The 15 Best Movies Like Superbad

Greg Mottola's "Superbad" did R-rated comedy super good, becoming an instant classic on release in 2007. The insanely-quotable, super-raunchy follows the story of Evan (Michael Cera) and Seth (Jonah Hill), two high school seniors who are looking forward to one wild night of partying before they graduate. They're sex-obsessed, eager to drink as much as possible, and desperate to prove that they're as cool as their peers ... even though, c'mon, it's high school. No one's cool.

"Superbad" catapulted its leads to stardom, but the behind-the-scenes story of the movie was just as impactful on the comedy scene of that decade. In addition to being produced by Judd Apatow, "Superbad" was written by Seth Rogen and his childhood friend Evan Goldberg, and their unmistakable comedic sensibility would go on to influence the whole genre. 

If you're looking for other movies like "Superbad," you could do a whole lot worse than seeing out Rogen and Goldberg's other projects, some of which are on this list. Below, you'll also find recommendations for movies that likely inspired "Superbad," movies that rely on similar friendship dynamics, and other landmark movies in aughts comedy. Chicka chicka yeah!

"Superbad" cemented Jonah Hill as an icon of millennial comedy, but if you're a person who was of MTV-watching age in the 2000s, you likely became aware of him the year before "Superbad." The trailer for "Accepted" was inescapable back then, featuring Hill in a hot dog suit loudly proclaiming, "Ask me about my wiener!" Trust me when I say that that line echoed through high school hallways around the country, a year before anyone knew who McLovin was.

In "Accepted," Hill plays Sherman, an affable, dorky guy who helps his friend Bartleby (Justin Long) open a fake university. Sherman's attending Harmon College because he was a good student, but he helps Bartleby run the South Harmon Institute of Technology, and we'll let you work out the fake school's acronym on your own. In a sense, he's playing the Michael Cera role from "Superbad." He's nicer than his friend, but he wants to be accepted — no pun intended — so he finds himself swept up in his friend's hare-brained schemes. It's a ridiculous, over-the-top college comedy in the lineage of "Animal House" and "Revenge of the Nerds" – both of which, not coincidentally, we'll talk about below.

One of the most remarkable things about "Superbad" is the way the movie eventually softens into something genuinely poignant. It's not just a movie about friends desperate to lose their virginity and get as drunk as they can; it's also a movie about friends who are growing up, realizing that they're headed different directions, and making peace with how much they've given each other throughout their lives.

Greg Mottola directed not one but two classic teen comedies of the aughts. The other, Sundance hit "Adventureland," is also a poignant coming-of-age tale, and it's also about characters who know they're on the verge of growing up and are constantly battling themselves, caught between looking toward the future and wanting to hold on to a last gasp of childhood innocence. 

"Adventureland" stars Jesse Eisenberg — cut from the Michael Cera cloth, of course — as a college grad who gets a summer job at a local theme park. He falls in love with a fellow employee named Em (Kristen Stewart, proving her talent at the height of her "Twilight" fame), fights with other coworkers, and tries to prove himself to his parents, all over the course of one eventful summer.

Seth and Evan in "Superbad" are eager to party and prove themselves to the cool kids, but they're not only looking forward to getting drunk. More specifically, they're desperate to have sex before they graduate high school and head off to college. "You don't want girls to think you s*** d*** at f****** p*****," Seth warns Evan. "Superbad" knows that teenage boys can be gross, horny monsters, and perhaps no movie understands this better than "American Pie." The seminal 1999 comedy is about a guy named Jim (Jason Biggs), a high school senior who makes a pact with his best friends that they'll lose their virginities by prom night.

Just like "Superbad," "American Pie" was instantly-quotable, representing a true shift in the culture; "American Pie" even launched an unlikely billion-dollar franchise. After all, this is the movie that popularized the idea of the "MILF." Band geeks everywhere mimicked Michelle (Alyson Hannigan), swapping raunchy stories that happened "this one time, at band camp." And teenage boys everywhere eyed apple pies warily, wondering if what the movie said was true...

The image of a skinnier friend and a bigger friend has been a tried-and-true comedy format forever, going back to the days of Laurel & Hardy and Abbott & Costello. "Superbad" plays on that dynamic, as does "National Lampoon's Animal House," the 1978 college comedy. It opens with Larry Kroger (Thomas Hulce) and Kent Dorfman (Stephen Furst), a skinny guy and a bigger guy who are rushing fraternity row. They seem mildly embarrassed of one another, but at Delta House they find acceptance. After all, the frat is full of burnouts and misfits, and no one cares about impressing each other. Instead, Larry and Kent get to relax into a semester of partying hard, including, while wearing those iconic togas.

We likely wouldn't have Jonah Hill as a comedic persona without John Belushi's character from "Animal House." The production of "Animal House" wasn't all beer and partying, but John "Bluto" Blutarsky is a comic icon, a guy who's been going to undergrad for seven years just so he can keep on drinking. Belushi was a stellar physical comedian — see, for example, the sequence where he crushes a can on his face and breaks a beer bottle over his head — and you can see the DNA of his buffoonery in everything Hill does.

"Blockers" is a blast, the kind of teen movie that's well aware of all the teen movies that have come before. Like "American Pie," this one is about some high school seniors who want to lose their virginity on prom night. This time, though, we're following the girls, and "Blockers" understands that teen girls can be just as horny and gross as teen boys. Geraldine Viswanathan, Kathryn Newton, and Gideon Adlon make for a great central trio, and we find ourselves oddly proud of these girls for going after what they want.

"Blockers" also follows their parents as they try to reach their daughters and stop them from making a mistake. It's like if Seth and Evan's parents were hot on their tail throughout the antics of "Superbad," always turning up at the last moment and getting into shenanigans of their own in the meantime. This movie cemented John Cena as a viable movie star, features an excellent performance from Leslie Mann, and even boasts "Superbad" scribe Evan Goldberg as a producer. Put simply, "Blockers" gets it. 

Like "Blockers," "Booksmart" sort of functions as a female-centric flip of the dynamic in "Superbad." This one is about Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever), two good students who realize on the last day of high school that they probably could've loosened up and had more fun. After all, the popular kids are going to great schools, too, so why did Molly and Amy deny themselves so much for the last four years? Can they make up what they've missed with one wild night, a madcap "Superbad"-style odyssey across town, hitting up every party they can along the way?

Molly is essentially the Seth character, goading her friend into taking risks, which makes sense when you consider that Feldstein is Jonah Hill's younger sister. Like her brother, Feldstein is a gifted, committed comedic performer who handily carries the movie. That's not to discount the rest of the cast, of course, many of whom have gone on to bigger things since this film. You'll spot "Scream" star Mason Gooding, "Theater Camp" breakout Noah Galvin, "Sweethearts" star Nico Hiraga, "The Bear" supporting star Molly Gordon, and many more. Ultimately, much like "Superbad," "Booksmart" is a hilarious lesson in friendship.

Several people have made movies that can best be described as "what if 'Superbad' but girls," so it makes sense that someone would eventually try "what if 'Superbad' but middle schoolers?" That's "Good Boys," which, like several other movies on this list, was produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. It's a raunchy, R-rated, foul-mouthed comedy starring children, and it manages to capture that same anarchic spirit that "Superbad" so ably displayed.

The film follows three sixth graders (Jacob Tremblay, Keith L. Williams, and Brady Noon) who are invited to a kissing party, because if you make "Superbad" about middle schoolers, you can't exactly have them eager to lose their virginities. Like "Superbad," much of this movie takes place over one eventful day as the kids try to get to the mall to replace a broken drone. There's a setpiece at a frat house, a hysterical scene where they have to cross a busy highway, and even a subplot about drugs.

In other hands, this movie could've been a mess. Thankfully, Tremblay is a talented young actor, and like "Superbad," "Good Boys" ends on a genuinely-stirring, poignant note about the power of friendship and growing up.

Seth Rogen wasn't just involved in "Superbad" behind the scenes, since he also has a relatively smaller role as Officer Michaels, one of the cops who takes McLovin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) on a wild ride. The same year he starred in "Superbad," Rogen also led the cast of "Knocked Up," a Judd Apatow film that cemented that group as the pre-eminent comedic voices of the latter half of the decade. After those two movies, there was no denying that Rogen was a star.

In "Knocked Up," the funnyman plays a stoner named Ben, a slacker who one night manages to sleep with Alison (Katherine Heigl) after hitting it off at a bar. What was supposed to have been a one night stand turns into something much more serious when Alison realizes she's pregnant, and she and Ben need to decide whether they'll simply co-parent or if there could be a genuine romance here.

Like many other films from Apatow and this crew, "Knocked Up" skillfully blends raunchy comedy with genuine emotional stakes (and a real story from Paul Rudd's marriage). In addition to his comedic gifts, Rogen can occasionally be a stirring dramatic actor, and he gets some really great moments here.

The 1990s were full of teen movies like "She's All That," "Can't Hardly Wait," "Never Been Kissed," and, yes, "American Pie." They were big studio comedies, glossy depictions of high school as a place filled with attractive people who had lots of fun (or lots of sex). In the aughts, however, a handful of movies like "Superbad" aimed for something a bit more realistic, a bit more down-to-earth. Sure, "Superbad" is heightened, but it's also a movie that understands just how lonely high school can sometimes be, even if you have friends.

A few years before "Superbad," "Napoleon Dynamite" took the indie film scene by storm. Jon Heder starred as the titular character, an outcast who's mostly just trying to make it through any given day. He's got weirdos in his family, and he seems to only attract other weirdos at school, too, including an exchange student named Pedro (Efren Ramirez). Add in a llama, a campaign for class president, and a healthy love of tater tots, and you've got the recipe for quite the quirky comedy. The less said about the awful "Napoleon Dynamite" animated series, the better.

When Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg wrote "Superbad," even though the main character was named Seth, Rogen let someone else play the lead. The following year, they re-teamed to pen "Pineapple Express," a stoner buddy comedy that let Rogen go wild in the lead role. This time, he plays a process server called Dale who loves his job, because he can be high pretty much all the time. His dealer is Saul (James Franco), a long-haired burnout who excitedly shows his favorite customer a rare strain of weed called Pineapple Express. 

Unfortunately, when Dale witnesses a corrupt cop murder someone in cold blood, he drops his rare Pineapple Express joint while fleeing. Soon they're on the run, desperate to avoid the murderers on their tail thanks to that specific strain of pot. You can feel Rogen's comedic sensibility shining through — he's a great observer of the dynamic between friends who don't actually like each other very much — but sadly, "Pineapple Express 2" didn't get made thanks to a budget disagreement.

In "Superbad," Evan and Seth are hoping to get lucky with girls, but they're also drawn forward by the allure of the party, that magical space where high schoolers convince themselves they're acting like adults ... and really can behave like absolute animals. If all the awkward, drunken hedonism of "Superbad" is what grabbed you about that movie, then you're going to want to check out "Project X," a found-footage film from 2012 about what purports to be the biggest high school house party ever.

Thomas Mann stars as the aptly-named Thomas, a kid who exists at the margins of his high school. He's not popular, but he's not a total loser; in other words, he has just the right connections to draw a decent-enough house party crowd with the promise of booze. That crowd invites their friends, who invite their friends, who invite theirs, and before long the party spins out of control into absolute mayhem. By the time Thomas climbs to the roof and screams "My party is legendary!" to the news choppers circling overhead, you can't help but agree.

Like "Animal House" and "Accepted," "Revenge of the Nerds" is about an ensemble of characters a bit older than the ones in "Superbad," but they all deal with similar dynamics within a friendship in flux that's trying to find its place in a larger group. Here, two nerds named Gilbert (Anthony Edwards) and Lewis (Robert Carradine) are unsuccessful in rushing fraternities, quickly angering the jocks at Alpha Beta.

Instead, the nerds form their own frat, incorporating a chapter of Lambda Lambda Lambda even though that's usually an all-black fraternity. The movie is about the rivalry between the jocks and the underdogs, constantly navigating that elemental struggle between the popular kids and the ones on the outskirts. Gilbert and Lewis make a friend named Booger (Curtis Armstrong), and there's some Booger DNA in Jonah Hill's portrayal of Seth. He's a gregarious oddball who loves being the center of attention at a party, talking a big game even if every single person there knows he can't back it up. 

Fun fact: "Revenge of the Nerds" got Bradley Whitford his role on "The West Wing."

As mentioned above, one of the most striking things about "Superbad" is its unexpected sense of melancholy. Coming-of-age movies sometimes commit too hard to the idea that their characters want to grow up as quickly as possible, but "Superbad" understands that sometimes it's fun to have a sleepover with your best friend and boop each other's noses.

Going back to the 1980s, the best example of this has to be the John Hughes movie "Sixteen Candles." Long before Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Seth Rogen, and Judd Apatow were defining comedy for millennials by all starring in each other's movies, the so-called Brat Pack teamed up for a series of films about navigating high school and getting older. "Sixteen Candles" features Molly Ringwald (and almost starred Viggo Mortensen too) as a girl excited to turn 16, only for her parents to forget her birthday. It's about those transitional moments where you realize you're not a kid anymore, but you're not quite sure that you're ready to be a grown-up. After all, grown-ups kind of suck.

2004 was a big year for teen comedies. In addition to "Mean Girls" and "Napoleon Dynamite," that year also gave us "The Girl Next Door," a risqué film about a high school senior named Matthew (Emile Hirsch) who realizes his gorgeous new neighbor Danielle (Elisha Cuthbert) is an adult film star. As he falls head over heels for the buxom blonde, Matthew gets drawn in to her occasionally-dangerous lifestyle. After all, she's on the hook with a porn producer named Kelly (an excellent Timothy Olyphant), a world-wise man who doesn't like some teenager sniffing around one of his girls.

"The Girls Next Door" isn't necessarily great in retrospect, as there's a lot of moralizing about Matthew wanting to save Danielle from her life of sex work, and we imagine a similar movie made today would not look down on her profession the way this one does. Ultimately, though, "The Girl Next Door" has a surprisingly grown-up view of sexuality, an important life lesson for teenage boys who act like the aforementioned horny, gross monsters that teenage boys can often be. Come for the sexual shenanigans, but stay for the charming, early Paul Dano performance.

Once you've made your way through the Seth Rogen/Evan Goldberg/Jonah Hill/Judd Apatow canon, dipping in and out of the movies that likely inspired them, you're going to want to check out their 2012 film "This Is The End." Rogen and Goldberg not only wrote but co-directed this one, but this time, everyone stars as exaggerated versions of themselves. "This Is The End" is about a raucous party in the Hollywood Hills attended by Rogen, Hill, Michael Cera, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Danny McBride, and a bunch of other recognizable stars who are in all those movies. 

Unfortunately, the world ends, turning Tinseltown into a post-apocalyptic hellhole. The survivors hunker down in Franco's mansion for endless days of drinking, getting high, bickering, and plotting an escape, everyone's ridiculous shenanigans finally reaching a boiling point. Everyone involved expertly skewers the comedic personas they'd developed in the years since "Superbad" ... and in Cera's case, not to spoil things, but we mean "skewer" literally.