I Won't Grow Up!: The Comic Man-Child in Film from 1901 to the Present

A film archetype as old as film itself, the man-child has been an enduring comedy subject. Classics as diverse as Hail the Conquering Hero (1944) and The Apartment (1960) have used the immature male to drive plots and press the importance of growing up. But he was not born fully formed--it took the shifting social norms of decades to mold the atrocious behavior of the puerile buffoon we know today.

The man-child has come under scrutiny in recent years. Prominent writers, including David De...