In the Loop/YMMV

""I'm not dancing with you on this Malcolm!""
 * Complete Monster: Linton Barwick, a warmonger with the total commitment of a General Ripper. Using a live hand grenade as a paperweight would make any other character awesome, but not this charmless State Department hawk. Malcolm is the only character who isn't terrified of him, and even he finds him so loathsome that he needs something stronger than a Cluster F Bomb to describe him.
 * Evil Is Sexy: Just don't ask...
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: Simon Foster looks remarkably similar to a certain joint leader of a certain coalition.
 * Ho Yay: "Fuck the 'nibbles', what was with the homoerotic tension?" Good question, Toby:
 * Malcolm and Jamie's transatlantic phonecalls: "Missing you loads..." "...I love you."
 * "You may want to slip into your negligee..." Malcolm interrupts Simon and Toby's quiet night in.
 * There's a lot of space on the bed, but Toby and Simon are cozily arranged on one half of it as they watch the shark documentary. In their pants.
 * After their discussion in Michael's office, Malcolm even ends up patting Simon on the crotch.
 * A few people comment on how Chad's eagerness to kiss ass with his male superiors has a curiously homoerotic edge, but it really becomes apparent when, in an effort to get in General Miller's good books, he ends up complimenting the General's testicles. The General, unsurprisingly, is nonplussed.
 * Toby's quote was provoked by Sir Jonathan Tutt, who's pleasant attempts at small talk with Malcolm, Simon and Toby seems to somehow become a form of really inept flirting with Malcolm. ("You just put your lips together and you blow!")


 * Just Here for Godzilla: Possible to watch just for Malcolm's insults.
 * Magnificent Bastard: Malcolm Tucker. Facing enemies more powerful than anyone in Whitehall, humiliated by his hapless colleagues, stripped of his power and almost driven to a Villainous Breakdown, he still manages to bounce back with a Crowning Moment of Awesome. Unfortunately he eventually crosses the line between Magnificent Bastard and full-blown villain.
 * Misaimed Fandom: The Thick of It has so many fans in Whitehall that the crew were given a very rare opportunity to film there. That's the actual Number 10 in the film's opening scenes.
 * Moment of Awesome: "You are a boring eff-star-star-."
 * Moral Event Horizon: "I will marshall all the media forces of darkness to hound you to an assisted suicide". Malcolm eventually pushes his Bastardry to the point where it ceases to be Magnificent.
 * Malcolm's Bastard Understudy, Jamie, pushes Michael Rodgers MP over another Horizon: "Aww, don't cry."
 * Never Live It Down: General Miller's relationship with Karen Clarke has been largely defined by a one night stand he can't even remember from 20 years ago. Apparently she hasn't left him in peace since.
 * Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: Malcolm f*** ing Tucker versus Tony f*** ing Soprano.