The line deliveries in movies like Anchorman or Knocked Up are only part of the reason Rudd is one of the funniest actors around today. While “60% of the time, it works every time!” and “You know how I know you’re gay?” are staples of the Rudd repertoire, his physical humor might be his bread and butter.
My embarrassing admission (not to be confused with Paul Rudd’s embarrassing movie Admission! (jk, I thought that movie was alright)) is that I found Paul Rudd to be a bit of a smarmy douchebag for years, due to reasons that I can no longer recall. What I do recall is that two incidences rehabilitated my mental assessment of him as a star: his supporting role in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which I found so convincing that I didn’t even recognize him until the end credits, and his dancing on The Daily Show.
Paul Rudd’s dancing is so effortless, so hopelessly white, and so, so funny. But the dancing is just one part of a larger ethos of physical comedy that makes Rudd unique. It’s what supplements his dialogue. It’s hard to imagine the accented delivery of “slappin’ da bass” without his absurd posture.
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