History YMMV / BeingThere

* AwardSnub: General opinion nowadays is that Creator/PeterSellers should have won the Best Actor UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for this film; he lost to Creator/DustinHoffman in ''Film/KramerVsKramer''. (Sellers himself blamed the GagReel during the end credits for destroying the illusion of the character.)

* AwardSnub: General opinion nowadays is that Creator/PeterSellers should have won the Best Actor Oscar for this film; he lost to Creator/DustinHoffman in ''Film/KramerVsKramer''. (Sellers himself blamed the GagReel during the end credits for destroying the illusion of the character.)

* ValuesDissonance: Chance was apparently isolated from society because his caretakers assumed he would never amount to anything. Nowadays, with a greater understanding of things like autism and learning disabilities, such treatment would be far less acceptable and Chance could possibly receive some kind of special education. Louise, his character mind you, deriding Chance as "dumb as a jackass" would come across as downright cruel and despicable by modern standards.

* ValuesDissonance: Chance was apparently isolated from society because his caretakers assumed he would never amount to anything. Nowadays, with a greater understanding of things like autism and learning disabilities, such treatment would be far less acceptable and Chance could possibly receive some kind of special education. Louise deriding Chance as "dumb as a jackass" comes across as downright cruel and despicable by modern standards.

* ValuesResonance: The growing importance of style over substance, sound bites, etc. in media and politics since TheSeventies has granted both novel and film this.

** The TwistEnding of the film [[YouKeepUsingThatWord begs the question]] of [[spoiler: Chance's true nature: is he The Fool or The Messiah? The filmmakers intended the former, but knew the latter interpretation was possible.]]

** Arguably, the film's existence was based on this. Kosinski wrote Chance as a representation of his fear of a style-over-substance world, having no idea someone could actually identify with such a character. Though they disagreed on the implications of his rise to power -- Creator/PeterSellers saw it as the meek inheriting the earth -- Kosinski admitted that Sellers understood Chance better than he did.

* HilariousInHindsight: Actors Richard Dysart and David Clennon both appeared in this movie and shared a scene together, three years later bother Dysart and Clennon would appear in ''Film/TheThing1982'' as Copper, who is doctor too like Dysart's character in this movie, and Palmer.

* AdaptationDisplacement: The novella is still in print, but with a picture of Sellers as Chance on the U.S. cover.
* AwardSnub: General opinion nowadays is that Peter Sellers should have won the Best Actor Oscar for this film; he lost to Dustin Hoffman in ''Film/KramerVsKramer''. (Sellers himself blamed the GagReel during the end credits for destroying the illusion of the character.)
* ComedyGhetto: The most likely reason Sellers didn't win, especially when a mentally challenged character is usually OscarBait.

* IdiotPlot: A rare case where people not asking obvious questions is part of the story's point.

* MemeticMutation / SignatureLine: "I like to watch." This line is sometimes used to imply voyeurism, which amuses those who have seen the film as using it in that context is [[MisaimedFandom making a mistake some of the characters do]].

* [[TheyCopiedItSoItSucks They Copied It, So It Sucks]]: Kosinski was accused of plagiarising the 1932 Polish novel ''The Career of Nicodemus Dyzma''. Nowadays, it's generally assumed the plots are not really that similar. While both feature a sudden rise of an unexpected character, Nicodemus was not simple-minded, he was poor, and at the end of the novel is usually not perceived as sympathetic.
* ValuesResonance: The growing importance of style over substance, sound bites, etc. in media and politics since TheSeventies has granted both novel and film this.

* AwardSnub: General opinion nowadays is that Peter Sellers should have won the Best Actor Oscar for this film; he lost to Dustin Hoffman in ''Film/KramerVsKramer''.

* AwardSnub: General opinion nowadays is that Peter Sellers should have won the Best Actor Oscar for this film; he lost to Dustin Hoffman in ''Film/KramerVersusKramer''.

** Arguably, the film's existence was based on this. Kosinski wrote Chance as a representation of his fear of a style-over-substance world, having no idea someone could actually identify with such a character. Though they disagreed on the implications of his rise to power (Sellers saw it as the meek inheriting the earth), Kosinski admitted that Sellers understood Chance better than he did.

* ComedyGhetto: The most likely reason Sellers didn't win the Oscar, especially when a mentally challenged character is usually OscarBait.

* [[TheyCopiedItSoItSucks They Copied It, So It Sucks]]: Kosinski was accused of plagiarising 1932 Polish novel ''The Career of Nicodemus Dyzma''. Nowadays it's generally assumed the plots are not really that similar. While both feature a sudden rise of an unexpected character, Nicodemus was not simple-minded, he was poor, and at the end of the novel is usually not perceived as sympathetic.

* MisaimedFandom: Kosinski was frustrated that film audiences (especially younger ones) weren't unnerved by the implications of Chance's rise to power -- that style will always trump substance; that people can become so warped by TV, etc. that they will not develop their own personality -- or even realized them. Of course, Chance is an atypical example of this trope in that he isn't a ''bad'' person, but more a victim of circumstance. Due in part to ValuesResonance, however, this misaimed fandom is not as much of a problem now.

-->'''Louise:'''It's for sure a white man's world in America. Look here: I raised that boy since he was the size of a piss-ant. And I'll say right now, he never learned to read and write. No, sir. Had no brains at all. Was stuffed with rice pudding between th' ears. Shortchanged by the Lord, and dumb as a jackass. Look at him now! Yes, sir, all you've gotta be is white in America, to get whatever you want. Gobbledy-gook!

* MisaimedFandom: Kosinski was frustrated that film audiences (especially younger ones) weren't unnerved by the implications of Chance's rise to power -- that style will always trump substance; that people can become so warped by TV, etc. that they will not develop their own personality -- or even realized them. Of course, Chance is an atypical example of this trope in that he isn't a ''bad'' person, but more a victim of circumstance.
* ValuesResonance

** The TwistEnding of the film [[YouKeepUsingThatWord begs the question]] of [[spoiler: Chance's true nature: is he TheFool or TheMessiah? The filmmakers intended the former, but knew the latter interpretation was possible.]]

* MemeticMutation / SignatureLine: "I like to watch." This line is sometimes used to imply voyeurism, which amuses those who have seen the film as using it in that context is [[Main/CompletelyMissingThePoint making a mistake some of the characters do]].