---
title: Wet Hot American Summer
type: Movie
date: 2026-08-20
rating: 8
year: 2001
director: David Wain
status: Finished
image: wet-hot-american-summer.jpg
tags:
  - movie
colorSortKey: [0, 61, 2]
---
 It feels like a long-standing embarrassment that I had never seen _Wet Hot American Summer_. And the longer I put it off, the harder it became to watch — like an undergrad paper already past its deadline. It wasn't even a worry that I wouldn't like it, but a sense that everything the movie had to offer I had already consumed in some other form or fashion, in the various spiritual sequels and films its stars went off to make.

I was wrong, obviously, and I loved it. I loved it in much the same way I loved [[they-came-together]], which is essentially the same film with a slightly different cast. Where _They Came Together_ skewered rom-coms, this one makes fun of teen movies. These films are not well-reviewed in the same way a particularly good episode of _Saturday Night Live_ in its heyday would not be well-reviewed: part of the appeal is vibes and volume. It is easy, perhaps, to focus too much on the jokes that don't land, as opposed to the ones that do.

For my part, what the movie feels like is a warm hug. And in a strange way, it gives me the sense of having already watched it many times — this first viewing being the latest in an ongoing series. Not because the jokes are stale (though, having spent enough time internalizing the UCB extended universe, you could certainly make that accusation) but because it feels _comfortable_.

---

Obviously it is fun to note, as many people do when discussing the film in retrospect, how many incredible stars — or if not stars, then _guys_ — are jammed in here. But I'll avoid saying too much about them, because I don't have much to add that hasn't already been covered at length. I do want to give specific accolades to the children, who managed, in scene after scene, to just absolutely nail the assignment. This is not easy work, honestly. A version of this film in which the child actors drag down the whole thing is not far-fetched.

Is this the greatest comedy movie ever? No, obviously not. But it might be the one, in some small way, that I'm most grateful for — both as a kind of beachhead for a bunch of very talented people to go on and do other things, and as a sort of rallying flag around which people can organize.