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Better Off Dead: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''Gee, Ricky, I'm real sorry your mom blew up.''}}
''
After being dumped by his utterly-unfaithful girlfriend Beth, luckless teen Lane Meyer makes several futile attempts to kill himself, while wandering in and out of a series of encounters with the <s>inmates</s> residents
Probably doesn't ''quite'' make it to classic status, especially the ending which
{{tropelist}}
* [[Abhorrent Admirer]]: Ricky and his pursuit of Monique.
* [[The Ace]]: Everyone other than Lane seems to have incredible skill at doing things. Highlighted by Lane's younger brother, who uses his book knowledge to pick up trashy women and build a ''launchable space shuttle'' in the attic.
* [[Alien Lunch]]: She's not an actual alien, but Lane's mother Jenny is enough of a [[Cloudcuckoolander]] that she might as well be: she's shown on-screen cooking a meal where tentacles and claws wave from the pot; in another scene she serves the family a gelatinous green goo that flees Lane's plate when he pokes it with a fork.
* [[Ascended Meme]]: "I want my two dollars!"
* [[Animated Credits Opening]]
* [[Bad Job, Worse Uniform]]: Lane's job. See ''Burger Fool'', below.
* [[Blond Guys Are Evil]]: Roy Stalin
* [[Braces of Orthodontic Overkill]]: Lane's unfortunate but practical blind-date.
* [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]]: In-universe example: Barney Rubble of ''[[The Flintstones]]'' interrupts a broadcast to ask Lane if he can date Beth.
* [[Bungled Suicide]]: Several -- it's one of the film's [[Running Gag
{{quote|'''Lane:''' ''Gee, I'm real sorry your mom blew up, Ricky.''}}
* [[Burger Fool]]: Lane has to wear a hideous pig-themed hat, even though he works back in the kitchen.
* [[Claymation]]: A brief sequence set in the burger joint where Lane works.
* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Lane's mother Jenny.
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{{quote|'''Charles:''' I've been going to this high school for ''seven and a half years!'' I'm no dummy!}}
* [[The Determinator]]: "I want my two dollars!!"
* [[Driven to Suicide]]: By Beth breaking up with him.
* [[The Eighties]]: Identifiable by the [[Crowning Music of Awesome|catchy pop song soundtrack]].
* [[Enfant Terrible]]: "I want my two dollars!!"
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* [[Evil Genius]]: Badger possibly qualifies.
* [[Funny Foreigner]]: [[Foreign Exchange Student|Monique]] mostly avoids this, except {{spoiler|for one or two ''slight'' problems with English.}}
* [[Happily-Failed Suicide]]: Lane tries and fails to kill himself several times during the first part of the film.
* [[High School Dance]]: The New Year's dance at which Lane briefly rescues Monique from Ricky.
* [[Homemade Sweater From Hell]]: Jenny wears a reindeer outfit which comes complete with an antler-headpiece, and gives one to her husband which is aardvark-themed.
* [[I Need to Go Iron My Dog]]: Lane ditching the paperboy.
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* [[Interrupted Suicide]]
* [[It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY"]]: Lane's mother serves Monique "Frahnch Fries", etc.
* [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy]]: Of course,
* [[Jerk Jock]]: The villain, such as he is.
** His name? ''Roy Stalin''.
* [[Language of Love]]: Subverted, when
** Invoked by name by Ricky's mother, to Monique's utter disgust.
* [[Lethal Chef]]: Hoo boy. Jenny. Lane pokes one of her creations with his fork, and it ''starts moving away''.
{{quote|"It's got raisins in it. You ''like'' raisins."}}
* [[Malaproper]]: French exchange student Monique is mostly fluent in English, but has one or two ''slight'' vocabulary issues, resulting in lines like "He keeps putting his testicles all over me."
* [[Manic Pixie Dream Girl]]: Monique.
* [[Meaningful Name]]: Roy ''Stalin''.
* [[Medium Shift Gag]]: There are a couple of gag sequences in both clay and hand-drawn animation, representing Lane's bizarre daydreams about dancing hamburgers and so forth.
* [[
* [[Mocking Music]]: After Beth has broken up with him, Lane is driving despondently and looking for something cheery to listen to on the radio. ''Every'' station is playing a breakup song; he ends up ripping the radio out of the car and hurling it out the window.
* [[My Girl Is Not a Slut]]: After the break-up, every guy from the [[One-Scene Wonder|math teacher]] to the rude mailman to [[The Flintstones|Barney Rubble]] is asking Lane if it would be alright to date his ex.▼
* [[My Beloved Smother]]: Ricky's harridan of a mother.
* [[Naked Freak-Out]]: The roller-skating cheerleader in the cafeteria in her underwear, due to Lane's accidental slip-up. [[It Gets Worse]] as {{spoiler|ALL of her boyfriends give him a [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown]]}}.▼
▲* [[My Girl Is Not a Slut]]: After the break-up, every guy from the [[One-Scene Wonder|math teacher]] to the rude mailman to [[The Flintstones|Barney Rubble]]
▲* [[Naked Freak-Out]]: The roller-skating cheerleader in the cafeteria in her underwear, due to Lane's accidental slip-up. [[It Gets Worse]] as {{spoiler|
* [[Obstacle Ski Course]]: The ski-off with Roy at the climax of the film turns into one.
* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: Vincent Schiavelli as Lane's [[The Ace|math teacher]].
* [[Over-the-Shoulder Carry]]: At the end of the film, Lane tosses Monique over his shoulder and runs off the ski slope as she waves good-bye to Ricky and merrily calls out "au revoir!"
* [[Reverse Harem]]: Chris Cummins is a cheerleader who dates the basketball team. The ''entire'' team.
* [[Running Gag]]: "I want my two dollars!!"
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** Badger's mail-order purchases
** The garage door window's getting broken.
* [[Stalker Shrine]]: Lane has turned his room into one of these, dedicated to his girlfriend.
* [[Standard Snippet]]: Muddy Waters' "Mannish Boy" as Lane's Camaro rolls out for the first time. Gene Autry's "Here Comes Santa Claus" during the Christmas sequence.
* [[Stock Shout Out]]: In-universe, Lane doing Frankenstein-imbuing-the-creature-with-life at the start of the "Everybody Wants Some" sequence.
* [[The Stoner]]: Charles. Or he would be, if he could find anything to get stoned on.
{{quote|How are we going to get real drugs in this town? We can't even get cable!}}
** Snorting ''real snow'' [[Brain Freeze|seems to work for him]].
{{quote|This is pure snow! Do you have any idea what the street value of this mountain is?}}
* [[Suicide as Comedy]]: Detecting a theme yet?
{{quote|And dying when you're not really sick is really sick, you know. Really!}}
* [[Title Drop]]: The singer at the school dance.
* [[Tomboy and Girly Girl]]: Monique vs. Beth. Interestingly set up since as a French exchange student, Monique normally would be expected to be a fashionista Girly Girl. Instead, she's a (well-dressed) [[Wrench Wench]] and baseball fanatic.
* [[Totally Radical]]: Lane's father awkwardly attempts to "connect" with him.
* [[Trash Landing]]:
{{quote|[[Acceptable Targets|"Now that's a real shame when folks be throwin' away a perfectly good white boy like that!"]]}}
* [[Unkempt Beauty]]: Monique looks surprisingly hot with car grease on her face.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Films of the 1980s]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Cult Classic]]
[[Category:Film]]
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