"I am McLovin!"

Some days back I was shuffling through my old collections and came across one of my favourite comedy movies of the last decade, Superbad. An R-rated high school comedy, Superbad, which became one of the surprise hits of 2007, achieving acclaim both critically and commercially. The premise was simple, as a high school comedy would have, about two high school seniors along with their friend trying to get booze delivered to a party to appear cool in front of the girls they admire. But the simple premise did not evolve into a simple screenplay by any means, and the eventual movie becomes a roller-coaster ride filled with fun, adventure and comedy, that would make all your pranks and stunts of your childhood seem angelic in contrast.  

The most important thing that Superbad threw across would be the young acting talents in the form of Jonah Hill, Michael Cera and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. The fact that a relative newbie called Emma Stone gets overlooked in many of the scenes tells you how wonderfully the three high school students grabbed the screen. There's a particular scene in the midst of all that which I could play over a million times and yet burst out laughing each time. The one where Christopher Mintz-Plasse gets a fake ID to get the booze, but does so by choosing a weird fake name... McLovin! If you have seen this scene then the thought itself of skinny Christopher Mintz-Plasse (aka Fogell) fighting to explain his position while Jonah Hill starts losing his cool as Michael Cera works hard to keep things calm, does bring out a smile always.

Cera: Wait, you changed your name to McLovin. McLovin! What kind of a stupid name is that Fogell, what are you trying to be, an Irish R&B singer?

Mintz-Plasse: Naah, they let you pick any name you want when you get down there.

Hill: And you landed on McLovin?

Mintz-Plasse: Yeahhh... it was between that and Muhammed!

Hill: Why the f*** would it be between that and Muhammed? Why couldn't you pick a common name like a normal person?

Mintz-Plasse: Muhammed is the most commonly used name on earth! Read a f***ing book for once! 

Cera: Fogell, have you ever actually met someone named Muhammed?

Mintz-Plasse: Have you actually ever met anyone named McLovin?

And so it goes on about how 'McLovin' has no second name and why his age appears as 25 on the ID!! Hilarious... but the icing on the cake is towards the end of this conversation. 

Cera: This isn't terrible. I mean, it's up to you, Fogell. This guy is either gonna think 'Here's another kid with a fake ID' or 'Here's McLovin, a 25 year-old Hawaiian organ donor'. Okay? So what's it gonna be? 

Mintz-Plasse thinks and Mintz-Plasse says: I am McLovin!

It's been more than five years since the summer of 2007 and the three lads of Superbad have been faring well. Jonah Hill has seen his fortunes really climb, even winning an Oscar nomination for his performance in Moneyball, apart from starring in the hit 21 Jump Street, lending his voice for animation flicks like How to Train your Dragon and Megamind, cameo role in Django Unchained, and has a lineup that includes Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street. Michael Cera's affable smile was unmistakable in the highly popular Juno, and has won him lead roles in young adult flicks like Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, apart from seeing a return to the latest season of Arrested Development. Christophe Mintz-Plasse will always be fondly known as McLovin, but starred in another comedy Role Models, also voiced for How to Train your Dragon, though he's more popular nowadays for his role as Red Mist in the Kick-Ass series which sees the sequel release this year. So there, the lads are doing well, and hopefully there will be a lot more to come from them. Till then all I can say is that if you are searching for a smile, all you need to do is remember... McLovin!