Line #1 Film/DinnerForSchmucks


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5	[[quoteright:305:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dinner_for_schmucks.jpeg]]
6	[[caption-width-right:305:Steve Carell making Paul Rudd watch this movie.]]
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8	''Dinner for Schmucks'' is a 2010 [[ForeignRemake American remake]] of the French comedy ''Film/TheDinnerGame'', directed by Jay Roach and starring Creator/SteveCarell and Creator/PaulRudd.
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10	Tim (Rudd) is a member of a highly competitive corporation, filled with [[BadBoss sadistic bosses]], [[CorruptCorporateExecutive cutthroat coworkers]], [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking and]] [[SassySecretary devoted secretaries]]. He works day in, day out, to make enough money to support his girlfriend Julie (Stéphanie Szostak), whom he loves dearly and desperately wants to make his fiancée. One day a fellow coworker is fired, and immediately people begin to discuss who will take his job. Later, in a presentation, Tim makes a daring move to get respect from his bosses, much to the horror of his coworkers. Surprisingly, it goes incredibly well. They tell him that he's in line for a promotion, if he attends a [[FromACertainPointOfView "dinner for winners"]], an annual event to find the biggest idiot for comedic purposes.
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12	Meanwhile, Julie has landed a curator deal with an eccentric artist named Kieran (Creator/JemaineClement). He takes that opportunity to propose, hoping she'll say yes. She turns him down, as it turns out she had done multiple times before. The conversation turns to Tim's potential promotion and, in extension, to the actual "dinner for idiots." She is not very happy with the idea of the dinner, however. He [[BlatantLies agrees not to do it.]] Later on, he meets Barry (Carell), a taxidermist who loves to make mice dioramas. Tim has found his idiot. Despite agreeing not to do it, Tim decides to take Barry with him to the dinner.
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14	Before that, though, he takes him to his apartment, where Barry notices Darla (Creator/LucyPunch) [=IMing=] him. Assuming that Tim is involved with Darla in some way, Barry makes some flirtatious replies in an attempt to be helpful. Unfortunately, it turns out that Darla is really Tim's PsychoExGirlfriend doubling as a StalkerWithACrush, who Tim has been trying to get rid of for quite a while. Meanwhile, Kieran is becoming... ''fond'' of Julie as Tim is trying to hide the fact that he's not only going against his agreement with her to not go to the dinner, he's taking Barry as his idiot as well. Along the way, numerous mishaps happen. It also features a blatant ripoff of Aldous Snow.
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17	!! ''Dinner for Schmucks'' provides examples of the following tropes:
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19	* AbhorrentAdmirer: Darla has stalked Tim ever since they hooked up at a party way before he even met Julie.
20	* AndNowYouMustMarryMe: In an attempt to be helpful, Barry not only brings Darla to Tim's lunch date with the Muellers as "Julie," he also brings the engagement ring Tim bought for Julie. Tim ends up being put on the spot to propose to Darla as Julie.
21	* AnimalMotif: A lot of Kieran's art has this. Also, Barry has a mouse motif, and actually [[AstonishinglyAppropriateAppearance looks a little like a mouse himself.]]
22	* AssumedWin: When the trophy is about to handed out, the blind swordsman starts to get up to accept it before it is [[spoiler:given to Barry.]]
23	* BeamMeUpScotty: In-universe example. Barry misremembers the lyrics to Music/JohnLennon's "Imagine" as "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not."
24	-->'''Tim:''' ...the only one.
25	-->'''Barry:''' The only what?
26	* BeardOfEvil: Therman Murch, played by Creator/ZachGalifianakis, has an impressive beard, and he's an abusive boss who seduced Barry's wife from him.
27	* BettyAndVeronica: With Julie as Archie, Tim as Betty (been her boyfriend for a long time, normal, wants to marry her), and Kieran as Veronica (just met her, eccentric, mainly interested in her as a paramour).
28	* BlindWeaponmaster: One of the schmucks fancies himself a blind MasterSwordsman. He isn't.
29	%%* CaptainObvious: Barry.
30	* CloudCuckooLander: Barry again. Kieran too. As well as any eccentric character such as Therman, Darla and the other eccentric dinner guests.
31	* ComicallyMissingThePoint: When Tim finally explains to Barry what the dinner is actually for, Barry mistakes his YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre speech to him as telling him to that he's failed at being the biggest loser and winning the contest.
32	%%* CrackOhMyBack
33	* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: Darla's behavior would have caused outrage both in-universe and out if the sexes had been switched.
34	* EveryoneHatesMimes: When his co-workers are explaining to Tim that he should bring a stupid person to the dinner, one of them warns, "No mimes; it's a cliché"
35	* EveryoneLooksSexierIfFrench: Played with by Tim's girlfriend Julie. She's French, and she's certainly beautiful, but she's not as sexualised as Darla.
36	* FeatheredFiend: Subverted by Lorenzo the vulture. He's implied to have pecked his owner repeatedly, and he makes off with Mr. Mueller's finger, but he's portrayed in a sympathetic light like his owner, and Tim and Barry try to convince the corrupt executives not to kill him.
37	%%* FeeFiFauxPas
38	* {{Fingore}}: Courtesy of the blind swordsman. Then the vulture steals it.
39	* GratuitousGerman: Obviously, the Swiss version of "dinner for idiots" is "dinner for unterschlagen".[[note]]"dinner for embezzle", but whatever.[[/note]]
40	* GrievousBottleyHarm: Darla starts throwing bottles at Barry in Tim's apartment, breaking two of them. Barry catches one bottle, mimes drinking from it, and then smashes it afterwards, not getting that Darla might be trying to kill him.
41	%%* HonorBeforeReason
42	* HypocriticalHumor: After furiously bashing Tim's car with a lamp upon learning that he already had a girlfriend, Darla coldly tells him, "You're not a very nice man, Tim."
43	* ICallHimMisterHappy: Therman, although no one was supposed to know about it.
44	%%* ICanExplain
45	* InnocentInaccurate: When Darla attempts to seduce Barry, Barry has EntendreFailure. Also, it turns out that his ex-wife divorced him because he not only couldn't find her clitoris, he didn't even know what a clitoris ''was''.
46	* IntimidatingRevenueService: Barry averts this, being a friendly tax man, but his boss Therman Murch plays it straight, for Barry at least, by being a FatBastard MeanBoss who loves mind-controlling Barry into agreeing to let him "eat (Barry's) pudding"- in other words, have sex with Barry's ex-wife.
47	* {{Jerkass}}:
48	** Pretty much all of the hosts of the dinner, but Caldwell takes the cake.
49	** Darla is a criminally insane woman who violently assaults two men and destroys private property.
50	%%* KarmaHoudini: ''Darla''.
51	* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler:Thanks to him losing his "mind-duel" with Barry, we see Therman's later is stuck in a mental hospital, and Fender's company goes under, with Forbes Magazine taunting him as "Wall Street's Biggest Loser."]]
52	%%* LargeHam: Therman.
53	%%* TheLastDJ
54	* LiteralMinded: Barry, multiple times. One example is when Darla starts saying she is a naughty schoolgirl that needs to be spanked, Barry starts going on about how she is too old to be in school and how he is not qualified to be a teacher rather than getting the obvious sexual innuendo.
55	* LoonyFriendsImproveYourPersonality: Tim after hanging around with Barry.
56	* MadArtist: Kieran Vollard borders on this.
57	* MasterSwordsman: Parodied with the blind fencer.
58	* {{Metaphorgotten}}: "Maybe I'm just a goat halfway through eating himself." "...What were we talking about again?"
59	* NeverTrustATrailer: The trailer makes it look like the dinner takes up most of the film, when it actually happens within the last half-hour.
60	%%* NiceGuy: Barry.
61	%%* NotWhatItLooksLike
62	* PairTheSpares: Darla and Barry end up together in the end.
63	* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: Barry's password to his phone messages is P-A-S-S-W-O-R-D.
64	%%* PrankDate: Prank Dinner: Type 3.
65	* ThePreciousPreciousCar: Being a rich guy, Tim can afford one of these, but he doesn't act as if it's anything too special.
66	* PsychoExGirlfriend: Darla, who doubles as this and a StalkerWithACrush.
67	%%* RightBehindMe
68	* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: Tim [[spoiler:exposes the real theme of the dinners, even though it means he'll lose his lucrative job]].
69	* TaxidermyIsCreepy: Averted, in that Barry's dioramas using stuffed mice are actually sweet and artistic. (Played straight in real life: the artists who created the dioramas for the film [[http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/25/entertainment/la-ca-workinghollywood-20100725 had to avoid using real mice]] had because they looked creepy).
70	* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: In the movie, the appearance of [[spoiler:Therman as the final "winner" is clearly set up as a surprise for the audience. Too bad every single trailer for the movie featured several clips of him and Barry mind dueling around the guests!]]
71	* UnusualEuphemism: Tim and Jullie "curate" on their honeymoon. Several times.
72	* WelcomeToMyWorld: Parodied. The blind swordsman tries to black out the room but only turns off a lamp. Played straight later, when Jullie experiences the weirdness that circles Barry.
73	* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: A rather unique version, each of the character's fates are told through one of Barry's taxidermied mice dioramas.
74	* WhenLifeGivesYouLemons:
75	-->'''Barry''': When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Unless you don't have any water or sugar. And then you just eat the lemons, and the rind will give you diarrhea.
76	* WhosLaughingNow: [[spoiler:When Barry reveals Fender's company has gone under in the Epilogue (through a diorama of a mouse in the burnt ruins of a mansion), and in [[TheStinger a post-credits scene]], Fender is named "Wall Street's Biggest Loser" by Forbes Magazine. Barry is enjoying the reversal of fortune.]]
77	* WorldOfHam: Not just Barry, Therman and the rest of the eccentric dinner guests, but also [[PsychoExGirlfriend Darla]] and Kieran.
78	%%* {{Yandere}}: Darla.

Context Film / DinnerForSchmucks