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4[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_the_gods_must_be_crazy36129.png]]
5[-[[caption-width-right:250:Modern society in a nutshell (or rather bottle): weird, repulsive and mad.]]-]
6
7''The Gods Must Be Crazy!'' is a classic low budget film from South Africa from the 1980s directed by Jamie Uys (''Film/AnimalsAreBeautifulPeople'').
8
9Once upon a time, not long ago, there was [[NobleSavage a tribe of Bushmen]] in the Kalahari Desert who lived in harmony with each other and with the harsh environment. Then, one day, an empty Coca-Cola bottle (the classic heavy glass style) falls from the sky. We, the viewers, can see it came from an airplane, but as far as the tribe is concerned, it came from the gods.
10
11The Coca-Cola bottle is very useful as an improvised, multi-purpose tool. However, there is only one, which inevitably leads to conflict; and since it is harder than anything that can naturally be found in the Kalahari Desert, someone gets hurt. For the sake of the harmony of the tribe, one of their members, Xi, is tasked with dropping it off the edge of the earth.
12
13We cut to a modern South African city to establish some "tribal" habits of the "civilized" people in the film (TranslationConvention is not necessary as most South Africans can speak English while Xi and the other bushmen are unfamiliar with the language). A couple of these city-inhabitants set out on their own quests, and they inevitably cross paths with Xi. [[HilarityEnsues Hilarity (genuinely) Ensues.]]
14
15The film was an instant hit (despite being low budget) and was a StarMakingRole for N!xau (who played Xi, himself being a real bushman). The second film, simply titled ''The Gods Must Be Crazy II'', was more or less as good as the first, if a bit [[StrictlyFormula too similar]].
16
17N!xau's popularity had him being cast in a series of comedies made by a Hong Kong company in which, rather than being called Xi Xo, he goes by his real name. Although never intended to be sequels to the original film (as the titles and plots of the films were entirely different), they were eventually released under "The gods must be crazy", added with a sequel number. The original Chinese title of the fifth film even translates to "The Gods must be funny in China" as a nod to the original film. [[DenserAndWackier Let's just say that these films were quite different from the original ones]]:
18
19''Crazy Safari'' featured Xi helping some Chinese people who were transporting a Chinese mummy/vampire when their plane crashed. It ends with the [[CoolVersusAwesome Chinese Zombie fighting an African voodoo zombie]].
20
21''Crazy Hong Kong'' takes the FishOutOfWater concept up to eleven by having Xi get stranded in modern urban Hong Kong and get into various hilarious situations.
22
23''The Gods Must Be Funny in China''. N!xau now lives in a small village in China, often giving lessons about his native country. He also learned to fully speak Chinese (in reality he never did and his voice was simply overdubbed by a Chinese actor) and communicate with them. A sports promoter notices how fast he can run and manages to persuade him to enter a marathon. HilarityEnsues as he and his team get lost during the race and in the meantime save pandas from mad poachers.
24
25!!Tropes present in this film:
26* OneDimensionalThinking: When Ann is being chased by the rhino, she runs in a straight line until she hits a tree and climbs it.
27* TheAce: Jack Hind to Steyn. He's got his own CoolCar!
28* AffablyEvil: The soldiers in the second film, and the assistant poacher, though he is more of a HarmlessVillain.
29* AfricanTerrorists: Sam Boga and his men.
30* TheAllegedCar: The Land Rover in the first film, which is such a troublesome vehicle that the characters actually nickname it "TheAntichrist" or "Son of Malakka" for Africans: it takes multiple people and a horse to get it started, one of the doors is permanently stuck and needs to be lifted off its hinges to open it, the handbrake is broken and its horn has a tendency to stick. The plane in the second film becomes its spiritual successor.
31* AlcoholIsGasoline: Early on in ''2'', the bushplane's engine starts sputtering in midair. The pilot grabs a bottle of booze (to the passenger's horror) and proceeds to refuel the plane in flight.
32* AnimalReactionShot: Naturally, being in Africa, there are tons of animals that fill the role. Subverted in the second movie, where the animals' lack of reaction is used as a clue that they've never met humans.
33* AppleOfDiscord: The Coke bottle has a variety of uses in the African village into which it's thrown. Eventually, it causes people to start fighting over who gets to use it, to the point the villagers call it "the evil thing" when they realize what it's doing to them. Xi is tasked with getting rid of it after no one can agree on what else can be done.
34* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: The filmmakers didn't care what Nǃxau actually said during his scenes, since most of the audience wouldn't understand him anyway. The narrator always explains what Xi is supposed to be saying. Nǃxau said whatever he wanted, which often wasn't in character.
35* BadassBystander: One of the guerrillas who attacks the president is knocked unconscious by a potted plant a female office worker throws at him.
36* BananaPeel: One guerrilla manages to slip on an entire bunch.
37* BigBad: All five films. The AfricanTerrorists in the first film, the poachers/ivory dealers in the second, diamond thieves in the third, smugglers in the fourth and panda thieves in the fifth and last film.
38* BilingualBonus: Nǃxau was never given anything specific to say, so he made up his own lines, often mocking the artificiality of the scene he's in. The documentary ''N!ai, the Story of a !Kung Woman'' shows the final homecoming scene with subtitles for Nǃxau's words. Although the scene is supposed to play out like a triumphant return, Nǃxau is chastising the tribe for not rushing out to greet him immediately, as they would normally do if the scene were real.
39* BloodlessCarnage: The president of Burani and his cabinet get shot up by terrorists, a few of those terrorists are shot by police. Not a single drop of blood or a gunshot wound is shown, making them basically simply drop dead for no reason.
40* {{Bulungi}}: Burani, the country whose cabinet gets shot up by Sam Boga's men. It apparently borders UsefulNotes/{{Botswana}}.
41* CannotTalkToWomen: Andrew Steyn.
42* CanonDiscontinuity: Boet Troskie and Jamie Uys considered the three spin-off films - ''Crazy Safari'', ''Crazy Hong Kong'' and ''The Gods Must Be Funny in China'' - not canon to the original two at all. The fact that these rarely got reprinted as well likely solidifies it.
43* CatchPhrase
44** Ai yai yai yai yai.
45** I noticed.
46** I don't want to talk about it.
47** Yes, boss?
48%%* ChineseVampire: The main plot of the third film.
49* ClingyMacGuffin: The Coke bottle. The main reason why Xi decides to toss it off the edge of the world is because the damned thing refuses to leave his side until that point.
50* ComedicUnderwearExposure: In the second movie, Ann's dress gets lifted up a couple of times as she's partially fallen out of the plane and is running on the ground to keep up with its movement.
51* CoolCar: The car camouflaged as a bush in the second movie.
52** Hind's car in the first film as well.
53* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Done various times. One notable example involves when Xi shoots the goat. He erroneously believes it is food to eat, but fails to realize that this is the shepherd's goat. He cordially greets the angry shepherd, assuming that he is to share the feast. More hilarious confusion entails, but this eventually becomes [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint Dramatically Missing the Point]] as [[spoiler:Xi gets shot in the leg and arrested for this confusion.]]
54* CultureClash: One of the central themes of the movie. A lot of situations both comedic and serious happen to Xi because of this.
55%%* DamselOutOfDistress: Kate and Dr. Ann Taylor
56* DecoyProtagonist: Jack in the second movie is a charming pilot who tries to romance a visitor from the city and invites her on a flight with him. He departs the story when the vet (and pilot) they're visiting gets an emergency call and the plane doesn't have room for all three of them, forcing Jack to stay behind since it would be unfair to leave Ann out there alone.
57* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Xi considers the attractive heroine to be the "ugliest person he has ever seen": he thinks she's as pale as a corpse, that her hair is long and stringy like an old man's and that since she's so tall, she must require tons of food.
58* DisguisedInDrag: [[spoiler:Xi pretends to be one of the hostages so he can get close enough to tranquilize the terrorists. More justified than you would think, as Xi is quite small and slender.]]
59* DudeWheresMyReward: Steyn, after Hind takes the credit for rescuing the schoolchildren. [[spoiler: Subverted in that Kate knows the real truth and properly rewards Steyn.]]
60* FastForwardGag: Quite a few scenes (especially chases) are overcranked, making the wild gestures of everybody look even more cartoony.
61* GeniusDitz: Andrew Steyn: he turns into a complete klutz in the presence of a woman, but he's the one who figures out that the large group of people walking below are hostages and figures out a way to disable them by having Xi disguise himself as one of the children and put the terrorists to sleep with a miniature bow laced with a tranquilizer.
62* GoBackToTheSource: After the Coke bottle lands in the village, the residents decide that it has brought grief and misery to them, so Xi volunteers to take it to the end of the earth, located at [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blyde_River_Canyon_Nature_Reserve#God.27s_Window "God's Window"]], in Blyde River Canyon Nature Preserve.
63* HadTheSillyThingInReverse: During the climax, Xi attempts to drive the Land Rover, but, due to inexperience, winds up putting it in reverse. Rather than attempt to correct his mistake, he simply stands on the hood and steers it backwards.
64* HighAltitudeInterrogation: {{Subverted}} twice. The terrorist being interrogated spills the beans only after being pushed to his death--actually a joke as the helicopter hasn't even taken off yet, but he talks because the interrogator says that the ''next'' time they ask, he'll be getting dropped from higher up.
65* HilarityEnsues: The main drive of all of the films in the series, starting with seeing what happens when some random litterbug tosses a Coke bottle in the middle of the African savannah.
66* HurtFootHop: While trying to get breakfast going over the morning campfire, Dr. Steyn steps on a hot coal with bare feet and twirls in place hopping and clutching his hurt foot. A confused Kate returns and asks what the hell he's doing:
67-->'''Steyn:''' ...I'm making coffee.
68* HyperlinkStory: Both films, with Xi's story serving as the backbone each time.
69* ICallItVera: The Antichrist, a most temperamental offroad vehicle. Subverted in that it's not good affections that earned it the name.
70* IdiosyncraticCulturalGesture: When a rhino stomps out their campfire, Steyn tries to Kate explain that this is a thing that happens when she accuses him of doing it. He even asks some local tribesmen, but he forgot that the tribe in question shake their head for "yes" and nod for "no", meaning that Kate finds him even less credulous, despite the fact that the tribesmen are actually confirming his account of things.
71* IgnoreTheFanservice: Xi runs into Kate in her underwear, but the narrator helpfully tells us that he finds her to be the ugliest woman he's ever seen.
72* LetsGetDangerous: Andrew Steyn becomes quite a Badass to help [[spoiler:save Kate and the village children]].
73* LitteringIsNoBigDeal: {{Averted}}. Someone's inconsiderate disposal of a Coke bottle starts the whole plot in motion.
74* LittleHeroBigWar: There's a border conflict happening in the second movie's backdrop, which is represented by two isolated enemy soldiers trying to take each other prisoner before they end up helping Xi rescue his children.
75* MacGyvering: The bushmen actually make some pretty good use of the Coke bottle as a tool for their regular activities. The main problem then becomes that they only have the one bottle.
76* MadGod: The view that the Bushmen take after the Coke bottle from the sky causes so much trouble. Goes hand-in-hand with ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
77* MeaningfulName: Jack ''Hind'', Steyn's "jackass" friend, who constantly mocks Steyn at the presence of a third person, thinks of nothing but saving his own hide at the first sign of danger, and takes credit for Steyn's brave actions at the end.
78%%* MinionWithAnFInEvil: Brenner in the second movie.
79* MoodWhiplash:
80** In an otherwise cute and slapsticky film, there's a scene where guerrillas slaughter a roomful of people with machine gun fire (right after they kick the doors open and have them comically rebound off the walls and slam shut in their faces again).
81** A hilarious, slapstick battle between the guerrillas and a helicopter with a few MauveShirt characters onboard takes a darker tone when the guerrillas finally manage to properly load their rocket launcher and blow the helicopter out of the sky.
82* MsFanservice: Ann Taylor considering how many times [[PantyShot her underwear is shown]].
83* {{Narrator}}: Done ''very'' properly in that only the scenes which focus on Xi have narration. It, of course, adds to the hilarity.
84* NationalGeographicNudity: The Bushmen wear very little clothing (naturally, as they don't need it) and Xi is surprised when he sees a woman wearing a dress for the first time. He even points out how impractical it is in the African climate.
85* NobleSavage: There is a reason why Xi was chosen to dispose of the bottle after all. Each sequel only serves to make him more intelligent.
86* NoManShouldHaveThisPower: The conclusion the Bushmen draw about the Coke bottle. It's extremely useful, but also one-of-a-kind. This is a totally new problem since in their experience there is no such thing as a unique object in their world. Everything the bushmen use is either available in abundance or can be made so ownership isn't a concept.
87* NoodleIncident: An in-universe example, as the audience sees what happens with the rhinoceros, but neither of the characters involved tell the whole story to anyone else.
88%%* OhCrap: One of the catch phrases is said when something is about to break loose.
89%%* OfThePeople
90* OnlyAFleshWound: The President and several cabinet members are still seen sitting in their offices with a few bandages giving orders immediately after Boga's assassination attempt, and a wounded terrorist prisoner isn't hurt badly enough to keep him from being dragged along with the pursuit force without showing any ill effects.
91* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Especially when they're Chinese vampire/mummy hybrids!
92* OurZombiesAreDifferent: The third film gives us an African zombie and a towering one at that.
93* OutsideContextProblem: The Coke bottle for the bushmen; white society in general for Xi.
94* PetTheDog: Terrorist leader Sam Boga acknowledging Kate's point and demanding that the army leave out food and water for the schoolchildren he's taken hostage twice as often as his initial demand is a standard case of PragmaticVillainy, but also making sure the military commanders are informed that he made a mistake in failing to plan ahead was somewhat decent of him, since he certainly didn't have to.
95* ProductPlacement: One has to wonder whether Coca-Cola paid any money to have their product so prominently displayed, yet as a representation of Western culture's negative impact on indigenous people.
96* TheQuest: Find the end of the world, throw the bottle off of it. [[spoiler:Ultimately, Xi finds himself on a cliff far higher than he's probably ever stood in his life, above the clouds[[note]]It's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blyde_River_Canyon_Nature_Reserve#God.27s_Window "God's Window"]], a popular vantage point overlooking the Blyde River Canyon Nature reserve[[/note]]. Understandably, he decides he's there, chucks the bottle off and goes home.]]
97* RhinoRampage: Subverted. They're pretty calm when they do their civic duty of stamping out fires.
98* RunningGag: The two guys playing cards in the guerrilla gang. It becomes a ChekhovsGun when they sneak off to keep playing, and avoid being tranquilized with the rest of the group, leading to trouble.
99* ScaryBlackMan: A tall African zombie.
100* SceneryPorn: The African savannah, the Chinese wilderness, and other places are presented in all of their majesty as all kinds of funny hell are breaking loose. The finale especially indulges in this, [[spoiler:as Xi stands on God's Window, a cliff so high up that there are ''clouds'' beneath him. Naturally, he decides this ''has'' to count as "the end of the world".]]
101* {{Shout Out}}s:
102** To Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail.
103--> '''Radio''': The president, who miraculously survived the hail of bullets with only a flesh wound, will be addressing the nation in a few moments.
104* SmallRoleBigImpact: The airplane pilot that tossed the empty Coke bottle out of his plane, starting the entire plot of the film.
105* SociallyAwkwardHero: Andrew Steyn around women. Many of the comedic moments in the film are when he's around Kate.
106* SoftGlass: Incredibly averted. To the Bushmen, the glass bottle is the hardest material they've ever discovered. It didn't even break when dropped out of an airplane (admittedly, it landed in a patch of soft sand).
107* StraightMan: Mpudi. Also serves as the bridge of communication between Xi and modern culture.
108* SuperPersistentPredator: The honey badger in the second film.
109%%* ThankYourPrey
110* ThoseTwoGuys: The Master and his cowardly assistant in the third film.
111* TranquillizerDart: A {{lampshaded}} subversion explicitly explains that tranquilizer darts don't take effect immediately. That's why they are rigged to be so easily removed that the victim doesn't know they've been tranqed (they feel only the sting, that can be attributed to insects).
112* UnderCrank: The film's slapstick comedy makes thorough use of the technique, especially seen when the truck accidentally takes two young kids.
113* TheUnpronounceable: The Bushmen's language, with its use of various clicks, is virtually unpronounceable to anyone else except Mpudi (who learned it when he was very young, and could pick it up more easily). And of course, the ''Bushmen'' (who have never even been exposed to the concept of a different language) think this of every other language.
114--> '''Narrator:''' The hairy one could speak.
115* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Whoever decided it was a good idea to toss a Coke bottle out the window of their plane. Seriously, we never find out anything about this litterbug.
116* WorthlessYellowRocks: In the first film, after Xi immobilizes the terrorists with a blow-dart gun, with Kate and the children being rescued afterwards, Steyn attempts to give Xi money, with his assistant Mpudi trying in vain to tell him that Xi's tribe has no concept of money nor use for it; Steyn urges Xi to take the money because it's the law. After Xi reluctantly accepts the money and leaves, he just throws it away afterwards.

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