Review of Wet Hot American Summer (2001) by Indianaparkwars — 16 Aug 2020

This is probably my favorite comedy film of all-time and sits at number 26 on my Top 100 Films list. I’ve talked about this film so much, I don’t know what else to say. At some point I will do a full analysis of it. But, for right now, here are my summarized thoughts.

This is the perfect absurdist comedy film. It serves as a parody/satire of typical summer camp/teen comedies. It plays on every trope and makes fun of itself from music to editing to acting to plot to sound editing, etc. There are misplaced pottery shattering sounds, semantic humor (my favorite humor) like “Thank you Henry” “No please, call me Henry”, ironic trite plot points, fourth-wall breaks, intentional plotholes, painfully obvious stunt doubles, cartoon physics, and a lot of comedy pioneering with the invention of the slow clap. Overall, it’s surprisingly progressive in its mockery. It has a beautiful homosexual sex scene and the homophobia of characters is only a subversion of typical character behaviors to show a complete acceptance and normalization of homosexuality. Also, it heavily mocks the ideals of dating and romance. Many characters are heavily-sex driven and a large theme is finding romance or sex on the last day of camp. It makes fun of the character who needs to justify his masculinity with his body count or the virgin who desperately wants to have sex to fit in. It also breaks the stereotype of the sex-crazy male by showing a romantic male lead who is interested in sex secondarily, but primarily is fueled by love and genuine interest in personality and character. It also breaks the stereotype of slut-shaming by showing a highly promiscuous woman who unabashedly goes after what she wants and without judgement from her peers: sex. Lastly, it shatters the idea of the male fantasy beautifully in the end, by subverting what we expect the male characters to earn in the end, whether it’s getting the girl or getting what they want. There are powerful female characters, vulnerable male characters, and a normalization of differences whether it’s gay vs. straight or jock vs. nerd or rich vs. poor.

I would highly recommend this film to anyone. I’ve seen it probably ten times and every time, I find something new and find myself laughing out loud. It’s stupid, yet one of the most intelligent comedies I’ve seen, and that’s why I love it.