Every time Seth Rogen comes out with a new movie I tend to cringe with excitement. That feeling is seemingly paradoxical, I know, and it’s confused me for a while.
The excitement is genuine because Rogen’s funniness, while somewhat unique, especially given his gravely stoner voice, fills a much needed role in Hollywood and in my life. He’s familiar. Rogen is the dude who’d take bingers with you late into the night once the party was over, who cleans up nice at your wedding, who will probably be a good, understanding dad (and still rip a blunt with you after the fam is asleep, responsibly). Put simply, Rogen is likable, especially to Jewish dudes in their thirties.
Understanding the cringing, however, is not something I’ve understood until very recently. I’ve not watched every Seth Rogen film like Tablet contributor Louie Lazar, who profiled him in 2014, but I have seen a bunch, and, all in all, I’ve liked most of his flicks. But it wasn’t until I watched the surprisingly excellent madhouse This Is the End, that I realized the truth about my relationship with Seth Rogen the actor: I want to hang out with him; or I recognize that, in some alternate life, we would be friends. This, I imagine, is the mark of a good actor—someone whose personality can permeate across roles in various projects and continuously connect with a fan base on levels perhaps unbeknownst to the thespian himself.
I cringed because I, a Seth Rogen fanboy, realized he and I will probably never be friends. But this has enabled me to shed these cringe-ful feelings every time a new Rogen movie comes out so that now, I approach them with excitement.
This week, Rogen and his crew—screenwriter Evan Goldberg and usual suspects Jonah Hill, James Franco, Michael Cera, Craig Robinson, and more—released a trailer to an R-rated animated movie called Sausage Party. Watch the red band (that means there are swears and stuff) trailer below. It’s food + apocalypse.
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Jonathan Zalman is a writer and teacher based in Brooklyn.