History Film / BetterOffDead

* OnlySaneMan: As noted, Greendale evidently had to import from ''France'' to get even one person whose bubble isn't at least a little off-plumb.

* BurgerFool: Lane has to wear a hideous pig-themed hat, even though he works back in the kitchen.
* ButtMonkey: Al. His windows get broken. His children are troubled. His wife is a LethalChef who gives him a ridiculous coat to wear for christmas etc.

* CloudCuckoolander: Lane's mother Jenny.

* TheDeterminator: "I want my two dollars!!"
* DidIMentionItsChristmas: Christmas is mentioned at least once in the film, as it is one of those times when Lane Meyer tries to kill himself, that time via car exhaust asphyxiation.

* EccentricTownsfolk: Everybody we meet in Greendale, yes, even Lane himself, are all at least a little off-kilter.

** On Christmas Day, Lane is on the phone to Beth, with the tiny teddy bear he has bought her as a Christmas present in the hope of persuading her to return to him. From his half of the conversation, we learn that Roy gave her a giant teddy bear larger than she is. Embarrassed, he mutters, "Beth, I gotta go, the Christmas tree's on fire." Even though he's in his bedroom and the Christmas tree is in the living room.

* {{Malaproper}}: Monique gets into this territory once or twice.

* StandardSnippet: Music/MuddyWaters' "Mannish Boy" as Lane's Camaro rolls out for the first time. Music/GeneAutry's "Here Comes Santa Claus" during the Christmas sequence.

** This is also a reference to K2, a very big, very dangerous mountain in the Himalayas

* TomBoyAndGirlyGirl

* TranslationByVolume: Lane's father tries to communicate with Monique the exchange student from France.

* EveryoneHasStandards: Chris looks a little unccomftorabel as Stalin insults Lane at the BurgerFool place.

* ButtMonkey: Al.

* EnfantTerrible: "I want my two dollars!!"

After being dumped by his utterly-unfaithful girlfriend Beth (Amanda Wyss), luckless teen Lane Meyer (Cusack) makes several futile attempts to kill himself, while wandering in and out of a series of encounters with the residents... inmates of his bizarre hometown. These include his super-genius younger brother Badger (Scooter Stevens); his severely-underachieving best friend Charles (Creator/CurtisArmstrong); a pair of Korean car-racing enthusiasts, the one who speaks English having learned it by listening to [[Series/MondayNightFootball Howard Cosell]]; and one ''very'' determined paper-boy. Lane's life finally begins to turn around when he meets Monique (Diane Franklin), a comely French exchange student who has been sentenced to live with Lane's grotesque neighbors (Laura Waterbury and Creator/DanSchneider).

''Better Off Dead'' is a 1985 teen comedy film directed by Savage Steve Holland and starring Creator/JohnCusack.

After being dumped by his utterly-unfaithful girlfriend Beth, luckless teen Lane Meyer makes several futile attempts to kill himself, while wandering in and out of a series of encounters with the residents... inmates of his bizarre hometown. These include his super-genius younger brother Badger; his severely-underachieving best friend Charles; a pair of Korean car-racing enthusiasts, the one who speaks English having learned it by listening to [[Series/MondayNightFootball Howard Cosell]]; and one ''very'' determined paper-boy. Lane's life finally begins to turn around when he meets Monique, a comely French exchange student who has been sentenced to live with Lane's grotesque neighbors.

* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Monique, sort of. She ''is'' the one who finally blows Lane out of his self-pitying rut, but she's also the most competent, level-headed and normal person in the entire movie.

* InsultBackfire: Played with when Stalin insults Lane and Charles at one point during the New Years dance; Lane is insulted, but Charles finds it hilarious, even interrupting Stalin's dance with Beth because he's still laughing.

* FunnyForeigner: [[ForeignExchangeStudent Monique]] mostly avoids this, except [[spoiler:for one or two ''slight'' problems with English.]]

* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Monique.

* TheVoiceless: Badger never says a word throughout the film. His book on how to pick up trashy women presumably includes some non-verbal methods.
** Monique spends most of the film saying nothing at all, and the few words she does speak are in unsubtitled French. [[spoiler: Eventually, it's revealed that she actually ''can'' speak English just fine, but pretends she can't just so that she doesn't have to talk to the Smiths.]]

-->'''Barney Rubble:''' Hey there, Lane, I know this is a little awkward, me being a cartoon and all... I was just wondering whether you'd mind if ''I'' took out Beth.

-->'''Barney Rubble:''' Hey, Lane, I was wondering whether you'd mind if ''I'' took out Beth.

* LearntEnglishFromWatchingTelevision: One of the Asian street racers learned English from Howard Cosell, and can only talk like a race car announcer.

!!"Such a shame when people be throwing away a perfectly good trope list like that":

!!This film series provides examples of:

* LearnedEnglishFromWatchingTelevision: One of the Asian street racers learned English from Howard Cosell, and can only talk like a race car announcer.

* BrickJoke: After establishing some of the absurd things Badger gets as his [[CouponCompetitionMadness box-top mail-order prizes]], including a book on how to pick up trashy women and an actual working RayGun, he acquires a space shuttle construction kit about halfway through the movie. Other than Lane bringing up in passing that his brother is still working on it, it doesn't come up again until [[spoiler: the very last scene of the movie, when a space shuttle suddenly crashes through the Myers' roof and flies off into space.]]

* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Badger, who gets an actual working RayGun as a [[CompetitionCouponMadness box-top prize]] in the mail, and then a book on how to pick up trashy women, and then is later seen in a room full of them, complete with booze and alcohol.

* DieOrFly: Played for laughs. Lane spends the whole movie completely unable to make it down K-12 without crashing and tumbling...[[spoiler: until [[SuperPersistentPredator the paperboy comes right out of nowhere and starts chasing him again]], at which point he not only beats Stalin in a race while skiing for his life, but does it on ''one ski'' after the other one broke.]]

** AngryGuardDog: She also has to struggle to keep her family's large furiously barking dog inside the house.

* InterruptedSuicide: Lane's suicide attempts all end in failure, climaxing when he decides to douse himself in paint primer (the gasoline can being empty) and set himself on fire, only to be hauled into a dinner his parents are hosting for the Smiths and Monique. Mrs. Smith drinks some of the primer, thinking it's wine, then lights a cigarette...

** When Lane enters the house after deciding to douse himself in paint primer and set himself on fire, he throws the cloth he found in the mouth of the jar into the dining room, unaware that anyone is in there. However, his parents and brother are there with the Smiths and Monique. As his mother ushers Lane to his seat for dinner, we see his father disgustedly remove the primer-soaked cloth from where it landed on his shoulder.