[[quoteright:220:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/step_brothers_5978.jpg]]

->''"Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream."''
-->-- actual quote from '''UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush'''

''Step Brothers'' is a 2008 movie directed by Creator/AdamMcKay, produced by Creator/JuddApatow and starring Creator/WillFerrell and Creator/JohnCReilly (who both wrote the script with [=McKay=]), where two [[TheSlacker slacker]] [[ManChild adult children]], Dale Doback (Reilly) and Brennan Huff (Ferrell), are [[BlendedFamilyDrama forced to live with each other when their parents get married]], after a FreudianSlip by Dr. Robert Doback (Richard Jenkins). HilarityEnsues as they become best friends after suffering from hilarious hijinks, committing beautiful singing and rightful child abuse (they deserve it in context).
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!!This film includes examples of:
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[[folder:A-G]]
* AbusiveOffspring: Both Dale and Brennan are quite demanding, disrespectful, and ungrateful towards their parents. At one point, Brennan considers sending his mom to a nursing home.
* ActorAllusion: Travis T. Flory is the TheDragon to bully Chris Gardocki. [[Series/EverybodyHatesChris It would seem he's found his new target]].
* ACupAngst: Tiffany, Derek's daughter and Brennan's niece, wants breast implants. [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior At age eight]].
* ActuallyQuiteCatchy: Nancy admits that she joined in on the other parents singing along to "Brennan Has A Mangina" when Derek crashed Brennan's talent show number in high school.
* AllWorkVsAllPlay: Robert, Nancy, and Derek are All Work while Brennan and Dale are All Play (although Dale merely thinks he's just as focused and hardworking as his dad is). At the movie's ending, Brennan and Dale managed to combine the two, since they started what sounds to be a pretty successful karaoke business.
* AlliterativeName: Dale Doback.
* AnnoyingYoungerSibling. Derek is a rare adult example, constantly getting on the nerves of Brennan (and Dale) with his condescending, pretentious attitude.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: In-universe, the brothers think their first company's music video is this. [[StylisticSuck It's a misogynistic, terribly-rhymed piece of trash filmed with hookers.]]
* AxCrazy: Derek's [[TheDragon dragon]] Randy (Rob Riggle), who ate a man's penis "like Kobayashi" while safe within international waters.
* BasementDweller: Dale and Brennan still live with their parents (Dale with his widowed father; Brennan with his divorced mother) and have little in the way of maturity.
* BerserkButton: Don't ever, ever, ''ever'' touch Dale's drum set. Especially with your testicles.
* BigBrotherBully: [[InvertedTrope Little brother bully]], in this case, with Derek.
* BigWhat:
** Brennan and Dale yell this when their television privileges were taken.
** Dale yells this when he and Brennan learned they became best friends.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Derek.
* BlackComedyRape: When the brothers first fight over the drums, Brennan claims Dale was trying to rape him.
-->'''Nancy:''' You yelled "rape" at the top of your lungs.\\
'''Brennan:''' Mom, I honestly thought I was gonna be raped for a second. He had the craziest look in his eyes. And at one point he said, "Let's get it on."\\
'''Dale:''' That was about the fighting. I am so not a raper!
* BlendedFamilyDrama: A middle-aged variation, starring two manchildren who now have to learn to live with each other after their single parents get married.
* BromanticComedy: Literally.
* TheBully: Derek, and the schoolkids that beat up Dale and Brennan.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Derek, despite his egotism and immaturity, is a very successful businessman.
* BusinessOfGenericImportance: Dale and Brennan decide that instead of getting jobs, they'll create their own business called "Prestige Worldwide". However, they have no clue what it is that their business does; in their business presentation, they claim to work in entertainment, management, financial portfolios, insurance computers (and black leather gloves), research and development, and security. This is subverted at the end when [[spoiler: they turn Prestige Worldwide into a karaoke business]].
* ButtMonkey: Robert.
* TheCameo: By Creator/SethRogen, Creator/PhilLaMarr, and Ken Jeong.
* CharacterSignatureSong: Done [[DownplayedTrope subtly]] with "Ice Ice Baby" by Music/VanillaIce for Derek. Brennan's StartOfDarkness began when Derek humiliated him at a school talent show, then stole the show with a lip-sync of the song and, later, used the motto, "My homes are nice nice baby", for his successful real estate business. In one scene where he's up to no good, the film's music score even plays a variation on the melody.
* CloudCuckoolander: Alice -- justified because she's in a miserable marriage with a complete douchebag of a husband.
* ClusterFBomb: The film is unnecessarily littered with these. Justified, due to the fact that Brennan and Dale are refusing to grow up.
* CoattailRidingRelative: When talking about their sons, Robert tells Nancy that Dale is a coaster [[CloudCuckoolander who thinks his medical career is a family business he can join in on]]. Which makes it funnier when [[ObliviousToTheirOwnDescription Dale later accuses Brennan of being a layabout who lives in a fantasy land and refuses to get a job]].
* ComingOfAgeStory: Played [[ZigZaggingTrope not quite straight]]. [[spoiler: While Brennan and Dale do grow up mentally and emotionally, it's revealed in the end that they have partially returned to their childlike ways.]]
* TheCorrupter: Derek actually makes Robert into more of an asshole just by proximity.
* CringeComedy: Particularly near the start when the two main characters are still acting like their ManChild-selves. Noteworthy examples being where they moan about losing TV privileges and excitedly asking for permission to build a bunk bed. Also Brennan deluding himself into believing that Denise, his attractive therapist, is his soulmate swings pretty hard into this. [[spoiler: However, it’s ultimately revealed that Denise was secretly lusting for Brennan all along but withheld her affection for the sake of professionalism. She unconvincingly tries to deny it even after Nancy calls her bluff. At the end of the film, Brennan and Denise are shown to be [[OfficialCouple dating]] ]].
* CripplingOverspecialization: Brennan hires a Music/BillyJoel cover band that only plays his 1980s catalogue for the Catalina Wine Mixer. This leads to problems when the crowd keeps demanding songs like "Piano Man" or "The Stranger".
* DecemberDecemberRomance: Robert Doback (played by Richard Jenkins, who was born in 1947), falls for Nancy Huff (played by Mary Steenburgen, who was born in 1953).
* DidntThinkThisThrough: Brennan and Dale got everything they needed for their music video except for one crucial detail: [[FailedASpotCheck someone to drive the boat while they performed]].
* DisappointingOlderSibling: Brennan is this to Derek. Interestingly, Derek himself ''caused'' it to happen, considering that he sabotaged and then upstaged Brennan's talent show performance (the latter of which he did by cheating). Both of which [[GoneHorriblyRight broke Brennan's confidence so badly that he turned into the hedonistic overgrown teenager he is now]]. Derek [[NeverMyFault doesn't seem to acknowledge this]].
* DisproportionateRetribution:
** After already making it clear that he'll fire Brennan if he screws up the Catalina Wine Mixer, Derek takes it even further and says he'll have his YesMan Randy eat Brennan's dick.
** Derek also fires Brennan after the lead singer of the cover band he hired leaves in a huff after being heckled.
* DistractedByTheSexy: Happens to Robert when he first meets Nancy while trying to give a presentation on hearing aids.
* DomesticAbuse: Derek is never physically abusive, but he's a verbal monster to his wife and brothers.
* DontMakeMeTakeMyBeltOff: After [[{{Manchild}} Brennan]] acts like a brat one too many times, Robert gives him a barehand spanking, and when Dale tries to intervene, he threatens, "You're next, mister!" Dale immediately (and timidly) backs down and watches in horror.
* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Applies at least the first time Alice has sex with Dale... in which she coerces him by cornering him in the men's room. It ends with him telling her thinks she's incredible. Although stunned by the surprise encounter, he seems pretty unfazed by the fact that he was pretty much just raped. Later, as shown in the unrated edition, they have a [[SubvertedTrope somewhat more mutually consensual]] encounter -- it seems at that point he has the option of escaping but chooses otherwise.
* DoubleStandardViolenceChildOnAdult: After a series of bad job interviews, Dale and Brennan are bullied by a group of middle school children, and it's played for laughs despite how miserable they obviously are. They exact revenge at the end of the movie, attacking the entire school and beating them up so mercilessly that it stays funny.
* DrowningMySorrows: [[{{Manchild}} Dale and Brennan]] eventually drive Robert to this.
* EntitledBastard: The duo demands their $10,000 check, even after remorselessly destroying Robert's boat.
* EpicFail:
** Brennan and Dale's makeshift bunk bed, which falls apart the second Dale climbs in bed. Amazingly, Brennan only gets a few minor scratches.
** The job interview montage. Dale and Brennan fuck up every interview in the worst and most hilarious way possible. Even when they actually get hired, Dale manages to ruin it with a very potent fart.
** Also, the "Prestige Worldwide" presentation, which ends in [[spoiler:Dale and Brennan crashing Robert's boat during their music video]].
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Derek has four. He ruined Brennan's talent show performance before lip-syncing to Vanilla Ice. Later, he bullies his family into a perfectionist Guns N' Roses tribute on a car ride. Those two moments would suffice for establishing what a [[{{Jerkass}} dick]] he is, [[FromBadToWorse but it gets worse]]. During Christmas dinner, he brags about hitting a deer with his car, and at one point, he even brags about how [[SkewedPriorities he chose a fishing trip over his own mother's wedding]].
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Derek does love his mother, albeit in his own profoundly assholish way.
* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Both Brennan and Dale say they would sleep with Creator/JohnStamos if they were a chick.
* EveryoneHasStandards:
** Near the ending, when Robert is convincing Dale and Brennan to save the Catalina Wine Mixer with their singing and drumming skills, he admits to them that he was like them when he was younger. Specifically, he wanted to be ''a dinosaur'' and acted like one until he was ''seventeen'' and his own father told him to stop; he decided to become a doctor and then go back to the dinosaur thing, but regretfully found that he couldn't do it like he did anymore. Dale and Brennan, despite being delusional, 40-something [[{{Manchild}} man-children]] think that Robert's dream is impossible and insane compared to their own dreams.
** After that weird part, Robert then admits to the boys that while he ''hates'' their buffoonery, he hates more how unhappy they are trying to be adults and working in jobs they hate.
* ExtremeDoormat:
** Nancy is the definition of an enabling mother. Not just to Dale and Brennan, but also to Derek, as shown when she allowed him to wreck Brennan's talent show performance in high school.
** Alice is trapped in an unhappy marriage as Derek's long-suffering wife. Say what you will about her affair with Dale, but you can't blame her for being so miserable and wanting a way out. But she'd rather blow off steam by secretly screwing Derek's stepbrother than file divorce papers and try to face her husband down in court.
* FantasyForbiddingFather: Compared to Nancy's more enabling attitude, Robert is much stricter with Dale and Brennan and gradually gets fed up with their antics throughout the movie. Justified in that Dale and Brennan are both grown men in their forties and should be beyond such things.
* FiveSecondForeshadowing: Robert is sitting through his sons' terrible music video filmed on his boat before a very important question hits him:
-->'''Robert''': Wait a minute... who's steering the boat?\\
'''Dale''': Dad, please shut up.\\
'''Brennan''': PLEASE SHUT UP!\\
''[the boat crashes ashore on camera]''
* {{Flashback}}: One about Brennan and Derek's school performances and later about the two flying a kite.
* FlashbackEffects: The school performance flashback looks like a grainy old home video.
* ForScience: One of Prestige Worldwide's stated goals.
-->'''Brennan:'''Last week, we put liquid paper on a bee. [[ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime And it]] [[EpicFail died.]]
* FreudianExcuse: Brennan is a ManChild due to having his {{Jerkass}} brother getting the entire school to sing "BRENNAN HAS A MANGINA" during his school performance. Even the parents and faculty joined in. [[FromBadToWorse And his mother.]]
* FreudianSlip
* GrowingUpSucks: Most of the movie is played straight, with Brennan and Dale refusing to get jobs because of how comfortable they are continuing to live off of their parents. [[NotGrowingUpSucks However]], it does become subverted when the two come to terms with the fact that they ''have'' to become functioning adults, whether or not they want to. Brennan even outright asks his therapist "How do I be an adult?"
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[[folder:H-Y]]
* HappyFlashback: [[spoiler: Near the end when Derek reminisces about him and his brother as children]].
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:After witnessing Brennan singing, Derek has an emotional breakthrough and becomes less of a dick.]]
* HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood: Not only did Nancy let Derek ruin Brennan's talent show performance by singing "Brennan has a mangina", but ''she actually joined in singing it''.
* HopeSpot: After two disastrous interviews, Brennan and Dale interview with a jersey-wearing man played by Creator/SethRogen. He actually likes them pretty well, as he's only looking for someone fun to hang out with and he finds their irreverent attitude and tuxedo stunt genuinely amusing. It looks like they've got the job, but then Dale loudly farts, ruining everything.
* ImprovisedWeapon: Brennan and Dale fight each other with baseball bats, golf clubs, and even a ''bicycle''.
* INeedAFreakingDrink: Robert's response to Brennan and Dale's Christmas antics is to go have a drink at the Cheesecake Factory.
* InformedAttribute: Brennan's singing is awe inspiring in universe, but to viewers it's obvious that his voice is completely unexceptional.
* InsistentTerminology: Brennan was ''laid off'' from his job at [=PetSmart=], not ''let go''.
* InternalDeconstruction: Creator/WillFerrell and Creator/JohnCReilly have often been typecast for playing {{manchild}} characters such as [[Film/{{Elf}} Buddy the Elf]], [[Series/CheckItOutWithDrSteveBrule Steve Brule]] and even their [[Film/AnchormanTheLegendOfRonBurgundy other]] [[Film/TalladegaNightsTheBalladOfRickyBobby films]] with director Creator/AdamMcKay. While Brennan and Dale's antics are still PlayedForLaughs, ''Step Brothers'' lacks the exaggeration of their other works and places the characters in a more grounded, down-to-earth setting, exploring the realistic and negative consequences that the pair's actions would have for them and the other people in their lives.
* {{Irony}}: InUniverse, a [[Creator/SethRogen casual job interviewer]] believes Brennan and Dale wear tuxedos for the occasion, ironically, to make fun of how serious job interviews typically are.
* {{Jerkass}}:
** Derek is an obnoxious, showboating bully whose own wife despises him. He becomes a JerkWithAHeartOfGold after [[spoiler:Brennan's singing]] reminds him of the better bonding times they had together in childhood.
** Dale and Brennan themselves destroy the lives of their parents out of their own self-involved entitlement and complete inability to function as human beings.
* JerkassHasAPoint: Derek is undoubtably a complete {{Jerkass}}, but he wasn't wrong to call the two 'dickheads' since their selfish, destructive behavior has caused endless problems for the household.
* KarmaHoudini: According to Derek, he's seen Randy eat another man's penis, but because it occurred in international waters, he never faced prosecution.
* KidsAreCruel: The kids led by Chris Gardocki who beat up Dale and Brennan and force Brennan to lick a dog turd. Dale and Brennan get their revenge in the end.
-->'''Dale:''' You know in that one scene in ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' when the flying monkeys pull apart the scarecrow? That's what it was like.
* LargeHam: Many characters, but especially Randy, Derek’s best friend and employee, who yells ''POW!!'' to punctuate Derek's sentences. He also mimes eating a man's penis, in a frantic manner.
* LawOfInverseFertility: Averted, for once. Despite [[spoiler:Alice & Dale's affair]], it's never hinted that [[spoiler:Alice]] could have become pregnant, even though that might seem like prime gag fodder for a comedy like this. [[JustifiedTrope Possibly justified]] since the two involved are at least middle-aged...
* {{Manchild}}: TheMovie: Both Brennan and Dale are this to the extreme, being 40-somethings who still live with their parents and act like 8-year-olds. It later turns out Derek, despite being successful, is just as childish and immature as the boys -- [[SchoolyardBullyAllGrownUp just in a different manner]]. Dr. Doback also reveals he still pretended to be a dinosaur at the age of ''seventeen''.
* MightyLumberjack: Denise's ImagineSpot of Brennan while he sings "Por Ti Volaré".
* MinorInjuryOverreaction: After Brennan gets crushed in between the "bunk beds," Dale immediately runs to their parents' room, frantically crying and screaming, "It's bad! It's so bad! There's blood everywhere!!!" When we actually cut back to Brennan, we see that he only suffered a mild scratch on his arm.
* NeverMyFault: When Dale accidentally squishes Brennan while making the bunk beds, he blames Robert and Nancy for agreeing with their suggestion, despite the fact that was technically their idea to begin with.
-->'''Dale:''' "Dad, Nancy. It's bad, it's so bad! ''[[MinorInjuryOverreaction There's blood everywhere]]''! The bunk beds were a terrible idea, why'd you let us do that?! IT'S SO BAD!"
* NewParentNomenclatureProblem: PlayedForLaughs
-->'''[[ManChild Brennan]]:''' I'm not gonna call him Dad.\\
'''Nancy''': Brennan, you're 39 years old. I would not expect you to call him Dad.\\
'''Brennan''': Well, I'm not going to, ever! Even if there's a fire!
* NeverWakeUpASleepwalker: Robert finds out the hard way that the danger of waking up a sleepwalker is RealAfterAll.
* NoodleIncident: Brennan apparently once bumped into [[Series/AmericanIdol Randy Jackson]], and the only thing he had with him was a katana.
* NotSoAboveItAll:
** Nancy saying "What the [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment fuck]]?!"
** Both Robert and Nancy admit Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" is a "great" song.
* NotSoDifferentRemark: [[spoiler:Robert eventually admits to Dale and Brennan that he used to be just as immature as the two of them before he was forced to get a job by his own father.]]
* OverlyNarrowSuperlative: The Catalina Wine Mixer is "the biggest helicopter leasing event in the western hemisphere since 1997."
* ParentalNeglect: Alice doesn't seem to care much for her children. She keeps distancing herself from them, forcing Derek, Nancy, and Robert to look after them instead. She doesn't even seem to feed them. Their grandmother, Nancy, cooks all the meals they eat on screen. All she thinks about is making out with Dale and spending as much time away from her family as she can.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Derek is an alpha-male jerk who has no problem calling Brennan and Dale "faggots" or claiming them to have "manginas."
* PoorMansPorn: Brennan whacks off to a female gymnastics video in the intro. Brennan and Dale both reveal that ''Good Housekeeping'' is their favorite non-pornographic magazine to masturbate to.
* PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy: Derek, during his cringe-worthy attempt at selling the house to an African-American couple.
* PushoverParents: Nancy, as she doesn't believe in disciplining Brennan and Dale nor forcing them to get jobs to provide for themselves like Robert does. Nancy also defends no matter how old they are, they will always be her and Robert's children and responsibilities.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech:
** When Robert refuses to invest the two, [[ManChild Brennan]] gives one to him.
--->'''Robert:''' You ''jagaloons''! You're failures! FAAILL-UUURES!\\
'''Brennan:''' Hey, you're embarrassing yourself, you geriatric fuck! Two things: you keep your liver-spotted hands off my beautiful mother! She's a saint! And then you sit down and you write Dale and Brennan a check for $10,000, or we're gonna shove one of those fake hearing devices so far up your ass, you can hear the sound of your small intestine as it produces SHIT!
** At the dinner table, Robert gives a scathing rant on how the duo's incompetence and selfishness brought friction between him and Nancy.
--->'''Robert:''' ''(to the duo)'' Let's cut this shit. It ''is'' directly your fault.\\
'''Nancy:''' Robert.\\
'''Robert:''' You destroyed my boat, you beat me up in your sleep, and, worst of all, you made Nancy and I resent each other! It is absolutely, 150% your fault!
* RedemptionRejection: {{Subverted|Trope}} and PlayedForLaughs with Derek. When Brennan suggests they hug it out, Derek blurts out "[[{{Jerkass}} Yeah, you'd like that]] [[CurseCutShort faggo-]]" before stopping himself and hugging his brother. This doesn't stop him from trying to wriggle out of it and end with the two settling for high-fiving each other.
* SchoolyardBullyAllGrownUp: While Derek has slightly more emotional maturity than Brennan and Dale do, his behavior is identical to a mean spirited teenager picking on two younger children.
* SeriousBusiness: The fricking Catalina Wine Mixer!
* SmugSnake: Derek, especially right before Dale punches him.
* SpeedSex: Gender flipped. Any time Alice and Dale have sex, it's Alice who climaxes quickly and rather easily.
* SpoiledBrat: The titular characters.
* StepfordSmiler: Alice takes a lot of verbal abuse from Derek with passive acceptance. Then she witnesses Dale punch her husband in the face, and she becomes this trope for [[{{Yandere}} a completely different reason]].
* StylisticSuck:
** "Boats n' Hoes".
** Also, the "bunk beds" that Brennan and Dale build on their own, although they are extremely proud of their work.
--->'''Dale:''' That looks like the one you would buy from a store.
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: "Prestige Worldwide" [[spoiler:eventually takes off and becomes a success, although as a chain of clubs and karaoke bars instead of the world's leading company in ''everything'', as the guys originally intended for it to be.]]
* TerribleIntervieweesMontage: Invoked and played for laughs.
** Also deliberately inverted and weaponized by Dale and Brennan themselves when sabotaging Derek's realty appointments.
* ThemeMusicPowerUp: Whenever Brennan sees Dale's drumset, intense vocals are heard, the epic tune teasing Brennan and encouraging him to play the drumset. The epic theme music in question is an impossible-to-find track known as either "[[WhoNamesTheirKidDude Captain Benevant & His Ragtag Crew]]" or "Dark Morning" by Aisle Landon.
* ThoseTwoGuys: Tommy and Tiffany (Derek and Alice's kids) who really have no importance to the plot but show up to every family gathering and their only significance is to show off their singing and rub their good luck and Christmas presents in Robert's face.
* ToiletPaperSubstitute: When Brennan is using the toilet, he runs out of toilet paper and he resorts to using his toilet rug and his sink to clean himself. The next day, he buys a huge amount of toilet paper.
* TheUnfavorite: Both Brennan and Dale become this after Robert meets Derek and instantly takes a liking to him over his immature and idiotic son and stepson. It's possible that Brennan was also this to his and Derek's mother, who let the latter ruin the former's school performance and even joined in singing "Brennan has a mangina".
* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: Dale and Brennan are selfish, entitled, and emotionally-stunted {{manchild}}ren who are motivated to keep their family together solely because they don't want to grow up.
* WakingNonSequitur: One from each of the main characters.
** “The Clown has no penis...”
** “I'm gonna kill you Leonard Nimoy!”
* WritersCannotDoMath: It's revealed that Brennan is 39 years old in 2008, which means he was born in 1969 or late 1968. It's also stated that when his brother lip-synced to "Ice Ice Baby" in a school talent show, Brennan was 17, placing the event around 1986. The song was actually released in 1990.
* {{Yandere}}: Alice becomes this to Dale after he punches her {{Jerkass}} husband in the face.
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