David Wain doesn’t want to be famous. Which is good, because he’s not, at least not by any standard definition. The writer-director-actor’s two-decade resume is littered with short-lived TV shows and movies that, almost without fail, premiered to miserable box office, critical lampooning, and full-on rejection from the public, then eventually found fervent cult followings. This peculiar but consistent pattern — which Wain himself appreciates, as it allows him to fly under the radar while following his bizarre muse — can be credited, in part, to his singular brand of comedy, a sort of straight-faced absurdism that roundly rejects logic and continuity, embraces chaos and joke repetition, and vastly improves upon repeat consumption.
David Wain on ‘Wet Hot American Summer,’ On-Set Hookups, and Paul Rudd’s Aging Secrets
