History YMMV / SeltzerAndFriedberg

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: One of the main criticisms of their work is that the pop culture jokes that they rely on become outdated within just a few years, with the things that they're parodying having fallen out of the collective consciousness. A few of their gags had fallen out of memory before the respective movie came out.

* GenreKiller: The works of Seltzer and Friedberg (starting with ''Film/DateMovie'' in 2006) have been blamed for killing parody movies. While they were able to make a profit for many of their parodies despite low critic and audience ratings, mostly thanks to using a low production budget and being among the only game in town when it came to parodies, the deathblow to the genre came in the form of the lackluster reception of ''Film/{{Disaster Movie|2008}}'', leading to audiences having become fed up with the usual formula and finding better parody material from independent creators online. Though their next movie, ''Film/VampiresSuck'', was seen as a slightly better movie than most of their other work, mostly because they actually decided to watch the movies they were making fun of for once, the damage to the genre was already done. Even [[DamnedByFaintPraise slightly better ones]] like ''Film/SuperheroMovie'' (probably not helped by being named in the same "<name of genre> Movie" style used by S&F) have been lumped in with their disasters. And making matters even worse was how [[FollowTheLeader far too many creators who were looking for a quick buck]] was able to easily replicate the Seltzer/Friedberg-formula to a T, oversaturating the market with failed [[ShallowParody shallow parodies]] that only caused further damage to the genre.

%% Only enter YMMV tropes relating to their work, and not tropes about the directors themselves.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:
** [[ChubbyChaser Did Peter really have a fetish for fat unibrowed ladies and genuinely wanted to have sex with Mystique in such a form?]] [[KarmicTransformation Or did he make her shapeshift that way as payback for rejecting him earlier?]] Considering how he was genuinely enjoying the makeout and sex, along with his [[PervertedDrooling drooling]], it's most likely the former. Especially since, as most people have pointed out, [[NauseaFuel the transformation would most likely be hell for the man unfortunate enough to have to sleep with her,]] [[KarmaHoudini rather than the woman herself, who'd be largely unaffected during the love making.]]
** Additionally, many have suggested what Peter really wanted may have been a [[StacysMom MILF type body,]] but as he had never been with one and possibly hadn't seen one, he didn't know how to describe it, [[FanDisservice and ended up boning a flabby grandma body instead.]]
** As a follow-up, considering Peter's status as an orphan who never received much love, neither from his school nor through the love of any parents, it's been suggested that Peter may have a slight UsefulNotes/OedipusComplex, wanting to have sex with someone resembling a mother or grandmother figure, [[BeautyInversion even if it means it being a fat flabby grandma version of his crush.]] Although, this would make one wonder why he wouldn't go for a [[StacysMom MILF type body,]] but as stated, he may not have known the difference, [[ChubbyChaser or just had specific likings.]] It's also possible that he had faint memories of his mother he wanted Mystique to replicate, and it just turned out that his mother wasn't the most attractive woman out there...
** Peter was also seen drinking quite heavily before Mystique came over to him, so it brings up the question... did Peter really want Mystique to gain a monobrow and a fat flabby grandma body? [[AlcoholInducedIdiocy Or did he make those choices due to the excessive alcohol he drank making him want to bone a fat flabby granny?]] Let's hope it's the former, otherwise Peter would've probably been quite regretful the following morning...
* AwardSnub: A rare case of UsefulNotes/GoldenRaspberryAward snub. So far all of their nominated works won nothing, which lends itself to another level of mockery: not only are their movies bad, they’re ''[[DoWrongRight bad at being bad]]''. In particular, it is very contentious that ''Meet the Spartans'' and ''Disaster Movie'' lost Worst Rip-Off/Sequel to the [[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull fourth]] ''Franchise/IndianaJones''--as divisive as that film is, it is nowhere ''near'' as negatively viewed as the aforementioned two are.
* BestKnownForTheFanservice: If anyone talks about these films other than saying that they are terrible films, it's probably for the attractive women they feature in the films. Then-famous model and actress Carmen Electra especially counts, appearing in nearly all of their films. She's Anne in Date Movie, Queen Margo in Meet the Spartans, the Beautiful Assassin in Disaster Movie, and Mystique in Epic Movie, almost always featuring her doing something sexy and mugging for the camera. [[FanDisservice Although some inversions occur inevitably, such as her parody of Mystique turning incredibly fat]] ([[ChubbyChaser which some still may have enjoyed]]...) [[FanDisservice and gaining a unibrow, due to the gross comedy of these films]]. Still, most scenes involving her and the other women are the main reason many even attempt to slog through these films.

* CrackPairing: Of all possible pairings, a parody of Peter from [[Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia Narnia]] ends up hooking up and doing it with a parody of Mystique from [[Franchise/XMen X-Men]], two franchises and characters which have absolutely nothing to do with each other.

* EnsembleDarkhorse:
** Jello-O from ''Date Movie'' is often regarded as the most memorable character, [[MsFanservice for obvious reasons]].
** The [[Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory Willy Wonka]] character from ''Epic Movie'', mainly because he's played by Creator/CrispinGlover and for being one of the only redeeming qualities of that film.
** The Mystique parody, [[MsFanservice for similar reasons as Jello-O.]] Being a basically naked Carmen Electra painted blue certain adds to that. Even her later fatter form is also quite popular to [[ChubbyChaser a certain group of people who share the same tastes as Peter.]]

* HarsherInHindsight:
** The jokes in ''Disaster Movie'' about Amy Winehouse's drinking are especially disturbing after her alcoholism finally killed her.
** [[Film/AvengersEndgame Iron Man is killed off as soon as he announces himself.]]
* HilariousInHindsight:
** One of many {{Big Lipped Alligator Moment}}s in ''Epic Movie'' is a ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl''-themed parody of "[[Music/TheLonelyIsland Lazy]] [[Series/SaturdayNightLive Sunday]]". Cut to 2011 with the song "Jack Sparrow".
** In a more meta-example, in ''Disaster Movie'' one of the brief reference gags involves "Iron Man" introducing himself before quickly being squashed by a falling cow. While ''Disaster Movie'' became Seltzer And Friedberg's worst reviewed movie before they and the Parody genre as a whole lost mainstream appeal after ''Vampires Suck'', ''Film/IronMan1'' would wind up starting an [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse entire series of movies]] for years afterwards worth ''billions''.
** In ''Epic Movie'', Edward says the name Jack Swallows is "kinda gay, dude." Edward's actor Creator/KalPenn came out as gay in 2021.
** Also, in ''Epic Movie'', Creator/CrispinGlover played a parody of Creator/JohnnyDepp's Willy Wonka in a parody of Creator/TimBurton's ''Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory''. Cut to 3 years later, Glover plays the Knave of Hearts in Burton's ''[[Film/AliceInWonderland2010 Alice in Wonderland]]'', which starred Depp himself (Glover and Depp appeared in the same movie [[Film/WhatsEatingGilbertGrape two]] [[Film/DeadMan times]] prior).
** Jayma Mays, who appears on ''Epic Movie'', was later cast in ''Film/Disenchanted2022'', the sequel to ''Film/{{Enchanted}}'', one of the films spoofed in ''Disaster Movie''.
** ''Disaster Movie'' has a parody of ''Film/{{Jumper}}'' with Will in the part of David Rice. This wouldn't be the last time Creator/MattLanter [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars took on a role]] [[Film/AttackOfTheClones previously]] [[Film/RevengeOfTheSith played]] by Creator/HaydenChristensen.
** At the end of ''The Starving Games'', when the Avengers are assembled to enlist Katniss to join them, Clint Barton tries to protest. Nick Fury verbally shoots him down, saying that he'll never have a movie centered on him. Well, not a ''movie'', [[Series/{{Hawkeye|2021}} exactly]].
* JustHereForGodzilla: Despite ''Disaster Movie'' being perhaps their most critically panned and despised movie, some are willing to watch it simply to see the actual Creator/KimKardashian get killed and/or to see Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus get crushed by a meteor.
* MisaimedFandom: Mystique's transformation into a fat flabby unibrowed lady is meant to be absolutely disgustingly and appalling, the joke obviously being that Peter threw out a potentially heavenly night boning an [[MsFanservice extremely well endowed woman who could literally have the hottest body any man could desire]] for a night with an incredibly [[FanDisservice ugly and disgusting woman any guy would try to avoid getting with at all costs.]] Looking into any fanworks of Epic Movie's version of Mystique, however, whether fanfiction or fanart, almost all of it is based on the fat and flabby version of her, which is seen as incredibly attractive by [[ChubbyChaser those who are into larger gals.]]

* OneSceneWonder:
** Josh Meyers' impersonation of Film/NapoleonDynamite was widely agreed to be one of the few good things (if not the ''only'' good thing) about ''Date Movie''.
** The Advertising/HeadOn skit from ''Disaster Movie'', often considered the best joke in the entire film.
* {{Padding}}:
** ''Meet the Spartans''' total runtime is 86 minutes, but about twenty minutes of that is extra padding before the credits roll.
** ''Every'' scene in ''Disaster Movie'' is spent on incredibly long-winded "gags" that seemingly last for an eternity, without any sort of proper plot progression whatsoever.
* QuestionableCasting: Even by the standards of these films, Creator/KimKardashian stands out as being woefully miscast as one of the main protagonists in ''Disaster Movie''.

** Napoleon Dynamite's cameo (where he does nothing outside of repeatedly saying "gosh!" for no reason at all) is pretty glaring, since that movie was released 2 whole years before ''Date Movie''.
** In the ''Film/HarryPotter'' segment in ''Epic Movie'', the main joke is that the ''Potter'' cast is NotAllowedToGrowUp, which was never true. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are meant to age one year with every film, and although the actors did age a bit faster than they were supposed to, the discrepancy was practically nothing by the usual standards of DawsonCasting.
** The ''WesternAnimation/{{Beowulf|2007}}'' parody in ''Disaster Movie'' is especially bad because all the actor portraying the spoof of Beowulf does is yell "I am Beowulf" and get naked. Suffice to say, the real film is about a lot more than just that.

* SpecialEffectFailure: Despite costing about $20,000,000, a primary criticism of the films is the shoddy SFX, compared to films like ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'' (which cost a fifth of the budget). Ironically, their regular lead special effects artist up until ''Meet the Spartans'' was Mark Rappaport, a man who made a living doing low-budget special effects for Creator/FullMoonFeatures that were usually among the best parts of their films.
** This is especially visible in ''Disaster Movie'':
*** The nightmarish and stiff Chipmunk puppets and animatronics used for the [[WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda Po]] parody are standouts in an already ugly-looking film.
*** It's obvious they just used some sort of distortion effect to crush the Film/IronMan, [[Film/TheDarkKnight Batman]] and [[Film/TheIncredibleHulk2008 Hulk]] parodies under falling cows. Said cows also look like wooden sculptures.
*** The Hulk parody is clearly wearing a pair of green-painted underwear when his shorts rip off.
*** The Iron Man parody looks like he's wearing a store-bought Halloween costume, with his shoulder armor coming close to blowing off in the wind, and the parts around the neck and arms being thrown together with some cheap fabric. Even more bizarrely, the make-up and costume of the [[Film/Hellboy2004 Hellboy]] parody who shows up afterwards are actually quite decent by this movie's standards.
** ''Meet the Spartans'' has the terrifying [[WesternAnimation/ShrekTheThird baby ogre]] and Leonidas baby puppets[[note]]made even more jarring by showing the audience a realistic-looking baby between the two.[[/note]] and the "[[PeopleInRubberSuits obviously a midget]]" [[WesternAnimation/HappyFeet penguin]] at the beginning. "Xerxestron" is also pretty hokey looking in and of itself.
** The scene involving Mystique shapeshifting in ''Epic Movie'' is rather poorly done. The [[BreastExpansion bigger breasts and larger ass]] are accomplished via air bladders under Carmen Electra's Mystique outfit (an actually pretty decent costume) and it's a very bad effect. Her eye color also randomly changes throughout the scene, with her eyes switching from being Carmen Electra's normal blue eyes to completely yellow and dotted eyes (She did shapeshift it, but the color keeps changing during cuts). And Mystique's transformation into [[FanDisservice an older fat woman]] (who is a completely different actress) doesn't even show the transformation. After Carmen Electra as Mystique starts shaking her arms, it just cuts to a shot of Peter staring up [[ChubbyChaser drooling at the sight of her flapping her flabby arms]] and then cuts to the fatter actress. When he also finally gets to his breaking point and yells for her to start having sex with him, it cuts directly from a shot of her flapping her arms to a shot of her arms just at her side, without her even putting her arms down. And for one last fail, the moment it cuts from the close up shot of Peter groping her to her falling down and making out with him, the drool disappears. Also, any closeups of her butt make it clear she's wearing tights.

** Creator/AlysonHannigan, like Creator/JoshMeyers, has been widely agreed to be one of the few good things in ''Film/DateMovie''.
** Similarly, Creator/MaiaraWalsh in ''The Starving Games'' absolutely brings her A game and shows total dedication to the material. With better material, it could have been a breakout performance.

** As a follow-up, considering Peter's status as an orphan who never received much love, neither from his school nor through the love of any parents, it's been suggested that Peter may have a slight OedipusComplex, wanting to have sex with someone resembling a mother or grandmother figure, [[BeautyInversion even if it means it being a fat flabby grandma version of his crush.]] Although, this would make one wonder why he wouldn't go for a [[StacysMom MILF type body,]] but as stated, he may not have known the difference, [[ChubbyChaser or just had specific likings.]] It's also possible that he had faint memories of his mother he wanted Mystique to replicate, and it just turned out that his mother wasn't the most attractive woman out there...

* GrowingTheBeard: Relatively speaking. Their work became more sporadic, and their final film was in 2015. While still ''very'' heavily panned, many noted that their later films were at least attempting to more accurately satirize the films they're referencing and not cram as many random bits of pop culture in as possible.

* WTHCastingAgency: Even by the standards of these films, Creator/KimKardashian stands out as being woefully miscast as one of the main protagonists in ''Disaster Movie''.

* GrowingTheBeard: Relatively speaking. Their work became more sporadic, and their final film was in 2015. While still ''very'' heavily panned, many noted that the filmmakers were at least attempting to more accurately satirize the films they're referencing and not cram as many random bits of pop culture in as possible.

* GrowingTheBeard: Relatively speaking. Their work became more sporadic, and they haven’t made any films since 2015. While still ''very'' heavily panned, many have noted that the filmmakers are at least now attempting to more accurately satirize the films they're referencing and not cram as many random bits of pop culture in as possible.

* RetroactiveRecognition: One from behind the camera rather then in front. You might notice in the credits that one of the producers for their films was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Safran Peter Safran]], who'd go on the help produce many Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse movies and the Film/TheConjuringUniverse.

* RetroactiveRecognition: One from behind the camera rather then in front. One of the producers for the film was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Safran#Film_career Peter Safran]], who'd go on the help produce many Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse movies and Film/TheConjuringUniverse.

* BetterThanCanon: Many have stated, somewhat humorously, that they believe Carmen Electra's Mystique costume and makeup in ''Epic Movie'', despite not being perfect, looks better than Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique costume and makeup in the prequel to the original X-Men trilogy the film parodies, ''Film/DarkPhoenix''.

* AcceptableTargets:
** Everyone, but particularly homosexuals, people with dwarfism, and fat women.
** A meta-example in the movies themselves, which are this for pretty much the whole Internet.