50 Fun Facts About Knocked up

Knocked Up was writer-director Judd Apatow's follow-up to which 2005 comedy hit?

The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Knocked Up's tagline sold it as 'from the director of' that hit, and its scene-stealing sidekick Seth Rogen was promoted to leading man for the first time.

In Knocked Up, Pete says marriage is like an unfunny version of which sitcom?

Everybody Loves Raymond. The problems are all the same, Pete tells Ben, with one catch: a sitcom is over in 22 minutes, and marriage 'lasts forever'.

Who plays Alison Scott, the newly promoted TV reporter, in Knocked Up?

Katherine Heigl, then best known for Grey's Anatomy. The film made her a big-screen star, and she startled its makers months later by calling it 'a little sexist'.

Which cable channel has just given Alison an on-air job in Knocked Up?

E! Entertainment promotes Alison from assistant to on-camera interviewer, and the night out to celebrate is the night she meets Ben. Her new bosses become the people she most needs to hide the pregnancy from.

What kind of website do Ben and his roommates half-heartedly work on in Knocked Up?

A celebrity nudity site, Flesh of the Stars, logging exactly when famous actresses appear naked in films. Then Pete tells Ben the idea already exists as Mr. Skin, and the housemates find a site exactly like theirs.

How does Ben support himself before Alison's pregnancy in Knocked Up?

An injury compensation payout. A postal truck ran over his foot in high school, he tells Alison, and the fourteen thousand dollars he got from British Columbia has somehow lasted him ever since.

Which actor is Alison interviewing when morning sickness first hits her in Knocked Up?

James Franco, playing himself. Alison gulps in the middle of a question and has to bolt from the set, which is the first sign, eight weeks after her night with Ben, that she might be pregnant.

Who play Alison's sister Debbie and her husband Pete in Knocked Up?

Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd. Mann is married to the director, who kept an eye on his family by casting their two real daughters as the couple's children.

What does Debbie discover Pete has secretly been sneaking out at night to do in Knocked Up?

Play in a fantasy baseball draft: Debbie, sure he is having an affair, follows him to a stranger's house and finds a room of men picking players. He has been slipping off to the cinema alone as well.

What does Ben propose to Alison with in Knocked Up?

An empty ring box, which Ben calls a promise: he has picked out a ring at De Beers and will fill the box once he can afford it. Alison, still hiding the pregnancy at work, says it is too soon.

Where do Ben and Pete go on their road trip after their relationships collapse in Knocked Up?

Las Vegas. Back in their hotel room after Ben flees a Cirque du Soleil show in a panic, the two men wonder whether the women they have lost will take them back, and both decide to go home.

What are Ben and Pete on when they realise they need to save their relationships in Knocked Up?

Psychedelic mushrooms, which Pete says he got from a roadie for the Black Crowes. Under their influence the two men admit what they have lost and decide to go home and take responsibility.

Why does a doorman turn Debbie and Alison away in Knocked Up?

One is too old, the other is pregnant. The doorman hates saying it and admits the rules of his job make him sick, and his honesty tips Debbie into a tearful speech about where her life has gone.

Which comedian plays the club doorman who turns Debbie and Alison away in Knocked Up?

Craig Robinson turns a bit part into a confession. After first brushing the two women off, his doorman takes Debbie aside and admits how much he hates having to decide who gets in.

Where is Alison's gynecologist when she goes into labour in Knocked Up?

At a Bar Mitzvah in San Francisco, three days from home, after promising the couple he never took vacations. Ben leaves him a furious voicemail, and Alison has to give birth with a stand-in.

Which future Hangover star plays the brusque doctor who delivers Alison's baby in Knocked Up?

Ken Jeong was the real thing: a licensed physician making his feature film debut as a doctor. The part opened enough doors that he gave up medicine for comedy.

What do Ben and Alison end up having in the theatrical cut of Knocked Up?

A girl. Alison doesn't want to know and has sworn Ben to secrecy, but in the heat of their break-up row at the doctor's office he blurts it out anyway.

Which actress was originally cast as Alison before dropping out of Knocked Up?

Anne Hathaway. The director said she withdrew because she didn't want real footage of a woman giving birth used to suggest it was her; the film kept its three shots of the baby crowning.

In Knocked Up, which Steven Spielberg film does Ben rave about to his housemates at the nightclub?

Munich. In every other film about Jews, Ben complains, 'we're the ones getting killed'; this one is Eric Bana hitting back, and the housemates agree it may even help their chances that night.

Which Ghostbusters star plays Ben's overjoyed father in Knocked Up?

Harold Ramis plays the film's warmest character, a man simply delighted to become a grandfather. When Ben later begs him for advice, though, he points out that he has been divorced three times.

Which 1980s sitcom mom plays Alison's mother, who urges her to end the pregnancy, in Knocked Up?

Joanna Kerns, the kindly Maggie Seaver of Growing Pains, plays a far colder parent here. Over lunch she tells Alison to 'take care of it' and move on, for the sake of her career.

Who play Alison's passive-aggressive bosses, Jack and Jill, in Knocked Up?

Alan Tudyk and Kristen Wiig. Alison hides her pregnancy for fear they will fire her; when it comes out, they put her on air interviewing pregnant celebrities to win over female viewers.

Which TV host's Knocked Up cameo won him a Teen Choice Award for his 'hissy fit'?

Ryan Seacrest sends himself up, fuming between takes about a pop star who has kept him waiting and the young celebrities ruining his day. The film also won the teen voters' comedy prize.

Which four Knocked Up housemates share their first names with the actors who play them?

Jason, Jay, Jonah and Martin: Segel, Baruchel, Hill and Starr kept their own names because the parts were built on them. The director taped the four improvising at his house before he finished the script.

Which cancelled 1999 series, produced by Apatow, gave Knocked Up its leading man and two of his housemates?

Freaks and Geeks lasted a single season, and its producer has been reuniting his 'TV children' on film ever since. A third housemate came from his other short-lived show, Undeclared.

Which studio released Knocked Up on June 1, 2007?

Universal Pictures. The hit brought the studio a lawsuit as well as profits: a Canadian author sued it and the director, claiming the film borrowed from her pregnancy memoir of the same name.

Knocked Up had its world premiere in March 2007 at which festival?

South by Southwest, in Austin, on March 12. Variety's critic, reviewing it there, called it 'uproarious' and predicted it would stay in cinemas all summer, and it did spend eight weeks in the top ten.

Roughly how much did Knocked Up gross worldwide?

$219 million, about two-thirds of it in the US and Canada. Not bad for a comedy that cost no more than $30 million and rested on a leading man in his first starring role.

Which film denied Knocked Up a number-one opening?

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, in its second weekend, took $44 million. Knocked Up's $30.7 million in second place still covered its whole budget in three days.

Which folk singer-songwriter composed Knocked Up's soundtrack album, Strange Weirdos, with Joe Henry?

Loudon Wainwright III, who also turns up on screen as Alison's gynecologist, Dr. Howard. His folk album sits oddly beside the film itself, whose forty or so pop and hip-hop songs are all missing from it.

In Knocked Up, Ben asks Alison whether she'd use the time machine from which film to undo their night together?

Back to the Future: Ben pictures Doc Brown screeching up in the DeLorean to offer a do-over. Alison has no idea who Doc Brown is, and a furious Debbie tells both men to climb into their time machine and go.

In Knocked Up, which superhero film does Pete admit he sneaked off to see without Debbie?

Spider-Man 3. 'I like Spider-Man,' a tearful Debbie protests: what hurts is not the film but that he never thought to ask her along.

Which hip-hop track plays over Knocked Up's opening scenes of Ben and his housemates goofing off?

Shimmy Shimmy Ya, by Ol' Dirty Bastard, blares as Ben and his housemates box each other with flaming gloves on a plank over their dirty pool.

Which other 2007 pregnancy comedy did critic A. O. Scott tie with Knocked Up on his ten-best list?

Juno, soon an Oscar winner for its screenplay. Scott called its 'sharp, complicated feminism' both a complement to and 'an implicit critique' of boy-centred comedies like Knocked Up.

Which body named Knocked Up among 2007's ten best films, the year's 'funniest, freshest comedy'?

The American Film Institute, whose jury praised it for stretching 'the boundaries of romantic comedies'. The honour came after it had been shut out of the Golden Globes and passed over by the Los Angeles and New York critics.

Knocked Up's leading lady called the film 'a little sexist' in an interview with which magazine?

Vanity Fair. The film, she said, 'paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight' and the men as 'lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys', and on some days she had a hard time with the part.

Which 2009 romcom did Seth Rogen mock on Howard Stern after his co-star called Knocked Up sexist?

The Ugly Truth, whose scene with vibrating underwear Rogen doubted was 'uplifting for women'. Seven years later he said he still really liked his co-star, and she wished him well too.

Which Apatow associate called Knocked Up 'a comedy of the bullies, rather than the bullied'?

Mike White, who had written for one of Apatow's television shows. He said he wants comedy to 'give voice to the bullied, and not the bully', and disliked how the newer films treated women and gay men.

Which adult-film star has a bit part as a lap dancer in Knocked Up?

Stormy Daniels, hired with other adult-film professionals for the strip-club scene. She had worked for the same director two years earlier, long before a legal fight with a president made her a household name.

When an earthquake hits in Knocked Up, what does Ben rescue before he remembers Alison is in the house?

His bong: he runs for the street clutching it, then admits he forgot she was sleeping over. Minutes later a police car rolls past and he smashes it on the pavement himself.

Nominated for Knocked Up, Seth Rogen lost a 2008 Canadian Comedy Award to which star of a film he co-wrote?

Michael Cera, for Superbad. Rogen hardly went home empty-handed: the same night he won the film writing award for that script and was voted Canadian Comedy Person of the Year.

In Knocked Up, where had Ben's housemates bought a year's supply of condoms before his night with Alison?

'Why did we go to Costco and buy a year's supply,' one housemate demands, 'if you weren't gonna use 'em?' His own tip is that a woman on top can't get pregnant: 'It's just gravity.'

What is the title of the 2012 Knocked Up spin-off about Pete and Debbie?

This Is 40. Its director insisted it was a spin-off built around the bickering couple, not a sequel, and a decade later he said he was writing another instalment, This Is 50.

Which veteran comic actor plays Pete's sponging father in the 2012 Knocked Up spin-off?

Albert Brooks plays Larry, whose constant borrowing is sinking the couple's finances. Debbie tells Pete to stop lending his father money, and Pete can't bring himself to do it.

Where are Debbie and Pete when Alison goes into labour in Knocked Up?

Legoland: 'What is there left to want?' Pete deadpans as the family loads the car. With her sister away until Sunday, the only person Alison can ring when the pains start is Ben.

Ben's shared house in Knocked Up is in which Los Angeles suburb, as his earthquake joke reveals?

Northridge, which gave its name to the 1994 earthquake. Surveying the wreckage of his room, Ben recalls his father warning him not to move there: 'But you figure, what are the chances of that happening twice?'

Which director of a later Apatow-produced comedy has a brief cameo in Knocked Up?

Paul Feig, an old television collaborator of Apatow's, pops up in a bit part. Four years later Apatow produced Feig's Bridesmaids, which went on to out-gross Knocked Up itself.

Why does Debbie leave Alison alone at the nightclub where she meets Ben in Knocked Up?

A chicken pox scare at home. Pete rings about a rash on their daughter, Debbie tells him to Google it and heads off, and Alison stays behind celebrating with the stranger she has just met.

Which star of The Office tells a heavily pregnant Alison she's 'about to drop any second' in Knocked Up?

Steve Carell, playing himself on a red carpet. He tries to recover by admiring her brooch, she snaps that she knows she looks like 'a fat cow', and he hurries inside without giving her the interview.

Which two rappers does Ben name in his furious voicemail to Alison's absent doctor in Knocked Up?

Tupac and Biggie: 'You're dead, you're Tupac,' Ben rants at the answering machine, before signing off with 'Peace' and telling Alison he left the doctor 'a very nice message'.