Don’t believe the 38% Rotten Tomatoes score, Wet Hot American Summer is a classic. A cult classic, but a classic. Like Jorma Taccone’s MacGruber and most of David Wain’s other films (The Ten, Role Models, Wanderlust, They Came Together, and A Futile and Stupid Gesture), it’s the type of humor that isn’t for everyone, but those who will be on board will be all the way on board.
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The plot follows a group of counselors at a summer camp way back in 1981. It’s the last day of camp, the parents are on the way to pick up the kids, and the counselors are doing what they’ve been doing every other day: making out and smoking joints. Oh, and there’s a meteor heading their way. And there’s a can of mixed vegetables that can talk (voiced by Archer and Bob’s Burgers‘ H. Jon Benjamin much less).
What a Cast
Like with Killer Klowns from Outer Space and the aforementioned MacGruber, there’s enormous merit to watching Wet Hot American Summer for the first time while in a group. Being college-aged doesn’t hurt. Speaking of age, the more this particular movie ages, the more its cast pops.
Back in 2001, the most recognizable names on the cast list were Molly Shannon, who was ending her six-year run on SNL, David Hyde Pierce, who was nearing the end of his 11-year run on Frasier, Christopher Meloni, who was starring on both Law & Order: SVU and Oz at the time, and Janeane Garofalo, who had Reality Bites and The Truth About Cats & Dogs under her belt. Paul Rudd was also somewhat recognized thanks to Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Romeo + Juliet, and The Cider House Rules, but he was yet to enter the A-list. That wouldn’t come until three years later, when he returned to comedy starting with 2004’s Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (then The 40-Year-Old Virgin the following year).
But Rudd wasn’t the only future A-lister here. For instance, Amy Poehler was in just her first year on SNL, on the verge of blowing up, and Elizabeth Banks was one year shy of Spider-Man. As for Bradley Cooper, this was his first film, and it would be another eight years before he burst onto the A-list with The Hangover.
Rounding out the cast were other favorites of those well-versed in the comedy genre. These include Wain favorites Michael Showalter, Ken Marino, Zak Orth, A. D. Miles, and Michael Ian Black as well as 30 Rock‘s Judah Friedlander and Brooklyn Nine-Nine scene-stealer Joe Lo Truglio.
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Behind-the-Scenes Stories & Netflix Continuations
The key to Wet Hot American Summer‘s appeal, outside the interest of seeing so many fan favorites so early in their careers, is the infectious joy they’re all clearly having. It makes sense their collective chemistry is so believable because, as Rudd told Entertainment Weekly, they all “lived at the camp…It was like being in summer camp and everybody hung out with everybody. It was the only thing I ever worked on where people would just go to watch scenes being shot, not so much to support, but because it was just really fun…And if somebody wasn’t working, they would make the run into town…and get all of the beer and stuff for that night.”
What also makes sense is that, well after everyone involved had blown up, they were itching to get back together for a reunion. And, 14 years later, that’s exactly what they did with the Netflix prequel miniseries Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp (which holds a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes). Just as funny as the original movie if not more so, First Day of Camp is aided by a more seasoned cast, the constantly funny joke of people almost a decade-and-a-half older playing slightly younger versions of the characters they played the first time, and new big names like John Slattery, Chris Pine, Jon Hamm, Jason Schwartzman, Michael Cera, and Kristen Wiig. The 2017 sequel series, Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later, is a bit of a letdown, but it helps cement just how well this group got along, and just how special the original Wet Hot American Summer remains.
