Within the Eighties, the dorks defeating the jocks and profitable the affections of the cheerleaders appeared downright progressive. However the comedy Revenge of the Nerds hasn’t precisely stood the take a look at of time, with its hidden cameras, homosexual and racial stereotypes and nonconsensual intercourse inflicting modern audiences to cringe. However none of these missteps are why Freaks and Geeks creator Paul Feig hated the film.
“Once I first arrived in Hollywood and began writing comedy within the late eighties and early nineties, I discovered that executives would all the time react extra positively to over-the-top characters,” Feig instructed Mike Sacks in his e book And Right here’s the Kicker. “They most well-liked the nerds with the massive glasses, who snorted and laughed actually loud. And I hated that. It was faux and unsuitable.”
Individuals all the time ask Feig if he loves Revenge of the Nerds since he’s explored related comedic themes concerning the underdog. “I all the time suppose, Really, no, I kind of hate that film. It feels ridiculous,” he says. “The form of comedy I don’t like is when the performers and writers are winking and principally saying, ‘I do know that is silly and you already know that is silly. I’m probably not this dumb, however I’m enjoying as if I’m.’ And that’s nice, I suppose, but it surely’s dishonest and it’s form of imply to the characters.”
The perceptive Feig wasn’t unsuitable concerning the actors wanting down on their roles. “Bobby Carradine (who performed Lewis) mentioned, ‘Look, I don’t know what I’m doing right here — I’m not a nerd, I’m in all probability a man who would beat up a nerd,’” mentioned director Jeff Kanew in GQ’s oral historical past of Revenge of the Nerds. Carradine was so embarrassed when shopping for geeky eyeglasses for the half that he needed to whisper to the clerk, “It’s to play a nerd.”
Curtis Armstrong, who performed Booger? “I hated (the character) on sight,” Armstrong writes in his paradoxically titled Revenge of the Nerd. When he was supplied the position, he blanched. “Overlook it! It’s a horrible half!” he screamed at his agent. “All of the man does is choose his nostril and belch.” After accepting the position, he couldn’t abdomen the concept of going through “all of my performing lecturers from the Academy of Dramatic Artwork at Oakland College.”
When Feig got here up with Freaks and Geeks, he needed actors who took a unique strategy. “I don’t thoughts a broad comedy once I consider what’s happening and when the characters are genuine,” he says. “That’s what we tried so onerous to perform with Freaks and Geeks.”
So as a substitute of going after guys like Carradine, who’d been one thing of a Hollywood stud earlier than Nerds, “we needed to keep away from the everyday stunning actors you discover in most highschool TV reveals,” Feig says. “We didn’t need fashions. We didn’t need characters who had been going to take off their glasses and let their hair down after which, unexpectedly, they’re attractive.”
It’s not as if Feig and his cohorts went out of their approach to solid unattractive actors. However as a substitute of on the lookout for outrageous comedian personas, Freaks and Geeks employed children like John Francis Daley. When Daley got here in to audition, says Feig, “he was simply so actual and so humorous and so heartbreaking.”
