History Film / Friday

The film features a lot of well-known African-American actors who were relatively minor back when the movie was released -- it [[StarMakingRole promoted Chris Tucker to star status]]. When Ice Cube decided to make a sequel six years later, Tucker declined to reprise his role; newfound religious beliefs made him want to shy away from playing a drug addict, which is why he wasn't present in the sequel films. (Many fans argue that the sequels suffered in quality as a result.)

** Ezal catches Smokey taking a crap in his front yard and promises nor to tell anyone. He doesn't keep that promise very long.

''Next Friday'', released in 2000, picks up a few days after the first. Deebo ([[Creator/TinyLister Tommy "Tiny" Lister]]), the resident bully that Craig defeated in the first movie, escapes from prison looking for vengeance. Craig's father (Creator/JohnWitherspoon) decides to hide Craig at his brother Elroy's (Don "D.C." Curry) house in Rancho Cucamonga, California. Craig meets his cousin Day-Day (Creator/MikeEpps), then HilarityEnsues as the duo bums around the neighborhood -- unaware that Deebo is tracking Craig down. General consensus of ''Next Friday'' is that it's slightly on par with the first film, though nowhere near as good.

* BumblingDad:Willie Jones (Craig's dad) is this most of the series and {{Flanderization}} cause him to be more of this in the third film. He subverts this role in the first film giving his son great advice and support when needed.

[[caption-width-right:350:''"DAAAAAAAAAAMN!!!"'']]

[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Ice_Cube_-_FRIDAY--large-msg-123492500422.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:320:''I know you don't smoke weed. I know this. But I'm gonna get you high today. 'Cause it's Friday, you ain't got no job, and you ain't got shit to do.'']]

This film is [[SimilarlyNamedWorks not related to]] the [[Literature/{{Friday}} Robert A. Heinlein novel]] or the FountainOfMemes song "Friday" by Music/RebeccaBlack ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEswMimzS4w though someone has made that connection]]).

!!The ''Friday'' franchise provides the following tropes:

''Friday'' is a stoner BlackComedy film created by Music/IceCube in 1995 and directed by Creator/FGaryGray (his first film). ''Friday'' tells the story of Craig Jones (Music/IceCube), a UPS worker that ends up getting fired ''on his day off'' as the film opens; as a result, Craig hangs around the porch of his house for pretty much the whole day. Craig's friend Smokey (Creator/ChrisTucker) joins him as the duo observes the other oddball characters in the neighborhood. Things take a drastic turn when Smokey is revealed to owe money to a drug dealer named Big Worm (Faizon Love), who gives Smokey until nightfall to pay him for the weed he was supposed to sell (Smokey ended up smoking it instead). Craig ends up getting pulled into the mess, and the duo frantically try to think of a way to earn the money before the deadline.

* TokenMinority: The Asian store clerk in the first movie, the Korean neighbor in the second movie, and the Indian guy that Willie Nelson calls "Sabu" at a truck stop.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Big Worm sicks a van of gunmen on Smokey and Craig for being $100 short on a bud deal. How much is he even paying those gunmen to go after them?
** As quoted by Big Worm: "It's not about the money, Smokey. It's the ''principle.''" Big Worm doesn't care how much it costs, the message that he is not to be messed with is 'advertising' money well spent in his profession. He also states in dialogue that "playing with his (Worm's) money is like playing with his emotions."

* BigEater: The Jones family are shown to be this. In the first film, Craig decide to eat an entire box of cereal for breakfast much to his dad's bad luck who complains about the other big meals he was gonna eat for himself before Craig ate them first. His mother Betty is shown to be one as well when she cooks some eggs, bacon, sausages and leftover pork chop for breakfast for herself.

* CerebusSyndrome: The climax of the first film is much more serious than previous events.
** Played with in the sequels; while the climaxes are much more humorous than the first Friday, they still feature plausible events that, realistically speaking, could cause someone to get severely injured or killed.

* CerebusSyndrome: The movie takes a dark turn with the drive-by, which then leads to a confrontation with Deebo. Craig has to be talked down from shooting Deebo as his family looks on in terror that he'll throw his life away over this.

* AbhorrentAdmirer: Suga, to Craig. It's not that she's unattractive, just that she's his uncle's girlfriend.

* CreepyUncle: Gender swapped version. Craig's uncle Elroy has a girlfriend named Suga who's also got the hots for Craig (even though he's her boyfriend's nephew). Craig is appropriately creeped out by her advances.
* DefeatMeansFriendship: Roach feeds marijuana brownies to Chico, Joker's viscous dog, to get him to stop barking. The dog gets stoned in the process and zones out.Later on, Chico rescues Roach from Deebo and lets Roach hold him as the police storm Joker's house.

* HeelFaceTurn: Joker's dog, Chico, befriends Roach, saves Craig, Willie, and Elroy from Deebo and becomes Craig and Day-Day's pet in ''Friday After Next'' (though no explanation how he got him).
* {{Irony}}: In a meta way, Karla. Despite being the most well written of Craig's love interests, she plays a less important role in the plot than Debbie from the first film, whos main personality trait shown is being Craig's love interest.

* {{Revenge}}: Deebo's primary motivation in this film, to avenge his loss Craig dealt to him in the first film. [[spoiler: He doesn't get far, just when he has Craig at his mercy via a sneak attack, Chico attacks him and keeps him occupied long enough for the police to put him back into custody.]]

* ScaryBlackMan: Deebo and Damon. Sister Sarah's grandsons are this as well and Baby D is a scary black ''woman''.

* CerberusSyndrome: The movie takes a dark turn with the drive-by, which then leads to a confrontation with Deebo. Craig has to be talked down from shooting Deebo as his family looks on in terror that he'll throw his life away over this.