Meet the Parents: Difference between revisions

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'''Greg Focker:''' No, no. I was just going over my answers to the polygraph test your dad just gave me. }}

 

 

 

Greg's situation is further complicated by a series of attempts to impress Pam's family backfiring on him, mostly involving little lies that lead to bigger ones until he looks like a complete jackass. It escalates to the point where he gets kicked out of the Byrnes' home. Ultimately, Pam manages to convince her father that she loves Greg and despite the bad first impression it was all because he loves her. After another grilling session, Jack's contempt for Greg dissipates... for the most part.

'''''Meet The Fockers''''' -- In a reversal of the first film, Pam and her parents join Greg in meeting his parents, Bernie and Roz ([[Dustin Hoffman]] and [[Barbra Streisand]] respectively), before Greg and Pam get married. While Greg is thoroughly embarrassed by his parents' behavior, Jack once again is suspicious of him after learning certain elements of Greg's past and goes even more extreme lengths to prove what he suspects of Greg. Ultimately, everything works out, as Greg and Pam get married and the Fockers even help to bring back some passion into the Byrnes' marriage.

 

 

 

 

* [[The Ace]]: Kevin.

* [[Aesop Amnesia]]: In both ''Meet the Fockers'' and ''Little Fockers'', Jack has to learn to trust, let alone like, Greg all over again.

* [[Ashes to Crashes]]

* [[Bourgeois Bohemian]]: The Fockers.

* [[The Can Kicked Him]]: In ''Meet The Fockers'', the Bynes' cat Jynx (who knows how to use a toilet) flushes the Fockers' dog, Moses.

** Two possibilities: 1. Greg was fibbing after all. 2. His parents also may be lying. At least, his father, in this hypothetical case.

** Greg was indeed lying, and Jack even questions him about the story he told with his sister's cat. ("You told me you had a sister; you said you ''milked'' your sister's cat.") This scene however is often cut on television.

* [[Cats Are Mean]]

* [[Censored Title]]: Some movie reviews called the second movie ''Meet the F*** ers'' (which, oddly enough, made the title seem worse than it actually was).

* [[Embarrassing First Name]]: Greg's real first name is Gaylord. His parents also call him "Gay". What sort of parents call their son Gaylord Focker? Hippies, of course.

* [[Embarrassing Middle Name]]: Female married name variant - in ''Meet The Parents'', Jack and his wife Dina realize if/when Pam marries Greg, their daughter would be Pamela Martha Focker. Once again, this gets called back in ''Meet The Fockers'':

** Also doubles as a [[The Maiden Name Debate]]

* [[From the Mouths of Babes]]: During ''Meet The Fockers'', Little Jack (Jack's grandson and Pam's nephew) ends up learning the word "asshole" after Greg accidentally mentions the word in front of him.

* [[Genius Ditz]]: Andi Garcia, [[Jessica Alba]]'s character from ''Little Fokkers'' is [[Genki Girl|permanently perky]], peppers her speech with [[Valley Girl]] like expressions and ''would'' come across as just an [[Brainless Beauty|immature party-girl airhead]] if it wasn't for her demontrasting that she is also a highly skilled nurse in a couple of early scenes.

* [[Large Ham|Large Hams]]: The Koshers - er, Fockers, oh damn.

* [[Lawful Stupid]]: The airline employees, particularly the one who makes Greg wait until his row gets called for boarding... ''even though he's the only person waiting to be called''.

* [[Lie Detector]]: In ''Meet The Parents'', Jack hooks Greg up to one in order to find out about his past. This scene was heavily used to promote the film.

* [[Living Lie Detector]]: Jack places his thumbs on Greg's wrists as an impromptu lie detector in their last major scene.

** Which may border on to [[Did Not Do the Research]] as using your thumbs to take a person's pulse is not correct; your thumb has it's own pulse and thus may give a false reading.

*** Some have speculated that Jack was counting on Greg not knowing that, and getting distracted from hiding other signs that he's lying. Though he'd already learned that Greg aced the [[MCA Ts]].

* [[The Maiden Name Debate]]: At the end of the first movie, Pam's parents note that taking Greg's name would result in [[Unfortunate Names|Pamela Martha Focker]] [[Don't Explain the Joke|(sounds like motherf* cker people)]]. In the second movie, Pam confirms that she will indeed take Greg's name, she doesn't care how embarassing it may sound.

* [[MD Envy]]: Inverted; although Greg scored top marks in medical school, he chose to be a male nurse so he could spend more time with patients. Jack and the rest of the Byrnes family (which include several doctors themselves) grill him on why he just didn't become a doctor and even refuse to believe he passed his MCAT with top marks.

* [[Mistaken for Cheating]]: One of the plot points of the third film.

* [[Mistaken for Gay]]: The headmistress of the school in the third film mistakes Greg and Jack for being married.

* [[Ms. Fanservice]]: Jessica Alba shows a lot in ''Little Fockers''. [[Your Mileage May Vary|For some people this is the only tolerable aspect of the movie]] (that and [[He Really Can Act|her being one of the few cast members]] [[Your Mileage May Vary|who actually makes some effort]]).

* [[Only Sane Man|Only Sane Woman]]: Dina.

* [[Overly Long Gag]] - see Punny Name below.

* [[Overprotective Dad]]

* [[Papa Wolf]]: Jack to a disturbing degree.

* [[Parental Marriage Veto]]

* [[Punny Name]]: Mo Focker, an unseen relative. A conversation between Jack and Greg reveals that's not the extent of it, either:

'''Greg Focker''': Yeah, Dom Focker, that's my dad's... uh... first cousin. You meet his kids, Randy and Orny? }}

* [[Real Joke Name]]: In ''Little Fockers'', we are treated to the female character "Andi Garcia."

* [[Running Gag]]: At the end of each film. At the end of the first two Jack views a video of Greg ragging on him via "hidden" camera. At the end of the third film Jack views a Youtube video of Greg talking about Jack at a seminar and basically Reiterating the crazy antics Jack pulled in the first two films.

* [[Sadist Show]]: The basis of the humor in the movies is that [[Cosmic Plaything|the universe seems to hate]] Greg Focker. Also, his new father-in-law is a [[Manipulative Bastard|sadist]] who refuses to let Greg ever come out of something looking good. Even his cat is a bastard.

* [[Shown Their Work]]: The human lie detector was debunked, due to info on the pulse. However another aspect of lie detecting was still in play. When Jack administers the test, he looks at Greg in the eyes. While Greg looks away a few moments, Jack still keeps his eyes focused on Greg's. This is based off of a popular fact that if you look to the left while answering a question, you are lying. The left side of the brain has been known as the creative side while the right side is the thinking side. Looking to the left means you are coming up with some BS story.

* [[Soundtrack Dissonance]]: In one scene in ''Little Fockers'' Stephen Trask's score turns surprisingly twinkly and airy, as if it's accompanying a fantasy movie rather than Andi giving a male patient an anal insertion - Trask is director Paul Weitz's composer of choice, which is why (unlike the first two films) this was not scored by [[Randy Newman]].

* [[Tempting Fate]]: The second movie begins with Greg catching an extraordinary number of lucky breaks. He should've known it was too good to last...

* [[Toros Y Flamenco]]: Spain in the third movie.

* [[Watch the Paint Job]]: Subverted in ''Little Fockers''. As construction is taking place in Greg's back yard, Kevin shows up in a Tesla and parks curbside. As Greg backs a dump truck full of sand out of the driveway, {{spoiler|he doesn't hit the Tesla, but instead empties the sand onto Jack.}}

* [[Wedding Day]]: Greg and Pam finally do get married after two entire movies' worth of hijinks trying to thwart them.

* [[You're Drinking Breast Milk]]: Happens to Greg in ''Meet the Fockers''.

 

[[Category:Films of the 2010s]]

[[Category:Films of the 2000s]]

[[Category:Film]]