The Quietest Freak

Recently, I’ve been working my way through Freaks and Geeks for the second time and am proud to report that it’s still funny, just in case anyone was worried.

(Quick side note: the fact that Freaks and Geeks lasted for 18 episodes whereas Two and a Half Men just aired episode number 189 is proof that we live in an unjust world. So is the existence of human trafficking.)

By now, the legacy of Freaks and Geeks has been well-documented, given how many people involved with the show have since gone on to bigger and more Muppet-oriented things. This is pretty easy to understand, as it’s clear right from the premiere that the actors in this show were very good at their jobs. However, I don’t think anyone watching in 1999 would have been able to predict that Seth Rogen would become as big of a star as he is.

This isn’t because he’s especially bad in Freaks and Geeks. It’s more that his character, Ken Miller, isn’t given very much to do. Granted, he does get a storyline to himself towards the end of the show's run when he starts dating “tuba girl” Amy Andrews, at which point you start to get a better feel for his strong comedic chops (his conversation with the guidance counselor Mr. Rosso about possibly being gay stands out as particularly hilarious in my mind). But apart from that, he mostly exists in the show to make the occasional wry, smartass comment while the rest of the freaks experience the bulk of the emotional arcs. This was not Undeclared, where he was basically just playing a beta version of the Seth Rogen archetype we all know and love today.

What’s most surprising about this is that, out of all the people involved with Freaks and Geeks, Rogen has become most strongly associated with its Apatowian brand of humor. I don’t think you could call him the biggest star to come out of the show given how famous James Franco and Jason Segel both are, but Franco has recently shifted his focus more towards turning his life into a postmodern, possibly serious art project, while Segel has lately branched out into the aforementioned Muppet and mediocre-looking romantic comedy territory. Rogen, on the other hand, has largely stuck with movies filled with awkward moments (like Freaks and Geeks), hilarious moments (like Freaks and Geeks), and ultimately happy endings (like most but certainly not all episodes of Freaks and Geeks): The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad, Pineapple Express, Funny People, 50/50. I know these aren’t his only movies, but I think it’s fair to say he’s more well-known for them than he is for, say, Donnie Darko.

There are moments throughout Freaks and Geeks where you catch a glimpse of how funny Rogen can be, but by and large the heavy lifting is left to the other actors. It would have been pretty easy to peg Franco and Segel as future stars watching this show 12 years ago, but the fact that Rogen turned out to be the standard-bearer for its style of humor was a pleasant surprise.

Now we just need to get Joe Flaherty more work. He has some of my favorite lines of the series as Sam and Lindsay’s dad.