Line #44 Film/Waiting


1	[[quoteright:288:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Waiting_2914.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:288:[[Film/{{Clerks}} Just because they serve you, doesn't mean they like you...]] ]]
3
4	Meet Dean. Dean works as a server at a restaurant called Shenaniganz. This morning his mom [[DisappointedInYou told him]] about a guy he went to high school with who took all the same honors courses he did, and how [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter this guy just graduated with a Bachelor's in electrical engineering]]. Cue the angst.
5
6	Meet [[Creator/RyanReynolds Monty]]. Monty works [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything as a server at a restaurant called Shenaniganz]]. This morning he found out that the 17-year-old hostess, Natasha, will be turning 18 in exactly one week. Since Monty is a [[MrViceGuy proud pervert]], he proclaims that he [[RefugeInAudacity doesn't have much time left]]. But first, he has a special job today.
7
8	Meet Mitch. Today is Mitch's {{first day\|FromHell}} training [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment as a server at a restaurant called Shenaniganz]]. During the film, [[AudienceSurrogate we will follow Mitch around]] as Monty acclimates him to work at this restaurant. Which involves a lot of [[MyGodYouAreSerious frontal male nudity]]. And for some reason, [[TheVoiceless nobody will let him finish a single sentence]].
9
10	Meet Calvin, who is working a double for a girl he likes, Raddimus and Danielle, a cook and a bartender who are having relationship issues, Naomi, a waitress with SEVERE anger management issues, and Bishop, the dishwasher/therapist/historian/{{Cloudcuckoolander}}, and the other employees of Shenaniganz as they go through a DayInTheLife.
11
12	Oh, [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Dan]]. [[StupidBoss The manager.]]
13
14	''Waiting...'' is a 2005 film starring Creator/RyanReynolds, Creator/JustinLong, Creator/AnnaFaris, David Koechner, Luis Guzmán, and Chi [=McBride=] as the employees of a restaurant called Shenaniganz while they fight boredom and adulthood with their antics. The film depicts an [[TruthInTelevision only slight exaggeration]] of what working in a restaurant is like, as all restaurant employees will admit. [[InJoke Unless they have become]] [[WasOnceAMan managers]].
15
16	A direct-to-video sequel entitled ''Still Waiting...'' was made in 2009. About half the principals of the first movie returned; they lost Ryan Reynolds, Anna Faris, David Koechner, and Justin Long (apart from an uncredited cameo which he [[CreatorBacklash later admitted to being "truly embarrassed" for doing]]), but added Adam Carolla.
17	----
18	!!This film provides examples of:
19
20	* AlmightyJanitor: Bishop, the dishwasher who gives psychological advice to the rest of the staff.
21	* {{Angst}}: Of the existential sort. It drives the movie.
22	* AtomicFBomb: Technically an Atomic GD-Bomb: Naomi drops one after impatiently watching Dan fumble around trying to plate a pair of entrees.
23	* AudienceSurrogate: Mitch.
24	* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: than Dean which triggers the angst which drives his plot.
25	* BetweenMyLegs: Naomi.
26	* BitchInSheepsClothing: Naomi. Nice in public, nasty in private.
27	* CoolBigBro: Raddimus is a rather odd version of this to [[spoiler: Mitch. As a result Raddimus isn't called out in Mitch's TheReasonYouSuckSpeech,]] and Raddimus overjoyed when he realizes it was partially a BatmanGambit.
28	* CoolOldGuy: Bishop is this (well, he's older than them at least) to the rest of the staff.
29	** The elderly customer slipping into senility is this to Monty.
30	* DayInTheLife: With the exception of the party shown during the opening credits, the whole film takes place over the course of a single day, most of which is during a single dinner shift at the restaurant.
31	* DeadpanSnarker: Monty. A given, being that he's portrayed by Ryan Reynolds.
32	* EpiphanyTherapy:
33	** Averted. Calvin feels much better after Bishop walks him through a mental exercise about [[ItMakesSenseInContext peeing in a public restroom]], but Bishop then goes on to outline a therapy plan, involving repeating that exercise every night, and then slowly working him up to the stalls. Too bad Calvin isn't listening.
34	** Also averted with Naomi, who tells Bishop to "[[ShutUpKirk WASH THE FUCKING DISHES AND SHUT THE FUCK UP!]]"
35	* HairTriggerTemper: Naomi. It takes very little to piss her off. It's suggested by Monty that her anger issues are the result of working at Shenaniganz for a long time.
36	* HappyEndingOverride: In the sequel, Justin Long has a cameo at the end, wherein he reveals that [[spoiler:he came back to Shenaniganz and is now a district manager, thus rendering his happy ending from the first film meaningless.]]
37	* HateSink: Since there really is NoAntagonist apart from the misery of the waitstaff's lives, both the corporate bureaucracy and general drudgery, the "biatch" with the steak was there to put a face to it and serve as a target for their wrath.
38	* HopeSpot: Dean, desperate for a way out of his dead-end waiting job, impresses a group of businessmen enough that one gives Dean his card and invites him to apply to work for him. Dean is thrilled for a moment until he looks at the card and finds out that the business is another restaurant.
39	* IAteWhat: The "biatch" diner is given a "special" steak when she demands a new one. Remember, folks: Don't piss off the waitstaff.
40	* InsaneTrollLogic: Monty claims he is allowed to have sex with under-age girls because he wasn't there when the laws were made.
41	* IronicEcho: "You [obviously] need it more than I do." Dean first says it maliciously to a redneck, then it's said to Dean by an old classmate in a sympathetic, yet condescending way.
42	* JailBaitWait: Something that Monty does ''not'' adhere to. [[spoiler:At least until the end of the film, when he decides he'll wait until Natasha's 18th birthday before sleeping with her.]]
43	* {{Jerkass}}: One ''extremely'' bitchy customer, who learns the hard way not to insult people who handle her food.
44	* KitschyThemedRestaurant: Shenaniganz is perhaps the most complete example of this trope, seeing as its existence is the entire premise of the movie.
45	* MagicalNegro: Bishop.
46	* NaiveNewcomer: Mitch. A flashback scene also shows that Monty was once this.
47	* OneWordTitle
48	* OnlySaneEmployee: Dean, though Mitch might fit this more than him.
49	* TheOner: A spectacular example, with the camera passing through the entire restaurant during the dinner rush, taking a few stops along the way to show each cast member at work. One of the featurettes on the DVD has the crew talking about how difficult the shot was to get right.
50	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: One near the end...[[spoiler:by the otherwise [[TheVoiceless voiceless]] Mitch.]]
51	* RevengeIsADishBestServed: The restaurant staff get pissed off by a mean female client who complains about her steak and gravy, and so they give a cooking lesson on how to "fix" the order. As Dan stated, "Don't FUCK with the people that handle your food".
52	* RubeGoldbergDevice: That big collage of hodge-podge actually turns out to be one, which is demonstrated after the credits.
53	* ShoutOut:
54	** The name of the restaurant Shenaniganz is a reference to ''Film/SuperTroopers''. Shenaniganz was mentioned as a Restaurant that officer Rodney Farva liked to eat at complete with goofy shit on the wall.
55	** A young guy named Mitch being taken under a veteran's wing...perhaps a ''Film/DazedAndConfused'' reference? Or ''Film/RealGenius''?
56	* SirSwearsALot: Naomi.
57	* SnarkToSnarkCombat: In a flashback scene, Monty and his mother spend dinner hurling insults across the table at one another.
58	* SuddenlyShouting: Naomi. A lot.
59	* ThoseTwoGuys: Nicholas and Theodore, the stoner busboys.
60	* TookALevelInJerkass: One of the few main characters to return for the sequel, Calvin, is a smug, womanizing asshole the whole movie because he took Monty's and a misogynistic website's terrible advice to heart and becomes a manager for a Hooter's ripoff wing place.
61	* TruthInTelevision:
62	** The notion that if you piss off your waitstaff they will mess with your orders is all too true. A 20/20 special titled "True Confessions" has a segment about waitstaff messing with orders of customers who piss them off. With one instance of the waitstaff playing hockey with a piece of meat that was later served to a customer. The segment even makes reference to this movie.
63	** Nearly anyone who has ever worked in a restaurant can tell you that the characters in the film are very true to life, and has likely worked with a real-life equivalent to all of them.
64	** While promoting the movie, Dane Cook frequently told stories about his time in the restaurant business and some of the horrible things he himself did to food. He mentioned one horrible customer pissed him off, so when he was mixing her drink, he didn't use a straw.
65	* TwoLinesNoWaiting: No pun intended, there are many, many subplots going on. In fact, the audience can pretty much choose who the main character is and what the main plot is.
66	* TheVoiceless: [[spoiler: Mitch. Not by his choice, mind you, but he just keeps getting interrupted WesternAnimation/FoghornLeghorn style until his rant at the end of the movie.]]
67	** Although the scene he has with Raddimus shows him playing this trope willingly. Since it's generally a run down of "The Game", [[spoiler: Mitch]] is [[StunnedSilence too freaked out to talk]].
68

Context Film / Waiting