Getting Confidence from the Short Shorts of Wet Hot American Summer

The last of the new Televised writers is Ian. If you are familiar with any of my other creative ventures you should know who he is. Ian is my creative partner in a lot of things. He had some input on almost every Televised piece and more. Ian designs things and makes jokes. For more on Ian, visit his Instagram, @sundaycrossword. He might change his name again so go check it out now!

5:57 a.m. August 18, 1981: the last day of sleep away camp. Camp Firewood begins to close its doors for the end of yet another summer and the pressure to make their last day a memorable one hangs over everyone's head.

Wet Hot American Summer chronicles the sex-driven misadventures of a group of camp counsellors trying to make the best of their summer while they still have a chance. A story about love, Lust, Murder, War and short shorts, Wet Hot American Summer left me thinking “How in the world did this get made?” 

I don't remember how I discovered this hidden gem; maybe the title was thrown around in passing or maybe a Youtuber I liked recommended it. Whatever the case, I am so grateful that it did because it has easily become one of my favourite movies ever, it makes me ugly laugh with every viewing.

I’m the type of guy who laughs when I see a baby eat shit, the type of guy who makes the joke: “what did the orphan get for Christmas? A tumour.” The type of guy who spends over an hour drawing a picture based on a plethora of clown carcasses painting the ground around a small Volkswagen Beetle would be funny as hell (which it was). At the risk of sounding corny, this movie truly made me feel accepted for being that type of guy: it helped me find confidence. 

There’s this recurring bit that happens throughout the film that encapsulates the wonderfulness of Wet Hot American Summer, it’s a blink and you miss it kind of thing. Every time a character throws something off-screen (anything, whether it be a mug of coffee or a fluffy fleece flannel) it will make the same stock sound effect of glass breaking. Every. Single. Time. This movie felt like it was made by a group of friends who got together to write something that they thought was funny and not necessarily so good. 

Wet Hot American Summer was made for me: Paul Rudd unintentionally killing kids because he’s too busy frenching Elizabeth Banks makes me giggle like a Japanese schoolgirl. Its unapologetic offbeat humour made me feel like I was having the best drug trip of my life. It’s the best kind of stupid. The kind of stupid that you can appreciate because of the thought and commitment put into stupidity. 

As I watched Judd Apatow as a can of beans give a war veteran therapy on how to be himself, I couldn’t help but feel hope! I could do something amazingly entertaining without having to change or shape society's definition of entertaining.

The 1980s were an interesting time for the relationship between masculinity and fashion. Items like short-shorts cropped everything and shirts tighter than a Filipino father's wallet when it’s time to tip at a restaurant. Every scene, the male characters were strutting across the screen with such confidence and swagger you almost forgot that they were wearing something ridiculous. The actors made the clothes almost seem cool. 

Look at Gene, the head chef of Camp Firewood, who developed some sort of PTSD during his time in the Vietnam war. Gene was unhinged, a loose cannon with a short fuse. Contrast that with his clothing: A Filipino-wallet tight shirt and a pair of cropped jorts (jean shorts). He steals every scene he’s in and it isn’t because he’s showing his mid-drift, it’s because Christopher Meloni was funny as hell and was committed to being the verbally abusive, sweater fondling-refrigerator humping lunatic that is Gene. 

The film also opened my eyes to a new way to approach fashion. After watching the film, I found myself experimenting with items of clothing that I always wanted to try but I thought I couldn’t pull off. I bought shorts that ended at my upper thigh, pastel-coloured pieces of clothing and not to mention my killer turtleneck phase. A lot of it was hit or miss! That time in my life formed my tastes. It sparked confidence in me that fueled a fire which pushes me into uncomfortable situations, and without that passion half of what I’ve accomplished so far in my life probably wouldn’t have happened.  

In these times of self-isolation and overall lack of human interaction, I could not help but feel nostalgic for a time in my life that was, well, literally any other time would be better than this. Specifically, it’s the times that involved hanging out with my friends doing some fuck shit. 

They captured lightning in a bottle with Wet Hot American Summer, from its amazing casting done by Susie Farris, who was able to see talent in rising stars like Bradley Cooper and Paul Rudd to name a few, to the fantastic writing by good friends Michael Showalter and David Wain. Wet Hot American Summer was written by Wain and Showalter who were a part of a comedy group called Stella. They were friends back in college and wrote the movie from tales from their childhood of going to sleep away camp as children. The result is a hilarious movie that is fun to watch and makes you feel like you are having a Wet Hot American Summer. 

Wet Hot American Summer (its prequel and sequel) are available on Netflix.