LINCOLN, Neb. — Lately, the Judd Apatow/Seth Rogen touch has been pure comedic and box office gold.

Apatow, the current “it” guy in Hollywood, has been producing films for years, but his direction of “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up” put him on every raunch fan’s radar.

Rogen and his improvisational style had a part in both movies, and he co-wrote the Apatow-produced “Superbad.” He’ll have a big hand in the upcoming stoner comedy “Pineapple Express.”

Whew. That’s quite the lineup. You have to imagine the law of probability will intercede soon and knock one of these guys’ projects down a peg or two.

Enter “Drillbit Taylor.”

Produced by Apatow and co-written by Rogen, it tells the ludicrous story of three high school freshmen who hire a bully for protection, and it represents the first major chink in its creators’ comedic armor.

Owen Wilson stars as the title character, a homeless “dude” with inexplicably great make-up and golden locks. He’s recruited by three dweeby students — string-bean romantic Wade (Nate Hartley), chubby rapper Ryan (Troy Gentile) and pipsqueak Emmit (David Dorfman) — to protect them from a ferocious bully named Filkins (Alex Frost).

Rogen and Apatow have long held an affinity for high school outsiders, going back all the way to their collaboration on the short-lived television series “Freaks and Geeks.” Sadly, the kids here are basically cardboard cutouts of the crass nerds from “Superbad”: One is overweight, one is skinny and the other is scarily eccentric. This recycling of characters isn’t altogether unfunny, but it is unoriginal.