The Nutty Professor (1996 film)

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A 1996 Remake of the 1963 film starring Eddie Murphy, Jada Pinkett Smith, and a whole bunch of Eddie Murphy. The success of the remake led to a 2000 sequel, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, with Janet Jackson amid the various Eddie Murphys.

Tropes used in The Nutty Professor (1996 film) include:

The Nutty Professor

  • Abhorrent Admirer: Grandma Klump to Buddy.
    • Also, the hamster to Dean Richmond.
  • Absent-Minded Professor
  • Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: The Klumps when Sherman brings Carla over. They talk openly about sex, bodily functions, marriage, and other embarrassing topics, so much so that Sherman tries to slit his wrists with a butter knife.
  • Battle Cry: After his first transformation, Shermann, now a slim man, proudly stands up on top of the college he works and shouts:

Buddy Love: I'm THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!!!!!!!!!!

  • Butt Monkey: Dean Richmond whenever there's a hamster around.
  • Casanova: Buddy Love.
  • Fantastic Drug
  • Jekyll and Hyde
  • Heavy Voice: Inverted; Buddy Love has a lighter voice than Sherman Klump.
  • Hilarious Outtakes: In the 1996 version.
  • It's Not You, It's Me: Sherman Klump ends up breaking off the marriage because he believes that he can't be a good husband while his intellect was deteriorating after removing Buddy Love from his system.
  • Jerkass: The insult comic Reggie Warrington.
  • Large Ham: Buddy and most of the Klumps.
  • Mean Boss / Dean Bitterman: Richmond, the dean of the university that Sherman Klump works at, frequently insults Sherman Klump's obesity and makes no secret of his contempt of Klump.
  • Meaningful Echo: Buddy to Dean Richmond: "Who you think you talkin' to, Sherman Klump? Man, if you ever talk to me like that again, I'll kill you. And I don't mean it as euphemism, I'm gonna literally kill you. I'm gonna strangle you and cut off your air supply until you pass away."
  • Meaningful Name: The fact that the last name of the universally overweight Klumps sounds like plump is obvious.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: Lance Perkins is a clear Expy of Richard Simmons.
  • No Indoor Voice: Buddy.
  • Oh Crap: Sherman, when he wakes up next to three hookers after a night of partying (as Buddy).
  • Pay Evil Unto Evil: Buddy's put-down of Reggie Warrington.

Buddy: I've heard of dreadlocks, but shitlocks?

Buddy Love: "You can't beat me!"
Sherman Klump: "YES. I. CAN!"

  • Refuge in Vulgarity: There is the infamous dinner scene that properly introduces the rest of his family.
  • Sexier Alter Ego: The titular professor invents a way to change from a rather overweight guy into a smooth ladies man.
  • Sexual Karma: The Jerkass dean gets more than his share of this, courtesy of "Jumbo the Horny Hamster".
  • Squirrels in My Pants: Variation: During a demonstration test on the fountain of youth serum on a hamster, it initially works, but thanks to Buddy Love sabotaging the serum earlier, the hamster ends up basically turning Godzilla on them, forcing the audience to evacuate and the guards to fire on "hamsterzilla" before it dispatched them with turds. It then sees Dean Richmond (wearing a fur rug over himself in a failed attempt to hide) and, mistaking Richmond for a potential mate, gets very interested in him and is also strongly implied to have raped him. As the cameras were still rolling, this was also shown on TV across the state, if not the nation or the world, as the scene in the Klumps' living room revealed.
  • Synchronized Swarming: The professor proposes to his girlfriend by attracting fireflies into the words "Marry me?" using a synthesized firefly pheromone.
  • That Came Out Wrong: "Pardon me ladies and gentlemen, but I cannot go on living unless I have this man inside me right now!"
  • That Man Is Dead

Buddy Love: SHERMAN IS DEAD!! HE'S GONE!

  • This Ain't Rocket Surgery: Sherman, whose mind is decaying rapidly and is just about to meet Denise's parents, assures himself that he won't make a fool of himself because Denise's parents are probably not rocket scientists. Turns out that's exactly what they are.
  • Toilet Humor: The movie has a lot of fart jokes, as well as implied soiled pants.
  • Villain Protagonist: Buddy at first, until it becomes clear that he's a completely separate persona and plans to take over Sherman's life.

Nutty Professor II: The Klumps

  • Darker and Edgier: The Klumps had a few moments of that range from dark humor to horror. Buddy Love in the second movie is more evil than he ever was in the first nor its predecessor. Going from trying to take Sherman's place to downright trying to stalk and destroy Sherman and anyone else that got in the way. Even before his DNA was separated from Sherman's he even found many ways attacking him on the inside. From giving him a terrible nightmare to alienating him from his father and love interest. That aside there were Tear Jerker moments too, from relationship problems between Sherman's parents mirroring Sherman's relationship with Denise, as well as breaking off the marriage under the belief that he can't be a good husband after his intellect is deteriorating, especially due to an incident where Buddy Love sabotaged the fountain of youth formula and stole the actual sample, causing a test gone awry. The audience was also almost fooled with a Bittersweet Ending, when we including Denise and Cletus thought Sherman was brain dead for good.
  • Fan Disservice: Grandma Klump leaping through a field of daisies in a see-through nightgown.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Dean Richmond did ally with Sherman Klump to stop Buddy Love from stealing the patent for the fountain of youth formula in the climax.
  • Meaningful Name: The slender love interest is named 'Gains', especially when we're shown that Mrs. Klump's old wedding dress fits her.
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