You know, I heard from my cousin Walter that the tiny flakes of gold in Goldslick Vodka lacerate your throat on the way down – allowing the alcohol to enter your bloodstream directly. Also, did you know that every can of Old Muskogee beer is packed with extra air pressure for more effective “shotgunning”?
Okay, so I made those facts up. But they sound like they could be true, right? Sort of? Maybe?
The first time I watched Superbad, I was so busy L-ing my FAO that I didn’t even notice the explosive abundance of fictional alcoholic beverages all over the film. I mean, they’re practically the axis on which the entire plot of this profane high school raunchfest rotates. For some odd reason, the producers had a bit of trouble obtaining clearance to use actual brands of liquor and beer in a film almost entirely about underage drinking.
From this interview on MovieWeb with co-writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg:
Can you talk about coming up with the fake alcohol names?
Evan Goldberg: That’s something we cannot totally take credit for.
Seth Rogen: There was a guy. He’s actually the guy who plays the bartender at Bailey’s in the film. Every single bottle of alcohol you see in the movie is fake. And in the liquor store there are literally thousands of fake bottles, because no actual alcohol company would clear their name for usage. The best one is Pap Smear Gin. That is one that really made us laugh. And there was Trotsky Vodka, which had a picture of Trotsky on it.
Evan Goldberg: The main one was Binyon’s. I think that sounds real.
Seth Rogen: Yeah, Binyon’s Beer. And there was Old Muskogee. The guy that made them has a nickname. Dr. Label, or Dr. Bottle. I can’t remember. But the guy that plays the bartender is the guy who did those. He is the end all be all of fake labels.
The “guy that plays the bartender” is our dear and very close friend (he briefly responded to an email months ago), Ted Haigh. If you don’t know who he is, click on his name in the Tag Cloud of this site to catch up. Haigh’s nickname is neither Dr. Label nor Dr. Bottle, but Dr. Cocktail, and he’s responsible for many unique imaginary brands that dot the cinematic landscape.
I don’t know if there are “literally thousands” of fake bottles in the film, but there certainly are a lot. Haigh had his work cut out for him – inventing all of the aforementioned beverages, as well as Kyle’s Killer Lemonade and Biltmon’s Vodka – and all the other ones that we never even get a chance to read.
I can’t give Haigh credit for Bilson Beer and Penzburg Beer, however, because I recognize those as staples from the prop house, Independent Studio Services. In fact, the founder of ISS is named Gregg Bilson, Sr. I can only assume that Penzburg gets its name from the Bavarian city.
There are other made-up things in Superbad that I could talk about, but as I’ve said before – I try to keep this blog PG-13. Instead of posting pics of the Vagtastic Voyage website, I’ll just leave you with a wholesome image of an interesting bit of currency:
