Seth Rogen is not amused.
Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday accused Hollywood films such as Rogen's Neighbors of being partly responsible for the killing spree in Santa Barbara last weekend.
"How many students watch outsized frat-boy fantasies like Neighbors and feel, as Rodger did, unjustly shut out of college life that should be full of ‘sex and fun and pleasure’? How many men, raised on a steady diet of Judd Apatow comedies in which the shlubby arrested adolescent always gets the girl, find that those happy endings constantly elude them and conclude, ‘It’s not fair’?"
Hornaday went on to claim that not "getting the girl" and that sense of "it's not fair" is what led Elliot Rodger to his killing rampage Friday night. The psychoanalysis conducted from the hallowed halls of the Washington Post's Style page didn't sit well with Rogen or Apatow.
The Hollywood duo took to Twitter to own Ms. Hornaday:
.@AnnHornaday I find your article horribly insulting and misinformed.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) May 26, 2014
.@AnnHornaday how dare you imply that me getting girls in movies caused a lunatic to go on a rampage.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) May 26, 2014
"@Sethrogen: .@AnnHornaday I find your article horribly insulting and misinformed."She uses tragedy to promote herself with idiotic thoughts
— Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) May 27, 2014
"@melissa5001: @Sethrogen @marshallsheldon @AnnHornaday why is it always everything but mental illness?" Because that doesn't sell papers.
— Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) May 27, 2014
Ms. Hornaday has not yet responded.
It's interesting to see Hollywood heavyweights Rogen and Apatow pushing back at armchair analysts finding "reasons" for an evil rampaging murderer's actions. Too infrequently actors, writers, and directors sit silently while the right to bear arms is cited as the "reason" for these crimes.
Hornaday's assault on the first amendment received appropriate ridicule and response this time from Rogen, let's hope he stays consistently vigilant when the second amendment is similarly attacked.