Judd Apatow turned down Super Bowl ad reuniting “40-Year-Old Virgin” stars Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen

“I don’t think it will work.”

Judd Apatow didn’t want to revisit a particular one 40 year old virgin joke for a Super Bowl commercial – but the stars of the film Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd did it anyway.

The Looked up the filmmaker revealed that he opted out of appearing in a Lay’s ad with Rogen and Rudd because he didn’t think they could tastefully modernize one of the most memorable scenes from his 2005 comedy.

“I was offered a Super Bowl commercial and some company wanted to do some variation of Seth and Paul doing, ‘You know how I know you’re gay?'” Apatow said in a new episode of Super plane podcasthosted by Dana Carvey and David Spade.

Spade speculated that the entire premise of the bit could be considered distasteful. “Not gay. What would that be?” he asked.

Apatow shared his skepticism. “I don’t think it’s going to work,” he recalled saying. “They hadn’t asked (the actors) yet. So I just said, ‘No, I don’t see how you can adjust the joke to make it work’.”

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In it 40 year old virgin In the sequence Apatow referenced, Rogen and Rudd’s immature characters hurl insults back and forth while playing video games, each preceded by the taunt: “You want to know how I know you’re gay?”

The director was surprised that the commercial ended up airing without his involvement – and that it was a comedic success, no less. “Then I saw the Super Bowl,” he said. “They’re both in. They made millions and it was fun.”

“Did you cut yourself out of the equation?” Spade asked.

Apatow confirmed, laughing, “I didn’t believe in ourselves.”

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Carvey then asked, “Did you turn off the TV and storm out of the room when you saw that?”

He wasn’t thrilled. “I was upset,” Apatow admitted.

In the ad in question, Rudd and Rogen adopt a similar conversational pattern as Virgin scene, but without the homophobia that makes the sequence uncomfortable for some viewers. Instead, the two actors take a quick trip down memory lane as Rogen prepares for his wedding.

“Brings back so many good memories,” Rogen says as he eats a chip. The duo then quickly recall more and more ridiculous moments from their past together, including going on a road trip, almost dying in a plane crash, getting kidnapped, fighting a turf war, and meeting a ghost.

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The ad ends with Rudd officiating the wedding between Rogen and the same ghost. Although the commercial was warmly received, it is so different from the original Virgin joke that it’s possible most viewers didn’t make the connection even though they’d seen both the movie and the ad.

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Watch the full conversation between Apatow, Carvey and Spade above.