Sony Banned Jonah Hill from Playing PlayStation in Superbad

"Jonah can’t touch a PlayStation"

by · Push Square

Superbad, perhaps the greatest teen coming-of-age film of our modern era, was co-financed by Sony. As it goes, one of the PlayStation platform holders' key stipulations was that Jonah Hill's "vile" character, Seth, could not physically touch or interact with one of its consoles onscreen.

It's a pretty funny revelation, and it comes after writer Seth Rogen was recently asked what the most ridiculous note he had ever received from a production company, better when you recall that Superbad is semi-biographical, with the character of Seth based on Rogen himself (thanks, VGC). He recalls that "Seth was so reprehensible to the studio that they were like, there’s a scene where they’re playing video games and [Sony] was like ‘Jonah can’t touch a PlayStation."

"They were like ‘we can’t have him interact with our products, because it’s too vile a character’ and I was like ‘it’s based on me, that’s very insulting’, but we accommodated them, ultimately."

If, like us, you've seen the film dozens of times, you'll recall the scene in which Michael Cera's character, Evan, is playing PS2, The Getaway: Black Monday, specifically. While the two banter, Seth is instead trying to find something to wear out on their grand adventure; we'll probably never know what cooperative or competitive PS2 game might have been featured instead.

What do you think of this particular note from Sony, in hindsight? Let us know in the comments section below.

[source videogameschronicle.com]