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1* AdaptationDisplacement: Mentioning ''Film/TheBluesBrothers'' is more likely to get some people to think of the film than the ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' skits it's based on.
2* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Elwood Blues: a good man who occasionally gets in the way of the law but is willing to try so hard to save his orphanage... or a destructive psychopath who should spend the rest of his life in jail for reckless behavior, especially regarding his driving through the mall, which no doubt resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of damage as well as endangering the lives of everyone in the mall. RuleOfFunny and/or RuleOfCool is the only reason Elwood gets away with the first. Plus, he's on a mission from God. Divine intervention, mofos!
3* AluminumChristmasTrees: Assuming it was a really high-end microphone, Elwood's swapping the original Bluesmobile for one was not automatically a bad deal since microphones were expensive at the time.
4* AngstWhatAngst: The film ends with the entire band in prison. No one seems to mind.
5* DeadHorseGenre:
6** The brothers' booking agent Sline explains that rhythm and blues is past its prime and [[CondemnedByHistory Disco is in vogue]].
7** Music/CabCalloway's "Minnie the Moocher" was nearly a victim to this trope. When Calloway went in to record, he was under the impression that it was his recent disco version that Landis wanted, and was highly annoyed to find out they wanted him to sing it as he originally did. He presumably changed his mind when his performance of that song in the film made him a star again.
8* DiagnosedByTheAudience: A number of viewers interpret Elwood Blues as autistic. This interpretation mainly stems from his predilection for sunglasses and relatively tasteless foods (which parallel autistic hypersensitivity and, in the case of the former, avoidance of direct eye contact) and from his long, convoluted speeches (which resemble infodumping). The fact that Creator/DanAykroyd, who played Elwood and cowrote the script, is autistic further ties into this interpretation.
9* EpicRiff: Frequently. The Peter Gunn Theme is almost as associated with the Blues Brothers as it is for the original TV show.
10* EsotericHappyEnding: Jake and Elwood pay the taxes for the orphanage, but they wind up in jail and drag their innocent bandmates along with them.
11* FirstInstallmentWins: Depending on which "first" we're talking about.
12** If you're talking about the ''characters'', that started on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''. In terms of ''movies'', there's no competition between the 1980 classic and ''2000''.
13** It's also highly regarded as the singular best movie adapted from an ''SNL'' sketch, with only the first ''Film/WaynesWorld'' film being considered a suitable contender.
14* FridgeBrilliance:
15** Elwood notably gets several elements of their performance wrong at Bob's Country Bunker (calling the ''Rawhide'' theme "an old Rowdy Yates tune").[[note]]Rowdy Yates was a character on the show, not the songwriter of "Rawhide".[[/note]] Is this the creators [[CowboyBebopAtHisComputer not doing their research?]] Or is it meant to show that Elwood is out of his element at a country bar and is mostly bullshitting his way through the set? Or was Elwood getting it ''deliberately'' incorrect because they needed to get out of there?
16** Another bit of brilliance. That old beaten-up police car of theirs takes a lot more damage and punishment than any car ''ought'' to, and they are able to evade the Illinois Nazis, police, Jake's heavily-armed [[PsychoExGirlfriend pissed off ex]], etc. as well as being able to have multiple car chases with no casualties. But the car suffers CriticalExistenceFailure the ''instant'' the Blues Brothers park outside the office and are able to deliver the cash. They really ''were'' subject to divine intervention and the car falls apart because its mission to ferry the Brothers to the office was complete.
17** It is also easy to see divine intervention in another way: no innocent person is actually hurt or ''killed'' by the Blue Brothers and their high speech chases. The police chasing them [[HeroAntagonist are technically antagonists, but rightfully doing their jobs and arresting two felons]]. Hell, the parole officer genuinely likes the Blues Brothers and even lets them do a performance. The Good Old Boys chase after them, but they're right to be angry at the Blues Brothers for cheating them out of a gig. The only people who (presumably) get killed are the Illinois Nazis, and they were racist scumbags whom even the ''police'' didn't particularly care for.
18* GeniusBonus: The Triple Rock Baptist Church has Hungarian roots. You can tell by the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Hungary crooked cross on top of the steeple]].
19* HarsherInHindsight:
20** [[ThoseWackyNazis The Illinois Nazis]] are introduced holding a rally because "they won their court case". While it's most likely a reference to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Party_of_America_v._Village_of_Skokie#Effect_of_the_decision this SCOTUS case]] that occurred a few years prior, it becomes more upsetting after the Supreme Court ruled that the Westboro Baptist Church's funeral pickets were protected under the First Amendment in 2011.
21** In the same scene, the brothers get past the rally and counter-protest by driving their car through the crowd. In August 2017, a white supremacist plowed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters during a rally in Charlottesville, UsefulNotes/{{Virginia}}, killing one and injuring at least 19 others.
22* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: Music/CabCalloway, Music/RayCharles, and Alan "Mr. Fabulous" Rubin all get extended scenes showcasing their comedy skills.
23* HilariousInHindsight:
24** The brothers' agent tells them that {{blues}} is a DeadHorseGenre and they should switch their act to {{disco}}. Thirty years after the film's release, blues music is still going strong, while disco remains going through periods of PopularityPolynomial.
25** When the Brothers get into the phone booth together, Jake says he needs to make a phone call. Elwood responds with "Who ya gonna call?", a question made popular by [[Film/Ghostbusters1984 a later film]] starring [[Creator/DanAykroyd his actor]].
26** The Illinois 3rd Congressional District (which has included part of Chicago since 1873) overwhelmingly votes Democratic, to the point that in 2018, no Republicans put themselves forward for the primary. This allowed a neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier named Arthur Jones to claim the Republican nomination unopposed, prompting many people to return the "I hate Illinois Nazis!" line to common use. [[FridgeHorror He still got 25.9% of the vote.]]
27* HoYay: As the [[ThoseWackyNazis Illinois Nazis]] plummet thousands of feet to their doom from an overpass, one says to the Gruppenfuhrer, "I've always loved you." The Gruppenfuhrer is not amused.
28* MemeticMutation: Turning Elwood's famous line "It's 106 miles to Chicago. We got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses." into a MadLibsCatchphrase, with varying distances, destinations, things you have a full stash of, things you have half a pack of, and clothes.
29* OneSceneWonder: Creator/FrankOz as the prison guard, Kathleen Freeman as the Penguin, Music/JamesBrown as the Preacher, Music/ArethaFranklin as the diner owner, Music/RayCharles as the owner of Ray's, and Creator/PaulReubens as the waiter at Chez Paul.
30* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: There was a platformer for the Platform/SuperNES. It has almost nothing to do with either the movies or the skit [[InNameOnly beyond the name]], controls that are poor at best, downright painful at worst, and it isn't designed too well. Oh, and it was made by Creator/TitusSoftware, who also worked on the Super NES PortingDisaster of ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersia2'', ''VideoGame/{{Carmageddon}} [[SuperTitleSixtyFourAdvance 64]]'' (another Porting Disaster), ''Series/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys'' for the Game Boy and, last but not least, ''VideoGame/{{Superman 64}}''. Not much more needs to be said about this.
31* RetroactiveRecognition:
32** Creator/PaulReubens [[note]] later known for his work as Pee-Wee Herman [[/note]] is a waiter at the Chez Paul.
33** The would-be guitar thief Ray shoots at? Argyle from ''Film/DieHard''.
34** Creator/JamesAvery is one of the dancers outside Ray's Music Exchange.
35** During the scene in the Triple Rock baptist Church, the camera lingers on a young woman in the choir, who is played by a young and uncredited Chaka Khan.
36* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The Illinois Nazis and their court case refer to an actual case, that went all the way to the US Supreme Court, of neo-Nazis wanting to hold a march through the Chicago suburb of Skokie, which had (and still has) a large Jewish population.
37* SpecialEffectsFailure: The Bluesmobile doing a ''backwards somersault'' over the Nazis' car looks about as realistic as a flying pig, especially since it would technically have to turn around in mid-air as well, but [[NarmCharm is hilarious all the same]].
38* {{Squick}}: The soiled prophylactic [[note]] a used condom [[/note]] the corrections officer fishes out of Jake's belongings with a pen.
39* ValuesResonance: The hated Illinois Nazis became relevant again in the wake of the resurgence of far-right extremism in late 2010s, such as the riots in Charlottesville, VA in 2017.

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