History YMMV / AustinPowers

** In ''The Spy Who Loved Me'', Austin suggests that the 70s and 80s aren't worth bothering with, and are disposable decades. Ironically, this is now a popular sentiment for the 90s, with many people outside of the Millennial and Zoomer generations considering the entire period from the Fall of Communism to 9/11 to be quite unmemorable.

* FountainOfMemes: Any character played by Mike Myers is very quotable.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: ''Goldmember'' was meant to introduce a new nemesis for Austin Powers, but rather than go with either the titular Goldmember or the now-evil Scott, the film tried to use both while ''still'' having Dr Evil carry most of the conflict.

*** Just about everything involving Fat Bastard, really...

* PresumedFlop: ''Goldmember'' is widely considered the weakest in the trilogy and has a reputation as a FranchiseKiller, yet was just as successful as ''The Spy Who Shagged Me'', earning more money domestically and only slightly less worldwide. It also has the highest Metacritic score. The real reason why there was never a fourth film was because Creator/MikeMyers wanted to make ''Film/TheLoveGuru'' -- which ''was'' prove a major critical and commercial failure, and proved to be a StarDerailingRole for him.

* MoralEventHorizon: Goldmember already has a somewhat misguided compass but he crosses it in response to [[spoiler: Dr. Evil's HeelFaceTurn. He puts Preparation H back in motion, holds Foxxy Cleopatra hostage and shoots at Austin and Dr. Evil when they attempt to thwart him turning on the tractor beam.]]

* JerkassWoobie: FatBastard. He may be a rude, disgusting asshole, but it's not really his fault he's so gross (for the most part), as he can't stop eating, and, near the end of the second movie he even admits how miserable he is. [[spoiler: at the end of the third movie, he [[EarnYourHappyEnding finally manages to lose weight,]] and, [[HeelFaceTurn stops being a villain.]]]]

** The sight of the [[{{Gorn}} guard's decapitated neck]] after his head is eaten by Dr. Evil's mutant bass in ''Internation Man of Mystery''. In such a goofy and lighthearted movie, [[SurprisinglyCreepyMoment it's immensely out of place]]. [[AudienceSurrogate Austin]] gives an understandably disgusted grunt upon seeing it.

** The sight of the [[{{Gorn}} guard's decapitated neck]] after his head is eaten by Dr. Evil's mutant bass in ''Internation Man of Mystery''. In such a goofy and lighthearted movie, [[SurpriseCreepy it's immensely out of place]]. [[AudienceSurrogate Austin]] gives an understandably disgusted grunt upon seeing it.

** Creator/KevinSpacey's cameo as himself playing Dr. Evil in a movie titled ''Goldmember''. After he was revealed to be a long time sexual predator, this is ''not'' a guy you want "making house calls."

** While snooping around Alotta Fagina's penthouse in the first movie, Austin discovers a folder with some of Virtucon's evil plots listed inside. In between "Human Organ Trafficking" and "Project Vulcan" is... [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking "Carrot Top Movie"]]. In the following year, they made ''Film/ChairmanOfTheBoard''.

** Austin seeing the 80's decade as unmemorable becomes this given the 2010's massive 80's nostalgia and viewed as being the most memorable decade due to its influential pop culture. While the 60's, while influential, is now generally regarded as a turbulent decade.

* FirstInstallmentWins: The sequels were a lot more successful at the box office. However they relied heavily on cameos, wacky characters, and now dated pop culture references. Whereas the original is a spoof of the 60s spy film genre and holds up very well still today.

* AcceptableEthnicTargets: Nigel hates Dutch people for no good reason. His hate for the Dutch might be justified or at least understandable. See FreudianExcuse on the main page. He's also not fond of Belgians because "they share a border with the Dutch" (Creator/MichaelCaine makes this line awesome).
* AcceptableProfessionalTargets:
** Austin hates carnies (carnival workers) because they have "small hands....and smell like cabbage."
** Starbucks being a front for an evil empire.

** ''The Spy Who Shagged Me'' received two tie-in games for, oddly enough, the Game Boy Color. Both of them were bland, boring {{Minigame Game}}s that utilized a mock computer desktop format, which really didn't work with the smaller screen and controls of the system.

** ''Austin Powers Pinball'', one of the later releases for the original [=PlayStation=]. It was clearly made as cheaply as possible, and has SNES-level graphics and LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading.

* AngstWhatAngst: Austin doesn't even particularly seem to care that [[spoiler:Vanessa]] was a Fembot and is now dead. [[RuleOfFunny He's a swinger!]] He doesn't seem to care all that much when Basil admits that they suspected it all along, and then [[SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome quickly changes the subject and never mentions it again]].

*** On a desperately-needed lighter note, Son was also briefly a MixedMartialArts fighter... and didn't win once in his career. It might actually ''have'' been for lack of trying, too, as one of his losses happened by way of [[RapidFireFisticuffs repeated]] GroinAttack, in [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments one of the funniest events ever to happen in the sport.]]

** In ''The Spy Who Shagged Me'', when Dr. Evil tells Austin "I am your father", Austin says "Really?" in a rather hopeful tone of voice. Come the third movie, and you find that his relationship with his father is traumatic enough that he might have actually ''wanted'' Dr. Evil to be his dad.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: ''Goldmember'' had a bad habit of not using its characters to their full potential. The titular Goldmember doesn't actually become the BigBad until the last few minutes, Foxxy's romance with Austin is sidelined in favour of showing him making peace with his father, the Mole only gets a few seconds of screentime with Dr. Evil before he's revealed to be a double agent and Number Two and Frau are DemotedToExtra.

* AcceptableProfessionalTargets: Austin hates carnies (carnival workers) because they have "small hands....and smell like cabbage."

* TheScrappy: Goldmember. Most fans see him as little more than a half-baked attempt to capitalise on Fat Bastard's fanbase. Creator/MikeMyers even says in the commentary that he has no memory of playing the character.

* IdiotPlot: In ''Internation Man of Mystery'', Dr. Evil threatens to set off every volcano on Earth if he isn't given $100 billion. He tells Austin that he plans to set the volcanoes off after he has been paid anyway. If every volcano on Earth erupted, entire continents- including North America, where Dr. Evil and his cohorts are based- would be annihilated (by supervolcanoes like Yellowstone, for instance), the sky would be covered in black ash for thousands if not millions of years, and virtually every living thing on Earth would die, including humanity. So, firstly, Dr. Evil's money would be worthless, and secondly, and a bit more annoyingly from his point of view, Dr. Evil and everyone in his organization would be ''dead''. {{Justified|Trope}} since its a spoof film plus, of course, it's [[StupidEvil Dr. Evil]].

* MagnificentBastard: While [[BigBad Dr. Evil]] himself misses no chance to delve into BondVillainStupidity, two of his subordinates operate brilliantly:

** [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Number Two]] is Dr. Evil's aptly-named, [[HyperCompetentSidekick far more competent right-hand man]]. Managing the business front of Evil's empire while his boss is cryogenically frozen in space, Number Two expands the operation to a multibillion dollar national corporation. Surviving his seeming death due to oversight in the first film, Number Two is kept on by Evil likely for his effectiveness and [[TheSpymaster provides reconnaissance]], capturing Austin Powers while the doctor concocts his latest goofy scheme. Forming an effective Hollywood talent agency by undercutting the competition's prices, Number Two eventually joins Dr. Evil in turning to good after being touched by Evil's reunion with his long-lost father Nigel Powers.