When it comes to comedy, what makes one person laugh doesn’t always land with another person. For that reason, what makes a hit comedy movie is constantly changing, and very often sub-categories of comedy movies come and go in waves. Towards the end of the 1990s, American Pie was one of the movies that kicked off a surge of over-the-top raunchy comedy movies that usually involved a group of teens, naked young women, and any number of crazy sex antics and gross-out comedy moments. Seann William Scott, who made his name in movies like American Pie recently admitted that he doesn’t believe movies like that would be made now.
Scott played Steve Stifler in the American Pie series, and although it was one of the movies that catapulted him to fame, speaking to Jake’s Takes, the actor said that de doesn’t think there is any appetite for that kind of movie at the moment, and he doesn’t believe that anyone would want to make it today. He said:
“You know, I was having a conversation with a friend the other day, I was like, 'You could never make American Pie these days.' Some of the stuff in that movie, you would get arrested and probably go to jail for a long time if you did it. I think a lot of the broader comedies, a lot of the stuff that gave me a career, I don't see there ever being an appetite for those sort of movies again. I mean, I could be wrong. I think some of the broad comedies can be fun but people are, it feels like, myself included, appreciating more of a witty, smart humor and good writing as opposed to just something kind of over-the-top.”
Comedy May Have Changed, But Comedies Like American Pie Keep Coming Back Around
While gross-out comedies of the early 90s and raunchy comedies of the 00s have fallen out of favor at the moment, with the kind of objectification of women that was commonplace in these movies being just one of the aspects that are seen as being outdated, it is not something that hasn’t happened before.
Sex comedies were big business in the late 1970s and early 1980s, with comedies such as Porky’s, Police Academy, and Weird Science being just some of the films that were not always critical hits but did well at the box office and in most cases spawned a number of sequels. By the late 80s, a lot of these movies were starting to disappear from cinemas and by the early 1990s, those being made were all going straight to home media. However, by the time American Pie arrived, the raunchy, low-brow comedy was back in vogue again.
While Scott doesn’t seem to believe that movies like American Pie wouldn’t be made now, fellow star Tara Reid hinted last year that a fifth movie could be on the way, with a script already completed. Even if that doesn't happen, it is very likely that a decade down the line someone will come up with a new, or similar idea for a new American Pie style movie and the wheels will start turning again. For now, anyone who still longs for that kind of comedy can find the likes of American Pie, Road Trip and The Girl Next Door on various streaming platforms.