History YMMV / DrStrangelove

* SignatureScene: Major Kong riding the bomb is not only easily the most iconic scene in the film, it's one of the most famous shots in the history of the movies. It's parodied often enough that even people who've never heard of the movie might recognize it.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: While the anti-war message still holds up, the references to communism, the Soviet Union, and technology date the film to the 1960s.

** Major Kong and his crew, a mostly close-knit and dedicated punch, have been tricked into causing nuclear annihilation.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Miss Scott -- Buck's secretary -- is incredibly popular for being MsFanservice and [[TheSmurfettePrinciple the only female in the whole movie.]] She’s also the centerfold model in the Playboy magazine Major King’s men are reading on the plane.

* ItWasHisSled: The whole film is about everyone trying to prevent the US bombers from successfully dropping a bomb and triggering the doomsday machine. Major Kong riding the falling bomb is one of the most iconic scenes in cinema.

** General Turgidson listening to the phone conversation has become a common GIF on forums and message boards for people observing a {{flame war}}.

** The Soviet ambassador justified the Doomsday Device by saying his country couldn't afford the arms race and the people wanted more consumer goods. Almost 30 years after the movie's release, the Soviet Union collapsed partly because they couldn't afford the arms race and the people couldn't access consumer goods[[note]]Ironically, this would be also be partly due to a nuclear disaster; though it was [[UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}} of their own making[[/note]].

** The Soviet ambassador justified the Doomsday Device by saying his country couldn't afford the arms race and the people wanted more consumer goods. Almost 30 years after the movie's release, the Soviet Union collapsed partly because they couldn't afford the arms race and the people couldn't access consumer goods.

* SignatureScene: Major Kong riding the bomb is easily the most iconic scene in the film. It's parodied often enough that even people who've never heard of the movie might recognize it.

** "Gentleman you can't fight in here! This is the war room!"
** "Mein Fuhrer! I can walk!"

** Is President Muffley a pushover weakling or a compassionate man with regular bouts of competence and who has been dealt a terribly bad hand? He flip-flops regarding goofiness and firmness. We laugh at how the situation gets horribly out of control in his hands, but how many would be able to solve it?

* NightmareFuel: The entire movie will make you realize how terribly easy it would be for the leaders of the modern world to cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. And how it could all happen entirely by accident.

** Looking at the movie from Mandrake's perspective, his own co-worker in the military has lost his mind as he is about to trigger a global conflict that could end the world.

** Water fluoridation really was (and still is, in some quarters) the subject of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_fluoridation_controversy#Communist_conspiracy_theory_(1940s–1960s) conspiracy theories]] alleging that it was part of a Communist plot to poison Americans; it was already falling out of influence by the film's release, but said theories were the main reason why fluoridated water wasn't used by the majority of the US population until the 1990s.

** Water fluoridation really was the subject of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_fluoridation_controversy#Communist_conspiracy_theory_(1940s–1960s) conspiracy theories]] alleging that it was part of a Communist plot to poison Americans; it was already falling out of influence by the film's release, but said theories were the main reason why fluoridated water wasn't used by the majority of the US population until the 1990s.

* NightmareFuel: The entire movie will make you realize how terribly easy it would be for the leaders of the modern world to cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. And how it could all happen [[IdiotPlot entirely by accident.]]

** The movie becomes less funny when you learn that Russians generals in 1983 nearly fired nukes at the [=US=] after an error in the Soviet Union detection system and it was Stanislav Petrov following his instincts that prevented nuclear war.

* EightPointEight: David Nusair and Philip K. Scheuer are the only Website/RottenTomatoes critics who don't like the film.

** The film received four UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay (three nominations for Creator/StanleyKubrick) and Best Actor (Creator/PeterSellers). It failed to win any of these, despite being widely held to be one of the greatest movies of all time (especially in terms of script an direction).

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Miss Scott -- Buck's secretary -- is incredibly popular for being MsFanservice and [[TheSmurfettePrinciple the only female in the whole movie.]]

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Do we even need to talk about Dr. Strangelove?
** Miss Scott -- Buck's secretary -- is this for being MsFanservice and [[TheSmurfettePrinciple the only female in the whole movie.]]

* SignatureScene: Major Kong riding the bomb.

* WatchItForTheMeme: Major Kong riding the bomb.

* AwardSnub: The film received four UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay (three nominations for Creator/StanleyKubrick) and Best Actor (Creator/PeterSellers). It failed to win any of these.
** To put it into perspective, ''Dr. Strangelove'' is widely considered to be one of the greatest films ever made, the best film of 1964, Kubrick's greatest film after ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', and as having one of the greatest screenplays of all time.

** Creator/GeorgeCScott, Creator/SterlingHayden and Slim Pickens weren't nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

* SugarWiki/DevelopmentHeaven: The interior of the B-52 Stratofortress (top-secret at the time, believe it or not) was so realistic that the military launched a brief inquiry into how the movie makers had gotten the inside information. [[note]]What they did was look over diagrams of the insides of the B-29 Superfortress, which was not classified, and then extrapolated on those designs based on the size and shape of the B-52.[[/note]]
** Creator/StanleyKubrick also insisted that the table in the war room be covered in green baize like that on pool or poker tables to symbolize that the leaders were playing a giant game of poker for the fate of the world. The only thing is, the movie is in black-and-white.