Comedy's New Wave

Melissa McCarthy in real life: sweet and gracious, with a voice just a few decibels above a whisper. Melissa McCarthy as Megan, the groom's sister in Bridesmaids: a take-no-prisoners alpha gal who bites Kristen Wiig on the ass, attempts to seduce an air marshal on a flight to Vegas, and, most memorably, copes with a gastrointestinal emergency at a hoity-toity bridal shop by hiking up her dress, planting herself on a bathroom sink and shouting, "Look away!"

Megan was McCarthy's breakout role: a performance funnier, filthier and more gloriously over-the-top than anything she'd done on Gilmore Girls (where she played Lauren Graham's best friend for seven years) or Mike & Molly, the fairly conventional sitcom she co-stars in on CBS. 

"Kristen Wiig told us that Melissa was the funniest person she knew, but I was not familiar with her," admits Judd Apatow, who produced Bridesmaids. Apatow also cast McCarthy in his upcoming, untitled project, as a mom who becomes a rival of Leslie Mann, and encouraged her to vent her hostility. "Apparently, I love to swear," McCarthy says. "It was so therapeutic. I'll never have road rage again."

Says Apatow, "I definitely do not know anyone funnier."

By Gavin Edwards

Click to read the entire Comedy's New Wave feature in Rolling Stone.