History YMMV / BadTeacher

** Elizabeth is addicted to [=OxyContin=] pills. Creator/KaitlynDever, who plays one of her students, would later star in ''Series/{{Dopesick}}'', a series about the opioid crisis.

* HarsherInHindsight: The movie's central premise is a woman who can't quit her job because it's her sole source of income. She decides she needs breast enhancement surgery to impress a man and finds out that the teacher whose class has the highest test scores on a state test will get a large bonus. Her attempts to get the bonus involve GrayAndGreyMorality. Two weeks after the movie premiered, a major test-fixing scandal erupted in the Atlanta public school system, implicating 178 educators, among them 38 principals, and forced the superintendent to resign. A smaller, but similar, situation could have easily happened in the film's universe if Elizabeth's shenanigans backfired.

* HilariousInHindsight: Elizabeth wears an "''Annie''" wig to disguise herself when she seduces the testing official. Three years later, Creator/CameronDiaz would be cast as Ms. Hannigan in the ''Film/Annie2014'' remake.

** During the teacher dance scene, Scott and Elizabeth sing to "867-5309/Jenny" by Music/TommyTutone, and Scott says that they don't make songs like this anymore, with Russell stating that he's working on a song with a similar phone number title. In 2017, Logic releases "1-800-273-8255", and it's taken in a [[TearJerker devastating direction]].

* HilariousInHindsight: Elizabeth wears an "''Annie''" wig to disguise herself when she seduces the testing official. Three years later, Creator/CameronDiaz would be cast as Ms. Hannigan in the 2014 ''Film/{{Annie}}'' remake.

** Creator/KathrynNewton portrays the popular girl Chase Rubin-Rossi. She would later gain recognition for her roles in Series/BigLittleLies, Series/TheSociety and Film/PokemonDetectivePikachu.

** Is Amy a genuinely nice person who is driven to madness by Elizabeth's cruel and petty actions, or is she an unstable, immature, and socially awkward woman.

* HilariousInHindsight: Elizabeth wears an "Annie" wig to disguise herself when she seduces the testing official. Three years later, she would be cast as Ms. Hannigan in the 2014 ''Film/{{Annie}}" remake.

** Is Elizabeth just a mean-spirited {{Jerkass}} who takes joy in the suffering of others? Or does she suffer from some severe self-loathing and self-esteem issues herself? She has quite a few self destructive tendencies, like drug addiction and laziness, and when telling off Garrett for trying to pursue an AlphaBitch, she has a moment of self-awareness about she behaves the same way. Not to mention she allows her students to hit her with dodgeballs, implying that she aware that she is a terrible person.

* DesignatedVillain: Amy Squirrell. We're clearly supposed to see her overbearing, repeated, downright obsessive efforts to expose Elizabeth as a bad thing, except that she's ''absolutely right''.

* DesignatedHero: Elizabeth is superficial, vain, lazy and mostly incompetent, and yet she is still the protagonist of the movie. She doesn't help her kids to learn (her success is achieved through cheating and even worse, it's not out of any genuine desire to educate them, but to get the money for breast implants), she doesn't learn anything herself except perhaps to be slightly less superficial and jealousy causes her to ruin the life of her overbearing but well-intentioned rival. She breaks multiple laws and rules and her only selfless acts are brief attempts to make some of her kids a little more cool. In short she is a terrible person and does almost nothing to justify the fact that the audience are supposed to root for her.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/KathrynNewton portrays the popular girl Chase Rubin-Rossi. She would later gain recognition for her roles in Series/BigLittleLies, Series/TheSociety and Film/PokemonDetectivePikachu.

* DesignatedVillain: Amy Squirrell. We're clearly supposed to see her overbearing, repeated, downright obsessive efforts to expose Elizabeth as a bad thing, except she's ''absolutely right''.
* EnsembleDarkhorse: Russel the male gym teacher, for being the most likeable character in the movie.

* DesignatedVillain: Amy Squirrell. We're clearly supposed to see her overbearing, repeated, downright obsessive efforts to expose Elizabeth as a bad thing, which it would be if it weren't for the fact that she's ''right''.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Kathryn Newton portrays the popular girl Chase Rubin-Rossi. She would later gain recognition for her roles in Series/BigLittleLies, Series/TheSociety and Film/PokemonDetectivePikachu.

** Elizabeth would no longer need to discreetly smoke marijuana, considering the state of Illinois will legalize recreational marijuana in 2020.

** Creator/KaitlynDever of Film/{{Booksmart}} and Series/{{Unbelievable}} fame plays another student, Sasha Abernathy.

** Creator/KaitlynDever of Film/Booksmart and Series/Unbelievable fame plays another student, Sasha Abernathy.