Everything Judd Apatow Has Ever Done, Ranked

When Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy premiered 20 years ago, it wasn’t necessarily a game-changer for Will Ferrell, at least not in terms of his movie stardom. For producer Judd Apatow, it was arguably more of a milestone. A very silly, gag-packed yet idiosyncratic comedy about male vanity in 1970s San Diego kicked off a 10-year period where Apatow became an influential and frequently star-making comedy guru, getting several of his own projects off the ground while — perhaps more importantly — helping any number of men and women find their cinematic and TV voices.

Though Apatow’s influence seems to be waning these days, he’s still a major name in comedy, and the sheer number of projects he’s worked on over the years — before and after that Anchorman moment — is astonishing. Here, then, we have sorted through Apatow’s CV to rank all of those projects, from the mandatory masterpieces to the worthwhile curiosities to the intensely skippable misfires.

48. Drillbit Taylor (2008; producer)

In retrospect, it’s hard to believe a dud like Drillbit Taylor was released just one year after Superbad. Both written by Seth Rogen, they couldn’t be more different: The former feels like a desperate bid to recapture the instant-classic magic of Superbad by repeating its formula.

17. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013, producer)

Part legacy sequel, part culmination of nearly a decade’s worth of comedy successes and part season (or series?) finale on the Will Ferrell/Adam McKay partnership, Apatow returned to the Ferrell fold for a mega-movie reunion of the Channel 4 news team, almost 10 years after the first movie became a semi-surprise hit.

8. The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005, writer/director/producer)

In lesser hands, Judd Apatow’s directorial debut, co-written with star Steve Carell, would be too gross or too creepy. But The 40-Year-Old Virgin, about, as you might guess, a man in his 40s who has never had sex, is deceptively sweet. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with Andy (Carell) other than a lack of confidence, and his friends and coworkers’ misguided attempts to help him lose his virginity are, at their core, rooted in a desire to help him get more comfortable with himself and find happiness.

Yesterday, we asked you if there was a word that would immediately turn you off from trying a whiskey. It was a pretty close vote between floral (35%), sweet (30%) and peaty/smokey (30%).

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