History YMMV / Elf

** Creator/PeterDinklage would go on to become much better known as [[Series/GameOfThrones Tyrion Lannister]].

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Santa tells Buddy that New York City is home to "like 30 Ray's Pizzas" and adds "They all claim to be the original, but the real one's on 11th." At the time, there was a Ray's Pizza on 11th Street in Manhattan. It went out of business in 2011.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Is Miles Finch an arrogant {{Jerkass}} or merely a ConsummateProfessional shaped by a life of discrimination? Buddy calling him an "elf" is obviously not intended to be malicious but it's somewhat understandable why Miles would get angry, even if physically attacking him might seem too much. It's also confirmed that Miles' ideas are genuinely good and his books are successful, even if he does mislead the other writers in the meeting.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Is Miles Finch an arrogant {{Jerkass}} or merely a ConsummateProfessional shaped by a life of discrimination? Buddy calling him an "elf" is obviously not intended to be malicious but it's somewhat understandable why Miles would get angry, even if physically attacking him might seem too much. It's also confirmed that Miles' ideas are genuinely good and his books are successful, even if he does mislead the other writers in the meeting.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Is Miles Finch an arrogant {{Jerkass}} or merely a ConsummateProfessional shaped by a life of discrimination? Buddy calling him an "elf" is obviously not intended to be malicious but it's somewhat understandable why Miles would get angry, even if physically attacking him might seem too much. It's also confirmed that Miles' ideas are genuinely good, even if he does mislead the other writers in the meeting.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: The Central Park Rangers are a real law enforcement agency, and the "controversial" actions they took at the Music/SimonAndGarfunkel concert, [[NoodleIncident though never]] [[NothingIsScarier specified]], also happened. Apparently even the ''filmmakers'' were unaware of this, as Jon Favreau actually states in the DVD commentary that "Obviously there's no Central Park Rangers. We made them up."

** While walking in the woods, Buddy gets attacked by a raccoon that he tries to make friends with, which is never seen or mentioned again, but Buddy doesn't even show any lingering damage from the encounter. However, this scene may have intentionally been Buddy's first encounter with culture shock and served the purpose of showing that animals and people outside of Santa's North Pole are nowhere near as nice as the talking animals and elves of Santa's place.

* QuestionableCasting: Creator/WillFerrell in a kid's movie; Creator/JamesCaan for a Christmas film; and[[Creator/EdwardAsner Ed Asner]] as Santa[[note]]And believe it or not, that actually wasn't the first time[[/note]]. Even Creator/RogerEbert [[http://rogerebert.com/reviews/elf-2003 was surprised by how well that turned out.]]

** The Gimbel's manager. He's a bit of a stick-in-the-mud and work-obsessed, but like everyone else there, he just wants to do his job and get through the holidays, and it's implied he's already on thin ice as it is. You can't blame him for getting fed up with Buddy making things more complicated. The ending implies that he and Buddy have since made peace (enough to get the ''restraining order'' he'd slapped Buddy with lifted) when [[spoiler:Buddy reads aloud a Christmas story to a large audience of children at the Santa's Village in Gimbles]].

** "'''[[JustForFun/IHeardThatAs GAY PEOPLE!]]'''" [[note]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DqGgIgx4KU This YTPMV]] set to [[{{AwesomeMusic/Deltarune}} Jevil's theme]] that features the Gimbel's Manager started taking off late 2021, with it exploding in popularity around the holidays. Following it, the movie became a popular source for [[YouTubePoop YTPMVs]], especially the mall scene.[[/note]]

** Artie Lang as Gimbel's MallSanta. He does indeed sit on a throne of lies.

---> ''But the children love the books!''

* AluminumChristmasTrees: The Central Park Rangers are a real law enforcement agency, and the "controversial" actions they took at the Music/SimonAndGarfunkel concert, [[NoodleIncident though never]] [[NothingIsScarier specified]], also happened. Apparently even the ''filmmakers'' were unaware of this, as Jon Favreau actually states in the DVD commentary that "Obviously there's no Central Park Rangers. We made them up." Oops.

** While walking in the woods Buddy gets attacked by a raccoon that he tries to make friends with, which not only is never seen or mentioned again, but Buddy doesn't even show any lingering damage from the encounter. Though, this scene may have intentionally been Buddy's first encounter with culture shock and served the purpose of showing that animals and people outside of Santa's North Pole are nowhere near as nice as the talking animals and elves of Santa's place.

* QuestionableCasting: Creator/WillFerrell in a kid's movie? Creator/JamesCaan for a Christmas film? [[Creator/EdwardAsner Ed Asner]] as Santa? [[note]]And believe it or not, that actually wasn't the first time![[/note]] Even Creator/RogerEbert [[http://rogerebert.com/reviews/elf-2003 was surprised by how well that turned out.]]

* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: Believe it or not, the Broadway musical version is considerably more adult than the movie, with an increase in language, sexual innuendos, and double entrendre.[[note]]Some critics are saying that it's more of a grown-up show anyway, and that the kids would only be interested in the scenery.[[/note]]
* TheWoobie: Buddy has no idea how to function in society and most people treat him like a pariah, none the least of which his father, whom Buddy travels hundreds of thousands of miles to meet and wants nothing to do with him at first. This is best exemplified when Buddy mistakes Miles for one of Santa's elves: every question he asks genuinely sounds like an insult, and Buddy [[InnocentlyInsensitive has no way of knowing]].

* HypeBacklash: Despite becoming a Christmas Classic for many people and still seeing merch for the movie being sold in stores even today around Christmas time, there are also a lot of people who can't comprehend how it became a Christmas classic, seeing it as another run of the mill mediocre Will Ferris comedy among his many other films.

** Mr. Narwhal. He's actually voiced by Creator/JonFavreau!

** Miles Finch beats up Buddy for making fun of his disability to his face, something he's probably had to deal with his entire life.

** Buddy peels a piece of gum off a subway entrance stair railing. And chews it. After Santa told him not to. (Santa told him not to eat the gum [[ExactWords from the]] '''[[LiteralMinded ground]]'''.)

--> ''But the children love the books!''

* TheWoobie: Buddy has no idea how to function in society and most people treat him like a pariah, none the least of which his father, whom Buddy travels hundreds of thousands of miles to meet and wants nothing to do with him at first. This is best exemplified when Buddy mistakes Miles for one of Santa's elves: every question he asks genuinely sounds like an insult and Buddy has no way of knowing.

* {{Adorkable}}: Buddy is a friendly but socially inept {{Manchild}} who simply wants to make others happy.