so pure

-hi sorry for not replying, i was in prison :3 also i moved to norway lol

-actually just the 2007 taco xd random aesthetic irl

-“i just came up with another book plot” texts approximately every 2.3 hours

isfp:

-hi i’m melissa i’m a 23 year old art school dropout and i abuse prescription pills but it’s okay because i have 200 followers on my grunge aesthetic instagram account. rent me an apartment?

-(talking about veganism to someone at a party) i just don’t understand how anyone could put all of that stuff in their body :/ *bends down to snort a line of cocaine*

-actually really artistically talented but much like the infp they refuse to give themselves any credit for it

-my dream man is someone who goes to coachella with me, helps me align my charkas, takes sad candid pictures of me, is willing to backpack around europe with me and my philosophy class during the summer,

-*googles* why do i share a type with literally every indie musician that has ever breathed lol

-probably fucked your girl in the back of a vape shop

infj:

-if you manage to find one never let them go they are some of the best people you’ll ever meet

-huge harry potter nerds

-can manage to get you to spill out your entire life story to them with a concerned glance

-please actually care for yourself for once and a while literally you do everything for everyone else just take some time for yourself god dammit you deserve it

-CATS™

-could be literally the most talented person in the world but would never come close to admitting it

-hi i’m actually just jesus christ irl! nice to meet you :-)

intj:

-they know everything

-like seriously everything it’s kind of scary like calm down karl

- allows themselves to recognize exactly one (1) human emotion per year

-can read for hours on end without getting bored and genuinely loves learning

-are generally dicks tbh especially to the people they love the most

-wikipedia articles™

-they actually aren’t actually the emotionless robots tumblr seems to display them as, they are actually extremely emotional in my experience and tend to get offended/upset easily and over small things

-sci-fi, cats, and machines > humans

-superiority complex™

-cute when they aren’t busy throwing tantrums/crushing the souls of their enemies

esfj:

-hi i’m martha, i’m 32 years young, i like long walks by the beach, yoga, and judging my neighbors for not mowing their lawn :-)  

-tend to be extra™ parents and their kids can either turn out complete emotional wreck assholes because they’ve never been disciplined or the happiest child you’ll ever meet, there is no in between

-they may be complete snakes and have never came up with an original idea in their entire life but boy can they make a killer chicken parmesan

-kind of comforting in a mother-like sense when they aren’t busy being judgmental dicks

-will clean your entire house for you on a whim

infp:

-wow i love being an infj :)) top 1% haha :))

-will literally develop a crush on someone because they say they know what tumblr is

-find purpose in writing/creating in general

-ending toxic relationships?? haha what’s that??? :))

-constantly switches between their “you can’t control me it isn’t a phase mom go away >:(( my chemical pilots at the disco saved me xd i will literally punch a baby fuck the system i’m 2cool4school” persona and their “i’m such a smol bean :3 save all the animals <333 i love pretty girls and dogs :))” persona

-“can i txt you back in like 15 mins i’m having an emotional breakdown lol”

-actually genuinely empathetic and creatively gifted but gives themself credit for none of it

-intelligent but fails classes because their teacher said something that went against their morals

-playing the victim? never heard of it! :))

-secretly just meme hoarders

-attention whores tbh i won’t even deny it

-o v e r d r a m a t i c

entp:

-hi it’s 6 fucking am and everyone just wants to go back to sleep or die or both but i’m gonna start an argument with the professor over the origin of tangerines for no apparent reason

-*googles* how to permanently get rid of my fe in 5 simple steps

-follow my meme page xd

-so what if i love my dog more than i do myself and my entire family?

-this conversation is boring me i’m gonna go chug a bottle of vodka and binge bill nye the science guy™ peace out

-have low self-esteems but compensate through obscure dark web conspiracy theories at 3 in the morning

-shirley i didn’t call you back because you’re a fake ass bitch not because i didn’t like your lasagna at the block party

estp:

-why do i keep physically abusing my crush lol

-and why do i keep yelling i can’t even stop at this point someone please send help

-they love food more than they do themselves

-fuckboys™

-hi welcome to my prank youtube channel :3

-the type of people to show up to school with 37 puppies and a knife

-i’m not gay but 20 bucks is 20 bucks

entj:

-sorry i didn’t show up to school because you’re fucking stupid

-awe infp is so cute <3 i’ll destroy them last

-*on the floor, drunk, talking to their dog* you’re the only motherfucker in this town who can handle me

-what do you mean other people’s opinions/beliefs besides my own are valid lol??

-lowkey have daddy kinks

-what do you mean it’s physically impossible for me to control every aspect of my life??

-i mean if you really think about it voldemort was the victim,

-the type of person who could tell their crush they like them without flinching. terrifying

istp:

-wears d.a.r.e shirts ironically

-1990’s grunge aesthetic

-would walk into a burning building for the meme

-playing the hero?? haha never heard of it :))

-ew what the fuck man get those feelings away from me lol

-fuck da police

-following the rules?? that seems excessive lmao no thanks

istj:

-i once had one (1) original idea back in the summer of ’67. it was terrifying. i’ll never do it again.

-your scary math teacher that wears black socks everyday expects friday. then they jazz it up a bit with stripes. will mark your grade up if you say you like the same sports team as they do.

-understanding concepts outside of your own experiences? lmao no thanks?

-will make quizlet sets organize your desk for you

-my dream in life is to narrate a crime documentary and complete my george washington memorabilia collection.

-remembers all of their colleagues birthdays. doesn’t say happy birthday.

enfj:

-fucking get over your ex already he wasn’t that attractive calm down allison

-*googles* why do i relate to regina george from mean girls so much?

-the type of person who tells your boyfriend you have a crush on him

-o v e r d r a m a t i c

-gets your shit together for you. judges you

intp:

-dead inside

-if you can manage to find one that actually tolerates you they are some of the most loyal and true people you’ll ever meet

-horrible social skills, compensates through meme hoarding

-sends you links to conspiracy theory videos when you’re sad

-extremely intelligent but they get lost in their own house

-whoops i just remember i haven’t showered in 3 weeks lol

-i would laugh at that joke but i’m 3 hours deep into an existential crisis and i’m 100% convinced you are actually a robot created by bill clinton so not today jeff

esfp:

-yes homo

-cries over cat videos in public

-facetimes you in a grasshopper fursuit at 3 in the morning

-probably an alcoholic

-has 87 different crushes at once

-you haven’t talked to them in 7 years but they’ll show up at your birthday party and give you dog

-also attention whores

-generally has the personality of someone who just did 10 lines of cocaine

isfj:

-one sec let me just gather up all of the fake empathy i can muster for this particular situation

-that one kid in class who always has perfect notes

-shudders at the thought of… a… creative… thought….

-falls in love with an estp approximately every 23 seconds

-hi i’m karen, i’m 34, i love my family, cupcake baking, helping people of course until it interferes with my own personal comfort haha, christmas decorations, room layouts,

-probably has a studyblr

estj:

-your angry boss

-probably cyberbullies children on the internet 

-has an emotional breakdown when they don’t win classroom jeopardy 

-*googles* who is bernie sanders and why do i want him dead

-organizes your shit for you, regrets it later

-dead inside

[eldritchsurveys]

938.

5k Survey XLVII

2401. Does love come from the brain, the heart or elsewhere? >> Listen, all “love” is to me is a set of behaviours. I don’t know where the impetus to do those behaviours comes from, I don’t know what kind of emotional resonance those behaviours are supposed to have, and I’m consistently annoyed at being asked about this esoteric concept that I’m perfectly content to leave to the poets. 2402. Have you ever given a shot? If not, do you think you could give one to a loved one if you HAD to? Do you think you could give one to yourself? >> I’ve done it (on myself and on another person -- the same kind of shot, incidentally: testosterone) and I’d do it again. It’s not that difficult. The difficult ones they save for the professionals, obviously. 2403. Can you lick your elbow? Come on, didja try? >> No. And no, I did not try, because I already know the answer. 2404. If i was going to be talking to you for 10 minutes, what would be something really interesting you know a little bit about but would like to know more? >> Anything relating to mythology. 2405. If today was a holiday, what would it be? >> ---

2406. If you were making a mix tape what would you HAVE to have one it? >> --- 2407. What do you think of the Sopranos? >> I don’t think of it, I’ve never seen it. 2408. Can you name three good things about the society you live in? How about three bad things? >> Probably, but I don’t feel like thinking about it right now. 2409. Have you ever had a crush on your teacher? How about your boss? >> I don’t know if I’d call it a crush, in hindsight. I mean, maybe it was. But mostly I was just glomming onto a pretty-ish man who paid me positive attention, as an emotionally-neglected, traumatised teenager will. 2410. What is the difference between acting like someone in high school and acting like an adult? >> I assume emotional maturity is one of the major differences. 2411. What is the difference between a whopper and a whopper jr? >> The Whopper is larger, I’d assume. 2413. Do you like: Moby? Run DMC? the Cure? Yes. Shakira?  Blink182? A couple of songs. the Pet Shop Boys? Weezer? Eh, occasionally. Red Hot Chilli Peppers? Yes. Nick cave? YES. The Pixies? Well, I do like that one song. You know the one. KRS-One? The Juice Crew? 2414. Have you ever seen a movie in 3D? >> I’ve seen several movies in 3D. For some reason, the glasses that seem to bother almost everyone I know don’t bother me... which is ironic because I’m the one who’s sensitive to everything sensory-wise. :V 2415. How difficult do you think it is for immigrants to come into your country? How difficult is it for them to become citizens? >> I assume it’s more difficult to immigrate here now than it was when I was a kid. I think it’s been difficult to obtain citizenship for a while, though. 2416. Do you have what it takes to go live in another country, maybe for years, where you don’t speak the language as your first language? >> I don’t know. What does it take? 2418. have you ever died in your dreams? >> Once. 2419. Do you like Douglas Adams? Eh. Kurt Vonnegut?  Tom Robbins? Philip K Dick? Orson Scott Card? It’s been so long since I read that one book that I don’t know how I feel about this author anymore. 2420. What clothing size are you? What size do you wish you were? Did you know that Marilyn Monroe was a size 12(and lots of people think she’s HOT)? >> That obviously depends on the kind of clothing (and the brand, the country of origin, the gender it’s catering to...). As far as Marilyn Monroe is concerned, I don’t care. 2421. Does science leave room for faith? Does faith leave room for science? >> Those concepts are indifferent towards each other. The people who stand for one of those concepts may vary widely in their acceptance of the other. 2422. What book should our political leaders read and why? >> --- 2423. Why and under what circumstances are people more likely to buy brand names rather then their generic counterparts? >> Like, I understand it’s hard to think of 5000 questions and all, but I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with all these Google-type questions. 2424. What is your favorite glass object? >> I don’t have a favourite glass object. ...My computers have glass in them? 2425. Do you like to window shop? >> I don’t. 2426. Have you ever loved someone so much it just turned to hate? >> That sounds like an interesting situation to be in. I’d like to pick the brain of anyone who answers “yes” to this. 2427. What is arrogance? >> Can I introduce you to a guy named Webster... 2428. Are you more liberal or conservative? >> Liberal, if I must declare. 2429. When there is a presidential election in the USA why do we never hear anything about the third party candidates? Do you even know who they were last time? >> Because the bipartisan system is what pays the bills, or whatever. No, I don’t generally look into the third-party candidates, because these days, what’s the point? 2430. Are you more likely to buy one really nice expensive outfit or a couple of cheap outfits? >> I mean, I buy what I can afford... which is usually not the former. 2431. If you could, would you wear everything once, throw it out and buy something new? >> I really the fuck wouldn’t. I hate that that’s a thing at all. 2432. Do you believe that people have a responsibility to be: good to other people? good at their job? helpful to the earth(not litter, recycle)? aware consumers(not buy animal tested products, not buy products that were made in sweatshops, etc)? non-wasteful (not spend their money frivolously when they could save it to help others)? charitable (donating money, volunteering)? Which of the above are you? >> So, I don’t know anything about social responsibility. I don’t consider myself qualified to dictate what other people should be doing with their life, energy, money, time, whatever. I can barely figure out what I ought to do with my own. As far as what responsibilities from the above I’ve undertaken... yeah, I don’t know. I do my best to not be a dick to other people and I do my best to be aware of what I consume and how much. But let’s be real, most of my time, energy, and whatever disposable money I have goes to managing myself on a daily basis, which is a full time job. 2433. How do you feel about the internet? Should there be laws and censorship on the internet? >> I love the internet. I think there should be laws restraining corporate interests, and certainly the things that are illegal in meatspace should remain illegal in cyberspace. I don’t think the government should be censoring the average user’s content, though. That doesn’t seem constitutional. 2434. Can you think of any questions that aren’t already on this survey? >> I could if I tried. Am I going to try? No. 2435. Does sleep seem like a little death to you? >> Yeah, sometimes. If I’m in a particularly anxious vibe, I can end up fixating on the deathlike feeling of falling asleep, which obviously prevents me from falling asleep. It’s annoying. 2436. Have you ever seen(and if yes, what did you think of): Joy Ride? Ghost World? Monsters Inc?  Queen of the Damned? Yes, quite a few times. I enjoy parts of it, mainly out of it just being a regular fixture in my life for a few years in my twenties. Office Space? Yeah, and I thought it was pretty great. 2437. At what age did you find out that Santa Claus wasn’t real? >> I was never taught about him in the first place. 2438. How many pairs of shoes do have in your closet? Do you like to wear the same shoes everyday or do you like a variety?: >> I have two pairs of shoes, not counting weather boots. So yes, I’m usually wearing the same shoes every day (the sneakers most often in the summer, the boots more often the rest of the year). 2439. How many lovers have you had? >> Hm. 2440. Have you ever had surgery? For what? >> No. 2441. What puts you in the mood for sex? >> Some stuff Inworlders do. But most of the time, it’s just a random urge. It can happen multiple times in a week or not happen for weeks and then randomly happen. 2442. Have you ever been on alcohol or drugs while at school or work? >> --- 2443. What do you think of Martha Stewart? >> I don’t think of Martha Stewart. 2445. What do you think of: British people? This is stereotype bait. Australians? Americans? Canadians? Mexicans? French people? Germans?  2446. What do you do to cure the hiccups? >> I don’t ever have hiccups for longer than, like, a couple of minutes, so. 2447. What is the FIRST thing you do when you come home from school or work? >> --- 2448. Are you a slob? >> No. 2449. Do you have a good work ethic? >> I don’t know, I’ve never been in a situation where work felt fulfilling and I felt like I was of some real use to the world. I’d imagine that could have an effect on one’s “work ethic”, but hey, what do I know. 2450. Are you a pack-rat? >> Rather the opposite, I’d say.

[wardepiano92-blog]

Superbad at 10: The Agony and Ecstasy of Growing Up

Oh, christ. It's already been 10 years since Superbad was released? To immediately date this piece, this author was two weeks away from his freshman year of college when Greg Mottola's smash hit was unleashed on the public. Audiences eagerly looked forward to the latest feature from the creative hivemind responsible for The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, but didn't exactly anticipate that the film would enter almost instantly into the pantheon of the all-time great raunchy teen comedies. After a total box office haul of $169 million (nice) worldwide and a lengthy tenure as the most quoted movie in dorms across the nation, Superbad has ended up standing the test of time as one of those teen movies that people will undoubtedly show their kids for years to come, probably sooner than they should, while gritting their teeth through the parts that don't age as well.

Every few years, a generation gets their graduation movie. For some, it was Ferris Bueller's Day Offor any of John Hughes' iconic '80s hits. For others, it was Can't Hardly Wait. (Sorry, those of you who graduated in the late '90s.) For the weird kids, it might've been Donnie Darko, and even a few months later into 2007, Juno hit home with many viewers in equally quotable but more pensive ways. Superbad distinguishes itself by capturing that listless sensation of the time when high schoolers already have three limbs out the door, waiting on the future even as its uncertainty begins to crush those of lesser mettle under its fist. At once, you've never been more excited or more thoroughly scared shitless. You're an adult now, and at the time, it means that you can get trashed with relative impunity, even if it only means that you've transitioned from stealing your parents' liquor to relying on your friends with piss-poor fake IDs. In reality, it means that the nebulous point at which you have to figure it all out is no longer four years of high school away. It's now.

For best friends Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera), that's more than either can process, and so they don't. As they slack through their waning days of school, they discuss which porn sites they'll subscribe to (oh, the quaint internet of yore), gay-bash each other as only dumb young men do, get drunk in their parents' basements, and aggressively avoid any real conversations about how they're going to separate colleges in a few months' time. Neither wants to consider what this could mean for their friendship going forward, so instead Seth drools over Evan's mom, and Evan mocks Seth's Belushi-esque blustering about his untapped sexual prowess, and both of them attempt to negotiate their long-standing crushes, who could disappear out of the realm of possible consummation before long. All of this strife arrives while they're still dealing with pointless classes run by checked-out teachers and obnoxious classmates, and most of all their incorrigibly dorky third wheel, Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse).

But when Fogell gets his fake, in the unflappable new guise of Hawaiian organ donor McLovin (it was either that or Mohammed), the trio embarks on an unplanned night of self-discovery in the unforgiving darkness of the adult world. A liquor store robbery sends Fogell into the orbit of Officers Slater (Bill Hader) and Michaels (Seth Rogen, who co-wrote the film with his longtime friend Evan Goldberg.) Meanwhile, Seth and Evan struggle to come to terms with their impending separation while being dragged through a seedy party full of coked-up twentysomethings and nursing their own unrequited desires. For Evan, Becca (Martha MacIsaac) is only as far away as his anxiety will prevent him from going; despite his compulsive inability to have a conversation with her, she's as clearly interested as somebody can be. Seth, meanwhile, strains to impress Jules (future Oscar winner Emma Stone), the consummate cool girl and seemingly one of the few people in the whole school who treats him with respect. As Evan bluntly puts it: She definitely hasn't figured out how hot she is yet, because she still talks to you.

Rogen and Goldberg started writing Superbad together while in high school themselves, and it shows in the small details. Seth's blustering conversation with a Home Ec teacher perfectly mirrors the exasperation of a dwindling school year, and his degradation of Evan's PE classmate (a young Dave Franco) hits perfectly on the casually vicious bullying that teenagers sort of just visit on each other without ever stopping to consider it at length. That's to say nothing of the 186 fucks throughout the movie, atop its many other vulgar punchlines; it's an absolutely crass iteration of the teen movie, but in this, it's also possibly the most faithful representation of modern teenage life put to screen. In a decade where movies like Thirteen (a good film, but a melodramatic one just the same) painted teenagers as walking manifestations of alarmist PSAs for adults, Superbad cannily understands the dualities of being a teenager. You're a filthy, half-formed version of yourself that wants to have sex pretty much constantly, and if you're the kind of person (like the film's central trio) who hasn't found an outlet for it yet, the latent frustration eventually turns inward.

This constant thirst is vividly captured by Cera and Hill, who deliver a pair of star-making performances as one of the great modern onscreen comedy duos. For as much as Cera's halted mannerisms have become a criticism (often undue) of the actor over time, Superbad uses them to immaculate effect. His deadpan delivery of his comebacks to Seth gives the film some of its biggest laughs (well, at least you got to suck your dad's dick), and his climactic attempt to get drunk enough to not worry about sex features some of the best faux-trashed character delivery since Anthony Michael Hall in his heyday. (Hall's geek performances in various Hughes movies is a visibly huge influence on Cera's work here.) Meanwhile, Hill rips through one showstopping bit after the next; his famous soliloquy about his childhood dick drawings is as uproarious as many of his rapid non-sequiturs throughout. (I flip my boner up into my waistband. It hides it and it feels awesome.)

Far more could be said of Superbad's top-to-bottom great performances, whether it's MacIsaac playing wasted in ways that came to define cinematic drunk teens for a certain age group, Stone already demonstrating a command of the dry charisma that would become her calling card, or Mintz-Plasse as the sort of nerd whose nerddom is particularly egregious even by the standards of other nerds. But given the listlessly conversational structure, Goldberg and Rogen's screenplay is the truest star. While the Apatow factory took mainstream studio comedies in a more hangout-minded direction over the years that followed, Superbad fuses the loose structure of so many of its followers with the quotability of some of the best comedies of years past. A case could certainly be made that it's one of the last truly great quotable comedies in this regard, a movie that die-hard fans can (and frequently will) recant at length to other fans.

What sets the movie apart from so many other gleefully juvenile exercises in dirty talk, though, is how it's as much a case study in several different kinds of insecure manhood as anything. Even Virgin, for all of its emotional authenticity, honors the immaturity of its leads as much as it criticizes it. Superbad arrived just two years after Wedding Crashersand four after Old School, a pair of bro-comedies that took the extra step of actively canonizing its idiot leads' boorish behavior. (That said, at least Old School is clever enough to justify it for most of its runtime. There's a case to be made for Crashers as perhaps the single worst-aged comedy of its era.) Where Fogell is at least a classic dweeb, all bluster and little ability to function in the real world, Seth and Evan are more familiar types to any formerly awkward high schooler, or worse, anyone who tried to date one.

Even as it observes the traditions of the one-night teen movie, Superbad plays with these tropes in ways that subvert them, and yes, sometimes uphold them. Evan is a brutally insecure young man, but he's also a good person at his core, to the point where Seth's constant suggestions that female inebriation is their only path to sex start to repel him. When his moment of possibility finally arrives, he has to practically be dragged into sex, reluctantly half-struggling against it even as he's being undressed, out of moral concerns. For Seth, who's initially the least likable of the trio by far, all of his own poor self-image comes dribbling out in his slurry confession to Jules near the end: You wouldn't get with me if you were sober. In these choices, Superbad occasionally pushes the boundaries of audience identification; on its face, this is a movie about two young men attempting to get their love interests drunk enough to sleep with them. But it's also a movie about how ignorant their ideals are, and the importance of outgrowing them.

The former shouldn't be dismissed out of hand as commonly as it sometimes is, particularly as it relates to real-life young idiots who (at least at the time of its release) tended to miss that Seth and Evan and Fogell are the movie's biggest targets, even as they're also its heroes. But Superbad is also a rebuke to the retrograde politics of so many other teen classics, as much as it periodically lapses into some of the same. To return to Sixteen Candles as an adult is to try and overlook the major plot point of Jake Ryan giving away his blacked-out girlfriend to a high school freshman for sex (and at that point, let's be frank, rape) in exchange for information. Revenge of the Nerds cuts out that hand-wringing vagary and culminates in a triumphant climactic scene of sexual assault at a carnival.

In assuming the perspective of teenage morons for better and worse, Superbad occasionally verges on dealing in some of the same ugly material as its characters. While Rogen has taken ownership of the film's borderline-glorified casual homophobia and sexism in recent years, and the film is smarter about tearing down these ideals than it's sometimes credited for being, it's still as tacky at points as its wannabe delinquents can get. A central gag about the horrors of period blood is the film's most tired setpiece for the committed performances involved, and the gleeful rules-free hedonism of the police cannot help but read differently than it did a decade ago, despite Hader and Rogen's affable presence. To return to the notion of subversion, though, Superbad also served as a crucial bridge between the alpha male-driven comedies of the early aughts and much of the sharper material that arrived in its wake. It laid quite a few harmful genre standards to rest, while allowing for the notion that even the worst teenagers can grow up and usually will. And that, as true as it ever was and ever will be, most teenage boys really do spend an excess of time talking in graphic detail about all the sex they're not actually having and wish they were.

Its bold-for-the-time third act makes this plain. When the police officers raid the big house party around which the film is built, rescuing Fogell and sending the revelers home for the night, Seth drunkenly carries an even drunker Evan out of the party, loudly announcing his love for his best friend. In sleeping bags, their running off-the-cuff homophobia gives way to a genuine sort of love, even beyond the bromance half-posturing of the time. They care about each other, sincerely, and Superbad informed a generation of young men that mutual affection didn't necessarily have to be followed with a no homo, even as it usually was in real life. It's a movie about sexual desperation, but by its end it's also one about platonic love between friends and the unsettling truth that not all friendships make it. For all of the Hughes influences, the one that Superbad best matches is in its final scene. As Seth and Evan go off with their possible future paramours, beginning their own lives, Mottola realizes that sad moment in Ferris Bueller's Day Off when Matthew Broderick acknowledges that he and Cameron probably won't stay in touch or remain friends, and he and Sloane might not last too much longer either. For Seth and Evan, they may or they may not, but it's not for the film to say. That's life.

The R-rated teen movie returned with force in the decade since Superbad, and many of the best owe one degree of debt or another to it. Yet what's most heartening is that its biggest lesson seems to have been the four-letter optimism, over all of the debauchery. Hill would go on to star in the Jump Street movies, which would continue to subvert both high school clichs and male relationships in their own right. Fare like The Edge of Seventeen carried on its candid ear for the narcissism and the periodic venom of teens. Superbad is every bit as imperfect as its influences and its protagonists alike, but that imperfection only makes it all the more enduring. Two of its three leads never actually get laid, and the third one only does for a second (oh my god, it's in), but that's not really the point. The point is that Seth and Evan are soulmates and that one of the hardest parts of growing up is knowing that it might not stay that way forever. But for the moment, in the seclusion of Seth's basement, all is as it should be.