Film

Knocked Up

A stoner and a rising TV producer have a drunken one-night stand that turns into an unplanned pregnancy, and the film spends two hours asking whether two people can build a relationship backwards. It's raunchy, digressive, and surprisingly tender under the dick jokes — a comedy that keeps sneaking real anxiety about adulthood in through the side door. For anyone who likes their laughs a little scared.

TMDb rating6.3

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The 40 Year-Old Virgin2005no page yet

Apatow's first feature and the blueprint for everything Knocked Up does — filthy, oddly sweet, built on a group of guys riffing until something true slips out.

But The improv-heavy pacing and shaggy structure can feel baggy if you want tighter jokes.

This Is 402012no page yet

The unofficial sequel, following Pete and Debbie years later into the grind of marriage and middle age — funnier if you already know them, and it deepens what felt like a subplot before.

But Longer, meaner, and more about domestic exhaustion than romance — some find it exhausting to watch too.

Superbad2007

Same year, same Rogen-and-friends DNA, but pointed backward at adolescence instead of adulthood — a companion piece about the fear of growing up rather than already being there.

But Teenage horniness played for laughs will feel thinner if you wanted the more grown-up stakes.

Superbad poster

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Something you would not have found on your own.

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek1944no page yet

Same premise — a drunken night, a pregnancy, a scramble to make it socially and romantically workable — told sixty years earlier under conditions where the subject itself was nearly unfilmable.

Preston Sturges got an unplanned-pregnancy comedy past the censors during the Hays Code era through sheer verbal velocity and nerve — it's dizzying, filthy by implication, and still very funny.

But Rapid-fire 1940s screwball dialogue and studio-era conventions take real adjustment if you're not used to the period.

More like this (8)

Bridesmaids2011

Takes the raunchy-but-heartfelt Apatow formula and hands it to women, with Kristen Wiig doing career-best chaotic-mess comedy alongside real grief about aging and friendship.

But Some of the set-piece gross-out humor is broader than the more character-driven Knocked Up.

Bridesmaids poster

Forgetting Sarah Marshall2008no page yet

Segel's script is the sadder, more nakedly emotional cousin — a breakup comedy with the same house style of vulnerable men saying too much out loud.

But Leans harder into heartbreak than laughs in stretches, which changes the tone considerably.

Juno2007

The other great 2007 unplanned-pregnancy comedy, but told from the teenager's side, with a sharper, more stylized voice and a gentler emotional register.

But The quippy dialogue is an acquired taste, and it can feel precious next to Apatow's looseness.

Juno poster

Trainwreck2015no page yet

Apatow directs again, this time flipping the commitment-phobe role onto Amy Schumer — same structure, same runtime sprawl, same belief that comedy earns its ending.

But Runs long and the back half tonal shift toward sincerity isn't for everyone.

Baby Mama2008

A broader, glossier pregnancy comedy with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler that trades raunch for odd-couple sitcom energy — good if you want the theme without the grit.

But Much lower stakes and safer jokes; it doesn't try for the same emotional weight.

Baby Mama poster

What to Expect When You're Expecting2012no page yet

An ensemble comedy stitched from five pregnancy storylines — undemanding, occasionally sweet, fine as pure comfort viewing after something heavier.

But Thin characters and a formulaic structure; it's the least essential title here by a wide margin.

Catastrophe2015

It's the same inciting accident stretched into a serialized format, letting the couple's compatibility (or lack of it) breathe and curdle over years instead of one film's runtime.

Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney's series starts exactly where Knocked Up does — a fling, a pregnancy, strangers deciding to try — but plays it with a sharper, more adult, less forgiving comic voice across four tight seasons.

But British-Irish sitcom rhythms and shorter episodes feel very different from a two-hour American studio comedy.

Catastrophe poster

Blue Valentine2010

Takes the exact same premise Knocked Up plays for laughs and asks the darker version of its question: what happens when the relationship built backwards from a pregnancy simply doesn't work.

Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams play the same setup — impulsive romance, unplanned pregnancy, mismatched maturity levels — but stripped of every joke, cutting between courtship and collapse.

But It is genuinely devastating, with none of the comic cushioning; go in knowing there's no relief coming.

Blue Valentine poster

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