R for plausibility
So the most plausible thing about this movie actually turns out to be the title.
And the least plausible thing? It’s not Cameron Diaz getting drunk in school, or Jason Segel as a PE teacher (although I’ve never seen a PE teacher in such good shape), or the idea that the slutty car-wash routine wouldn’t get that teacher Bill O’Reilly’d out of her job in about 7 seconds. No, the least plausible thing in this trailer is that any school-age child today would have heard of Michael Jordan.
Jordan’s third and (as of this writing) final retirement was in 2003. That’s eight years ago – two years before YouTube was invented, a landmark that most students consider the dawn of modern civilization. Their only awareness of the mythic pre-YouTube era derives from Family Guy references.
Try this game with your friendly neighborhood teenager: hum the hook MC Hammer’s “Can’t Touch This,†and ask if they know who it’s from. “Sure,†they’ll say, “Peter Griffin.†And then the hairs on your head will turn ashen gray, and your bones will wither to dust, and you will feel as old as you truly are.—Ben Orlin
