An auteur in good comic company

There CAN be little doubt that we live in the Judd Apatow era of comedy. Since his 2005 box office hit "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," Apatow has followed up either as a writer, director or producer with "Knocked Up," "Superbad," "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and, most recently, "Pineapple Express." Apatow is not the first who can rightly claim to be Hollywood's king of movie comedy -- here's a glance at his and previous titleholders' careers.

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Writer, director, producer

Judd Apatow

Age: 40

Years active: Began stand-up in 1985; produced and won an Emmy for 1992's "The Ben Stiller Show" on Fox and spent five years as a writer-producer on "The Larry Sanders Show." From 1999 to 2002, he created and produced two acclaimed short-lived TV series, "Freaks and Geeks" and "Undeclared."

Trademarks: Freaky, geeky teenagers; sweet, overweight Peter Pan slackers looking for love; virginal men looking for love; toilet humor; copious amounts of drugs, gratuitous male frontal nudity, booze, and rock and pop soundtracks. His films are generally set in the Los Angeles area.

Stock company: Steve Carell, Seth Rogen, Danny McBride, James Franco, Jason Segel, Jonah Hill, Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Kevin Corrigan, Bill Hader, David Koechner, Chris Parnell, Ben Stiller, Loudon Wainwright III, Fred Willard, Jack Black.

Directing pool: Adam McKay ("Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy," "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," "Step Brothers"); Jake Kasdan ("Freaks and Geeks," "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story"); Greg Mottola ("Superbad"); Nicholas Stoller ("Forgetting Sarah Marshall"); David Gordon Green ("Pineapple Express"); Harold Ramis (the upcoming "Year One").

Box office champ (as director): 2007's "Knocked Up" -- $219 million internationally.

Misstep: Despite good reviews, 2007's "Walk Hard" earned a mere $20.6 million internationally.

Did you know: Apatow has been nominated for a Writers Guild of America award for his screenplays for "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" -- he shared nomination with Carell -- and for "Knocked Up."

Legacy: Expect to see a lot more gross-out comedy hits with schlubby protagonists.

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John Hughes

Writer, director, producer

Age: 58

Years active: 1979 -- writer on the TV series "Delta House" -- to present -- provided story as Edmond Dantes for "Drillbit Taylor." Since 1994, though, has lived a reclusive life in Chicago.