Wet Hot American Summer at 20:
The Nashville of Absurdist Cinema
(Awards Watch)
“Best comedy since 2000”
--AV CLUB: "The 50 best comedies since 2000"
A great discussion on the movie from Amy Nicholson and Paul Scheer (May 2025)
Wet Hot American Summer, the movie, was filmed in 28 rainy days, May & June 2000 in Wayne County, Pennsylvania.
It premiered at the Sundance Festival in January 2001.
USA Films released the movie theatrically on July 27, 2001.
SOME ARTICLES
The Next Picture Show: #114 A Futile and Stupid Gesture/Wet Hot American Summer
CinemaScope "Notes on Camp: An Interview with David Wain"
The Onion AV Club's New Cult Canon: Wet Hot American Summer
Entertainment Weekly: Wet Hot 10th Anniversary Interview with Wain, Showalter, and Lo Truglio
Entertainment Weekly: The Crazy Story Behind Wet Hot American Summer
Bullseye: David Wain and Michael Showalter join Jesse to talk about their new series Wet Hot American Summer: First Day Of Camp. (AUDIO)
25 Best Cult Movies of the Century (Taste of Cinema)
The 30 Best (Truly) Independent Films of the 21st Century (Ringer)
Bradley Cooper remembers his sex scene with Michael Ian Black.
THE BOOK
Wherever books are sold
(e.g. Amazon)
Screenwriters David Wain and Michael Showalter take pen to page and create a hilarious, behind-the-scenes annotated version of the original screenplay. Learn how and why they made artistic decisions while writing and filming the movie. The book also features reproduced ephemera from filming—photos, original (and scathing) reviews, AIM chat conversations, marked up script pages, and so much more. From Abrams Books.
“Wet Hot American Summer is one of the funniest films ever made. This is a must-read for any fan of comedy out there.” — Rachel Bloom
“Watching Wet Hot American Summer for the first time was an ‘Aha’ moment for me. The blend of physical comedy—bizarrely specific—and wildly heightened characters made me see the vast possibilities within the world of making comedy, and making comedy with your friends.”
— Abbi Jacobson
“I saw Wet Hot American Summer opening weekend and it blew my comedy mind. And now this book has blown my book-about-classic-cult-comedy-with-insights-and-anecdotes-that-really-elevate-the-whole-experience-of-something-I-already-loved mind.” — Nick Kroll
“If you love the movie Wet Hot American Summeras much as I do, but for some reason don’t like watching it, then I guess this is the perfect book for you.” — B. J. Novak
THE DOCUMENTARY
HURRICANE OF FUN will be re-released Fall 2026!
Stay tuned!
THE PREQUEL
“First Day of Camp” PRESS!
Original teaser
Showalter & Wain on Jimmy Fallon
The Verge review
Buzzfeed "The Making-Of 'Wet Hot American Summer' Is Ninety Minutes of Pure Joy"
Reviews collected at Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes
ALL EIGHT EPISODES STREAMING on NETFLIX
THE SEQUEL
“A funny, poignant camp reunion.”
- Robert Lloyd, LA Times
“The spirit of Wet Hot American Summer is alive and well Ten Years Later”
- Erik Adams, AV Club
“Ten Years Later is yet another sweet, painfully funny, extremely worthy follow-up to a cult classic."”
- Tom Philip - GQ
ALL EPISODES STREAMING on Netflix
SELECTED ARTICLES
Lots of fun coverage at Vulture
Spoiler-free review from Consequence of Sound
LA Times review
AV Club review
David Wain interview - Splitsider
THE SOUNDTRACK
THE WHAS ALBUM
GET the record, Plus WET HOT T-SHIRTS & "HIGHER AND HIGHER" RECORD at RUSTED WAVE!
and listen to selections from the "First Day of Camp" SOUNDTRACK
from Craig Wedren on Soundcloud!
THE GAME
"A different kind of RPG, one in which players struggle with drugs, sex, and talking vegetables rather than orcs and dungeons."
–Entertainment Weekly
"The Wet Hot American Summer tabletop game is D&D for comedy nerds"
–The Verge
