History YMMV / BillAndTed

* CriticalDissonance: The film was absolutely savaged by reviewers at the time of its release; Hal Hinson of the Washington Post called it "paltry and undernourished," the New York Times said it was "painfully inept", and Variety called it "utterly cliched". But it grossed about 4 times its budget and to this day is generally considered a comedy classic by audiences.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: See [[AwesomeMusic/{{Film}} Awesome Music: Film]].

* GeniusBonus:
** UsefulNotes/SigmundFreud's corndog-on-a-stick gag.
** When Freud is coming on to some girls, he tells them that they "seem to be suffering from a mild form of hysteria."
** The references to ''Film/TheSeventhSeal''.
** The guys spotting some weakness in Napoleon's plan for the Battle of Waterloo. Made funnier because their tone implies they're ''not'' using historical knowledge; two idiots just noticed a flaw that the emperor didn't.
** When they pick up UsefulNotes/JoanOfArc, Ted briefly mimics the well-known picture of [[SistineSteal God and Adam from]] the Art/SistineChapel's ceiling fresco.
** UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan is shown forcefully making out with a servant girl - why do you think he supposedly has descendants across half of Asia?
** That scene where Napoleon's thrown out of the bowling alley? Instantly familiar to anyone who's seen the 1927 film ''[[Film/Napoleon1927 Napoléon]]''.
** Bill's full name being "Bill S. Preston, Esquire" is a lot funnier if you know that the title "Esquire" denotes that someone is a ''lawyer'' (which Bill definitely isn't). The apparent implication is that Bill has no idea what it actually means, and just added it to his name because it sounded cool.

* PoorMansSubstitute: Had Music/DavidNewman not scored the first two films, David's predecessor Music/HenryMancini would have scored those installments' music.

** In the first movie, Genghis Khan - national hero of Mongolia - is portrayed in a very animalistic manner, as if he were a stereotypical caveman.

* MemeticLoser: Poor Alex Winter is often mocked as "the guy from ''Bill and Ted'' who's not Keanu Reeves" due to how much bigger Reeves' career got afterwards.

** That scene where Napoleon's thrown out of the bowling alley? Instantly familiar to anyone who's seen the 1927 film ''Film/{{Napoleon}}''.

** When they pick up UsefulNotes/JoanOfArc, Ted briefly mimics the well-known picture of [[Art/SistineChapel God and Adam from the Sistine Chapel]].

* PoorMansSubstitute: Had not Music/DavidNewman would have score the first two films, David's predecessor who was still working around those times Music/HenryMancini would have score those installments' music if the filmmakers could have afford him.