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Lately, I feel like the only one of my millennial friends on TikTok. And that’s ok. I accept that I tend to be “chronically online”. In the same way I obsess over film, television, and pop culture in general, it is unsurprising to me that I love to know what’s popular on our pocket screens. Something I keep coming across are kids (on the Gen Alpha/Gen Z cusp) who are obsessed with the 2000s fashion now known as McBling. I hop on TikTok and it’s all Playboy logos, short pleated skirts, low-rise jeans, lots of hot pink… it’s lightyears away from the current “clean girl aesthetic” that has dominated social media for the past year. (Yes, it’s totally overwhelming as a millennial if you’re wondering.)
It got me thinking about McBling icons like Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, and Britney Spears, and of course, the reason we’re here today, The House Bunny (2008, 98 minutes). Now 2008 is a little late in the game for “McBling” and the rest of the more over-the-top Y2K fashion. Fashion blogs and journalists alike mark 2008 as the end of this type of excess. We entered a financial crisis and for some reason that made us all start wearing business casual to the club. (As a college graduate of 2010 my guess it is because we were so desperate for work.)
Because of this, we can view The House Bunny as perhaps the last totem of the McBling/Playboy era thanks to costume designer Mona May. May is not only responsible for the looks of Anna Faris and crew, but also the ICONIC looks from Clueless, Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, A Night at the Roxbury, and Never Been Kissed. Mona May IS McBling. And she brings it, having done nearly 300 different costume changes in The House Bunny. From the iconic mini circle skirts (I had so many of these) to the teeny, tiny crop tops, May set the standard for how many of us dressed at this time.
Outside of the costumes, the movie is not very groundbreaking. The plot is paint-by-numbers. Formerly orphaned Shelley Darlingson (Anna Faris) lives a fun and fancy-free life at the Playboy mansion, organizing parties, sleeping in, and living with all her best friends. When a jealous Playmate devises a plan to kick Shelley out of the house, Shelley must find a way to survive on her own. Attracted by the idea of boys and parties (obvi), she signs on to become the House Mother of the Zeta Alpha Zeta sorority. Similar to the plots of Old School or Animal House, the Zeta house is full of misfits. Shelley vows to make the girls of Zeta popular at any cost -- even if that means losing themselves in the process.1
While there are definitely parts of the movie that drag for me, Faris is fantastic in her portrayal of Shelley. The demonic, Exorcist voice she uses to remember names still circulates on social media and is a popular trending sound on TikTok. Her humor and physical comedy are elevated past the slightly more immature work she did for the Scary Movie franchise and in turn show us what she was truly capable of. A lot of positive reviews seem convinced her career would take off following The House Bunny, but we know now that never quite happened. She would go on, of course, to have a very successful run on TV’s Mom (with Allison Janney), but it is sad to think about the continued growth she could have had in theaters because this movie only scratches that surface. It’s a rare thing to have a woman participate in slapstick humor and rarer still to have her look beautiful while doing it. (Kaitlin Olson and Maya Rudolph are two I’d put in this category.)
Along with Faris for The House Bunny ride is a cast that feels like they were stuffed inside a 2008 time capsule. It really doesn’t get any more 2008 than:
-A pre-fame Emma Stone
-Colin Hanks
-Kat Dennings
-Katharine McPhee (from American Idol)
-Rumer Willis
-Kiely Williams (from the girl group 3LW)
-Tyson Ritter (from the band All American Rejects)
-Holly Madison, Kendra Wilkinson, Bridget Marquardt (aka The Girls Next Door)
-Hugh Hefner (I’ll get into this)
Never mind the fashion, the casting alone feels so hyper-specific. It’s like someone opened up one of the magazines tossed into a college dorm lounge around this time, closed their eyes, and pointed. I guess what I am saying is, if you want to know what we cared about in 2008 you can just watch The House Bunny.2
That includes the glorification of Playboy and Hugh Hefner, who had pop culture in a chokehold at the time. In addition to this movie, Hugh Hefner appeared in episodes of Sex and the City (2000), Las Vegas (2003), The Bernie Mac Show (2004), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2005), and Entourage (2005). He was also a star (of course) on his own reality TV show about his three girlfriends: The Girls Next Door (2005-2009). We now know that being on this show was not really as hunky dory as it seemed, but at the time the Playboy mansion and the people living there were portrayed as a caring family unit. The House Bunny is no different. Outside of television and film, the Playboy logo was on everything. I am not a cultural academic so I can’t tell you why the brand was resurgent but I am sure it is a combination of Playboy marketing efforts and third-wave feminism peaking around this time.
The House Bunny lands in interesting territory when it comes to feminism. You have those arguing its place as a confirmed feminist story and those more critical who see it as an attempt to mask traditional values under the guise of feminism. I think when it comes to sexuality and sexualness, this is going to be an argument we have until the end of time. (Or at least until the end of my time here.) Reclaiming our beauty and our sexuality is an area fraught with misconception because ultimately our bodies are an object of desire for men.
When it comes to The House Bunny I tend to agree with the naysayers. For one simple reason: the men. Though the meat of the story is about a group of young women finding themselves (and vacillating between extremes in the process) the changes they make are ultimately born out of the male gaze AND the men they’re interested in aren’t really that great to begin with. Oliver (Colin Hanks) isn’t horrible but Shelley builds everything she does around his approval; she’s lucky that he “just wants her to be herself.” Colby (Tyson Ritter) on the other hand is kind of a POS the entire movie right up until the end when he is suddenly cool with Natalie (Emma Stone) being smart. (I don’t believe him.)
I don’t enjoy the movie any less because of all of this, by the way. As a goofy comedy it works, though thin at times, and I find the cast to be the most appealing part of the whole thing. I guess this means I’ll have to start listening to Anna Faris’ podcast to get more of her humor in my daily life OR make some phone calls to get her some starring roles.
So yeah, there’s a lot of makeovers in this movie.
Does not include financial crisis