{"id":21655,"date":"2024-02-19T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-19T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/?p=21655"},"modified":"2024-03-02T21:15:26","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T05:15:26","slug":"scotty-doesnt-know-at-20-a-mediocre-sex-comedy-a-celeb-cameo-and-an-improbable-earworm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/scotty-doesnt-know-at-20-a-mediocre-sex-comedy-a-celeb-cameo-and-an-improbable-earworm\/","title":{"rendered":"“Scotty Doesn’t Know” at 20: A Mediocre Sex Comedy, A Celeb Cameo, and an Improbable Earworm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Let\u2019s not beat around the bush here: There\u2019s exactly one reason why we\u2019re talking about EuroTrip<\/em>, a middling teen sex comedy from 2004, on its 20th birthday, and it\u2019s the adultery anthem \u201cScotty Doesn\u2019t Know\u201d that graces the film\u2019s first act. Riding on the surprise success of its spiritual predecessor, Road Trip<\/em>, this tale of a group of American high school graduates backpacking through Europe before heading off to college was not a smash hit by any metric. But \u201cScotty Doesn\u2019t Know,\u201d featuring Matt Damon in one of the most delightfully unhinged celebrity cameos possibly ever<\/em>, rescues EuroTrip<\/em> from mid-2000s mediocrity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scotty (Scott Mechlowicz) is graduating high school and head over heels in love with his girlfriend Fiona (Kristin Kreuk). There\u2019s just one problem: She\u2019s apparently been less than faithful to our hapless hero, a fact we learn (as all bad news should be delivered, honestly) through song. Matt Damon appears as Donny, the skinhead punk singer who has been secretly sleeping with Fiona, a liaison that provides the inspiration for the inexplicably catchy \u201cScotty Doesn\u2019t Know.\u201d Not only does it recount in some detail all of their affairs, but its chorus openly mocks poor Scotty\u2019s utter obliviousness, reminding the listeners that Scotty doesn\u2019t know about Fiona\u2019s extracurricular activities, and that they should under no circumstances tell Scotty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If that was the song\u2019s only appearance in EuroTrip<\/em>, it would still be worthwhile. It\u2019s a catchy original tune that you can legitimately believe as a breakaway pop punk hit, capitalizing on all of Scotty\u2019s sad sack energy and using Matt Damon to great effect. But what elevates it into one of the most memorable cinematic songs of the 2000s is how well \u201cScotty Doesn\u2019t Know\u201d is utilized as a recurring gag throughout<\/em> the film. While the group of friends travel across Europe, \u201cScotty Doesn\u2019t Know\u201d becomes an international sensation, effectively haunting Scotty everywhere he goes as a constant reminder of one of the most embarrassing moments of his life. Teen comedies are no stranger to callbacks and repeat jokes, but the use of a song as a comedic framing device is something much more novel \u2013  probably the most clever part of the entire film. What\u2019s more, the style of humor in the song is representative of the film in general, and why it has grown to be so endearing to audiences over the years. It\u2019s crude and over-the-top, like you would expect from a teen sex comedy, but it also has notes of surrealism and absurdism that keep things interesting beyond the shock value of the more obvious set pieces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But as perfectly planned as \u201cScotty Doesn\u2019t Know\u201d appeared to be, so much of its appeal was down to a whimsical \u2013 and Ivy League \u2013 happenstance. Though EuroTrip<\/em> takes place all across Europe, it was filmed entirely in the Czech Republic \u2013 which is where Matt Damon just happened to be filming The Brothers Grimm<\/em> alongside Heath Ledger at the time. Based on locational serendipity, he was available to quickly shoot a cameo for director Jeff Schaffer and writers Alec Berg and David Mandel, who he knew from his days back at Harvard. And as luck would also<\/em> have it, he was wearing a wig for his role in Grimm<\/em>, giving the Eurotrip<\/em> crew carte blanche to shave his head for the perfect punk rock look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s not the end of this Cambridgian web of connections, either. \u201cScotty Doesn\u2019t Know\u201d was written and performed (no, that\u2019s not actually Matt Damon singing) by Boston band Lustra, who had their own fair share of Harvard cred. As Damon explained in a 2016 Reddit AMA<\/a>, the song was written by the brother of a friend at Harvard, and Damon\u2019s college roommate Jason Adams was the band\u2019s guitarist. Although EuroTrip<\/em> didn\u2019t blow away the box office when it first hit theaters, it caught on with audiences when it was released on home video, allowing \u201cScotty Doesn\u2019t Know\u201d \u2013 and Lustra \u2013 to have a longer slow burn of success on the strength of their demoralizing little earworm. \u201cScotty Doesn\u2019t Know\u201d ended up taking on a life of its own, eventually hitting #75 on the Billboard Hot 100 as the band\u2019s biggest single by far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without \u201cScotty Doesn\u2019t Know,\u201d EuroTrip<\/em> is a fun but forgettable teen comedy, one that probably doesn\u2019t age particularly well in terms of representation of European culture and the fact that every girl in the film seems to be required to take her shirt off at one point or another. But this song provides not only a memorable opening sequence that sets the plot in motion, or a humdinger to build its soundtrack around \u2013 in a weird way, \u201cScotty Doesn\u2019t Know\u201d gives EuroTrip<\/em> its entire narrative framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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