Jeremy’s Tophunder №60: Forgetting Sarah Marshall

7 min readJun 21, 2020

I saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall on April 6, 2008, at the Fenway AMC theater, with my freshman year college roommate and a handful of other friends. For those readers who know way too much about the movie, you might realize that this is actually before the movie was released, two weeks later on April 18.

I was fortunate enough to attend a semi-private screening of the movie, where some of the tickets were reserved for BU College of Communication students. I wasn’t in Comm, but my roommate was, so he was able to get me a ticket. Oh, and also in attendance was star and writer Jason Segel and several members of his family. After the screening, there was a Q&A session with Segel. I was sitting in literally the last row of the theater, but was somehow able to get his attention quickly enough that I was able to ask the first question.

For those of you who have never seen the movie, be warned that the opening scene features full-frontal nudity from Segel, who is completely naked while the eponymous Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell) breaks up with him.

So, naturally, I asked Jason Segel if, now that he’s done full-frontal nudity, he was at all worried about becoming typecast in the future because of the presence (and size) of his genitals in this movie. Much like how actresses become almost expected to do nudity all the time once they cross that threshold, I wondered if Segel was concerned that he would be expected to perform full-frontal nudity in all of his movies going forward.

Segel (correctly) found this question to be hilarious, and told me (and the theater) that he wasn’t overly concerned. He turned out to be right, as he hasn’t (to my knowledge) done full-frontal nudity since.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall is one of the funniest movies from an absolutely devastating stretch of funny movies in the 2000's. The decade as a whole literally has too many great comedies to list without it starting to get ridiculous.

So, let’s get ridiculous?

2000 had Meet the Parents, the original Scary Movie, Road Trip, Dude Where’s My Car, and The Replacements, followed by 2001’s Not Another Teen Movie, Legally Blonde, Zoolander, Super Troopers, How High, Wet Hot American Summer, Rat Race, American Pie 2, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and The Royal Tenenbaums. 2002 brought Mr. Deeds, Van Wilder, Austin Powers: Goldmember, Orange County, Ali G In Da House, and Eight Crazy Nights, with 2003 bringing Old School, School of Rock, and Bruce Almighty in a relatively slow year, but 2004 submitted Dodgeball, Anchorman, Mean Girls, Shaun of the Dead, Team America: World Police, Euro Trip, Kung Fu Hustle, Napoleon Dynamite, The Girl Next Door, White Chicks, 50 First Dates, and Starsky & Hutch. 2005 had Wedding Crashers, the 40 Year Old Virgin, Hitch, and Kicking & Screaming, and 2006 had Talladega Nights, Borat, Click, and Beerfest, then 2007 saw Superbad, Knocked Up, Hot Fuzz, Hot Rod, and Blades of Glory. 2008 brought Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Step Brothers, Tropic Thunder, Pineapple Express, Role Models, Semi-Pro, Baby Mama, and In Bruges, and 2009 wrapped it up with The Hangover, I Love You Man, and Zombieland.

Just look at that run. I’m not sure if it’s just because they’re all movies that came out during my years of adolescence through early college (when everything is just funnier across the board), but to me, this is basically the golden age of comedy movies. Of the 14 movies on my list that I consider “true comedies” (meaning they were funny on purpose, specifically made to be funny first and everything else second, and geared towards adults), eight are from this decade alone. Again, yes, I was watching more comedy movies during this time, so it’s obvious that comedies from this stretch will resonate more than before it or since. But there was something going on at the time.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall, in some ways, is the spiritual sequel to other Judd Apatow projects like The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and Superbad — it’s a romantic comedy, but for dudes. It was hysterical, but there was a thread of genuine heart that ran through it.

But it makes the list because it’s hysterical. One of my favorite scenes, from any comedy, ever, is Jason Segel’s character (Peter) playing a song from his Dracula musical at a bar while Rachel (Mila Kunis) looks on, very confused at first, but slowly starts to get it.

To me, this is the best scene in the movie, perfectly balancing the absurd level of silliness with the heartfelt, relationship-y moments. All of the leads are great in the movie, but I was especially impressed by Mila Kunis, who I had only really seen in That 70’s Show as a shallow and conceited character, so it was interesting to see her play somewhat of a real person.

In the original script, Sarah Marshall’s new boyfriend was supposed to be played by a sweater-wrapped-around-the-shoulders snobbish British guy. When Russell Brand walked in to audition, they immediately re-wrote the part to have it be a pretentious rock star. It was rather fortuitous, as Brand became the breakout star of the movie, and even ended up as the host of his own late-night show. His character here, Aldous Snow, is probably the funniest character in the movie, mostly because he’s so dreadfully unlikable.

There are so many brilliant cameos and minor roles in the movie, from Billy Baldwin as Sarah Marshall’s co-star on their fake cop show, to Paul Rudd’s absolutely brilliant stupidity, to whatever the hell is going on with Jonah Hill. Bill Hader is great as Jason Segel’s step-brother, and Kristen Wiig plays a yoga instructor that got cut from the theatrical cut of the movie, but is great in one scene in the extended cut.

I really enjoy Jason Segel’s work. He played my favorite character on the short-lived Fox sitcom Undeclared, he played a crucial role in one of my favorite shows ever (How I Met Your Mother), I loved him in a supporting role in Bad Teacher with Cameron Diaz, and he’s been generally great in movies like I Love You Man and The Five-Year Engagement. He was also fantastic as David Foster Wallace (one of my favorite writers) in The End of the Tour (which almost made the list). He’s the driving force of the movie here, as the star and the writer, and in the press he did promoting the movie, seemed to laugh at the idea that he got a movie studio to pay for a two-month vacation to Hawaii.

Of all the comedies on my list, I wouldn’t say Forgetting Sarah Marshall is the most heartfelt (that probably goes to Crazy, Stupid, Love), but it’s certainly close. And I really enjoy it for both halves of the movie —one half with the classic Apatow-style man-child being goofy, the raunchy laughs, the dumb laughs, the smart laughs, and the other half being one of the more genuinely resonant romantic arcs in a comedy movie of the last 20+ years. Both halves work, probably even better than you remember.

It’s always had a special place in my heart, simply because of the fact that I was able to meet Jason Segel and ask him a (dumb, but funny) question about his movie. It feels like “my” movie way more than something like Old School or Wedding Crashers does. Re-watching it this week, it was actually considerably funnier than I remember it, and it was already one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen. It seems like it kind of flies under the radar compared to the other hard-hitting comedies that came out during that era, but it’s every bit as funny (if not more), and it’s my 60th-favorite movie of all time.

(For a refresher on the project, I introduced it in a Facebook Post on Day 1)

Here’s our progress on the list so far:

2. A Few Good Men

3. The Social Network

4. Dazed and Confused

5. The Shawshank Redemption

6. The Fugitive

7. The Dark Knight

8. The Departed

9. Saving Private Ryan

10. Inglourious Basterds

11. The Big Short