McLovin it

"So did you see Spiderman?"

"No."

"Saw?"

"No."

"Hostel?"

"No!"

"Borat?"

"Absolutely!"

"Saw 2?"

"Are you serious? You know better than that."

Every Monday morning for years, the countdown to the first bell has included my students' version of Entertainment Tonight, er, This Morning, a habitual query to see if my weekend movie-going matched up theirs. Thanks to graduation and a couple of moves, I'm not sure if anyone's left to carry on the tradition, and that pretty much figures, given that I put my ten bucks down to see the über-high school Superbad late last night.

You'd think I'd get enough of foul-mouthed adolescence for free during my work week, but my students aren't Americans, so they still watch what they say in front of grown-ups, and since my classroom was moved out of the freshman hallway, I hear little cursing at school these days beyond my own mental profanity. And besides, the high school kids I know aren't working off a script--a script I found hilarious despite being so far outside the target demographic I'm surprised they let me into the auditorium. The stories say Seth Rogen started writing Superbad when he was thirteen--in the 90s--but at least Judd Apatow is older than I am, a little. (Because, clearly, I could make up all that wild success in 18 months.)

I'm never sure how to answer, "What's your favorite movie?" because mostly it just depends, but as for current comedies, I'm not sure I can remember laughing more than in Superbad and Knocked Up and The 40 Year-old Virgin, so sure I'll go see whatever those guys make next, and maybe even talk about it the next Monday (along with the caveat to the Filipina that her step-father is right: she should never, ever see any of them). Either high school has gotten to me, or I just have a thing for filthy, funny, good-hearted boys.