Back to School: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Back to school, back to school, to prove to dad I'm not a fool..."''|''[[Billy Madison]]''}}

 

 

 

Your average John Q. Dropout's reason for completing his education is nearly always related to his career, sometimes to obtain a new job requiring a higher degree of education and other times because his current job demands it. Stupidity and incompetence will often be [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]]. The character will often be thrown amongst people outside their age group, or at least act in that way.

* The title character of ''[[Billy Madison]]'' had to retake all 12 grades in order to take over his father's company.

* In ''[[A Goofy Movie|An Extremely Goofy Movie]]'', Goofy had to return to college (and the same one his son, Max, was attending, no less!) to get a job.

* The premise of the movie ''[[Back to School (film)|Back to School]]'' is that Rodney Dangerfield's character goes to college in order to convince his son that it's worthwhile (after the son uses the father's self-made success as an argument that college isn't necessary).

* The title character in ''[[Ernest P. Worrell|Ernest Goes To School]]'' has to redo 12th grade to keep his job since the school board require all school employees to have a high school diploma.

* Nick Rivers from ''[[Top Secret]]'' appears to be back to school, painfully, in the middle of the movie. He is tremendously relieved when he realizes he was only being tortured by two goons and that was just a nightmare he had when he passed out.

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* On ''[[Married... with Children]]'', Peg discovers that she never graduated from high school because she was one credit short (she failed Home Economics), so she enrolls in Kelly's home ec. class and the two have to prepare Jell-O and crowned rack of lamb for their final exam. Peg's project gets eaten by Al, and, in true Bundy fashion, Peg steals Kelly's Jell-O dish and turns it in as her own, thus allowing her to finally get her diploma, and forcing Kelly to go to summer school.

** Peg talks Kelly into thinking she's going to have a great summer, allowing Peg to walk away. Kelly finally catches on ... many seconds later.

* This was the premise of the Rhea Perlman [[Sitcom]] ''[[Series/Pearl|Pearl]]''. Pearl was a mature woman from modest up-bringings. When she realized she had missed out on a lot, she decided to go back to college, in spite of her grown son's protests. She made a bunch of new, but weird, friends and was constantly in conflict with her snob philosophy professor (played by [[Malcolm McDowell]]).

* The entire premise of ''[[Community]]'' is that the main character is forced to go back to college and earn his bachelor's after the government learned his was a fake. It is also revealed that {{spoiler|Senior Chang}} did the same thing and will be joining the group as a student the next semester.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

** There was an earlier episode where he had to take a night course run by his old high school principal because he never finished remedial science. His final exam gives us a classic:

{{quote|'''Homer:''' All right brain, you don't like me and I don't like you, so let's just do this and I can get back to killing you with beer.

** A small gag used in a third season episode when Peter is about to be killed by a bear while on a hunting trip with Chris, his childhood flashbacks appear showing he has to repeat the fourth grade several times and finally passed right before his hunting trip.

* In the ''[[Tale Spin]]'' episode "Sheepskin Deep", Baloo returns to finish school so he'll be able to attend a class reunion. The really [[Hilarity Ensues|hilarious part]] is that it's ''elementary'' school, the same one ''Kit attends'', and we see him trying to fit into the tiny little desk and everything.

* In an episode of ''[[Hey Arnold!]]'', Arnold's 81-year-old grandfather, who dropped out due to the Great Depression, goes back to elementary school. He quickly advances to the sixth grade, and then becomes a delinquent.

** [[Squick|And dates sixth grade girls.]]

[[Category:School Tropes]]

[[Category:Plots]]