History Film / StepBrothers

* TruthInTelevision: Dale while wearing a Klansman hood tells the potential house customers that every house on the block recycles. The Ku Klux Klan actually make a great deal about preserving and protecting the environment.

* HopeSpot: After two disastrous interviews, Brennan and Dale interview with a jersey-wearing man played by Creator/SethRogen. He actually likes them pretty well, as he's only looking for someone fun to hang out with and he finds their irreverent attitude and tuxedo stunt genuinely amusing. It looks like they've got the job, butt hen Dale loudly farts, ruining everything,

* {{Irony}}: In-universe, a casual job interviewer believes Brennan and Dale wear tuxedos for the occasion ironically, to make fun of how serious job interviews typically are.

** Dale and Brennan themselves destroy the lives of their parents out of their own self involved entitlement and complete inability to function as human beings.

* ManChild: TheMovie: Both Brennan and Dale are this to the extreme, being 40-somethings who still live with their parents and act like 8-year-olds. It later turns out Derek, despite seemingly being successful, is just as childish and immature as the boys -- [[SchoolyardBullyAllGrownUp just in a different manner]]. Dr. Doback also reveals he still pretended to be a dinosaur at the age of ''seventeen''.

[[folder:A-F]]

* GrowingUpSucks: Most of the movie is played straight, with Brennan and Dale refusing to get jobs because of how comfortable they are continuing to live off of their parents. [[NotGrowingUpSucks However]], it does become subverted when the two come to terms with the fact that they ''have'' to become functioning adults, whether or not they want to. Brennan even outright asks his therapist "How do I be an adult?".

* GrowingUpSucks[=/=]NotGrowingUpSucks: Most of the movie is the former, with Brennan and Dale refusing to get jobs because of how comfortable they are continuing to live off of their parents, but it does delve into the latter when the two come to terms with the fact that they ''have'' to become functioning adults, whether or not they want to. Brennan even outright asks his therapist "How do I be an adult?".

* HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood: Not only did Nancy let Derek ruin Brennan's talent show performance by singing "Brennan has a mangina", ''she actually joined in singing it''.

* FreudianExcuse: Brennan is a ManChild due to having his {{Jerkass}} brother getting the entire school to sing "BRENNAN HAS A MANGINA" during his school performance. Even the parents and faculty joined in. [[FromBadToWorse And his mother.]]

* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Derek does love his mother, albeit in his own profoundly assholish way.
* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Both Brennan and Dale say they would sleep with Creator/JohnStamos if they were a chick.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Derek has four. He ruined Brennan's talent show performance before lip-syncing to Vanilla Ice. Later, he bullies his family into a perfectionist Guns N' Roses tribute on a car ride. Those two moments would suffice for establishing what a [[{{Jerkass}} dick]] he is, [[FromBadToWorse but it gets worse.]] During Christmas dinner, he brags about hitting a deer with his car, and at one point he even brags about how [[SkewedPriorities he chose a fishing trip over his own mother's wedding]].

* TheUnfavorite: Both Brennan and Dale become this after Robert meets Derek and instantly takes a liking to him over his immature and idiotic son and stepson. It's possible that Brennan was this also to his and Derek's mother who let the latter ruin the former's school performance and even joined in singing "Brennan has a mangina".

'''Nancy''': Brennan, you're 39 years old. I wouldn't expect you to call him Dad.\\