Todd Phillips

You know, if I started worrying about what the critics think, I’d never make another comedy. You couldn’t pick a less funny group than critics – you couldn’t find a more bitter group of people!

I think that ‘Hangover II’ is as funny as ‘The Hangover I,’ honest to God, but I think that it’s a little bit darker, and the stakes are a little bit higher.

Comedy is so subjective. You could be in a room with 400 people laughing at a joke and you could just not think it’s funny. You’re just sitting there like, ‘Am I in the twilight zone? Why is everyone laughing?’ It’s such a personal thing. People have such a personal visceral response to comedy.

There’s a darkness under ‘The Hangover’ because ultimately there’s a missing person and it’s not really that funny. There’s a sort of darkness under it that I love, and still people are laughing as hard if not harder than they did in ‘Old School.’

I think people like comedies and I think concept driven comedies seem to be working when it’s a clear concept and you deliver funny stuff.