By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
Comedies have been missing from the theater for so long now, an entire generation has come of age in a world without a new big-budget comedy releasing every month. Even on streaming, new comedies are few and far between, but one film from 2004, that was ignored in theaters, has thrived in the new world of entertainment and become a cult classic. Eurotrip, the type of raunchy teen comedy no studio will touch with a 10-foot pole today, is more popular 20 years after its release than ever before, and it’s easily streamable for free thanks to Pluto TV.
Scotty Doesn’t Know
Eurotrip kicks off with one of the best teen party scenes in history when recent graduate Scotty (Scott Mechlowicz) and Cooper (Jacob Pitts) go to a party to help Scotty get over his recent break up with Fiona (Smallville’s Kristin Kreuk). It’s going pretty well, until the band Lustra takes the stage with frontman Matt Damon as Donny, the lead singer, to play their new song, “Scotty Doesn’t Know.” Damon, taking a break from filming The Brothers Grimm turns the silly song about cheating on Scotty into an absolute banger that fans will still sing to him today, and it’s an early high point for the film even before Scotty takes a trip to Europe.
Scotty sets off to apologize to his German penpal, Mieke (Jessica Boehrs), after assuming she was a guy thanks to her name, which he pronounced as “Mike.” It’s a flimsy reason to kick off the real plot of the film, but Eurotrip is more about sticking the two friends, and their classmates, the twins Jamie (Travis Wester) and Jenny (Buffy’s Michelle Trachtenberg), in bizarre situations surrounded by equally strange European characters. From Manchester United soccer hooligans, to Lucy Lawless as a dominatrix, a first encounter with Absinthe, and a run-in with Vatican security, it’s clear from the start that the film isn’t taking itself seriously.
Eurotrip stands out among the glut of early-aughts comedies by not only pushing every joke a little past the point of absurdity, but by giving the four leads actual character arcs, motivations, and then resolving everything in ways set up by the story itself. It’s a simple concept, often called “Storytelling,” but too often comedies let it fall to the side to get in one more zinger. Given the writer/director team behind the film though, it should come as no surprise it’s able to be both smart and stupid at the same time.
The Comedic Genius Behind Eurotrip
Alec Berg (co-creator of Barry), David Mandel (showrunner of Veep), and Jeff Schaffer (creator of The League) all wrote and directed Eurotrip after cutting their teeth writing for Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, making them the most overqualified writing team to work on a teen comedy. Their hard work resulted in a box office flop, bringing in $22 million worldwide and falling short of the $25 million budget, but that’s only until the film hit DVD where it exploded on the rental market. A second release, featuring an Unrated cut, was even more successful, though it only amounted to an extra two minutes of footage.
The death of comedy movies was gradual and today, a film like Eurotrip would never get a wide theatrical release and there’s a good chance it would never get greenlit in the first place given how the market has changed. It’s been over 20 years since “Scotty Doesn’t Know” played on the big screen, and it could be another 20 before anyone tries to make a risque teen road trip romp ever again.
For those that haven’t seen what makes Eurotrip so good, the theatrical version is currently available to stream for free on Pluto TV, while the Unrated cut was released on Blu-Ray in 2022.
