Film / Good Burger

Not just knee deep, she was totally deep, when she did the freak with me.

"Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger! Can I take your order?"

Good Burger is a 1997 comedy film produced by Nickelodeon Movies and released by Paramount Pictures, directed by Brian Robbins and produced by Dan Schneider and starring Kenan Thompson, Kel Mitchell, Sinbad, Shar Jackson, Abe Vigoda, and Jan Schweiterman. Carmen Electra, Shaquille O'Neal, Linda Cardellini (in her film debut), Marques Houston, and George Clinton make brief cameo appearances. The film was based on a popular recurring sketch on Nickelodeon's sketch show All That, with Mitchell reprising his role as an airheaded fast food cashier. It is, to date, the only Nickelodeon Movie based on one of their live-action shows (as opposed to one of their Nicktoons). It was preceded in theaters by the Action League NOW! episode "Rock-A-Big-Baby".

In the film, Thompson plays Dexter, a high-school student that is forced to work at Good Burger after crashing his mother's car into his teacher's car. The restaurant is also rivaled by Mondo Burger across the street, a menacing mammoth chain that could easily make Good Burger a piece of history. But Good Burger is not going quietly into that good night, as Dexter's new co-worker Ed has concocted a special sauce (based on In-N-Out's secret sauce) that makes Good Burger the hottest burger joint in town, and Mondo Burger is determined to steal the sauce recipe and their customers. Dexter and Ed team up to beat their competition and end up unearthing a dark secret.

Got a sequel in novel format in 1998 called Good Burger 2 Go. On November 22, 2023, an official sequel film, Good Burger 2, was released on Paramount+, with Thompson and Mitchell reprising their roles as Dexter and Ed.

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Good Burger provides examples of:

• Actually Pretty Funny: How Ed and Dexter start bonding: Dexter tells Ed he wants absolutely nothing to do with him. Then Ed does his bizarre "Grape Nose Boy" bit, which gets a laugh out of him.
• All-Loving Hero: Ed's good-heartedness allows him to make friends with just about anyone who isn't pure evil (and even if they are, he still treats them as if their intentions are pure and good).
• Artistic License – Physics: Mondo Burger's "Triampathol" is an additive that somehow causes hamburger meat to increase in mass during cooking. Kurt admits that it is "way illegal"—indeed, it violates not only the health code, but also the law of conservation of mass.
• Ask a Stupid Question...: When Dexter tries to ask her out on a date, Monique turns him down, saying she's going home. Dexter asks why. Monique's response: "That's where my stuff is."
  • And the way Dexter delivers the question makes it even more stupid. Seriously, it's as if he thinks any girl would see dating him as the opportunity of a lifetime.
• Avoid the Dreaded G Rating: Abe Vigoda's line "I think I broke my ass" and (to a lesser extent) the mental patient played by George Clinton remarking that the music in the mental hospital lobby sucks. Both of these lines were later rerecorded for TV with the euphemisms "butt" and "stinks," respectively.
• Back for the Finale: Notice when the crowd of employees and customers cheer for Ed saving Good Burger in the end, Heather can be seen hiding amongst the crowd (looking over Mr. Bailey's shoulder).
• Bad Boss: Kurt, who runs Mondo Burger like a totalitarian factory and is also a Mean Boss.
• Bathroom Search Excuse: When infiltrating the Mondo Burger, Dexter and Ed pose as ladies and pretend to ask the worker where the ladies bathroom is.
• Bedlam House: The main characters are sent there by the Big Bad after learning the secret behind Mondo Burger's...well, mondo burgers. Otis gets sent there also after he catches Kurt and his Mondo brats dumping shark poison in Ed's Sauce.
• Benevolent Boss: Mr. Bailey teeters back and forth between being an exact example of this, and being more of a reluctant example.
• Bigger Is Better: Apparently Mondo Burger's philosophy. Kurt's attempted solution to getting customers? Make their "already twice as big as Good Burger's" burgers bigger!
  Employee: But they're already—
  Kurt: Bigger! BIGGER!!
• Big "NO!": Ed, when he stops the old lady from eating a poisoned good burger.
  • The day Mondo Burger opens, Good Burger's total revenue the same day comes out to $43.09 when there are at least 8 employees who earn $5 per hour. Dexter comes asking Mr. Bailey for a raise, and guess how Mr. Bailey reacts.
• Big "WHAT?!": Dexter not once, but twice when he first meets Ed at Good Burger. First when he tries to remember where he last saw Ed:
  Dexter: I could’ve sworn I’ve seen you someplace before.
  Ed: Hey, I know! Maybe I’m someone famous, like a baseball player, or a pretty nurse.
  Dexter: What? Man, what in the world are you talking about?
  • A moment later, when Dexter tells Ed to leave him alone because he’s had a bad day:
  Ed: What’s wrong? Were you bitten by a sheep?
  Dexter: WHAT?!
• Big "WHY?!": Dexter delivers one when Ed accidentally makes him wreck Mr. Wheat's car with his mother's, just like Kenan did in Kenan & Kel. Later at the end, Mr. Wheat emits one himself when his car is squashed by Mondo Burger's giant plastic hamburger.
• Blatant Lies:
  Mr. Bailey: Do you know how to operate a motor vehicle?
  Dexter: Yes, I'm an excellent driver.
  Mr. Bailey: Any accidents on your record?
  Dexter: *beat* Not to your knowledge.
  • Later, when Dexter, Ed and Otis escape from the mental hospital and steal an ice cream truck to race against time to Good Burger before any customers eat poisoned sauce:
  Ice Cream Man: Hey! What are you doing?
  Otis: Stealing your truck.
  Dexter: Yeah, we'll bring it back.
• Bookends: The movie begins and ends with Ed saying his customary Good Burger greeting directly at the camera.
• The Brute: Spatch (although a benevolent example) and "Mr. Big Huge Scary Man" at the Bedlam House.
• Burger Fool: Subverted for Ed, who loves his job, but applies for Dexter.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Mr. Wheat, Dexter's accident-prone teacher.
  • Otis counts as an Iron Butt Monkey.
• Canon Foreigner: Everyone except for Ed, Mr. Bailey, and Connie Muldoon, although Kenan Thompson and Josh Server often did appear in the sketches as various customers. After the film was released, both Fizz and Spatch would become semi-recurring characters in the sketches as well.
• Cassandra Truth: Dexter, who is only working at Good Burger to pay back Mr. Wheat for the car accident, has Kindhearted Simpleton Ed sign a contract so he may receive 80% of Ed's earnings for his sauce (because it was Dexter's idea to put it on the Good Burgers). Monique calls him out on it later, and his vain attempt to explain his motives is ineffective.
• Catapult Nightmare: Ed, after dreaming about talking burgers and then falls down a bottomless hole.
  Ed: (waking up) WELCOME TO GOOD BURGER, HOME OF THE GOOD BURGER. CAN I TAKE— huh? Whoa! A clock!
• Character Catch Phrase:
  • Ed has "Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger, can I take your order?", and "Uh... no?"
  • Kurt likes to warn people that "You mess with Kurt, and you go into the grinder." Also, whenever someone points out the obvious, he replies with "I'm aware!"
  • Dexter, just like Kenan Rockmore, groans "Again with the [X]," X being something that he's tired of seeing/hearing. He also uses "WHYYYYY?!"
• Chase Scene: When Ed, Dexter, and Otis escape from Demented Hills, they get onto an ice cream truck. When the guys from the asylum try to follow, they retaliate by throwing ice cream at the windshield until it becomes too thick to see through.
• The Chew Toy: Roxanne, an extremely attractive Mondo Burger employee, who ends up suffering all sorts of injuries in an attempt to seduce Ed into revealing his sauce recipe during a double date with Dexter and Monique.
• Chronically Crashed Car: Mr. Wheat's car.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Ed is the definition.
  • Heather as well.
• Comically Missing the Point: Ed does this all the time. One example:
  Otis: I caught those Mondo brats dumping shark poison in our sauce.
  Dexter: Shark poison!?
  Ed: Why would they want to harm those innocent sharks?
• Comically Serious: Most of the Mondo Burger employees.
• Cool Car: The Burgermobile; an ironic case of this, seeing how the car is clearly a customized AMC Pacer.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Kurt, of the cult leader variety.
• Crowd Song: "(Not Just) Knee Deep". There's even a cameo by George Clinton as one of the mental patients, and he even briefly lip-syncs to the song.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: This exchange, after Ed explains how he helped bring down Kurt:
  Ed: See, I knew that if I took the can, there was a good chance I'd get caught. Then I thought that even if I did take the Triampathol to the proper authorities, Kurt would hire some high-powered attorney who'd dispute any charges brought against him or Mondo Burger, by manipulating the legal system. And the way that America's court system is congested these days, it would have taken months to convict him of anything. So then I thought, I just take the matter into my own hands and pour the Triampathol into the meat supply and let Mondo Burger be a victim of its own foul play.
  Dexter: You thought of all that?
  Ed: Sure. I'm not stupid.
  • Somewhat defied by the actual scene, where Ed drops a can into the meat vat entirely by accident, has a "Eureka!" Moment, then grabs all the cans and pours them in.
• The Cuckoolander Was Right: Dexter thinks it's ridiculous that Ed says that a dog is telling him that four clowns are stranded after their car broke down through barks. A Gilligan Cut shows that he was right.
• Cute But Psycho: Heather is pretty and quite quirky, but she also happens to be an inmate in an insane asylum, so...
• Department of Redundancy Department: "Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger..."
• Deus ex Machina: Ed's sauce. It allows Good Burger to compete with Mondo Burger.
  • When explaining how Ed caused him to crash into his teacher's car, Dexter says that Ed "skated into [his] vision sight."
• The Dinner Mobile: Dexter makes his deliveries in a burger-shaped car called the Burgermobile.
• Disappeared Dad: Dexter's father.
• Disguised in Drag: Ed and Dexter do it to infiltrate Mondo Burger, with the latter Chewing the Scenery in a panicked and dramatic black woman persona.
• Dissonant Serenity: Ed while Good Burger's business is being killed by Mondo Burger occupies his mind with stacking burgers and sticking fries up his nose.
• The Ditz: Ed is absolutely scatterbrained.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Kurt displays pretty much being a cult leader perfectly pertaining to this.
  Kurt: From now on, your life is Mondo Burger. You can forget about your friends, you can forget about your family, 'cause Kurt is now both your mother and your father.
• The Dog Bites Back: Kurt fires and humiliates Dexter for cracking jokes. Dexter later plays a role in destroying Mondo Burger and getting Kurt arrested.
• Double Date: Roxanne invites Ed on a date, accompanied by Dexter and Monique, hoping to seduce him into revealing his sauce recipe. Hilarity Ensues.
• Dream Intro: The film begins with Ed taking a customer's order, before finding a bunch of hamburgers coming to life and asking him to come with them - they start hovering in the air, bringing him up into the air with them before dropping him into pit; he wakes up just as he supposedly hits the bottom to the sound of his alarm clock.
• Drives Like Crazy: Once again, Ed.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Dexter does this with Good Shakes after he gets fired from Mondo Burger. Ed even asks him "Dude, don't you think you've had enough?"
• Dull Surprise: Pay close attention during Mondo Burger's demise, as you watch customers and patrons race out of the restaurant and it comes down, one man amongst the panicking crowd has the most calm, relaxed, subdued look on his face... in fact, he doesn't even really run out of the restaurant, he just casually slips into the crowd and makes his way out the door.
• Dumbass Has a Point: An irate customer complains to Ed that he got his order wrong:
  Customer: I ordered one Good Burger with nothing on it.
  Ed: That's what I gave you.
  Customer: No... you gave me a bun. Just a bun! Look! There's no meat in here!
  Ed: But you said you wanted nothing on it!
  Customer: Well, I expected a meat patty!
  Ed: Dude, a meat patty is something. You said "nothing." Fizz, is a meat patty something or nothing?
  Fizz: Uh...something?
  Ed: I win!
  Customer: Alright, that's it! I am reporting your name to the manager!
  Ed: The manager already knows my name.
  Customer: Oh, I'll see you in Hell! (storms off)
  Ed: (cheerfully) Okay! See ya there!
• Elder Employee: Abe Vigoda works at the titular restaurant despite being at least 40 or 50 years older than any other employee there.
• Epic Fail: Dexter's disastrous attempt at assembling a Mondo Burger. It gets him harshly chewed out, understandably.
• Escaped Animal Rampage: The reason Heather was committed to Demented Hills was that, "Small space aliens landed in [her] head and told [her] to break into the zoo and free the kangaroos."
• "Eureka!" Moment: Ed and Dexter discovering Mondo Burger's Triampathol.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Subverted. Kurt facetiously tells his co-workers not to be rude to the elderly when Otis catches them poisoning Good Burger's sauce.
• Even the Rats Won't Touch It: What tips Dexter and Ed off about Mondo Burger's adulterants.
• Everyone Has Standards: Besides encouraging him to apply himself more before they have their fateful car accident, Mr. Wheat does not like that Dexter was driving without a license so much so that he attempts to call the cops on Dexter while saying: “I hate to put a black man in jail.”
• Evil-Detecting Dog: Ed gives a hungry dog a Mondo Burger patty, but the dog wouldn't eat it for some reason. So Ed gives the dog a Good Burger patty instead and he immediately eats it. This begins to make Dexter and Ed suspicious about Mondo Burger.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Dexter can't at all wrap his head around why Ed bought him a gift out of the blue.
• Evil Is Hammy: Kurt, full stop.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Good Burger and Mondo Burger. Good Burger is famous and can only work with their burgers taste, while Mondo Burger is known for and can only work on their burgers size. Mondo Burger demolishes Good Burger's chance of survival on opening week due to offering their customers exponentially bigger beef patties, but then Good Burger wins back the customers by improving on their recipe with Ed's sauce.
• Fan Disservice: Ed wearing lingerie.
• Food Porn: Considering it is about burgers, occurs, particularly the pre-title opening.
• "Friends" Rent Control: Ed lives in a rather large house, seemingly with no roommates, despite only being a cashier of a fast food restaurant making $5 an hour.
• Foreshadowing: Dexter's friend Jake telling him his parents are making him get a summer job. Guess what Dexter does just two scenes later.
• Fun Personified: Ed finds a way to have a good time no matter what he's doing or where he's at, including a mental institution.
• Genius Ditz: Ed may be a grade-A idiot, but he knows his way around the law which helps him with his plan to shut down Mondo Burger at the end.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Ed is completely incapable of fathoming the notion that anyone has any sort of malicious intent and sees the good in everyone, even if it's not there.
• Halfway Plot Switch: The story goes from Dexter trying to pay off his debt to Mr. Wheat to trying to save Good Burger from being shut down.
• Hammerspace: When he and Dexter deliver a Good Burger to Shaquille O’Neal who complains about a lack of tomatoes, guess what Ed pulls out of his shirt pocket?
• Heartbreak and Ice Cream: Faced with a $1,900 debt on a short deadline, Dexter drinks 10 Good Shakes then keeps asking Ed for more. And this is before Dexter was informed his debt increased to $2,500.
• Heel Realization: Dexter has this after Monique calls him out for cheating Ed out of money.
• Hero Insurance: How Ed and Dexter get away with stealing an ice cream truck, destroying Mr. Wheat's mailbox twice, and endangering Mondo Burger customers by overloading the meat supply with Triampathol and causing the restaurant to implode, which should have gotten them arrested many times over.
• Heroic BSoD: Ed gets this after trying to follow Connie Muldoon's order for her family reunion.
• Hero Stole My Bike: Dexter, Ed and Otis get forced to steal an ice cream truck to race back to Good Burger and stop customers from eating the shark poison-contaminated sauce. Oh, and to also escape the Demented Hills guards chasing them.
• Hitler Cam: Kurt's opening scene.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The illegal chemicals that Mondo Burger uses to enlarge their burgers cause the restaurant to collapse when Ed pours ALL of two whole cans of it into the meat supply.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Ed, due to being a Kindhearted Simpleton who sees the best in people. He does not realize that Dexter is scamming him and it takes him most of the movie to realize that Kurt is not a nice guy. Not to mention...
  Dexter: Leave it to you to make friends with a vicious psychopath.
• Humiliation Conga: The destruction of Mondo Burger.
• Idiot Ball: Ed; It's a wonder how he manages to keep his job given the number of customers he puts off throughout the film through his sheer stupidity.
  • Although later, he has Ultimate Job Security because his sauce is the only thing keeping Good Burger in business.
• Ignore the Fanservice: Ed is so innocent and ditzy that he does this to a character played by Carmen Electra. It's kind of hard to tell whether he's not interested in sex (or anything of the sort) at all, doesn't know what it is, or doesn't realize she's offering.
• Innocently Insensitive: Ed unintentionally insults Dexter when he complains about the lousy day he had. But then Ed trys to get Dexter hired and persuading Mr. Bailey.
  Dexter: Man, I can't believe Kurt fired me from Mondo Burger. He yelled at me, he insulted me, he made fun of me...
  Ed: Boy, you must really suck!
• Irony: During his Double Date with Monique, Ed, and Roxanne, Dexter teases Monique for narrowly missing a shot when they're playing mini golf. When it's his turn, his shot doesn't go anywhere near the hole.
• Ironic Echo: "Remember, when you mess with Good Burger, YOU go in the grinder!"
• I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: It's somewhat difficult to really believe that Kenan and Kel are playing two entirely different characters from their Kenan & Kel counterparts, especially considering Dexter is the straightman of the two, while Ed is the Cloudcuckoolander... much like their Kenan & Kel counterparts. Just try to watch this exchange without smirking:
  Dexter: Hey... you look familiar... don't I know you from somewhere?
  Ed: Ever been to Australia?^note Funny enough, in one episode of Kenan & Kel Roger thinks Kel should move to Australia.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Kurt was entirely right about Dexter being an incompetent, bumbling, sloppy fast-food employee.
• Jive Turkey: Dexter's math teacher, played by Sinbad.
• Kindhearted Simpleton: Ed may be stupid, but he's got a strong heart.
• Large Ham: Both Ed and Kurt.
• Lethal Eatery: Mondo Burger turns out to be this, as they use illegal additives in their burgers that poses risks to the health of whoever eats it. It hardly matters in the end since Mondo Burger's oversized foods didn't taste good enough for the public to favor it over Good Burger.
• Limited Wardrobe: Ed never takes his uniform off, not even in the shower. Except in the mental hospital.
  • He also has it off when he's dressed in drag in the scene where he and Dexter investigate Mondo Burger.
• Literal-Minded: Ed, as shown when Roxanne tries to seduce him.
  Roxanne: I think you are hot!
  Ed: Well I do often sweat.
• Loophole Abuse: How Dexter gets his job at Good Burger.
  Mr. Bailey: You know how to drive a motor vehicle?
  Dexter: Yes! I'm an excellent driver.
  Mr. Bailey: Any accidents on your record?
  Dexter: Not to your knowledge.
• Love at First Sight: On their first date, when Monique asks Dexter if he likes her, Dexter admits to have fallen for her from the very first time he saw her.
• Manchild: Ed, again.
• Married to the Job: Ed, it seems. He wears his Good Burger uniform everywhere, even in the shower and on dates. See Limited Wardrobe.
• Mistaken for Gay: When Dexter falls into Ed, Ed thinks he's coming onto him.
• Motor Mouth:
  • A customer (none other than Connie Muldoon, played by Lori Beth Denberg) with a ridiculously long and complicated order, who causes Ed's brain (what little there is of it) to blow a fuse.
  • Dexter, when he tries to explain why he was sloppy making a Mondo Burger. And when he got caught making a snidey remark and laughing. This is what got him thrown out.
• Ms. Fanservice: Carmen Electra as Roxanne.
• Never My Fault: Dexter, who just recognizing where he's seen Ed, blames him for the car accident that forced him to get a summer job to pay for it. He also blames him for his parents finding out he was driving without a license, which he shouldn't have been doing in the first place.
• Nobody's That Dumb: Rather than go along with Dexter's plans to expose Mondo Burger using illegal chemicals in their beef to make their burgers bigger, Cloud Cuckoolander Ed decides to sabotage the restaurant instead by pouring said chemicals into their meat supply, causing the patties to grow abnormally large and explode, turning the restaurant to ruins. When Dexter inquires about Ed's intentions, he explains that he knew if he followed through with Dexter's plans, he likely would've been caught, and even if he did escape with the chemicals, Kurt would have hired high-powered attorneys that would dispute any claims brought against him or Mondo Burger by manipulating the legal system, and also taking into consideration that because the court system is congested, it would have taken months to convict Kurt for anything, hence why he took matters into his own hands. Dexter is flabbergasted that Ed thought of all that, to which Ed says, "Sure! I'm not stupid!"
• Novelization: Joseph Locke wrote one.
• Obfuscating Stupidity:
  • Ed explains that he poured the bottles of acid into the meat on purpose because he knew that Kurt would manipulate the legal system to his favor unless the cops discover the acid themselves as they did when the restaurant imploded; Ed then goes on to say "I'm not stupid," despite his blatant idiocy throughout the movie (as well as the All That sketch that the film is based on).
  • Also, even though Ed comes off as dim-witted, he showed culinary genius, as he made a sauce that everyone likes.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Dexter has these moments throughout the movie, such as when he's standing on top of a delivery van that's about to drive off.
  • Kurt when Dexter tells him that Ed is on his way to the cops with a can of their illegal food additive. Dexter when Ed shows up to rescue him - with an empty can.
  Kurt: This can's empty. What an idiot. Stole an empty can.
  Dexter: Ed, you stole a empty can?!
  Ed: (Cheshire Cat Grin) It wasn't empty when I found it!
  • You can just see the Oh, Crap! expression teleport from the faces of the good guys back to the bad guys as everyone hears the overdosed burgers begin to explode.
• Offscreen Teleportation: Kurt somehow gets down from a catwalk in two seconds in order to bully Dexter.
• Out of Focus: This apparently happens to Monique: she's established as Dexter's Satellite Love Interest, who initially has no interest in him, but apparently that little subplot offers nothing to viewers, as many critics and reviewers of the movie seem to overlook her altogether.
• Overcomplicated Menu Order:
  Connie: Hello, my name is Connie Muldoon. I'm hosting a family reunion and my oven has run amok! I think it's the heat actuator. Anyhoo, I'd like to order... *Speech increases the more she talks* Three Good Meals, four Junior Good Meals, a seventeen-piece order of your Good Chunks, and on two of the Junior Good Meals, I need to substitute the Good Cookies for Good Pies. Now don't fret if that's extra, I'll pony up the overage. And, uh, oh, on the regular Good Meals, I need two of the Good Burgers to have ketchup, mayo, mustard, lettuce, tomato, but no onion, I've got an interview this afternoon. Let's see, that takes care of everyone but Uncle Leslie who doesn't eat meat but, of course, he does eat dairy, so I don't get it. Let's get Leslie a Good Chickwich with some Good Fries, and a Good Root Beer all to go. But I would like to have my beverage while I wait. Now, total me up.
  Ed: [stares blankly with his mouth hanging open with the sound of electricity shorting out]
• Ow, My Body Part!: After Dexter tackled Ed to shut him up from revealing the recipe for his sauce.
  Ed: Dexter? You're squishing my pancreas.
• Product Placement:
  • A reporter briefly appears from LA's KCOP-13 (back when they had their own newscast; now they're owned by Fox and have no news); they were an affiliate of UPN at the time (this was a Paramount movie).
  • Mr. Wheat drives an Infiniti near the end of the movie.
  • There's a Coca-Cola machine at Good Burger.
  • There's a Rold Gold truck that Dexter and Ed hide behind, and later climb, during their infiltration of Mondo Burger.
  • A Blockbuster Video rental store can be seen across the street from Good Burger in a few shots.
• Police Are Useless: No cops turn up when Dexter and his crew hijack the ice cream truck to race back to Good Burger. And given how they and their pursuers create total mayhem on the streets getting there...
  • Averted when they do show up to Mondo Burger and do arrest Kurt for using illegal additives in food.
• Pop-Star Composer: The movie score was composed by the fantastic Stewart Copeland, drummer for The Police. The score contains numerous moments of guitar shredding, heavy rock riffs, synthesizers, and R&B vocal samples.
  • Also, the movie has a cover of the song "Roxanne" in it, which was originally a Police song.
• Precision F-Strike: Despite being a Nickelodeon movie, it does have some swear words, like "ass", "hell" and "crap".
• Put on a Prison Bus: When Dexter and Ed finally defeat Kurt by using the latter's illegal food additive to blow up his Mondo Burger restaurant, Kurt is finally arrested. To add salt into Kurt’s wound as he’s handcuffed and dragged into the police car, they repeat his famous mantra "Remember, when you mess with Good Burger, YOU go in the grinder!" while watching their nemesis is sent to jail.
• Race Against the Clock: After escaping the mental hospital, Dexter, Ed, and Otis race to Good Burger before anyone eats the poisoned sauce.
• Rage Against the Heavens: Mr. Wheat has a brief moment of this after a giant burger crushes his car.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Dexter dishes one out to Ed when he realizes that Ed was the rollerblading nut who contributed to his auto accident.
  Dexter: Now I know where I saw you before, you're the rollerblading nut that caused my accident!
  Ed: Uh, no?
  Dexter: You're the reason why I owe $1,900! You're the reason my mom found out I was driving without a license! You cost me a fortune! You wrecked my summer, man! You ruined my life!
  • Later, Monique gives Dexter an earful when she discovers the contract he had Ed agree to, which gives Dexter 80% of the profit from Ed's sauce.
  Monique: I know what this is, it's the contract you had Ed sign, y'know, the one you take most of his money? The money that he's supposed to get for his sauce?
  Dexter: No... yes. Look, I was just trying—
  Monique: You know, I can't believe you take advantage of someone who trusted you. How can you take advantage of a sweet and generous guy like Ed? And after he got you a job?
  Dexter: It ain't even like that! I only wanted—
  Monique: Oh, I know what you wanted! You're not Ed's friend, you're just using him to scam a little cash on the side... you must feel really good about yourself. But don't worry, I'm not gonna tell Ed that you're cheating him.
  Dexter: (Beat) Why not?
  Monique: Because it would hurt him too much.
  Otis: Punk!
• Rooftop Confrontation: Kurt and his goons confront Dexter and Ed on the roof of Mondo Burger at the end.
• Rule of Funny: The reason behind a number of things.
• Running Gag: Mr. Wheat's car and mailbox keeps getting smashed, crashed, and run over. All mostly because of Dexter and Ed.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Dexter's friend Jake after he hits Mr. Wheat's car.
• See You in Hell: A customer says this to Ed to which he replies, "Okay! See ya there!"
• Sequel Goes Foreign: The sequel novel has Dexter and Ed follow a customer to Paris in order to give him the correct change.
• Serious Business: "From now on, your life... is Mondo Burger. You can forget about your friends, you can forget about your family. Because Kurt is now both your mother and your father."
  • Which leads to a wonderful line:
  Dexter: Kurt must look awfully strange naked.
  • Good Burger for Ed.
• Shockingly Expensive Bill: Dexter each time he's given a bill saying how much it costs to fix Mr. Wheat's car.
  Dexter: NINETEEN-HUNDRED DOLLARS?! I don't have nineteen-hundred dollars!
  Dexter: (reads his second bill, eyes pop out) TWENTY-FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS?!
• Skewed Priorities: Dexter's upset because he has to get a summer job? He's lucky he didn't go to prison for driving without a license!
  • Just to hammer home how skewed his priorities are, he did almost go to prison, because Mr. Wheat (whose car he totaled) almost called the police on him. It was Dexter himself who came up with the summer job idea so he could pay for his teacher's car; his teacher agreed to that mostly because Dexter would hate it, so he didn't call the police. So not only are Dexter's priorities skewed with him being upset about his summer job, but he has a summer job because his teacher was being merciful!
• Slapstick: Roxanne gets fairly clobbered at the mini golf range.
• Slobs Versus Snobs: A small, local burger joint vs. an emerging megachain that wants to monopolize the fast food business within two years.
• Smug Snake: Kurt has a massive ego and an inflated sense of entitlement.
• Straight Man: Dexter to Ed.
• Storming the Castle: Dexter and Ed's infiltration of Mondo Burger at the end.
• Stuff Blowing Up: The destruction of Mondo Burger in the end is a series of this. First from the burgers, then the building itself.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • As Dexter learns the hard way; even if you're a minor, driving without a license can get you into some serious trouble, especially if you get into a car accident.
  • Dexter's arguments with Kurt get the former dismissed from Mondo Burger because workplace fights are still grounds for immediate termination.
  • Using illegal substances in foods can bring out legal consequences. Ed also points out why he decided to keep feeding the illegal substances into the patties: if he were to bring a can to the police department, Ed would get arrested for holding an illegal substance. Even if he were able to convince the cops about what's going on, Kurt can still hire a lawyer if he goes to court.
  • As the owner of Mondo Burger, Kurt is the first one taken into custody when the place shakes itself to pieces; and this is before the cops confront him with the illegal triampathol he had laced his burgers with.
• Take This Job and Shove It: A very pissed off and badly injured Roxanne does this after her failed attempt to get Ed's sauce recipe.
  Troy: I'm guessing she didn't get the recipe.
  Kurt: I'm aware
• Third-Person Person/Who's on First?: Kurt
  Ed: Who's Kurt?
  Kurt: I'm Kurt.
  Ed: I'm Ed.
  Kurt: I'm aware!
  Ed: You said you were Kurt.
• Tie-In Novel: The Good Burger 2 Go sequel novel.
• Timmy in a Well: A Subversion with a dog running up to Ed, who reads his barkings as "A bunch of clowns are stranded on the highway with a broken radiator". Dexter tells him not to be stupid and that the dog's just hungry. At the end of the scene, Gilligan Cut to a bunch of clowns, standing by a broken car, wondering where the dog went.
• Title: The Adaptation: The novelization is called Good Burger: A Novelization.
• Too Dumb to Fool: The efforts of the Honey Trap to get the secret sauce from Ed fail because Ed doesn't realize he's being seduced. Also subverted; Dexter easily scams him in a straightforwardly terrible business deal because Ed doesn't understand basic math.
• Unintentionally Karmic: Because she attempted to seduce Ed into divulging the secret ingredient to the sauce, Roxanne's injuries in the hands of Ed comes off karmic, even if Ed never intended to try to injure her.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Mr. Wheat takes a little too long to understand that all the people running out of Mondo Burger, all of them clearly in a panic is not a shift change; unfortunately for him, he parks his car right where the giant burger atop the roof comes crashing down. He takes this about as well as you'd expect.
• We Can Rule Together: Kurt attempts to get Ed to work for him by promising a higher salary. His stupidity prevents him from taking the offer.
  • Not only his stupidity, but Dexter warned him if Kurt gets the sauce Good Burger would go out of business. And because Ed loves Good Burger so much, he won't work with him.
• Wham Shot: When Ed feeds a dog a Mondo Burger and a Good Burger and the dog only eats the latter, he and Dexter realize something is fishy about Mondo Burger. This leads to another Wham Shot where the boys, dressed in drag, peek into the Mondo Burger kitchen and see Triampathol being used to enlarge the burgers.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Two old ladies each order a Good Burger with extra sauce as the protagonists are racing back to the joint to stop anyone from consuming the shark poison. One of the old ladies is about to take a bite before realizing she didn't get any mustard. She's the one that Ed tackles which brings the poison to everyone's attention. But what about the other woman? She presumably took a bite at about the same time but it's never mentioned. Seems odd given the dire circumstances of the situation.
  • If you look closely, she's eating her fries first. She didn't get to the actual burger yet by the time Ed tackled the other one.
• What Is This, X?: When Ed explains how he climbed the giant food on Mondo Burger's roof, Dexter laments, "What is this, American Gladiators!?"
• What the Hell, Hero?: Monique to Dexter when she discovers his plans to take the majority of Ed's earnings for his sauce so Dexter can pay back Mr. Wheat for the car accident.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Dexter and Ed dress up as women in order to sneak into Mondo Burger.
  • Ed took it too far by wearing a corset and stockings.
• Work Off the Debt: Why Dexter's working at Good Burger; he owes money for a car collision.
• Would Harm a Senior: Kurt at first presents a facade of respect, then throws him into a mental hospital with Ed and Dexter just for discovering his shark poison scheme.
• Writers Cannot Do Math: Indeed there were clowns, but Ed was short one of five.
• "You!" Exclamation: Dexter to Ed when the latter, on roller skates, bumps into Otis. That’s when Dexter realizes it was Ed who skated in front of him while he was driving and caused his accident, which is why Dexter is now working to pay the damages.

Good Burger 2 provides examples of:

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Subverted. The automated BMW and the Ed robots going haywire are the result being sabotaged via hacking, rather than spontaneously acting on their own accord.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When Katt finds herself drenched in condiments and captured by an Ed robot, she frantically apologizes and begs Ed and Dexter to let her go.
• Avenging the Villain: Katt is Kurt's younger sister, and shuts down Good Burger and tries to kill Ed and Dexter for destroying his business and getting him arrested in the first film.
• Award-Bait Song: Parodied with "Give Good Burger Back", which even gets a 90s-style pop remix during the credits, courtesy of Wé Ani.
• Bavarian Fire Drill: Dex, Ed, and Mia sneak into Mega Corp by having the Dex and Mia pretend to be delivering a replacement Ed bot and badger security into letting them pass by insisting they'll mess up the grand opening of Mega Good Burger. The rest try to pose as a news crew, but security forces them to go to the press entrance.
• The Bus Came Back: Roxanne reappears as a nun and the nanny of Ed's kids.
• Call-Back:
  • Ed dreams about talking fast food items again (though this time the dream is much sillier).
  • Dexter gets the idea to call Ed after looking at the yo-yo he got.
  • Like last time, Ed has a better idea to take down Mega Good Burger: instead of just powering down all the robots to delay the opening, he hacks them instead, and the ensuring mayhem they cause around the world puts them out of business. And like in the first movie, he gives Dexter a long-winded explanation of his plan after all is said and done.
  • Mega Good Burger cooks burgers on the same heated conveyor belts that Mondo Burger used.
  • When Kurt's mugshot is briefly shown, he is still covered in ground beef from the exploding Mondo Burgers.
  • Ed's first and final line in the movie is his Character Catchphrase.
• Charity Motivation Song: After Good Burger gets shut down, Ed has an Imagine Spot where numerous celebrities sing one of these for the cause of reopening the restaurant.
• Conveyor Belt o' Doom: Mia ends up trapped on one that leads to a French fry maker at MegaCorp. Dexter saves her by diving between her and the potato slicer with nothing but a steel tray for protection.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Mr. Bailey and Mr. Weat weren't mentioned once throughout the entire film.
• The Character Died with Him: Otis and Spatch are implied to have died sometime after the first film.
• Easter Egg: The QR code in the background of Mega Good Burger leads to a blooper reel when scanned.
• Dualvertisement: Arby's did one advertising a meal featuring an actual "good burger" even as the cartoon burger seen in the film's poster asks if they're doing a promo for the film.
• Epic Fail: Dexter demonstrates his fireproof spray invention by stuffing his own house full of fireworks, then taking a flamethrower to the outside after coating it with the spray. Within seconds, his home and entire life go up in flames.
• Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: After Dexter's invention fails, he is forced to move back to suburban L.A. to work at Good Burger again.
• Family Theme Naming: Except for eldest child Ed 2, all of Ed's children have food-related names. Even his wife is named Edie.
• Generation Xerox: Ed 2 is just like his father, being a dimwitted Cloudcuckoolander with hidden talents (see below).
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • Roxanne returns, having since gotten on better terms with Ed and even started babysitting his kids.
  • Following the downfall of Mega-Good Burger, Katt's two goons are later seen at the re-opened original Good Burger, admitting that nothing beats an original Good Burger after all.
• Hidden Depths: During the credits, Dexter claims that his "permanent ice" idea was stupid before Ed 2 reveals that he figured out how to make it, indicating that he may have inherited some of his father's hidden talents.
• Honorary Uncle: Ed's many kids call Dexter "Uncle Dex". He is also the biological uncle of a Good Burger employee named Mia who hates him at first, but they bond by the end of the film.
• Human Popsicle: Fizz accidentally got locked in Good Burger's extra walk-in freezer decades ago, and is finally discovered and thawed out by Dexter. Subverted in that he still aged while frozen.
• Humiliation Conga: Just before the worldwide opening of Mega Good Burger, Ed reprograms the Ed robots to go haywire instead of serving fast food. Hilarity Ensues, and the Big Bad ends up drenched in ketchup and mustard while being manhandled by one of the robots.
• Kick the Dog: Katt blows up the Burgermobile for no reason other than hurting Ed and Dexter.
• MegaCorp: Literally the name of the fast food corporation that wants to "franchise" Good Burger. After Mondo Burger went under, it seems to have risen from the ashes as the Bozwell family business and now specializes in automation and robotic employees rather than chemically enlarged burgers.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Like her brother, Katt has a pretty ruthless streak. This time, instead of sending Ed and Dexter to a Bedlam House, she blows up the Burgermobile and sends them home in an automated BMW that tries to crash itself with them in it.
• Noodle Incident: Dexter's sister Charlotte invested in one of his failed innovations and distanced herself from him afterward. Even after giving Dexter the chance to apologize after he Good Burger back, we still don't know what she invested in.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When it comes out that Dex sold off Good Burger to Mega-Corp behind everyone's backs, which, unknown to Dex, resulted in the loss of the original Good Burger and everybody's jobs, even the unfailingly chipper Ed is extremely hurt and expresses to Dex how disappointed he is him.
• Product Placement:
  • The Coke machine at Good Burger is still right where it's always been.
  • Katt sends Dex and Ed on a wild ride in a self-driving BMW.
  • Mindy and Cindy both eat some Doritos while visiting Ed's house.
  • When Ed thinks about another job he could have after losing Good Burger, he imagines himself as the star of a movie called "Door Dash Dudes 2: A Time to Deliver."
• Remember the New Guy?: Charlotte and Katt were never brought up by their respective brothers in the first film.
• Rousing Speech: Parodied:
  Ed: We can't give up! [followed by a minute of awkward staring, which works]
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Ed's sabotage of the Mega Good Burger goes into full force, all of Katt's minions flee once they realize they can't handle it.
• Tempting Fate: After Dexter makes up with his sister, he declares they will never let anyone destroy Good Burger again. Cue Ed 2 accidentally driving the new Burgermobile into the restaurant.
• Toilet Humor: Ed trying and failing to hold in a fart while pretending to be one of the robot versions of himself.
• Villainous Breakdown: After the haywire robots ruin Mega Good Burger's opening, Katt angrily grabs one of the robots, screaming that they ruined everything. They then grab her instead and spray her with condiments.
• Your Head Asplode: Ed during the credits when he realizes Mindy and Cindy are actually part of a set of triplets and introduce their third twin sister named Wendy.

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