Seth Rogen Regrets Homophobic Jokes in His Previous Movies

Seth Rogen knows the homophobic jokes in his earlier movies haven’t aged well.

In an interview with GQ, the comedian shared that his producing partner, Evan Goldberg, recently said to him: “By the time my kids are grown, all of our work will be deemed unwatchable…I have no doubt about it. I think entire parts of culture will just be deemed regressive and no one will fucking watch it anymore, and there’s a good chance our movies will fit into that category.”

Rogen and Goldberg cut their teeth as producers with films like Knocked Up and Superbad, and Rogen previously expressed regret about some jokes in the latter.

“There’s for sure some stuff in our earlier movies — and even in our more recent movies — where even like a year later you’re like, ‘Eh, maybe that wasn’t the greatest idea,’” he told The Guardian back in 2016.

Specifically, he said there were “some jokes in Superbad that are bordering on blatantly homophobic.”

But now Rogen seems more aware of the world around him, and says he isn’t interested in making those kinds of jokes anymore.

“We do not want people to feel bad when they’re watching our movies,” he said.

“I’ve had people come up to me and be like, ‘That made me feel like shit when I was in the movie theater and everyone was laughing about that. Like the ‘How I know you’re gay’ thing [from The 40-Year-Old Virgin], it’s something people have been like, ‘It’s not fun to be in the theater when people are laughing at that, knowing what they’re probably actually laughing at.’”

As for how he plans to proceed with making things funny without hurting people in the future?

“I think if you actually care, then it’s easy.”

With several films and TV shows in the works for Rogen and Goldberg, we’re hoping they stick to walking that line, because Rogen’s right — being funny without having it be at the expense of whole groups of people isn’t that hard.