The Dictator: Difference between revisions

* [[Bodyguard Babes]]: Shabazz's guards.

* [[Body Double]]

* [[The Cameo]]: Lots.

** Megan Fox sleeps with Aladeen in the beginning.

* [[Crapsack World]]: Wadiya is ''so'' worthless, that the European colonial powers all played hot potato with one another for the ownership of the country, since no one wanted it. First the Italians claimed it, but they then they sold it to the Swiss for a truckload of cheese, who then paid Germany to take it. Germany then had to convince the people of Wadiya that they wanted independence.

* [[The Ditz]]: Aladeen and Zoey both come across as pretty flaky but they are far more on the ball than Aladeen's moronic double.

* [[Evil Versus Evil]]: A ruthless egomaniac dictator versus a corrupt [[Treacherous Advisor]] who wants to sell off his country to oil tycoons.

* [[Fake American]]: In-universe. Aladeen does an expectedly horrible job of impersonating an American tourist.

* [[Faking the Dead]]: {{spoiler|The "Osama bin Laden" killed by Seal Team 6 was actually a [[Body Double]]. The ''real'' Osama is [[The Thing That Would Not Leave|mooching off Aladeen]] and [[Squick|messing up his bathroom]]}}

* [[Heel Face Turn]]: {{spoiler|[[Zig Zagged]] towards the end, with Aladeen going back and forth between deciding to introduce democracy and remaining as a dictatorship. Ultimately played straight, at least to some extent.}}

* [[Hidden Depths]]: For all of Aladeen's many, many faults, he's actually an incredibly efficient manager. This is evidenced when {{spoiler|he forcibly takes control of Zoey's store. After a couple of days, he's got the right employees doing the right job, has the store looking nice and generally running smoothly.}}

* '''[[Jerkass]]'''

** Of course, he eventually becomes the [[Jerk With a Heart of Gold]] due to being somewhat humbled by his experience, but not by much.

* [[Lady Looks Like a Dude]]: A [[Running Gag]]. Aladeen keeps comparing Zoey to a boy.

* [[Lighter and Softer]]: Compared to ''[[Borat]]'' and ''[[Bruno]]''. While those two films were R-rated (and very hard R's, at that), this one seems to play it on the safe side and with a few trims could have easily been a PG-13 (which was the studio's original plan).

* [[Love Redeems]]: Aladeen's feelings for Zoey help him become a (slightly) better person.

* [[Make It Look Like an Accident]]: Shabazz seized power from his father after murdering him in a "hunting accident". Though he apparently did a really shitty job of making it look like an accident.

* [[Method Acting]]: Sacha Baron Cohen appeared at the Oscars as General Aladeen and has done many interviews as him.

* [[Mistaken for Terrorist]]: This happens to Aladeen and Nadal when they are on the helicopter. The American tourists think that Aladeen is in league with Bin Laden; in reality, he's just letting Bin Laden crash at his guest house.

{{quote| Aladeen righteously declared his father Eternal President of the Republic and called for free elections to determine who would serve as Vice-President under his dead father. Aladeen won with only 99.999% of the vote. After an exhaustive government investigation, it was discovered that the one dissenting vote came from Aladeen himself, who deliberately misspelled his own name as an ingenious test of the system.}}

* [[Playing Against Type]]: Anna Faris, usually typecast as a [[Dumb Blonde]], is playing a [[Tomboy|tomboyish]] political activist.

** Worst of all is probably hiring Aladeen, though it turns out his totalitarian "Supreme Grocer" managing style worked wonders.

* [[Politically Incorrect Hero]]: Goes without saying, since it is a Sacha Baron Cohen film.