History YMMV / TwentyOne

* HilariousInHindsight: Lots of ''VideoGame/PlayerunknownsBattlegrounds'' fans react to the "winner winner, chicken dinner" scene by saying "oh, ''that's'' where that saying came from!"

* NeverLiveItDown: Became synonymous with the quiz show scandals when they were exposed in the late 1950s. As a result, the major networks were saddled with new laws enforced by Standards and Practices, many of which are still in effect today.

* FanNickname: See how many people remember Choi as anything besides the 'Klepto Guy'.

* MisBlamed: The allegations of quiz show rigging in the late 50s were sparked by investigations into ''Series/{{Dotto}}'', not this show.
* NeverLiveItDown: Became synonymous with the quiz show scandals when they were exposed in the late 1950s. Also responsible for all three networks being saddled with laws enforced by Standards and Practices, many of which are still in effect today.

* UnfortunateImplications: The movie is notorious for its whitewashing of the real-life Asian MIT students. One such articles detailing it is [[https://thetech.com/2008/04/01/21casting-v128-n15 here]], with sites including "boycott21.com" popping up in the aftermath of the controversy.

* CriticalResearchFailure: Likely to avoid actual card counters spawning out of the woodwork, the film's version of counting is more than a little impossible in real life.

* MisBlamed: The allegations of quiz show rigging in the late 50s were sparked by investigations into ''Series/{{Dotto}}'', not this show.

* InternetBackdraft: Sites including "boycott21.com" popped up in the aftermath of the whitewash casting controversy.

* TheWoobie: Ben. He starts the film trapped in a lowpaying job and crap lifestyle, gets a taste of the high life only to have it knocked from under him in the most brutal fashion, has the money he saved for college stolen by his mentor, gets beaten up and robbed by Cole, isolates his friends and gets kicked off a project He spent a year working on, and ends the film without any benefit from his efforts. Though he at least seems to get into Harvard so maybe the ending threw the old dog a bone.
** Considering his goal from the get-go is to get into Harvard, and most of the first act centers around him learning about the scheme and talking about how he's only joining to get enough money to afford a Harvard degree, it isn't really "Throwing the dog a bone" so much as it is the solution to the actual conflict of the film.

* FridgeLogic: The movie portrays card counting as extremely difficult, requiring top students from MIT. But if you've the attention span to sit through the movie you can learn just about everything you NEED to know to start counting cards. Ben Campbell seems to be studying day and night for at least a few weeks to learn what you can get the gist of in about 15-30 minutes. Also, if Ben Campbell is so smart and is reading books about card counting how come he doesn't know the dangers?
** As I understood it, most of his studying time was to understand and perfect the team's convoluted communication system.
** The principle is indeed easy to understand, but try doing this without making mistakes for several hours. This is a job for people GoodWithNumbers.
** True, but in the case of card counting being GoodWithNumbers does not amount to complex math, just very rigorous and quick mental arithmetic. Mind you, some of the more advanced techniques that were used by the real MIT team (such as ace tracking) are a lot more complex than the basic high-low running count.
** The techniques alone in the film are a severely watered-down version of how it should be carried out. If you try to do it exactly the way it was done in the film, you '''will''' lose money.

* InternetBackdraft: Sites including "boycott21.com" popped up in the aftermath of the "whitewash casting" controversy.

[[AC:Film]]

** True, but in the case of card counting being GoodWithNumbers does not amount to complex math, just very rigorous and quick mental arithmatic. Mind you, some of the more advanced techniques that were used by the real MIT team (such as ace tracking) are a lot more complex than the basic high-low running count

* TheWoobie: Ben. He starts the film trapped in a lowpaying job and crap lifestyle, gets a taste of the high life only to have it knocked from under him in the most brutal fashion, has the money he saved for college stolen by his mentor, gets beaten up and robbed by Cole, isolates his friends and gets kicked off a project He spent a year working on, and ends the film without any benefit from his efforts. Though He at least seems to get into Harvard so maybe the ending threw the old dog a bone.

** The techniques alone in the film are a severely watered-down version of how it should be carried out. If you tried to do it exactly the way it was done in the film, you '''will''' lose money.

* Darthwiki/WallBanger: See above. WHY DID THEY KEEP GOING TO THE SAME FRIGGIN' CASINO?
** [[FridgeLogic It was one of the only ones]] that didn't have facial recognition technology installed in their security cameras. By the end of the film, it was the ''only'' one, and even that one will have it soon, explaining why Professor Spacey is willing to go for the last big score in the one casino in Vegas with a guard holding a grudge against him.