The rapid rise of the regular guys

PAUL RUDD is in “The Ten,” David Wain’s huge-cast comedy about the Ten Commandments. He was playing the banjo with his son when we interrupted him on a recent Friday evening to talk about funny slobs, and David Letterman.

So did you read this David Denby thing in the New Yorker? He was writing about how the romantic comedy has changed -- about how now they’re full of slobs, and why would the women want them anyway?

I don’t think it’s changed. It’s a template that has never really changed that much, just how it’s executed maybe. The joke seems different or the style’s different. Isn’t it always boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back? The one thing I keep hearing from people interviewing us, as far as “Knocked Up,” it seems as if in a lot of these movies, the guys seem like normal guys and not matinee idols.

The one thing I think in particular, you look at [Steve] Carell or Seth [Rogen], they’re just really relatable guys. And this is of a generation’s sense of humor. We have similar reference points. Our upbringing was really affected by guys like David Letterman, who really shaped a comedic sensibility for millions of people. I remember when he first introduced doing a Top Ten list -- I thought it was the most hilarious, innovative thing ever on a show. Now it’s, oh, you see it in advertisements. And Steve Martin is a common thread through so many people I know, from Judd Apatow to anybody that I know -- everyone seems affected by Steve Martin and his record. It was a major thing for kids, understanding you could make a living telling jokes. Letterman picked that up in the mid-’80s. He was the next guy. It was unheard of to do something just weird. It was just kind of a feeling of freshness to it to me and a lot of people. And I think some of these people now are getting a chance to make movies. Does that make sense?

It makes a lot of sense.

Good, because I haven’t thought that through at all! The only thing I did think through the other day, or at least think of, was just how major David Letterman is in the comedic world. And he doesn’t get the credit he deserves. I think he’s beloved. But I also think he’s really important. He also seems like the type of guy that would recoil at a statement like that. He’d like to play with his kid and his dog in Connecticut. For someone that’s on television as much as he is, I can’t think of anyone who’d want to be in the public eye less.

Did the attention knock you for a loop after “Clueless”?

It didn’t. Because right before “Clueless,” I moved to New York, and the next thing I did was a play. I did the play for a year. Who knows what would have happened if I were in California afterwards? I was very kind of bullheaded as far as trying to make a career as much on my terms as possible. I didn’t want to do all-American, boy-next-door stuff, generic romantic comedies I could have had a shot at. I wanted to do lots of other things. And so, since then? I work on things I like. I didn’t see success as bigger paychecks, bigger opportunities, more fame. So I would have general frustrations, like everyone else -- but I felt good about where I was on the food chain.

Which takes us back to the new romantic comedies. The culture of narcissism -- guys who do whatever they want.

No one was saying that 30 was the new 20 in 1962. People want to believe they can attain their dreams and that they want to give it a shot in a way that a lot of people didn’t do in the ‘50s or ‘60s, where people did abide by ‘You get married, you get kids, you work your job.’ People still felt that. I dunno -- maybe it’s just the state of the world, maybe people are more selfish. And all these movies reflect that.

Of course the lie in that is, here you are, home with your kid.

As does Will Farrell, or Carell, and Judd. And obviously some of the guys don’t either -- [Ben] Stiller -- but they’re really kind of a bunch of normal dudes. They’re normal -- they’re just really, really funny.

OK, consider yourself grilled.

I feel emotionally stripped and naked. I feel raw right now. You know the scene in “Cool Hand Luke”? Where they hold that guy on his bunk and they put soap in their socks and they just pound on him? I feel like I ate 50 eggs. I can’t believe you got me to cry.

Oh, no one gets you to cry.

I wouldn’t be so sure about that.