The Modern Era's Greatest Comedy Director Is Also The Most Underrated

When people discuss the great comedic filmmakers of the first quarter of the 21st century, all the usual names show up. Judd Apatow. Lord and Miller. Adam McKay. The Daniels. But there is one name that doesn't come up as often as it should. This director, who also writes most of their own movies, manages to pay tribute to the comedic styling of the 1970s and '80s while bringing a modern touch of meta commentary to it. Their willingness to play out a bit can be surprising at times, as the laugh hits a high, but the gag keeps going, throwing the audience off until they catch up with what is happening, and then that previous high is blown right by.

Most surprisingly is that if you were to look up the director's movies on Rotten Tomatoes, you would see that half his movies have rotten scores, with two in the 30s even as they have become beloved comedy classics. And, of their seven movies, just one has managed to be a success at the box office, which likely plays into why they aren't discussed more. But, for people who love comedy, and especially absurd comedy, David Wain is a name held in high regard.

David Wain Plays At A Different Level

David Wain's most popular movie, Wet Hot American Summer, is the perfect example of his style and why it seems to take people a while to come around. The movie, which he co-wrote with Michael Showalter essentially serves as the first movie to come out of the sketch comedy show The State that Wain, Showalter, and many other great comedians came out of. Like their show, Wet Hot American Summer was misunderstood by older viewers, leading to some truly horrible reviews, and was initially missed by younger generations. But, in time, it has become an undeniable classic, spawning two spin-off Netflix shows.

What makes Wain's work stand out is abundantly clear in Wet Hot American Summer, and he's already mastered it by then as well, showing just how much time and practice he had put in before getting the chance to make the movie. The film is not interested in honest human interactions. It is interested in mocking the moments in comedies where the two best friends fall out over something relatively unserious, where the romantic will-they-won't-they hits the big "maybe they won't" moment, and where a quick joke exists only to fill space.

In Wain's movies, the audience is in on the joke, but the director rarely, if ever, winks at the audience, letting us know they are in on it as well. Wain trusts that the viewer will get what he and the actors are going for, and isn't worried about the people who don't. His goal, it seems, is simple: what is the funniest thing that can happen here? Where other comedy filmmakers look for ways to fit in honest human moments, Wain goes beyond that level and reaches for the Airplane or Marx Brothers level of absurd. And with his masterful eye, it hits every time.

David Wain Knows How To Break The Rules

David Wain's movies, even the more general audience-friendly work like Role Models and Wanderlust, show that he understands the most important thing about comedy: knowing the rules of a joke, and knowing how to break them. And the most important rule in comedy is timing.

A joke needs to hit at just the right moment to land, building enough anticipation — or, in some scenarios, seemingly coming out of nowhere — for it to hit with the viewer. Any good director knows how to play those beats. Wain knows how to break the them. From the very long "Hey... thanks" scene between Paul Rudd and Max Greenfield in They Came Together to the agonizingly painful foot in the doorway scene in his latest movie, Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, Wain plays the moment and lets the joke hit. Then, as the audience stops laughing, he keeps going. And going. And going. And the audacity to keep going wins the viewers over, bringing out a harder laugh. But going past the joke and into a new level isn't Wain's only trick.

The director also knows how to hit fast and keep moving. Fast shots of Paul Rudd's character tossing kids out of a van in Wet Hot American Summer. Jason Mantzoukas suddenly crashing through a window and holding on for dear life in They Came Together. Bobb'e J. Thompson suddenly Slapping Seann William Scott in Role Models. These beats hit because we aren't expecting them and because the movies don't linger on them. Just as he knows how to break timing to great effect for the long jokes, he knows to ignore timing for the fast hits.

But, perhaps most impressive of all is how Wain is able to break every rule about timing in a single scene in Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, proving that he is truly a master of the craft. As you should see the movie and the scene itself is a big spoiler, I won't go too deep into detail. But I will say that, in a five-minute period, Wain not only stretches a gag out to a point that seems impossible, he manages to cap it all off with a moment that seems to come out of nowhere.

With his skills behind the camera, Wain has proven himself to be one of the great comedic directors of the last 25 years. And now it's time everyone started to treat his work with the respect it deserves.

Release Date July 10, 2026

Runtime 93 minutes

Director David Wain

Writers Ken Marino, David Wain

Producers Anthony Bregman, Franny Baldwin, James Canniffe, John Slattery, Jon Hamm, Adrian Politowski, Zoey Deutch, Peter Cron

Cast

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  Zoey Deutch

  Gail Daughtry