History SeriousBusiness / FIlm

* ''Film/AkeelahAndTheBee'' has a character named Dylan, whose father ''insists'' that he be AsianAndNerdy and beat the titular character in the national spelling bee by saying that if he comes in second place in anything, he'll be second place for life.
* Another Disney Channel example would be ''Film/AlleyCatsStrike''. however, despite first guess, the SeriousBusiness isn't so much bowling itself, but rather the rivalry between the city's two schools. Though in this case the TrueCompanions are as bewildered by their schools behavior as anyone else would be.
* ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'' does this with a number of yuppy affectations, but most especially [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUAExyakpLI&feature=channel business cards]]. There's a serious rivalry in Patrick's firm about how good they look, right down to the subtle shades of white and the font. In fact, they're so serious, Patrick kills a guy who has business cards better than him. [[spoiler: [[UnreliableNarrator Or does he??]]]]
* The Film/AndyHardy series finds Andy Hardy, a fresh-faced likeable boy in EverytownAmerica, usually having to deal with exceedingly small-stakes problems that he always treats as Serious Business. In ''Film/LoveFindsAndyHardy'', the big problems are 1) getting a date to the Christmas dance and 2) getting $8 so he can buy a used car to take to said Christmas dance.
* In ''Film/{{Avalon}}'', the eponymous game is so serious Ash makes a living out of playing it.
* ''Film/BallsOfFury'' does it with [[strike:Ping-Pong]] table tennis... In a ludicrously over-the-top way.
* In ''Film/BandSlam'', band competitions are "Texas high school football big."
* The sport Film/{{BASEketball}} from the film of the same name becomes serious business to many people very quickly, becoming one of the most popular sports in America only a few years after being invented by two drunk guys. And then the plot of the film is based around one of the team owners trying to make it ''Serious'' Business, trying to get the rules changed so making serious money is more possible.
* As pictured on the main page, Walter in ''Film/TheBigLebowski'' has bowling. He's willing to pull a gun over a rules infraction, and he'll even break the Sabbath to prevent a team member from quitting. And the whole story is kickstarted by a petty feud over a soiled rug that really tied the room together.
* In the ''Film/BillAndTed'' movies, the music of Wyld Stallyns has become the basis for the entire society of the future, curing diseases, fostering world peace, and improving people's bowling and mini-golf scores.
* Mildly averted in ''{{Blackball}}''. The film itself is a spoof in which bowling is a very serious business. When the hero sets up a rivalry with the (60 year old) reigning champion and falls in love with his daughter, he wants to show her some of the magic and importance of bowling. Her response: 'I HATE bowling'. He more or less accepts this.
* ''Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story'' does this with professional paintball.
* In the DCOM movie ''Film/CampRock 2'' there's a song called "Don't back down," which makes a rivalry between summer-camps out to be incredibly serious business. It's hilarious until you realize it's not meant as a parody.
** Made even better by the lines:
-->We can't back down,
-->There's too much at stake.
-->This is serious
-->Don't walk away.
* In ''Film/CanadianBacon'', Canadian beer is SeriousBusiness to Canadians. Casually mentioning that it sucks sparks a riot that almost escalates into a war.
* The main character in ''Film/CarryOnInTheLegion'' runs away to join the FrenchForeignLegion so that he wouldn't get arrested for apparently cheating in a cricket match. Looks like cheating in a cricket match in front of the upper-class is Serious Business.
* ''Film/CelticPride'' is about a couple of Celtics fans who kidnap the Utah Jazz star player so their team can win. In the end, all three men learn to just enjoy the game. That is until football season...
* ''Film/AChristmasStory'': Told from the perspective of a child, everything is serious business. When Schwartz issues a "double dog dare," then skips the "triple dare" to go straight to the "triple dog dare," the crowd of boys are suitably impressed by the gravity of the situation. In another vignette, Ralphie decodes ComicStrip/LittleOrphanAnnie's secret message like it's a matter of national security.
* In ''Film/{{Crossroads}}'', blues music is apparently serious enough to sell your soul to the devil for, and motivation enough to break self-confessed murderers out of custody. The selling your soul is a ShoutOut to blues legend Robert Johnson who claimed to have sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads to play guitar so well.
* The Creator/DisneyChannel movie ''Film/{{Dadnapped}}'' is all about this trope, in which the main character's father is kidnapped by his fans.
* In ''Film/DeathToSmoochy'', children's television seems like SeriousBusiness, until you find out that it pales in comparison to the importance of ice shows.
* ''Film/DodgeballATrueUnderdogStory'' parodies sports movies by making SeriousBusiness out of a children's ball game played by adults.
* ''Film/{{Duplicity}}'' plays this straight with the main plot; competition between two cosmetics companies is treated as SeriousBusiness. Competition in the microwave pizza industry is dismissed as silly.
* In ''Film/EXistenZ'', people are willing to commit murder over the eponymous video game. This was partly inspired by the trials and tribulations of [[Creator/DavidCronenberg the director's]] friend, Creator/SalmanRushdie. A major theme of the film is just how fanatically people can react to works of art.
* ''Film/{{Fanboys}}'' deals with ''Franchise/StarWars'' fandom.
* Streetracing is handled thus in ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious'' series.
* In Creator/KingVidor's ''Film/TheFountainhead'', the public views architecture with a fervor combining the World Series, the Super Bowl, the World Cup match, and whatever the Kardashians did last night. Not sure if it's the same as in the novel, but I suspect so.
* In ''Film/TheFP'' is built around the inherent comedy of the gangs of Frazier Park dueling by playing "[[VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution Beat Beat Revelation]]." For some reason this is abandoned in the final act, when a duel escalates into standard gunfights and fisticuffs.
* Both ''Film/FreeEnterprise'' and ''Trekkies'' [[{{Parody}} believe that]] ''Franchise/StarTrek'' is SeriousBusiness.
* Deconstructed in ''Film/FridayNightLights'' with American football. The extreme passion people in Dillon, Texas have for the sport is implied to make things worse for the team, as it is their burden to make the town proud and most of them are fighting enough of their own battles without the pressure of a town's failed dreams on their backs. Also TruthInTelevision; football is ''very'' serious business in Texas and much of the rural South.
* ''Film/FurryVengeance'' would have the animals tormenting Brendan Fraser's character because they aren't going to take well of his plans of tearing down their forest for a development.
* ''Film/GodOfCookery'' is a film about a disgraced chef battling to regain his honour.
* The crowd is really unnaturally engaged during all of the debates in ''Film/TheGreatDebaters'', to the point that it's kind of distracting.
* In ''Film/GreenStreet'' (or ''Green Street Hooligans'' for Americans), a visiting American learns that association football appreciation is SeriousBusiness in the UK, falling into a circle where it leads to brutal gang brawls, mutilation, and outright murder.
* ''[[Film/GrindHouse Planet Terror]]'': JT, the steakhouse owner, has a falling out with his brother, the sheriff, over his barbeque sauce recipe. Whenever they talk on the phone, the conversation turns to the barbeque sauce in under a minute. [[spoiler: After they've both been shot, JT finally tells his brother the recipe, and the sheriff uses his dying breath to promise never to tell anybody the recipe.]]
* The 1985 French-Canadian ''Film/TalesForAll'' series film ''La Guerre des Tuques'' (or ''The Dog who Stopped the War'') involves all of the children of a neighborhood going to full-blown, out-of-control, friendship-shattering (snowball) war because [[AppleOfDiscord a snow fort one of them made was just considered that cool]]. The titular dog is a Saint Bernard owned by one of the children and beloved by all... [[DeathByNewberyMedal and she "stops the war" by getting killed as accidental collateral damage,]] [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone knocking everybody back to their senses.]]
* The movie ''Film/HaroldAndKumarGoToWhiteCastle'', in which White Castle hamburgers are serious business. One other fast-food cook wants to burn down his restaurant for them.
* The movie ''Film/HatleyHigh'', in which chess is very serious business.
* The zombie film ''Film/HideAndCreep'' has a precious moment of this toward the beginning, where one of the main characters enters a diner and orders Coke, only to find out that they only serve Pepsi. He then goes into a massive pro-Coke/anti-Pepsi rant, finally summing up that the diner was "like red China" for not giving the diners their choice of cola.
* ''Film/HighSchoolMusical'',
** Varsity basketball is serious business. Crowds flood the school hallways to get to the Big Game. When the protagonist misses ''one'' practice session, an intervention is staged.
** As is theatre -- at least in the mind of its teacher, if not in anyone else's.
-->'''Ms.Darbus:''' ''(about play auditions)'' I will be in the theater until noon, for those of you bold enough to extend the wingspan of your creative spirit...
* In ''Film/HotFuzz'', everyone's obsessed with Sandford winning the Village of the Year contest, [[spoiler: taking it to homicidal extremes.]]
* ''Film/IWannaHoldYourHand'', a film about [[Music/TheBeatles Beatlemania]], has a lot of this trope.
* ''Film/InAWorld...'': Voice-over work, specifically for movie trailers, which is treated as far more prestigious than other jobs that use the same skill set like advertising for products other than movies, voice coaching, narrating audiobooks, or voice acting for animation.
* In ''Film/KillBill'', Hattori Hanzo invokes this trope by name while discussing Japanese pronunciation with the Bride. He also somewhat arrogantly speaks of the swords he makes with absurd reverence, and claims that his best one (which he makes especially for the Bride) is so perfect it could cause ''[[BlasphemousBoast God]]'' [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu to bleed]].
* ''Film/TheKingOfKong'' is about all the drama behind ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'' world records. "''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'' kill screen coming up..." There was even more serious business behind the scenes. Careful editing played up the rivalry and made a less obvious villain out of one of the players.
* Bowling seems to be pretty popular for this trope, as ''Film/{{Kingpin}}'' also did it, what with Creator/BillMurray's character getting his young, upstart rival's hand shoved into a ball return through a "misunderstanding" with some gangsters... who also bowl.
* In Creator/AlfredHitchcock's ''Film/TheLadyVanishes'', the comic relief characters Charters and Caldecott consider the game Cricket to be SeriousBusiness.
* In ''Film/TheLastStarfighter'' the ''entire trailer-park'' drops what they're doing runs over when they hear Alex is about to break the record score on the Starfighter video game. They are all elated when he does, and Alex later tells his mother that this day will be remembered forever in the trailer-park. Possibly justified, as there doesn't seem to be much else ''to do'' there, and it's implied they have all played it at some point.
* In ''Film/MeanMachine'' and ''Film/TheLongestYard'', association football and American football are SeriousBusiness to convicted felons. However, their primary motivation is actually to hurt the guards on the opposing team as much as possible.
* ''Film/MenAtWork'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhaIL9iZ-os Do not mess with another man's fries.]]
* ''Film/TheMightyDucks'': The local newspaper not only covers the games of a bunch of 12-year olds, but features them with ''headlines'', one including a dramatic "Face-Off" of the two coaches before the final game. The villain coach tells his team to intentionally hurt a player on the Duck's team due to him being on the Duck's due to re-zoning. Jesus Christ man, it's a game between 12 year olds!
* While the plot of ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' just happened to be about two monsters who worked for the eponymous company, ''WesternAnimation/MonstersUniversity'' gives the impression that ''every'' course and program the school offers is related to the scaring industry in some way.
* [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1029342/ Morris: a Life With Bells On]]; Morris is very serious business...
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsFriendshipGames'': Pretty much everyone treats the Friendship Games like this, with Luna even name-dropping the trope and the Humane Five getting slightly offended when Sunset wonders what all the fuss is about, since it's not as important as, say, stopping the Sirens. [[spoiler:Heck, Principal Cinch and the Shadowbolts even try to harness Equestrian magic — something they hardly understand — just to ensure they win the Games.]]
* In ''Film/MysteryTeam'' [[spoiler: Duncan]]'s use of the word "fuck" is considered more distressing than two double homicides.
* Brazilian movie ''Os Farofeiros'' has a character who takes card games seriously to a violent degree. Once her Canasta (or more specifically, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buraco Buraco]]) partner misses her signals and does a bad play,[[note]]that even violated all courtesy/logic of paired games: Going out when your partner has just picked up the discard pile[[/note]] she tackles her to the floor. And after splitting the fight, the woman's husband reveals she ''stabbed her brother-in-law'' for turning a natural canasta into a mixed one.
* The third ''Otto'' movie (from Germany). Two eco-freaks arguing whether a used teabag belongs into normal garbage or natural garbage. Otto solves the problem solomonically: The content of the teabag is natural, the teabag itself is non-natural, [[UpToEleven but then there's the question about what to do with the string, the attached paper and the metal clamp]].
* This is Pee-wee Herman's reaction to having his beloved bicycle stolen in ''Film/PeeWeesBigAdventure''. He likens the tragedy to that of a spouse or love interest being kidnapped (referring to his bike as a fellow "victim"), demands the police devote their entire resources to nabbing the thief, [[AllIssuesArePoliticalIssues briefly wonders if the theft might be a Soviet plot somehow]]...and slowly goes insane, to the point where he [[MuggingTheMonster frightens off some tough guys by roaring at them after they threaten him]]. Perhaps the most absurd scene is the one where he invites everyone he knows over to his basement and, ''for three hours'', subjects them to an obsessive "court hearing" about the event, presenting as "evidence" everything he can think of in some way connected to that day, including ''what position the sun was in'' at the time the crime occurred. When one of his friends [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan finally calls him out on this nonsense]], Pee-wee reveals that he knows full well how ridiculous he is acting, but he [[SanitySlippage just...can't...stop...himself]].
-->'''Pee-wee:''' The mind plays tricks on you! You play tricks back! It's like you're unraveling a big cable-knit sweater...that someone keeps knitting...[[MadnessMantra a-a-and knitting...a-a-and knitting...]]
* In ''Film/PitchPerfect'' everyone takes ''a capella'' far too seriously. Especially Aubrey, though Becca considers it a useless diversion at first. The sequel takes it even further, suggesting that rich eccentrics like to host ''a capella'' battles, complete with a [[TheBigBoard Big Board]] and formalized rules. Though at one key point it's subverted, when Becca reveals her dirty secret that she's been interning for a job after she graduates, the rest of the team says they already knew, and even Aubrey states that she didn't expect Becca to dedicate her whole life to a capella.
* In the documentary ''Please Vote For Me'', a Chinese third grade class gets way too competitive over an election to be class monitor. It includes slander, threats and bribery. For third graders. Link to Doc: https://www.thesmalls.com/article/the-smalls-film-festival-calendar-and-festival-list-2017-2018
* The 2005 documentary ''[[http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0452669/ Pucker Up]]'' is about five people travelling to North Carolina to compete in the National Whistling Competition.
* In ''Film/{{Rad}}'', the entire culture of a town is built around BMX. This is cited in ''Website/{{Cracked}}'''s "[[http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-4-weirdest-lessons-80s-movies-really-wanted-to-teach-us/ The 4 Weirdest Lessons '80s Movies Really Wanted to Teach Us]]" as the most ridiculous example of a hobby that saves the world.
* Robot boxing is ''very'' SeriousBusiness in ''Film/RealSteel''.
* School politics and Fraternities in most college movies are played to the hilt, such as in the ''Film/RevengeOfTheNerds'' films and ''Film/AnimalHouse''. In the latter film, [[TheBully Doug Niedermeyer]] acts like a DrillSergeantNasty to the new pledges.
* D Grade suburban cricket is this to Teddy and Colin in ''Film/SaveYourLegs''. To the rest of the team, not so much.
* Creator/JackBlack's character puts it in exactly these terms in ''Film/SchoolOfRock'': "Now, this is serious business here. We've got a mission. Putting on a great rock show is the most important thing. One great rock show can change the world."
* ''Film/SpeedRacer'' has automobile racing, which has become by far the biggest global sport and has a major impact on the prices of the biggest corporations. Speed even explicitly compares signing with Royalton's company to making a DealWithTheDevil.
* Hip hop street dancing is Serious Business in ''Film/StepUp 2: the Streets''. This is cemented from the very beginning with a ridiculously dramatic opening monologue. It gets worse within the first 5 minutes, where a subway prank involving dancing is reported on the news as though it was ''a terrorist attack!'' (right down to the subway being ''closed down'')
* Ballroom dancing is SeriousBusiness for the characters in Baz Luhrman's ''Film/StrictlyBallroom''.
* ''Film/{{Tag}}'' is about five friends who have been playing the same game of tag every May for thirty years straight, and go to great, somewhat dangerous lengths to tag each other. Best exemplified by Jerry, who has never been tagged and uses elaborate disguises and traps to maintain that record.
* In ''Film/{{Tampopo}}'', most of the characters treat the preparation, serving and consumption of food as serious business.
** Even narrower that than. Not simply food, but noodle soup!
* ''The Ten'' does this in most of its stories. Most of the plots are motivated by people obsessing over fairly ludicrous things. It might just be a statement on people taking religion overboard, but it gets pretty inane. For instance, certain segments hinge entirely on people obsessing over:
** A man half-buried in the ground after a skydiving accident.
** Cat Scan machines.
** A normal ventriloquist dummy.
* Music/TheWho's RockOpera ''Music/{{Tommy}}'': Pinball is ''SeriousBusiness''! They even create a new ''religion'' out of it.
* In the little-known Lisa Whelchel film ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083243/ Twirl]]'', ''baton-twirling'', of all things, is treated as this.
* Wrist-cutting and being a ganguro in ''Film/VampireGirlVsFrankensteinGirl'' is treated like this.
* In ''Film/AVeryHaroldAndKumar3DChristmas'', Harold's father-in-law (played by Creator/DannyTrejo) takes Christmas and especially Christmas trees very seriously. Naturally the tree he brought is destroyed by Kumar and the title characters have to go out and find a replacement.
* ''WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit: WesternAnimation/TheCurseOfTheWereRabbit'' is what the writers call "perhaps the first vegetarian horror movie." To keep some kind of tension, given that the monster is no threat to people, it turns out that everyone in town is insanely protective of their vegetables. For them, country fairs are serious business. "We're simple folk! It's all we have!" NB: In real life, competitive growing ''is'' sometimes taken quite seriously, and incidents of sabotage and theft are not unknown.
* In ''Film/{{Weekend}}'' by Creator/JeanLucGodard, anything related to the bourgeois lifestyle is Serious Business. Beware not to dent somebody's car. And for some reason everyone carries around a weapon [[WorldGoneMad or is insane]].
* Gently parodied and lampshaded in ''Film/WhipIt''; the protagonist thinks rollerderby is a huge deal, but it's mostly because she lives in a small town that she hates and has nothing else going well for her. Her team's coach is obsessed with winning, but the rest of the skaters have a more relaxed view, and [[spoiler:when they lose the final, they still celebrate because hey! They made it from ''last place'' to the ''final!'']]
* Played first for comedy and then for horror in ''Film/TheWildHunt'', in which a group of [=LARPers=] take the game far too seriously.
* ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'': Wonka's candy, especially his chocolate bars, are taken ''very'' seriously by the people of the world, and the early movie has a few scenes dedicated to showing it. One of the best examples is a woman whose husband had been kidnapped, and swears she'll pay any ransom. When they ask for all her Wonka Bars, [[ImThinkingItOver she asks how long she has to think about it.]]
* ''Film/TheWizard'' plays with this trope in that in the world of the film, Nintendo is an integral part of the culture. Everyone knows it, everyone plays, and everyone's plugged in, to the point where "Video Armageddon" is greater than the Super Bowl.
* Creator/WillFerrell seems to have built his career around this trope: local newscasting in ''Film/AnchormanTheLegendOfRonBurgundy'', the fashion industry in ''Film/{{Zoolander}}'', fraternities in ''Old School'', and figure skating in ''Film/BladesOfGlory''.
* Christopher Guest's line of {{mockumentary}} comedies each deal with a different subject in this trope: community theater in ''Film/WaitingForGuffman'', dog shows in ''Film/BestInShow'', and folk music in ''Film/AMightyWind''.
* Sometimes futuristic films will be set in a world where a bizarre game has replaced war:
** In the original ''Film/{{Rollerball}}'', wars have been replaced by a brutal form of roller derby.
** In ''Film/RobotJox'', America and the USSR resolve land disputes not by nuclear war, but by gladiatorial combat between giant robots. The trope is almost inverted in the fact that the bouts are televised and treated like sporting events by ordinary citizens.
* Creator/IngridBergman's marriage to Creator/RobertoRosellini was so badly received that she was slammed on the floor of the ''U.S. Senate''.
* ''Film/SoundOfMyVoice'': played for drama with an elaborate SecretHandshake that is required from all {{cult}} members to gain admittance to sermons from the cult's leader. Some sequences of the handshake look like a child's "patty cake" clapping game. It turns out [[spoiler:the handshake was invented by a child]].
* ''Film/TheCaineMutiny'': PlayedForDrama: The disappearance of a quart of strawberries (which may or may not have never even been loaded to the ship) drives Captain Queeg into performing a full-blown investigation, with punishments (like denying time off) and interrogations (including PerpSweating) galore. The fact that he places an incredible amount of effort into finding these strawberries instead of focusing on other important parts of managing his ship makes all the other officers believe he's insane and eventually becomes the cornerstone of the defense against the charge for the eponymous mutiny.
* Norwegian movie ''Freske Fraspark'' (''Spry kickbacks''): PlayedForLaughs: A local sportsman wins the national skiing contest, and because he grew up in the border area between two municipalities, both of them claim ownership to him with cataclysmic results. The casualties count, among other things, a dead cow, 20 featherless hens, a broken arm, several bruises and a lot of spilled energy for nothing. The fact that the train stops for two more minutes on one of the stations is counted SeriousBusiness as well.
----

* ''Celtic Pride'' is about a couple of Celtics fans who kidnap the Utah Jazz star player so their team can win. In the end, all three men learn to just enjoy the game. That is until football season...
* ''Film/AChristmasStory'': Told from the perspective of a child, everything is serious business. When Schwartz issues a "double dog dare," then skips the "triple dare" to go straight to the "triple dog dare," the crowd of boys are suitably impressed by the gravity of the situation. In another vignette, Ralphie decodes Annie's secret message like it's a matter of national security.

* In ''Film/EXistenZ'', people are willing to commit murder over the titular video game. This was partly inspired by the trials and tribulations of [[Creator/DavidCronenberg the director's]] friend, Creator/SalmanRushdie. A major theme of the film is just how fanatically people can react to works of art.

* In ''Film/HighSchoolMusical'', varsity basketball is serious business. Crowds flood the school hallways to get to the Big Game. When the protagonist misses ''one'' practice session, an intervention is staged.

* In ''Film/{{MASH}}'', the priest lets the main character know that one of the others is severely depressed and considering suicide by stating "He said poker is only a game"

* In ''Film/PitchPerfect'' everyone takes ''a capella'' far too seriously. Especially Aubrey, though Becca considers it a useless diversion at first.
** The sequel takes it even further, suggesting that rich eccentrics like to host ''a capella'' battles, complete with a [[TheBigBoard Big Board]] and formalized rules. Though at one key point it's subverted, when Becca reveals her dirty secret that she's been interning for a job after she graduates, the rest of the team says they already knew, and even Aubrey states that she didn't expect Becca to dedicate her whole life to a capella.

* [[Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory Willy Wonka's]] candy, especially his chocolate bars, are taken ''very'' seriously by the people of the world, and the early movie has a few scenes dedicated to showing it. One of the best examples is a woman whose husband had been kidnapped, and swears she'll pay any ransom. When they ask for all her Wonka Bars, [[ImThinkingItOver she asks how long she has to think about it.]]

* ''Film/TheCaineMutiny'': PlayedForDrama: The disappearance of a quart of strawberries (which may or may not have never even been loaded to the ship) drives Captain Queeg into performing a full-blown investigation, with punishments (like denying time off) and interrogations (including PerpSweating) galore. The fact that he places an incredible amount of effort into finding these strawberries instead of focusing on other important parts of managing his ship makes all the other officers believe he's insane and eventually becomes the cornerstone of the defense against the charge for the titular mutiny.

* Brazilian movie ''Os Farofeiros'' has a character who takes card games seriously to a violent degree. Once her Canasta (or more specifically, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buraco Buraco]]) partner misses her signals and does a bad play, she tackles her to the floor. And after splitting the fight, the woman's husband reveals she ''stabbed her brother-in-law'' for turning a natural canasta into a mixed one.

* In ''Film/CanadianBacon'', Canadian beer is SeriousBusiness to Canadians. Casually mentioning that it sucks sparks a riot that almost escalates into a war.

* In the documentary "Please Vote For Me," a Chinese third grade class gets way too competitive over an election to be class monitor. It includes slander, threats and bribery. For third graders. Link to Doc: https://www.thesmalls.com/article/the-smalls-film-festival-calendar-and-festival-list-2017-2018

* Another Disney Channel example would be AlleyCatsStrike. however, despite first guess, the SeriousBusiness isn't so much bowling itself, but rather the rivalry between the city's two schools. Though in this case the TrueCompanions are as bewildered by their schools behavior as anyone else would be.

* The crowd is really unnaturally engaged during all of the debates in ''TheGreatDebaters'', to the point that it's kind of distracting.

* ''Franchise/WallaceAndGromit: WesternAnimation/TheCurseOfTheWereRabbit'' is what the writers call "perhaps the first vegetarian horror movie." To keep some kind of tension, given that the monster is no threat to people, it turns out that everyone in town is insanely protective of their vegetables. For them, country fairs are serious business. "We're simple folk! It's all we have!" NB: In real life, competitive growing ''is'' sometimes taken quite seriously, and incidents of sabotage and theft are not unknown.

* Creator/IngridBergman's marriage to RobertoRosellini was so badly received that she was slammed on the floor of the ''U.S. Senate''.

* In ''Weekend'' by Creator/JeanLucGodard, anything related to the bourgeois lifestyle is Serious Business. Beware not to dent somebody's car. And for some reason everyone carries around a weapon [[WorldGoneMad or is insane]].

** The sequel takes it even further, suggesting that rich eccentrics like to host ''a capella'' battles, complete with a [[TheBigBoard Big Board]] and formalized rules.

* In the documentary "Please Vote For Me," a Chinese third grade class gets way too competitive over an election to be class monitor. It includes slander, threats and bribery. For third graders.

* ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'' does this with a number of yuppy affectations, but most especially [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUAExyakpLI&feature=channel business cards]]. There's a serious rivalry in Patrick's firm about how good they look, right down to the subtle shades of white and the font. In fact, they're so serious, Patrick kills the people who have business cards better than him. [[spoiler: [[UnreliableNarrator Or doesn't he??]]]]

* This is Pee-wee Herman's reaction to having his beloved bicycle stolen in ''PeeWeesBigAdventure''. He likens the tragedy to that of a spouse or love interest being kidnapped (referring to his bike as a fellow "victim"), demands the police devote their entire resources to nabbing the thief, [[AllIssuesArePoliticalIssues briefly wonders if the theft might be a Soviet plot somehow]]...and slowly goes insane, to the point where he [[MuggingTheMonster frightens off some tough guys by roaring at them after they threaten him]]. Perhaps the most absurd scene is the one where he invites everyone he knows over to his basement and, ''for three hours'', subjects them to an obsessive "court hearing" about the event, presenting as "evidence" everything he can think of in some way connected to that day, including ''what position the sun was in'' at the time the crime occurred. When one of his friends [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan finally calls him out on this nonsense]], Pee-wee reveals that he knows full well how ridiculous he is acting, but he [[SanitySlippage just...can't...stop...himself]].