Funny Business

A no-holds-barred look at the rise (and eventual fall) of the raunchy, blockbuster "Frat Pack" comedy films of the early 2000s-including The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Old School, Wedding Crashers, and Knocked Up-and how the effects of that raucous era are still felt even in the fractured media landscape of today.

If you were a movie-goer in the early aughts, you had a front row seat to a golden age of comedy. Ben Stiller, Seth Rogen, Will Ferrell, Owen Wilson, Steve Carell, and Vince Vaughn became unlikely leading men-a band of rowdy wedding crashers, hungover bachelors, and 40-year-old virgins dubbed the "Frat Pack" that suddenly, and surprisingly, became the center of the movie industry. Over the span of a single decade (roughly 2001 until 2011), this outsider brand of improvisational comedy took Hollywood by storm, ushering in a new kind of star and record-breaking box office returns. Then, seemingly overnight, Frat Pack movies vanished. Or did they?

In Funny Business, award-winning author and film critic Matt Singer traces the path these gonzo stars and directors took from the fringes of comedy to the mainstream-beginning on tiny stages like Second City and the Groundlings, then infiltrating into talent incubators like SNL, eventually leading to big-screen domination in Hollywood. Along the way, he shares insider stories of the films that raised a generation, including- The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Zoolander, Borat, Anchorman, Old School, and The Hangover. How did these movies and their stars come to dominate a generation of moviemaking? Who won-and who was left out-of this comedy boom? And can studio comedies make a comeback in our modern digital and streaming world?

A love letter to a bygone era, Funny Business celebrates a generation of iconic comedies and points the way forward to a (possible) new future for cinema-never forgetting that the audience always gets the last laugh.