Baby by the Pool Scene - the Hangover

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Is Alan a Millstone, a Psychopathic Man Child, or is he a Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold? Or is he all three?

• And You Thought It Would Fail: Lindsay Lohan turned down the role of Jade because, apparently, she thought it would flop. Yeah, that was a bad idea.
• Angst? What Angst?: With Teddy being a prominent musician and studying to be a surgeon, you'd think he'd be at least a little upset about cutting off his finger and having it get lost.
• Awesome Music:
  • The soundtrack has an impressive hip-hop collection for a movie that does not specifically revolve around hip-hop.
  • 'What do Tigers dream of when they take a little Tiger snooze?' It's beautiful.
  • The Dan Band's version of 50 Cent's "Candy Shop".
  • The use of Nine Inch Nails' version of "Hurt" (the original one) for the scene where Alan bids Chow a final (well, unless you count The Stinger) farewell and leaves with the Wolfpack.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Leslie Chow is either the most hilarious character or the most annoying character in the trilogy, depending on who you ask. When it comes to the sequels, you can also add people who think he's funny, but not funny enough to warrant the increased screen time in each sequel.
  • Alan is either the funniest character in the series, only funny in small doses or is the most annoying character of the films.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Stu's "What Do Tigers Dream Of?" musical number.
• Critical Dissonance: Part II was largely panned by critics, but it was successful at the box office, outgrossing the original (in more than one way). Part III has an even more negative reception than II but still managed to have the second-highest opening weekend for an R-rated comedy film.
• Critic-Proof: As said above, poor reviews didn't damper the box office for the two sequels (though for Part II, this may be due to the good will from the first film. Part III was also the lowest grossing film in the series by a sizeable margin).
• Crosses the Line Twice: A cop (played by six-and-a-half foot tall Marine Rob Riggle) kicking in the door, pointing a gun, and screaming "SHUT THAT BABY UP!" - This would only allude to later on, in which he is outright leading kids to hit the three with tasers. The hysterical laughter and goading as it all happens leaves you wondering just how these guys "serve and protect".
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Leslie Chow, hence each sequel giving more screen time & relevance to the film than the previous.
  • The Dan Band has certainly gotten a good many fans from this film. Doubles as a One-Scene Wonder.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: The second film ends with Stu marrying Lauren and the guys (and Mike Tyson) reacting to the photos of the night before. Oh, what wacky fun! It almost makes you forget that Stu was raped by a sex worker and not only is not going to tell Lauren about it, but might well have an STD. Oh, and Teddy's career plans are in trouble because he cut off his finger and it's now impossible to reattach it.
• Fan-Preferred Couple:
  • Many fans were rooting for Jade and Stu to stay together in the end of the first movie and were disappointed to see Stu was married to someone else in the second.
  • To an extent, Chow and Alan's Ho Yay in the sequels led to some fans wishing for them to pair up.
• First Installment Wins: Most fans agree that the first film was definitely the best.
• "Funny Aneurysm" Moment: Not that it was all that hilarious before, but seeing a giraffe get killed becomes even more horrific after the controversy about the euthanised giraffe Marius from the Copenhagen Zoo.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The character of Leslie Chow is so popular in Japan and China that he has been given more and more screen time with each movie in the franchise. Considering that some American critics have considered Chow to be a racial stereotype of Asians, this may also count as Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales... or Acceptable Targets, since the actor is Korean.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In Part II, Mike Tyson tells Stu that he should have his tattoo removed. Considering the Frivolous Lawsuit over that same tattoo that nearly caused the film's delay, this also doubles as a retroactive "Funny Aneurysm" Moment.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: The main complaint from critics against Part II was that it was just a long repetition of the events of the first film, only set in Bangkok, Thailand.
• Memetic Mutation: "But did you die?" from Part II is often used as a response to something that is considered an overreaction.
• Older Than They Think
  • The plot of the first film shares plenty of similarities with Dude, Where's My Car?, the 1999 The Simpsons episode "Viva Ned Flanders", and Very Bad Things. In fact, the similarities to the latter led to the French title of the film being Very Bad Trip.
  • That fake-out hi-five/handshake thing that Zach Galifianakis does in the third film originated in an episode of Comedy Bang! Bang! (to which Scott Aukerman replied, "That's...still a thing?").
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Lisa, the receptionist at the Caesar's Palace. Helps that she's also hot.
  • Mike Tyson. And again in Part II
  • The tattoo artist in Part II was meant to be one, and be played by Mel Gibson, but this fell through after cast and crew objected to his involvement, leading to him being replaced with Liam Neeson. Then the scene needed to be reshot and Neeson wasn't available, so in the final film he's played by the utterly unrecognizable director Nick Cassavettes.
• Sequelitis: The first one was well-received. The sequels, not so much (the second for retreading the original while adding on Vulgar Humor, and the third for extreme Flanderization while drifting too far from the original to the point that comedy is almost an afterthought).
• Signature Scene: Mr. Chow jumping out of the trunk, naked, and beating everyone; or the Tiger Lullaby.
• So Okay, It's Average: While Part II is usually criticized for having many of the same elements from the first film with more vulgar scenes, its still not seen as worse than Part III with a score of 33% on Rotten Tomatoes and 6.4 on IMDB compared to third films' score of 20% and 5.8 on IMDB.
• Spiritual Adaptation:
  • The humor and slapstick gags are very reminiscent of The Three Stooges. In fact, some felt the film and its sequels are better modern adaptations then the actual 2012 film (albeit more grittier, grounded and semi-realistic then actual series of the Stooges' films).
  • The overall film trilogy feels like an R-rated live-action adaptation of the kids' cartoon Ed, Edd n Eddy (which like the films is also distributed by Warner Bros.), due to some characters sharing traits with the cartoon's characters. (Interestingly, The Three Stooges is said to be one of the inspirations for Ed, Edd n Eddy, so it comes full circle):
    • Phil shares some traits with Eddy, due to them being the egotistical and womanizing Jerkass leads of the trio and further hits home with his actor Bradley Cooper's voice coincidentally sounding like Eddy's voice actor Tony Sampson's voice when voicing the character.
    • Stu acts as the film series' Double D due to them trying to act as the three's Only Sane Man and The Smart Guy even though both are the neurotic of the three and are Not So Above It All.
    • Alan is Ed's counterpart, due to them being The Ditz of the group who can be an Unwitting Instigator of Doom who creates the problem that drives the plot.
    • Leslie Chow, Eddie Palermos from the first film and Samir from the second film (the latter two played by the same actor) all shares traits with Rolf, due to them being the Funny Foreigner towards the trio and are more tolerable and civil towards them in contrast to the other characters until their patience wears thin by the three's antics (though Eddie and Samir can count as exceptions). Also, the way Chow addressed the Wolfpack as "gay boys" in a couple of scenes throughout the trilogy is not unlike how Rolf addressed the Eds as "Ed boys" in the show.
    • Tracy and Melissa (from the first film) are each a Decomposite Character of Sarah due to the former being stressed out by the three's antics and being the sister of the trio's The Ditz, while the latter is an ill-tempered Jerkass and her being the girlfriend of Stu alludes to Sarah having a crush on Double D in the cartoon, though Sarah was slightly nicer towards Double D, while still controlling in contrast to Melissa's full-blown poor treatment.
    • Doug shares traits with Jimmy, due to them being each a Nice Guy who most of the time ended up as a Butt-Monkey because of the three's mishaps. Doug's marriage to the Tsundere sister of the group's The Ditz parallels to Jimmy's close relationship to Ed's sister Sarah.
    • Jade is the films' version of the cartoon's Nazz, due to them being beautiful Nice Girls with Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold.
    • Rob Riggle's character Officer Franklin from the first film shares traits with Kevin, due to them being Jerkasses who invoke Disproportionate Retribution against the three for harming or stealing their vehicles (Franklin arrests the Wolfpack then have them being taser test dummies for robbing his police cruiser, while Kevin is protective of his prized bike and would harm anyone who damages or steal it). In addition, Franklin's occupation as a police officer, who is usually seen as a figure who should be respected, is similar to Kevin's position as The Ace in the neighborhood, while both can still act as a Jerkass towards the three idiots.
    • Melissa McCarthy's character Cassie who is smitten with Alan in the third film can be seen as an Adaptational Heroism Composite Character of the Kanker Sisters, due to them being low class females in terms of appearances and manners who are smitten with all or one of the three idiots, like May Kanker's infatuation with Ed (Alan Garner's cartoon counterpart). However, while the Kankers are outright obnoxious, Cassie, however while still a jerk, is less worse.
    • Black Doug shares traits with Jonny 2x4, both are African American Nice Guys (though it's never specified that Jonny was African American and more bordered on Ambiguously Brown) who can be friendly towards the three morons and acts as the Butt Monkeys as well. Black Doug being The Dragon for Marshall in the Grand Finale is similar to Jonny's Face–Heel Turn into becoming the costumed villain The Gourd in The Stinger to the cartoon's own Grand Finale.
    • Marshall himself is the trilogy's counterpart of Eddy's Brother, due to both of them being the Greater-Scope Villain of both series as the trios' problems are traced back to them. Even though both can be Laughably Evil (especially when you have John Goodman playing the villain, who is mostly The Comically Serious), they are treated as each a Knight of Cerebus as their appearances are mostly played out seriously.
    • The film itself also bears striking similarities to the "Ed Edd n Eddy, Big Picture Show." In that film, the opening shows the cul-de-sac in ruins, the Ed's are to blame for the events, and unlike The Hangover, we never find out what exactly happened to get the trio in such a mess.
• Squick:
  • While the credits is one big Funny Moment as a whole, there are a couple of pictures that'll make viewers want to vomit.
  • Another would be Stu getting breast enlargements at The Stinger for Part III.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The main complaint from critics against Part III was that it diverged so far from the previous films that it didn't even seem to be a comedy anymore.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • It's not uncommon to find people who complain that, after being a living MacGuffin in the first film, Doug is wasted as a character in the sequels by leaving him out of the drunken night in Part II & restoring him to his original role in Part III. Especially since his actor, Justin Bartha, has shown he can easily play a quirky companion in the National Treasure films.
  • A lot of people are also unhappy about Heather Graham's character Jade being left out of Part II, since she and Stu seemed to actually go together well in their final scene, and because she's perhaps the only sympathetic and rounded female character, though she does turn up again in part III.
• Unfortunate Implications: The way the second film treats transgender people as if they're horrible, disgusting freaks and plays them for out-and-out squick factor can be seen as really offensive.

  Moviebob: There's this really uncomfortable -though for reasons they probably didn't intend- scene involving a transsexual exotic dancer which just comes off as retrograde and mean in a way that nothing in the first movie really did. I mean, you can see how it could be funny i.e the joke being at the expense of these guys and their flailing overreaction to the revelation, but instead the scene just goes on and on and you realise that "Ew, aw, look, a transsexual, aw, that's so gross and strange and wrong and therefore funny, everybody point and be all grossed out, ew, aw, gross, get away!" is all the scene is about, i.e it's not just the reaction of the characters, it's actually the reaction of the movie, and by extrapolation, the reaction it expects and encourages of its audience.

• The Woobie:
  • Alan is this at some points. Especially when he starts singing "We're the three best friends that anyone could have!" and even more so when he's genuinely distressed at the idea that Doug might be dead, while the other two don't seem to have considered the possibility. ^note With the exception of Stu when he said "Our best friend Doug is probably lying facedown in a ditch right now with a methhead buttfucking his corpse!" However, Alan's Woobie status drops dramatically when you consider that nearly every bad thing that happens to the Wolfpack is his fault. Mainly because he drugs them in the first two films. Then comes the third, where his sympathy drops further as he's becoming too weird to function.
  • Stu is another Woobie. In the first film, his girlfriend controls his life with an iron fist and he not only lacks the guts to stand up for himself (until the end), but actually makes excuses for her abusing and cheating on him. In the second film, his disapproving father-in-law emasculates him in a similar fashion. And to top it all off, Alan's stupidity results in Stu being put through hell in both films and nearly having his marriage destroyed in the second.

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Baby by the Pool Scene - the Hangover

Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/YMMV/TheHangover

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