C’mon, guys. You’ve all done it. Grabbed a beach ball at the lake, a basketball from the court and stuff it under your shirt. “Oh, I’m pregnant! Ha, ha, ha!” Ladies, don’t ask us why we think this is funny. It just is.

Unfortunately, the older I get, the less I need to rely on props to complete the distended belly effect. My good friend beer has accomplished that for me. Me ‘n the gut? We go places. Thanks, beer!

I was having trouble thinking up a sketch for Knocked Up and was even contemplating drawing something completely unrelated to the movie for more of an artistic exercise. But then it seemed as if real-life events surrounding me were steering me toward some kind of commentary about the movie and the miracle of childbirth.

I just got the e-mail today that one of my good friends since high school welcomed his second child to the world on Wednesday. A boy they named Emmett. He already has a 2 year-old daughter. I’ve known this guy since Doom II was a big deal and he spent nights locked up in his room with the lights off and the volume to eleven scaring the crap out of himself. Now he’s a father of two. Wild. Congrats to him, of course.

I don’t know if it’s my news to share, but real-life Jared has been kind of locked out of commenting on the site since we switched our archive format. Otherwise, I’m sure he’d tell you himself. But the good news is that my best friend Jared and his wife Patti are expecting their first child in late July. This has me really excited because we can kind of go through this whole fatherhood thing together. I have so few male friends who have kids and it’s nice to have someone else wrestling with the transition that you can bounce ideas off of. It would be a real trip if our kids could grow up to be friends, as well.

Another co-worker of mine is due in October. Her first child, as well. That’s the thing, people. You grow up and it seems like everyone starts to experience these watershed moments around the same time. For a while, it seems like you’re going to wedding after wedding after wedding. Then it’s a dry spell for a few years and suddenly you find yourself buying onesies and teething rings for everyone in your social circle all at the same time. We should have just gone to Costco and stocked up on baby gifts that we could pull out of a giant Tupperware considering all the baby showers we’ve been to.

Someone else I know who recently had a baby is my web comic contemporary Dave Buist. He had a baby girl earlier in the month. If you recognize Dave’s name, it’s because he does the excellent comic Taking the Bi-Pass and because he has been an invaluable asset to Theater Hopper. He is the architect of the aforementioned archiving system and is an all around great guy to boot.

I probably would have shared Dave’s news when it was more timely, but since the stars are all aligning on the child-birth front, it’s just as good that I share it now. Share it… like it’s my news. I’m misspeaking. I want to extend my congratulations to Dave his wife and daughter. I’m giving Dave a (long overdue) guest strip that he’ll be running on his site next week, so stay tuned for that. I’ll mention it again in this space soon.

Anyway, I don’t know what any of this has to do with the movie Knocked Up. I guess I went off on some kind of wild tangent. But anywho… the movie has been getting really good reviews. Even though her comments made no sense, Entertainment Weekly’s Lisa Schwarzbaum gave the movie an “A”. The remainder of the critics reviews have been just as strong. A 91% positive ranking over at Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing. I think my theory about people being thirst for a down-to-Earth comedy really hits the mark. People are ready to step outside the fantasy environments laid down by the last three summer blockbusters that have been dominating screens. They want to get a little closer to reality. At least for one weekend.

Jeffery Wells from Hollywood Elsewhere wrote a review of Knocked Up a few weeks ago and liked it. But I kind of winced in a recent post where he referenced the review and mentioned that Seth Rogen‘s star-making turn casts him as the John Belushi of this generation.

I have no idea why critics do this. I think it’s fair to contextualize things in terms of what came before them, but Wells is a critic in his late 40’s, so Belushi was someone that spoke directly to HIS generation. You would never catch a review that was say… MY AGE or younger comparing Rogen to Belushi. And maybe that’s because that due to the fact I’m younger, Belushi doesn’t speak directly to my sensibilities. I’m AWARE of Belushi. I LIKE Belushi. But I really don’t see the comparison to Rogen beyond the fact that they both have obvious charm and, yes, they are/were both a little rotund.

Wells comparing Rogen to Belushi would be like my grandfather claiming that Rogen is the Fatty Arbuckle of this generation! It’s a lazy, short-hand reference.

But I digress. His review of the movie is complimentary, if somewhat stand-offish (Wells will never admit to having a good time in a film meant to appeal to the masses) and I think the movie is going to do really well this weekend.

Of course, considering I’m a guy zeroing in on 30, a recent father and re-assessing the direction my life is headed, I’m, like, The Perfect Storm of demographic touch points for the movie. I don’t want to ratchet up my expectations too high, but I’m expecting this film to kind of make me feel better about the uncertainty angle of being a father. In the back of my head, I know things with Henry will be fine. But since I’m a parent now, “worry” is my default setting and it’s all the more raw since I’m so new to it. A little bit of humor, I think, will take the edge off.

That’s enough ranting. Don’t forget that there is a pre-sale of our newest shirt design Movie Law #948 until June 13.

Thanks and have a great weekend!