Man-Boy Trope and All its Glory!

The Man-boy trope! So fancying myself something of an amateur student of the comedic arts, there's nothing I hate more right now than the Jonah-Hilling of comedy. Ok, it's actually mostly Judd Apatow, but it's well known among peers I reserve a little space beside Judd for Jonah Hill and his late-model cousin Seth Rogen. Why? Hill and Rogen consistently play characters who make superbad (haha!) life choices, exude some kind of persistent, unexplainable arrogance, and oh, yeah, totally objectify women every chance they get. They live the man-boy existence, reveling in a life without consequences, responsibility and, god, civility. Women in Apatow movies serve no more purpose than garnish to the hot, steaming bowl of stupid Hill and Rogen always seem to be serving up to the protagonist. And given they're often paired with weak-willed buddies whose sudden growth of backbone often serves as the climax of the film, it's no wonder most of their bullshit goes completely unchecked.

Anyway, off my wagon, because seriously, I could talk about how much I hate this trope played out by Rogen/Hill in movies from now until doomsday. Point being is that for whatever reason, marketing has decided that all males must be like Jonah Hill. Young men, as a demographic are assumed to think it's perfectly reasonable to ignore women or treat them horribly because they're unattractive, that it's perfectly respectable to be a complete slob and subsist off of bacon-flavored potato chips in lieu of real food (because women cook, not REAL men). If one were to take advertisements like these seriously, one would think men spend their entire days viciously policing a commercially-produced definition of "real man" which centers mostly around consumer habits (Cool Adidas sneakers! High five, real man!). It'd be like joining a he-man-woman-haters club sponsored entirely by some horrible-sounding snack product I'm just going to make up right now: ranch-powder covered bacon cheese sticktwists.

Anyway, I guess I'm inclined to consider this kind of man-boy trope a sub-optimal form of humor. It's like, "Yes, I understand why the writer thinks I should be laughing at this, but it leaves me empty inside. Oh penis joke!" Adam Sandler may have played the exact same character in every movie he ever made, but I didn't see him fashioning a culture of weirdly perverse masculinity. I blame a lot of the troubles I see in young men on Jonah Hill. It's not at all fair and intellectually dishonest seeing as I am, actually, a sociologist, but still, seeing as gender isn't actually my speciality, I need a scapegoat to help me sleep at night.