After the comedy impresario Judd Apatow tried and failed to launch Jason Segel’s career through two ill-fated but much-beloved television shows – Freaks and Geeks, and Undeclared – he gave the downhearted actor some not unkind advice: “You’re kind of a weird dude. The only way you’re going to make it is if you start writing your own material.”
Forgetting Sarah Marshall was the end result of this advice, a 2008 breakup comedy set in Hawaii in which Segel mines his own past misfortunes for laughs and pathos. He plays Peter, a lovable but hapless TV composer who is cruelly dumped by his live-in partner, the titular Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell), who also happens to be a Hollywood star – and is therefore quite unavoidable.
