Seth Rogen didn’t happen to comedy. Instead, comedy happened to Seth Rogen. It’s the funny kind of feeling a harmless kid experiences when his tiny piece of candy gets stuck in a vacuum cleaner. And much to the fancy of the child the most constructive task in a day is not completion of homework but making an effort to stick his hand into the vacuum cleaner, trying to get his candy out.
Seth Rogen- an actor we got so stuck to like that habit of chewing gum for no reason; the strangest delight of it’s kind; is that kid whose candy called passion for self-expression got stuck in the vacuum cleaner called Hollywood and movies. And thankfully, till the time the candy remains stuck in the house cleaning equipment there’s ought to be a tonnage of entertainment for us all.
So even if much to our selfishness the prayer is, “may the kid never get his candy back,” we can be sure that in 36-year-old Seth’s world, the quest is to find the next dope of his Pineapple Express; forget the substance in its contagious form and replace it with the passion to find something meaningful and eccentrically creative to pursue in life.
How many, it ought to be asked, just how many in Hollywood would’ve dared to irk someone as redonkulous as the North Korean dictator, going as far bearing the risk of being sandbagged by the illogically megalomaniacal tyrant regime? When Seth and James Franco made the Interview, they didn’t just make the Interview, they launched a tremendously potent insinuation at one of America’s most appositely dreaded figure of lament. And in the process managed to extract something that seemed ‘human’ from a cantankerous egotistical zealot.
When you see a Seth Rogen movie- regardless of it being a blink and a miss part in You, Me and Dupree as just another guy who loves a beer with buddies over a game of American football or in more fleshy renditions like Funny People, you bathe under a shadow of warmth and purity. Without towing the line too much between a doer or a slacker, his characters appeal to both. When others act stupid, you feel making fun of them. But when Seth Rogen fucks its up royally in Knocked Up, you laugh with him. In a world besotted with the idea of hanging out or seeking a ‘cool dude’, Seth Rogen is surely one. And a profound example of that.
In an age where stars really do care a darn about looking good, putting on an exaggerated PR-regimented show, Seth couldn’t care less. In this age of meme-driven limericks, Seth’s one-liners; fan made highlights from what he says as Seth off the camera become memes of no-holds barred uncomplicated candidness. When was the last time Snoop smoked some weed with another comedian on national television? Need more proof of Rogen’s coolness?
Seth is so cool that he was actually born in Vancouver. He hardly seemed to care when with a rather protruded chest, and a nearly hirsute back he cozied up to best friend Franco in a Kim Kardashian and Kanye West spoof in 2014. It didn’t matter to him what they’d say. He’d do it; if it’s worth a good laugh and if the subject seems capable to draw people into a laughathon. He ain’t a celeb who’s in it (showbizz) for re-shares or insta followers.
And yet, in a world replete with ostentatious charms and awe-inspiring method acting moguls, oscillating between a Keanu Reeves to a Lawrence Fishbourne, going from Rowan Atkinson to Jackie Chan, traversing from a Tom Cruise to Edward Norton, everyone’s favourite stop seems to be at Seth Rogen-land. It’s a happy station; a Friday-like feeling that is inescapably welcoming; vibrant, yet soft. For Seth Rogen exists in the realm of the endlessly exciting and unrelentingly passionate pursuit of finding meaning. And through comedy. Just how does he do it? He opts for being the guy he is. Simple, straight-forward, gifted with a knack of being the fun bloke with an everydayness you find around you.
As fans constantly at odds with everyday rigours and unavoidable deadlines, Rogen’s presence through an impressive body of work- Superbad, This is the end, Neighbours, The Night Before, 50/50, The-40-year-old virgin- is incredibly refreshing. Maybe, something like sipping into a limey Iced-Tea. The gratification you seek at the completion of the last sip creates a pre-cursor to have another Iced-tea one too many. Easy going but focused, happy-go-lucky but passionate, we may not be seeing Rogen piling up a tower of movies like some other contemporaries. But in an age where the filter of entertainment has changed- a Netflix special or an online comedy special complementing a Friday release, we may not have to worry about not seeing enough of our favourite monotony-killer.