Michael Showalter and Michelle Williams in The Baxter Courtesy of IFC Films

Watching Wet Hot American Summer now, one can see the seeds of what was to come, not just for The State, but for comedy in general. Paul Rudd, Saturday Night Live's Amy Poehler, 30 Rock's Judah Friedlander, and 40-Year-Old Virgin's Elizabeth Banks all had prime roles in the film, which was a showcase once again for The State's non sequitur–filled humor. Despite the fact that the film used pop-cultural references as a touchstone, Wet Hot is timeless as far as gags are concerned — one reason the film's director Wain believes it took some time for the audience to come around.

"The sense of humor that we had in The State has always been kind of sidelined," Wain says. "When we were at MTV, it was like the black sheep and Wet Hot was certainly a very sidelined movie, as far as the mainstream goes. Maybe now finally the time has come for the larger populace to embrace our sense of humor."

The time certainly appears to be now. In 2005, Showalter started The State's second major move into film with his directorial debut: the anti-romantic comedy The Baxter, in which he played "that other guy" who is always left at the altar in romantic comedies. Again, Rudd and Banks were part of his ensemble cast and the film played Sundance before becoming a staple on the IFC Network. Meanwhile, Garant, Lennon, and Kenney-Silver got the greenlight to turn their successful Cops parody Reno 911! into a film, while Garant and Lennon became A-list Hollywood screenwriters by penning family films such as The Pacifier, Herbie: Fully Loaded, and then their biggest hit of all, Night at the Museum.

"They went in the back door and we went right in the front door," says Garant, referring to the more indie sensibilities of his other State brethren. "The reason that people greenlight our scripts is that they have The State's pace and The State's smartness. They're the same kind of sensibility of very kind of smart comedy masquerading as very dumb comedy and very dumb comedy masquerading as very smart comedy, which I think is what The State did really well."

Isla Fisher and Jason Biggs in Wedding Daze Courtesy of MGM/2006 Greenstreet Films LLC.

Consider their fellow Stater Michael Ian Black a fan.

"I don't think that I could've written Night at the Museum," Black says. "Those guys have really learned that [studio] system, and they've really learned how to game it in a way that is really remarkable and really impressive."

Living on the east coast, Black has been prolific in his own right. After joining Showalter and Wain in the unofficial State spinoff Stella, in which the trio performed on New York's standup circuit and had a Marx Brothers–inspired show on Comedy Central, Black turned to filmmaking. Besides penning the upcoming Simon Pegg comedy Run, Fat Boy, Run, he is about to release his first film, Wedding Daze, which stars Jason Biggs as a cautious type who, after being spurned by his girlfriend, chooses to ask the first girl he sees to marry him. Thankfully for Biggs, the bride-to-be is a waitress played by Wedding Crashers' Isla Fisher.