History Film / BacktoSchool

* PrecisionFStrike: Thornton tells Kurt Vonnegut on the phone to go fuck himself after the plagiarized essay on Kurt's own book gets Thornton a failing grade and he responds by putting a stop payment on a check he wrote to Kurt.

* DumbIsGood: The film has a strong Anti-Intellectual bend, arguing that experience trumps brilliance (which is more in line with Anti-Intellectualism as a philosophy than "being stupid is great"). Thornton is a lovable slob who is successful because he's worked hard and had real-world experience. His opponent is a petty, overly-intellectual educator who teaches how to run a business but has never run one himself. This can be seen in [[spoiler:Kurt Vonnegut's paper about Kurt Vonnegut receiving an F.]] Although Thorton's whole motivation for returning to school is to prevent his son from dropping out, it's more about not giving up than receiving an education.

* DumbIsGood: The film has a strong Anti-Intellectual bend, arguing that experience trumps brilliance (which is what Anti-Intellectualism as a philosophy is, not "being stupid is great"). Thornton is a lovable slob who is successful because he's worked hard and had real-world experience. His opponent is a petty, overly-intellectual educator who teaches how to run a business but has never run one himself. This can be seen in [[spoiler:Kurt Vonnegut's paper about Kurt Vonnegut receiving an F.]] Although Thorton's whole motivation for returning to school is to prevent his son from dropping out, it's more about not giving up than receiving an education.

* DumbIsGood: The film has a strong Anti-Intellectual bend, arguing that experience trumps brilliance (which is what real Anti-Intellectualism is). Thornton is a lovable slob who is successful because he's worked hard and had real-world experience. His opponent is a petty, overly-intellectual educator who teaches how to run a business but has never run one himself. This can be seen in [[spoiler:Kurt Vonnegut's paper about Kurt Vonnegut receiving an F.]] Although Thorton's whole motivation for returning to school is to prevent his son from dropping out, it's more about not giving up than receiving an education.

* {{Main/Corpsing}}: He's facing away from us, but Rodney is pretty clearly losing it in the scene where Sam Kinison screams at him about the Korean War.

-->'''Jason:''' "I wanna write that paper, I'm ''gonna'' write that paper, because the whole point of coming to college: to ''learn'' something! But you're not gonna learn a goddamn thing if you've got everybody doing your work for you!"

* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: Jason doesn't subscribe to his dad's approach to higher learning, and becomes very upset when Thorn gets his underlings to do ''his'' homework, too.

While perhaps not as well-known as ''{{Caddyshack}}'', ''Back to School'' is one of Creator/RodneyDangerfield's funniest films and is definitely worth checking out for any fan of 80's comedy or the man himself.

* GenreSavvy: Thornton shows this time and again, being a canny businessman who, while he may not have much in the way of formal education, nevertheless knows how the business world and human nature works very well. During the economics class, when he's good-naturedly pointing out all the mistakes that the teacher made in his hypothetical scenario, the students all turn around and ''start taking notes on what he's saying.'' This discomfits the teacher greatly. Earlier, in the scene in the bookstore where he tells his son to put the used books back and buy new ones, his son says the used book are good because they've already been underlined. Thornton responds with this gem: "Yeah, and the guy who owned them before you may have been a moron!" Then he buys the books for everyone in the store. He shows time and again the he knows how to get people to come around to his way of thinking. Lastly, in the bar fight scene, when the football players are looking for some ass to kick, he knows the answer to the situation is to call over his bodyguard/best friend, who's the one guy in the place whose ass they ''can't'' kick.

* DeanBitterman: The Dean of the University, "Dean Martin" is an aversion of this trope, as he's an ineffectual money grubber who allows Thornton to bribe his way through school.

* {{Badass}}: Lou. He beat up the entire football team after crushing a metal napkin holder with his bare hands.

* BlondGuysAreEvil: Billy Zabka's at it again, this time he's playing a JerkJock named Chas.

* {{UsefulNotes/Plagiarism}}: Thornton Melon turns in an essay about a book by Kurt Vonnegut, written by Kurt Vonnegut himself, which he passes off as his own. The English professor gives him an F, telling him that whoever wrote the essay "doesn't know the first thing about Kurt Vonnegut." Later on, Thornton gets called in by the dean of the college, with accusations that Thornton has committed academic fraud by turning in homework done by someone else

* Corpsing: He's facing away from us, but Rodney is pretty clearly losing it in the scene where Sam Kinison screams at him about the Korean War.

* RibbonCuttingCeremony: Thornton Melon has a ground-breaking ceremony for the new school building that the university would open up in exchange for giving him admission to take courses. At the ceremony, Thornton flings some dirt and it lands on the head of a member of the university's faculty.

* TheCastShowoff: Creator/DannyElfman's band Music/OingoBoingo shows up at Thornton's kickass dorm party.
** Dangerfield performed the "Triple Lindy" himself.

* RibbonCuttingCeremony: Thornton Mellon has a ground-breaking ceremony for the new school building that the university would open up in exchange for giving him admission to take courses. At the ceremony, Thornton flings some dirt and it lands on the head of a member of the university's faculty.

* BlatantLies: "Is the work you turned in your own?" "Dean Martin, I can't lie to ya... ''{{beat}}'' ''Yes it is''."

** Dangerfield performed the "Triple Lindy" himself.

--> '''Diane''': Mr. Melon, how would you characterize ''Theatre/TheGreatGatsby''?\\

* {{UsefulNotes/Plagiarism}}: Thornton Mellon turns in an essay about a book by Kurt Vonnegut, written by Kurt Vonnegut himself, which he passes off as his own. The English professor gives him an F, telling him that whoever wrote the essay "doesn't know the first thing about Kurt Vonnegut." Later on, Thornton gets called in by the dean of the college, with accusations that Thornton has committed academic fraud by turning in homework done by someone else

* ShellShockedVeteran: History teacher Prof. Turguson, played by Sam Kinison. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xfi4s8cjLFI Watch as he informs his students]] on the reason for ending UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. Then gets Thornton to state what he thinks is the reason the US pulled out from UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar.