If you were a movie-goer in the early aughts, you had a front row seat to a golden age of comedy. Ben Stiller, Seth Rogen, Will Ferrell, Owen Wilson, Steve Carell, and Vince Vaughn became unlikely leading men - a band of rowdy wedding crashers, hungover bachelors, and 40-year-old virgins dubbed the 'Frat Pack' that suddenly, and surprisingly, became the centre of the movie industry. Over the span of a single decade (roughly 2001 until 2011), this outsider brand of improvisational comedy took Hollywood by storm, ushering in a new kind of star and record-breaking box office returns. Then, seemingly overnight, Frat Pack movies vanished. Or did they? In Funny Business, award-winning author and film critic Matt Singer traces the path these gonzo stars and directors took from the fringes of comedy to the mainstream - beginning on tiny stages like Second City and the Groundlings, then infiltrating into talent incubators like SNL, eventually leading to big-screen domination in Hollywood. Along the way, he shares insider stories of the films that raised a generation, including: The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Zoolander, Borat, Anchorman, Old School, and The Hangover. How did these movies and their stars come to dominate a generation of moviemaking? Who won - and who was left out - of this comedy boom? And can studio comedies make a comeback in our modern digital and streaming world? A love letter to a bygone era, Funny Business celebrates a generation of iconic comedies and points the way forward to a (possible) new future for cinema - never forgetting that the audience always gets the last laugh.
