History SeriousBusiness / Film

* 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 DCOM movie ''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.

* In ''Film/KillBill'', Hattori Hanzo invokes this trope by name while discussing Japanese pronunciation with the Bride.

* School politics and Fraternities in most college movies are played to the hilt, such as in the ''Film/RevengeOfTheNerds'' films and ''Film/AnimalHouse''.

* 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 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]].

* 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 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]].

* ''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.

* Creator/WillFerrell seems to have built his career around this trope: local newscasting in ''{{Anchorman|TheLegendOfRonBurgundy}}'', the fashion industry in ''Film/{{Zoolander}}'', fraternities in ''Old School'', and figure skating in ''Film/BladesOfGlory''.

* 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.

* Christopher Guest's line of {{mockumentary}} comedies each deal with a different subject in this trope: community theater in ''Film/WaitingForGuffman'', dog shows in ''BestInShow'', and folk music in ''Film/AMightyWind''.

* In ''Film/SuddenImpact'', Dirty Harry was having a conversation with a detective while investigating a first murder. Harry mentioned that the various crimes really don't get to him, neither does working through red tape, but what does?
-->'''Harry''': Is watching you stuff your face with those hot dogs. Nobody, I mean NOBODY puts ketchup on a hot dog!

* In King Vidor'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/PitchPerfect'' everyone takes Acapella far too seriously. Especially Aubrey, though Becca considers it a useless diversion at first.

** As is theatre- at least in the mind of its teacher, if not in anyone else's.

* 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 minigolf scores.

* In ''Mean Machine'' 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.
* ''Men At Work'': [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhaIL9iZ-os Do not mess with another man's fries.]]

* ''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.

* 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 ''BandSlam'', band competitions are "Texas high school football big."

* In ''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 move ''{{Dadnapped}}'' is all about this trope, in which the main character's father is kidnapped by his fans.
* In ''DeathToSmoochy'', children's television seems like SeriousBusiness, until you find out that it pales in comparison to the importance of ice shows.

* ''{{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.

* The movie ''Hatley High'', in which chess is very serious business.
* The zombie 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.

* Gently parodied and lampshaded in ''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!'']]

* ''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 ''{{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.

* ''Film/SeriousBusiness'': 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]].

* ''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.