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{{tropelist}}
* [[Aerosol Flamethrower]]: Link breaks Tracy out of prison with this method in the stage show.
* [[Alliterative Name]]: loads: Tracy Turnblad, Penny and Prudy Pingleton, Velma Von Tussle, Corny Collins, Link Larkin, Motormouth Maybelle, Seaweed J. Stubbs.
* [[Alpha Bitch]]: Amber Von Tussle.
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* [[Big Fun]]: Tracy's a rare female example.
* [[Blonde, Brunette, Redhead]]: Amber, Tracy, and Penny.
* [[The Brainless Beauty]]: Link Larkin is a light, male version.
* [[Broken Smile]]: {{spoiler|Velma Von Tussle displays a perfect example when the show is finally integrated.}}
** {{spoiler|In the play anyway. In the second movie, she stays pissy throughout, probably due to losing her job.}}
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** A lot of people objected to [[Queen Latifah]]'s casting in the film musical because of this. But considering she's the most famous plus-sized black actress in Hollywood and her skintone is middle-ground.
* [[California Doubling]]: Many of the Baltimore scenes were shot in Toronto.
* [[The Cameo]]: The 2007 film features several. [[John Waters]], director of the 1988 film, appears as a flasher, and director Adam Shankman, composer/lyricist Mark Shaiman, co-composer/lyricist Scott Wittman and Ricki Lake (Tracy from the 1988 film) all play talent agents. The associate choreographers also make apperancesappearances.
** Not to mention, in the 1988 film, John Waters plays the psychiatrist that hypnotizes/tortures Penny.
** Also in the movie musical, Jerry Stiller, who played Wilbur Turnblad in the original movie, played Mr. Pinky, who ran a plus-sized boutique and wanted Tracy to do commercials for him when she became a hit on the Corny Collins show.
* [[Casting Gag]]: In the 2007 film, Jerry Stiller plays fashion store owner Mr Pinky. Stiller played Wilbur Turnblad in the original 1988 film. Several other actors from the original and the director appear as well, see "The Cameo".
** Brittney Snow in the 2007 version essentially fulfilled the same role as Tracy in her show ''[[American Dreams]]'' except she actually danced on [[American Bandstand]].
* [[The Cast Showoff]]: Several members of the cast were picked either because their musical talents were largely unknown to the general public (Marsden, Walken, Bynes) or had simply been forgotten about in recent years (Travolta, Pfeiffer).
* [[Cavalier Competitor]]: Amber after losing; quickly in the 2007 film, gradually as "You Can't Stop The Beat" goes on in the musical. Also counts as [[Graceful Loser]].
* [[Civil Rights Movement]]: Maybelle and the black dancers' plight.
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* [[Genki Girl]]: Tracy.
* [[Genre Savvy]]: In the stage musical, Velma realizes that someone is hiding in the {{spoiler|giant hairspray can and she orders her guards to prevent anyone from touching it}}. It turns out that she is {{spoiler|[[Wrong Genre Savvy]] because Edna is in the can and Tracy just comes in through the front door while the guards are distracted by guarding the can. It helps that the guards are really Motormouth Maybelle and many of the other black cast members in disguise.}}
* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: (''e.g.'', "Hey, baby! You look like you could use a ''stiff'' one!" During a hairspray plug.)
** Every word that comes out of Velma Von Tussle's mouth.
** "I'm sorry, Prudy, but some of your ''personal stains'' need poundin' out with a rock!"
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{{quote|'''Corny:''' So how long are you going to be out?
'''Brenda:''' Just [[Teen Pregnancy|nine months]].
'''Corny:''' We need a girl who's just as fun lovin', but maybe not as free wheelin'! ''(wink)'' }}
*** In other versions, it's:
{{quote|'''Corny:''' So tell us, Brenda, where are you going?
'''Brenda:''' College!
'''Corny:''' We need a girl who's just as fun lovin', but maybe not as... educated. }}
** From Velma's villain song-
{{quote|"Those poor runners up might still hold some grudges, they padded their cups but I screwed the judges!"}}
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yes it's true girl
We'd like to say... [two [[Beat]]s]
to the new girl in town" }}
** The chorus of Seaweed's song is entirely about this, with tons of [[Where Da White Women At?]] implications.
** In "Timeless To Me", the final line on the album's version is Edna saying "Wilbur, honey, let's take this upstairs". In the script, the reprise includes the lines "You're rounding third base now" / "Holy cow!".
** Just before "Run And Tell That", Seaweed has this little gem, which somehow made it into the high school version of the script:
{{quote|'''Penny:''' The nurse was out sick, but look what Seaweed found!
'''Seaweed:''' Band-aids and Q-tips! And a rubber. Wait, guess that's mine. (paraphrased) }}
** From "Ladies' Choice":
{{quote|'''Link:''' Hey little girl take me off the shelf/'Cause it's no fun ''playing with yourself''.}}
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* [[Graceful Loser]]: In the second movie, Amber was surprisingly mature about her defeat, indicating [[Character Development]].
** She and her mother ''both'' become graceful losers in the stage show as well, after much sulking, they give in and realize that they "can't stop the beat". See [[Heel Face Turn]] below.
* [[Happily Married]]: Edna and Wilbur.
* [[Heel Face Turn]]: Amber and Velma in the musical; just Amber seems to get one in the film (walking out on her mother and getting along with a black dancer), even after the unnecessary [[Humiliation Conga]].
* [[Henpecked Husband|Henpecked Boyfriend]]: Link is henpecked by his girlfriend Amber.
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Look out, look out, look out, look out!
[[[Beat]]]
She was the new girl in... town! }}
* [[Historical In-Joke]]: When Penny rushes to show the Turnblads Tracy's TV debut, Edna misunderstands and thinks she's trying to show them the footage of John Glenn's space trip. She chastises her, saying "Oh, I've seen it! It's all some studio out in Hollywood. Do they really expect me to believe he's up there?"
** In the script of the stage version, (or at least the high school version, which kept most of the crap that got past the radar), it's "Oh no, don't tell me Khrushchev has his shoes off again!"
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{{quote|"I believe it is just naturally stiff."}}
* [[Improbable Hairstyle]]
* [[Informed Ability]]: Inez's dancing in the 2007 movie. {{spoiler|She's not appreciably better than the rest of the talented cast, yet we're supposed to believe that she alone was impressive enough to win Miss Teen Hairspray after just one (short) dance. It's implied she won because she was the only black contestant (ever) and the whole community voted for her, even though there'd would still be alota lot of racism in the community, making this very improbable.}}
* [[I Take Offense to That Last One]]:
{{quote|'''Link Larkin:''' I shoulda been there, beside her. I can't sleep. I can't eat...
'''Edna Turnblad:''' You can't eat? Well, come on in and worry with us. I'll make you some pork. }}
** Or, in the stage version,
{{quote|'''Link:''' I couldn't sleep, I couldn't eat, I couldn't even concentrate!
'''Tracy:''' You couldn't eat? }}
* [["I Want" Song]]: "Good Morning Baltimore" and "I Can Hear The Bells".
* [[Jerkass]]: Velma Von Tussle in the musical and even more so in it's film adaptation (where she's less [[Laughably Evil]]), and Amber Von Tussle for a good while due to emulating her mother.
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** Penny gets one in the finale as well, and Edna {{spoiler|comes out of the Hairspray Can in the musical with clothing she made herself.}}
* [[Morning Routine]]: The 2007 movie starts with one. The musical too, but in less detail.
* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: The Dynamites (The Supremes), Corny Collins (Dick Clark).
* [[Not So Different]]: Tracy, Penny, and Amber all have radically different personalities, but are the same when it comes to their mother issues, as shown in the "Mama, I'm a big girl now" number.
* [[One Head Taller]]: Inverted with Penny and Seaweed. She is noticeably taller than him.
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''You'll never get to college but you sure look cool!''
''Don't need a cap or a gown''
''When you're the Nicest Kids in Town!'' }}
* [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]: Corny Collins, the dance show host, who is very open to bending the rules and doing away with segregation.
* [[Rose-Tinted Narrative]]
* [[Sassy Black Woman]]: Motormouth Maybelle, the Dynamites.
* [[Shallow Love Interest]]: Link in the original 1988 film, and to a lesser extent in the 2007 film. DelibaratelyDeliberately subverted in the stage musical, where his [[Character Development]] is about stopping being a shallow tool and doing things for himself.
* [[Shout-Out]]: For the 2007 film, director Adam Shankman included several homages to and winks at the films that were his inspiration. The opening shot is a mix of the opening shots for ''[[West Side Story]]'' and ''[[The Sound of Music]]''. Penny's dress at the end of the film is made from her curtains, just like the Von Trapp childrenschildren's play clothes that Maria makes out of old curtains in ''The Sound of Music''. Several of Tracy's scenes - such as her ride atop the garbage truck - are taken from the Barbra Streissand film version of ''[[Funny Girl]]''. Link singing to Tracy's photograph, which sings back, is directly inspired from ''The Broadway Melody of 1938'', in which [[Judy Garland]] sings to a photo of Clark Gable.
** The stage musical contains a few references to [[Gypsy]]. In the beginning, these references were quite timely, as Hairspray premiered on Broadway in the same season as a revival of Gypsy starring Bernadette Peters. By the time Hairspray closed, these references would again become timely, as a new revival starring Patti LuPone had just started its run.
* [[Sidekick Song]]: "Run and Tell That" and "Big, Blonde, and Beautiful"
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* [[Take That]]:
{{quote|'''Tracy:''' Where do you go after special ed?
'''Everybody:''' Congress! }}
* [[Theme Twin Naming]]: Noreen and Doreen (only in the movie).
* [[The Theme Park Version]]: Of [[The Sixties]], particularly the anti-segregation movement. [[Tropes Are Not Bad|Doesn't mean the movie's bad, though]].
* [[Took a Level In Kindness]]: Tracy and Edna could be pretty surly and offputtingoff-putting on several occasions in the original film (Edna in particular due to being played by Divine, the inspiration for [[The Little Mermaid|Ursula]], and it shows), but are very nice people in the musical.
* [[Ugly Hero, Good-Looking Villain]]: The Turnblads and the Von Tussles, except that Tracey's not exactly ugly.
* [[Where Da White Women At?]]?: Seaweed and Penny.
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