For anyone trying to understand the tenor of mainstream comedy in the mid-2000s, you could do a lot worse than The 40-Year-Old Virgin . Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd are the relative alpha males who are, functionally, sidekicks to Steve Carrell’s titular lead. There’s a throwaway scene that does little to move the plot along, and yet, it’s the part I most vividly remember most two decades later. Rogen and Rudd play video games and engage in one-upmanship over the following prompt: “You know how I know you’re gay?” I’ll spare you the build-up because all that matters is the killshot: “You like Coldplay .”

I didn’t like Coldplay in 2005, I loved them. Particularly X&Y , which had been released two months prior to The 40-Year-Old Virgin . However much offense I could assume on behal

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