Wild Man on Campus

Job description: As long as there have been teen movies, there's been the Wild Man on Campus (WMOC). He disdains authority of all kinds, wouldn't be caught dead studying, and exists chiefly to provide the butt of jokes, perpetrate gross-out acts, and generally be an all-purpose foil for the characters with whom we're supposed to share a modicum of sympathy. Nothing is beneath the WMOC, who will happily ingest bodily fluids and excretions of all kinds, fill himself with near toxic amounts of alcohol, and do just about anything else in the hopes of eliciting laughs.

The WMOC's stunts grow ever more outrageous and sickening, as directors of gross-out teen films seek to one-up their predecessors.

Recently seen in: American Wedding. Steve Stifler (Seann William Scott) is a wonderful example of the WMOC in the third of the American Pie films. Over the course of three films, he does everything from swallow semen to have sex with lesbians to importune his friend into prematurely ejaculating on a live internet broadcast. In American Wedding, Jim (Jason Biggs) has graduated from college and pops the question to his girlfriend Michelle (Alyson Hannigan). But with Stifler in charge of the bachelor party, you just know the course of true love won't run smoothly.

Defining moment: Suffice to say it includes shorn pubic hair, dog excrement, cake icing, and, oh yes, Steve Stifler.

Most likely to say: 'Oh, cake, huh? Hope it's good ...'

Classics of the genre: Sean Penn as Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Spicoli cruises through life in a haze of dope smoke, and treats school as if it's his personal pleasure dome. He has pizzas delivered to him in geography class, when he bothers to turn up at all. As he says: 'All I need are some tasty waves, a cool buzz, and I'm fine.'