History Film / NationalLampoonsChristmasVacation

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* PrecisionFStrike:
** "We're going to have the hap-hap-HAPPIEST Christmas since [[Film/WhiteChristmas Bing Crosby tap danced with Danny FUCKIN' Kaye!]]"
** Averted in the UK release, where this line was dubbed over with "Danny DANCING Kaye". This was a mandatory cut for the film to get a PG rating, [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools allowing a much wider audience to see it]]. [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar The UK Blu-ray contains the original line, but is still a PG]].

** Margo orders Tom to go over to the Griswolds and slug Clark for his antics. Tom refuses, saying he "can't just attack someone".

* BlackComedyPetDeath: One of the recurring jokes throughout the movie is all the difficulty Clark has with getting the electricity for all the Christmas decorations working right. At one point, a cat gets into the wiring and manages to incinerate itself. Clark kicks its body under a chair.

* ArtisticLicenseEconomics: The film makes fairly decent points about Clark's boss cancelling the Christmas bonuses without telling anyone being a really jerk move. Omitted are any points where it would be an extremely ''foolish'' business move as well. Upon arriving back in the office after getting back from Christmas, the company would be experiencing a massive amount of people searching for other jobs, embezzlement, and other forms of sabotage, and that's possibly ''with'' even giving advanced notice (if the company isn't experiencing an economic downturn, and there are no indications that it is, arbitrarily removing bonuses signals ominous signs about future prospects). Deliberately letting employees find out the hard way their salary was unexpectedly cut would have probably lead to... bad things for a business.

* AssShove: [[MemeticMutation "Bend over and I'll show ya!"]]

* BackhandedCompliment: In one scene, Clark says that Eddie's "heart is bigger than his brain." To which Eddie replies "I appreciate that, Clark."nuses without telling his employees]], which ''everyone'' calls him out on. Clark even says that fair enough if he wanted to do it, even if it'd be a jerk move, it was [[spoiler:not telling anyone]] that was going too far.

* BackhandedCompliment: In one scene, Clark says that Eddie's "heart is bigger than his brain." To which Eddie replies "I appreciate that, Clark."
* BadBoss: Mr. Shirley crossed from being a MeanBoss to this when [[spoiler:he cut Christmas bonuses without telling his employees]], which ''everyone'' calls him out on. Clark even says that fair enough if he wanted to do it, even if it'd be a jerk move, it was [[spoiler:not telling anyone]] that was going too far.

** While shopping with Clark, Uncle Eddie says, "Your company kill all them people in India not too long ago?" He may be referring to the Bhopal disaster, a massive gas leak that occurred in 1984.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Audrey is skinning [[GroinAttack a carrot with a knife]] as she's complaining about having to sleep in the same bed as her brother.

* ArtisticLicenseEconomics: The film makes fairly decent points about Clark's boss cancelling the Christmas bonuses without telling anyone being a really jerk move. Omitted are any points where it would be an extremely ''foolish'' business move as well. Upon arriving back in the office after getting back from Christmas, the company would be experiencing a massive amount of people searching for other jobs, embezzlement, and other forms of sabotage, and that's possibly ''with'' even giving advanced notice (if the company isn't experiencing an economic downturn, and there are no indications that it is, arbitrarily removing bonuses signals ominous signs about future prospects). Deliberately letting employees find out the hard way their salary was unexpectedly cut will lead to...bad things for a business.

** Earlier in the film when Rusty tells Clark that the Christmas tree is so big it would not be able to fit in the front yard, Clark remarks that it's being put in the room, not the front yard.

* DiscoDan: Eddie still wears leisure suits, even though they went out of style nearly a decade before the movie came out.
** I've always believed Eddie bought them for cheap at Goodwill so he'd have something "nice" to wear for Christmas.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Thanks to a RhetoricalRequestBlunder, Eddie [[spoiler:kidnaps Clark's boss, Frank, for not giving Clark a Christmas bonus]]. Of course, when [[spoiler:said bonus was cut out, that meant Clark was bankrupt. Not to mention that it was contractually part of Clark's ''salary.'' Clark actually admits that businesses aren't ''legally'' required to give bonuses, but cutting salaries ''without telling the employees in advance'' is [[TheGildedAge 1900's]] robber baron ''bullshit'']].

* TheGrinch[=/=]TheScrooge:
** Clark's MeanBoss, Mr. Shirley, who suspends Clark's Christmas bonus in lieu of a membership to a Jelly-of-the-Month club. Notably, however, this one has a wife, who vocally expresses disgust at his miserliness once she learns what he's done. Clark points out during his rant that if Mr. Shirley wants to do that it's fine by him, but he could have ''at least'' given his employees some prior warning so they could figure out what to do now that they lacked that.
** The snooty {{Yuppie}} neighbors, Todd and Margo, eschew a Christmas tree -- and, apparently, the holiday itself -- on the grounds that it's "dirty and messy and corny and clichéd".

* MadeOfExplodium: The tree, the sewer gas, that crazy lubricant stuff Clark greased up his sled with.

* CallBack: The prayer Ellen says when Clark drives the car under the tractor trailer bed is similar to the one she said when Clark left the deceased Aunt Edna at her destination in ''Film/NationalLampoonsVacation''.

The film is notable for being the only entry in the ''Vacation'' series to take place at the Griswold home. Many families consider it a classic holiday movie, especially for its chaotic [[TruthInTelevision yet not too far off]] portrayal of family Christmas gatherings.

* HypocriticalHumor: Ellen's mother is briefly seen smoking while helping put together a gingerbread house. Two scenes later, she calls out Ellen from off-camera for lighting up a CigaretteofAnxiety.

* CatharticChores: Audrey and Ellen are in the kitchen cooking for their relatives, both feeling miserable and annoyed by everything that'd happened thus far. Audrey is shown hurriedly peeling a carrot, and when Ellen is called out for smiking a Cigarette of Anxiety by her mother (who isn't even in the same room), she slams a cabbage down on the table and angrily cuts it in half with a single knife-chop.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/uk3wz9_kd347z.jpg]]

Released in 1989, this third installment in the ''Film/NationalLampoonsVacation'' film series was directed by Jeremiah Chechik and cowritten by Creator/JohnHughes. Creator/ChevyChase and Beverly D'Angelo once again star as Clark and Ellen Griswold, with Creator/JulietteLewis and Creator/JohnnyGalecki appearing this time out as Audrey and Rusty, respectively.

Released in 1989, this third installment in the ''Film/NationalLampoonsVacation'' film series was directed by Jeremiah Chechik and cowritten by Creator/JohnHughes. Creator/ChevyChase and Beverly D'Angelo once again star as Clark and Ellen Griswold, with Creator/JulietteLewis and Johnny Galecki appearing this time out as Audrey and Rusty, respectively.

Clark has decided to host nearly his entire extended family at his house for the holiday season, including his parents (John Randolph and Diane Ladd), his in-laws (E. G. Marshall and Doris Roberts), his crotchety Uncle Lewis (Creator/WilliamHickey) and senile Aunt Bethany (Mae Questel, in her final role), and his possibly-inbred cousin-in-law Eddie (Creator/RandyQuaid). Meanwhile, he's counting on a large Christmas bonus from his boss (Creator/BrianDoyleMurray) to help pay for his surprise present for the family: a backyard swimming pool. As can be expected, everything [[GoneHorriblyWrong goes horribly wrong]] in the most [[HilarityEnsues hilarious manner possible]].

Clark has decided to host nearly his entire extended family at his house for the holiday season, including his parents (John Randolph and Diane Ladd), his in-laws (E. G. Marshall and Doris Roberts), his crotchety Uncle Lewis (William Hickey) and senile Aunt Bethany (Mae Questel, in her final role), and his possibly-inbred cousin-in-law Eddie (Creator/RandyQuaid). Meanwhile, he's counting on a large Christmas bonus from his boss (Creator/BrianDoyleMurray) to help pay for his surprise present for the family: a backyard swimming pool. As can be expected, everything [[GoneHorriblyWrong goes horribly wrong]] in the most [[HilarityEnsues hilarious manner possible]].

* SillyPrayer: Aunt Bethany, Clark's aunt who is senile, instead of doing the usual Christmas dinner prayer, instead does the Fledge of Allegiance.