"...Mr. Madison, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."
— The Principal
Billy Madison is a 1995 Comedy film starring Adam Sandler as a rich slacker who must go back to school, starting with first grade, all the way through high school, in order to inherit his father's company. He falls in love with Veronica Vaughn (Bridgette Wilson), his beautiful teacher, along the way. Hilarity Ensues.
Accidental Pervert: Billy purposefully initiates such an experience with his teacher Veronica, blaming the accident on a bumpy bus ride in the hope that she'll think it's this. Of course, he's just being a regular pervert.
Brick Joke: During the bus ride to the farm, the bus driver throws a banana peel out the window and onto the highway. Much later in the film, a car driven by the Jerkass O'Doyle family veers off course after going over the peel and plunges over a cliff.
"Hey, kids, it's me! I bet you thought that I was dead! But when I fell over I just broke my leg and got a hemorrhage in my head!"
Can't Get Away With Nuthin': The moderator of the Academic Decathlon suggests that Billy's soul deserves to be damned to Hell for giving a blatantly incorrect answer. Billy even does a Lampshade Hanging, pointing out that the moderator's reaction was a bit excessive.
Then again, Billy's answer really was just that stupid.
(FYI, "may God have mercy on your soul" is traditionally what a judge says when sentencing someone to death.)
Character Development: On the way, Billy grows more mature, apologizing for his bad behavior and genuinely cleaning up his act.
Character Filibuster: Subverted and parodied. Billy is required to give one of these describing how a work of literature reflects the changes the Industrial Revolution had on the modern novel as part of the climactic general knowledge quiz. He elects to compare the Industrial Revolution to a children's story called "The Puppy Who Lost His Way," and the scene cuts to the ending of the seemingly inspirational and well-informed monologue he gives on the subject. Then Billy turns to the headmaster to find out how he did, and the response is the quote at the top of the page.
Character Witness: Billy apologized to an old classmate he used to bully in school. That same former classmate comes back at the end of the film to save Billy from the villain.
Chekhov's Gunman: Aforementioned classmate, who had become a real gunman in meantime. He's seen crossing Billy off of a hit list after they make peace.
Cloud Cuckoolander: Billy most of the time, but practically every character in the movie during the bizarre Big Lipped Alligator Moment where they're all singing or dancing. ("Do you have any more gum, more gum, more gum, more gum, more gum, more gum?")
Do you have any more gum?
Billy's first grade teacher indulges in some rather odd habits when her class is outside playing dodgeball.
Comedic Sociopathy: This being an Adam Sandler picture, there's heaps and heaps of it. Billy sees a clown on stilts topple over and laughs his head off, even though the actor in the clown makeup has cut open his lip and broken his leg. He later reacts with hilarity when his arch-nemesis, Eric, is burning to death (but it's an Imagine Spot, so he gets better). A story about a professional wrestler killing an opponent by sitting on his head is played for laughs, as is a secretary being violently knocked into a coma. But the best (er, worst) example has to concern the O'Doyles, a family of stereotypically Irish-American louts (milky skin, freckles, ginger hair, you know the drill...) whose sole function in the movie is to act like a Jerkass to Billy at various plot points. Billy ultimately gets his revenge when a car carrying the entire O'Doyle family skids wildly after zipping over a banana peel on the highway and plunges over a cliff; every single O'Doyle is killed.
Defrosting Ice Queen: Veronica, although she's stern rather than genuinely mean.
Disney Death: The clown at Billy's party, who comes back to life just to take part in a musical number.
Everything's Better With Penguins: There's a giant penguin, whose status as real or just a figment of Billy's imagination is unclear, but a nemesis of Billy nonetheless.
Fan Disservice: We're suckered into thinking we're going to see Veronica Vaughn strip herself to the waist, but instead the one performing the striptease is the disgustingly fat male bus driver. Played by Chris Farley. Ick.
Having A Gay Old Time: In-universe: Veronica has to teach her class with a short story called "My Sister Fanny," and just lets them all giggle a bit and get it out of their system first. Billy doesn't get it, but then it turns out the story is on page 69 of their book.
Karma Houdini: The incident where Billy grabs Veronica's breast. For an adult man, that's sexual assault and she could have easily reported him to the police.
Shit, even Billy realizes this. So, natch, he requires a double-dare before he'll go through with it.
Pair the Spares: Taken to its logical extreme at the end of the movie (including the penguin).
Paste Eater: Billy eats the paste of glue in his first-grade class.
Product Placement: Done very blatantly early on with Triscuits featuring in the first conversation between Carl and Eric; it's worth noting that Bradley Whitford seems less than enthusiastic about having to plug the "delicious Triscuit crackers".
Billy sure loves his Snack Pack. He would trade his remaining banana for a kid's remaining Snack Pack.
Retired Badass: If we may describe it as badass, the principal (formerly known as The Revolting Blob).
Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: How Billy's Dad got him to pass at first, which Mr. Madison came to regret. Later, Eric blackmailed a principal into claiming Billy invoked the trope as well.
Shaggy Frog Story: Billy's comparison of the Industrial Revolution to "The Puppy Who Lost His Way" is suggested to be one. The page quote is the Principal's response to the screed.
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