Hair gel makes hair look good. Teens like to look good. So something must be seriously amiss when a typical teenage audience says no to hair gel. In the lobby after the premiere of the 1998 hit movie There's Something About Mary, hair gel was distributed to audience members with the name of the movie imprinted on the containers. It was a free souvenir! The gel must have looked teasingly seductive to that token outsider who was looking in as he strolled by the theater façade. Be that as it may, the hair gel probably prompted the departing audience members to throw up a little bit in their mouths.

Back in the '90s, all those in the know knew it would be a social calamity to be seen outside your home without rock-solid hair. So what was wrong with those people who became suspicious of coveted hair gel as they exited the theater? Can a movie change the way we see our beauty products that much? Can a single film instill in us acute regret that our parents didn't foresee the value of the name 'McLovin'? ... Yes. We used to use hair gel. We used to use our names. Now all we want is for everyone to think of us as McLovin, that 25-year-old Hawaiian organ donor. All this thanks to teen movies.

Suburbia actually started something

The US economy boomed in the post-war 1950s. Families packed up and moved out of their crowded city apartments. They built white picket fences. They bought cars and home television sets. Disparity in venereal interests caused the old folks to stay home glued to the telly while teenagers went out to the local drive-in movie theaters. The movie industry began catering to the demanding teen audience. Rock n' roll music seeped into movie soundtracks. 1950s teens started to distance themselves from stodgy parents. In 1952, in the 'Miracle Decision' of Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson, the most venerable judges in America declared: "under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, a state may not ban a film on the basis of a censor's conclusion that it is 'sacrilegious.'" "In yo' face!" said the teens of the 1950s.

The 1960s rolled around, and as America sent 18-year-olds to Vietnam, the happy-go-lucky motif of teenage life transformed into rebellion and protest. Until the voting age was lowered in 1971, men under 21 who were sent abroad to fight were unable to vote at home. Resentment toward the government and authority became pervasive in teen culture. The Watergate Scandal of 1972 seemed to confirm authority's hypocrisy. As everyone could see, the times were a-changin'.

The Motion Picture Association of America decided to open venues for movies with more extreme characters and moral choices. A new ratings system was established. By labeling movies in accordance with their moral standards, the movie industry was able to place responsibility for movie content on individual theaters and viewers.

Then, in 1978, a movie rated R changed the teen genre forever. Wild sexual conquests made it to the big screen: "Sophomore dies in kiln explosion? Oh My God! I just talked to her last week ... She was going to make a pot for me." Awkward social situations were made cool: "How interesting. I have a husband named Dean Wormer at Faber. Still want to show me your cucumber?" Delta House made it clear: "Don't get mad, get even." National Lampoon's Animal House made it big.

We all know where this is going

Multiplex movie theaters took the place of drive-ins. By the 1980s, commercial malls were the entertainment centers for American youth. Gone from teen films were the hair ribbons, homogeneity and upstanding characters of decades past. Teenagers demanded a range of movies with various character types. They were able to select the film with the most appeal. Hollywood maintained its grip on teenage fads and styles, forging films synchronously with the fads of pop culture. The 1982 film Fast Times at Ridgemont High continued the much-embraced exposure of sexual pursuits on the big screen.

The teen sex comedy continued through the 1990s. It was intensified, and it expanded beyond the predictable sex, drugs and rock n' roll. Modern ideas of sexual liberation, homosexuality and discussion sof gender norms made their way into both mainstream comedies and "alternative" teen films.

At the turn of the millennium, a string of teen sex comedies inundated the American multiplex. In 1999, Stifler's hot mom and man-pacts to lose virginities hit the screen in American Pie. The raunchy schemes continued in American Pie 2 in 2001, National Lampoon's Van Wilder in 2002, and American Wedding in 2003.

Not Another Teen Movie of 2001 was just another teen movie as well as comic relief from all the others. While these teen sex comedies hold fast to portrayals of sexual encounters and wild parties, they also present characters who undergo inner moral conflicts, thereby keeping up with contemporary issues in teen society. In 2004, the teen genre altered direction. Napoleon Dynamite focuses on one guy who just does his own thang. Being happy with yourself became the new cool.

During summer 2007, Superbad brought some more of that Napoleon Dynamite snazziness to a theater near you. "GANGSTAS, WASSUP GUYS?" McLovin asks. He once told a girl what time it was.

In his self-content way, McLovin is the new cool. Plus, well ... he's going to Dartmouth.