What could be better than a goofy comedy/alien invasion?

I know what you’re thinking. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. You just can’t improve on the ridiculousness of Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn,  and co. beyond adding evil aliens.

But wait–what if they throw in a character dealing with infertility?

Early in the movie we see Evan’s (Ben Stiller’s) wife with an OPK. Intriguing.

And later, after continual pestering from Bob (Vince Vaughn) about when he’ll have kids, Evan confesses to him that he’s shooting blanks. The conversation is lighthearted, and the movie certainly doesn’t present a serious view on infertility (and, irritatingly, it makes adoption look like an easy option), but it was kind of nice. (And better, in my opinion, than the more serious but grossly inaccurate portrayal in W./E., which I may write about later.)

Really, the movie is pretty bad, though DH enjoyed it (I’d say it’s a guy movie). The language is terrible, and there are a lot of sexual jokes and comments, so I wouldn’t call it wholesome. But, though many of the reviews of the film complain that the infertility subplot is “uninteresting” and “boring,” I found it nice to see infertility–and male factor infertility at that–portrayed in a comedy. It makes what we’re going through seem more everyday. More culturally relevant.

The normalization of infertility in our culture could really do good things for those of us in the trenches. It would be nice if infertility were something people looked at like other medical conditions instead of something to feel embarrassed or secretive about. It would be nice if more people recognized the difficulty of infertility (even if they haven’t experienced it) and could better sympathize with those of us going through it.

And I think cultural references, even in silly movies, are a great place to start.