* {{Adorkable}}: Gerald has no idea what girls are attracted to, but we love him for it.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The whole soundtrack and score, packed with cheesy, late-'70s-to-very-early-'80s hits, easily qualifies, but the true Crowning Music has to be the tailor-made '80s-movie-training-montage original song "Higher and Higher".
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The "trip to town", which pushes the film into a new realm of outrageous absurdity and kind of sets a new tone for it. Essentially the story revealing its true colours, it also doubles as a SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}}.
* CargoShip: Christopher Meloni and the refrigerator.
* CrossesTheLineTwice: ''Many'' jokes, but special mention goes to Andy's scene with the van. Letting a kid drown on his watch? Not that funny. Dumping the kid who witnessed it out of a moving vehicle? Funny. The exact same events happening again later in the film? Hilarious.
* CultClassic: Initially a flop, it's now regarded by many as one of the best comedies of its time.
* EnsembleDarkhorse: Gene. Andy is certainly one too. And J.J., and....
** As one reviewer put it "You don't just have a "favourite character" with this film. You have at least four."
* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: Coop proclaiming his love for Katie in a passionate if nonsensical speech, and her running out on the talent show to return those feelings. [[spoiler:If only it had lasted.]]
** [=McKinley=] and Ben have a fair number of these.
*** Their wedding (which made Beth cry) and J.J. and Gary's subsequent acceptance of their friend's sexuality.
*** Their sex scene is surprisingly tender, especially since it could have easily just been another punchline.
*** After the performance of "Day by Day" in the talent show, they're the only people not booing the kids.
*** It didn't end up in the final cut, but originally, [[TheStinger the flashforward to 1991]] had a shot showing that they were still together and had a son. It's still visible in the making-of documentary ''Hurricane of Fun''.
** Sure, they've known each other all of one day, but Beth and Henry [[spoiler:expecting a baby]] at the end of the movie is heartwarming in its own weird way.
* HilariousInHindsight: Certain revelations in ''First Day of Camp'' add to the fun in a rewatch, like [[spoiler:Lindsey being an adult who's undercover for a magazine article, and the talking actually being real rather than part of Gene's weirdness.]]
* MemeticMutation: "THE PHONE! THE PHONE! '''WHERE'S THE FUCKING PHONE?!'''"
* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: The windy portion of the talent show. [[Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit Elliot Stabler]] humping the fridge. Take your pick.
* RetroactiveRecognition: Nearly all of the camp counselors, actually, who were mainly unknown actors prior to doing the film. Much of the cast went on to become super famous, including (but not limited to) Creator/AmyPoehler, Creator/BradleyCooper, Creator/PaulRudd, and Creator/ElizabethBanks, and frequent viewers of ''[[Series/LateNight Late Night with Jimmy Fallon]]'' will recognize A.D. Miles as that show's head writer. Creator/BradleyCooper is Oscar-nominated Hollywood royalty nowadays, to the point that a lot of people were surprised he actually came back for the prequel (though they did have to film all of his scenes in one day to work around his schedule).
** [[WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers Bob Belcher]] is Mitch the Can of Vegetables.
** Really, almost the entire cast is this to some degree. Website/TheOtherWiki even makes a point of mentioning that the film is notable specifically because so many of its stars are now extremely famous and successful.
* ValuesDissonance: Parodied. The film features a gay wedding, which nobody finds odd or remarkable. In 1981. The two counselors who you think are going to bully the new couple [[AnachronismStew actually go out and buy them a wedding gift from Crate & Barrel.]]
* TheWoobie: Coop. He's a classic case of "nice guys finish last", especially at the very end.
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