Western Animation / Eight Crazy Nights

It's naughty. It's nice. It's animated.

Eight Crazy Nights is about a Jewish drunk in his early thirties named Davey Stone (voiced by Adam Sandler) who, after one too many run-ins with the law, is forced to clean up his act lest he spend the next decade in prison. Local youth sports volunteer and bully magnet Whitey Duvall (also voiced by Sandler) promises the small town of Dukesberry, New Hampshire that he can turn the delinquent into a model citizen before the last night of Hanukkah. Meanwhile, Davey tries to rekindle a relationship with his childhood crush, who's now a single mother, and her son.

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If you don’t read these tropes, that’s a technical foul!:

• 555: The phone sex hotline Whitey apparently tried is 1-555-BOOBIES.
• Accidental Rhyme: Whitey tells Davey about the many good things about the mall, making up many rhymes in his speech. Lampshaded when Davey asks, "Did you plan that or did you rhyme that many times by accident?" Whitey agrees that it was weird, confirming that it was an accident.
• Adaptation Expansion: Whitey is based on a one-shot character from Sandler's album Stan and Judy's Kid. (He also appears in Little Nicky, played by Dana Carvey.)
• Alter Kocker: Eleanore, though Whitey claims that they aren't Jewish.
• Animated Musical: The film is an adult cartoon centered around the holidays of Christmas and Hanukkah with some musical scenes in between.
• Animated Shock Comedy: PG-13 and filled with Toilet Humor, jerkassery, and all types of crudeness you don't expect in an animated holiday movie.
• Anti-Christmas Song: "Davey's Song". While attempting to evade the police for skipping out on paying a bill, Davey sings about how much he hates Christmas.
• Art-Style Dissonance: It looks like a Disney movie (or more appropriately, The Iron Giant due to having some of the same production crew), but its sense of humor leans heavily into the vulgar side.
• Asian Store-Owner: Mr. Chin, played by Rob Schneider, fits a lot of the stereotypes; although he subverts Asian Rudeness just from the fact that the only time he acts angry is completely justified. (Davey dining and dashing). Beyond that he's just curt at worst, not mean.
• As You Know: Whitey's introductory scene has the judge telling him a whole bunch of stuff, in particular his imminent retirement, that he should already know.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: Davey during the first song of the movie.
  I hate folks who think reindeer are cute
  To me they're just something to shoot
• Bambification: The herd of reindeer all look like they came from a Disney movie and make cutesy chittering noises in place of talking. They are also some of the nicest characters in the movie due to helping Whitey’s car get unstuck, licking and eating all the frozen poop off of Whitey, and preparing Whitey and his sister for the Banquet.
• Berserk Button: Don't talk about Davey's past; it involves his parents killed in a car accident. Whitey had learned the hard way when he told Eleanore about it at the skating rink.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Eleanore is ten pounds of ass-kicking in a five-pound bag. See the scene when she's confronted by the man who stole her Liz Taylor wig as a child and returns it as a peace offering, after which she roundhouse kicks him in the face, knocking him out cold, then sticks his hand down his pants and leaves him there.
• Big "OMG!": Davey when he discovers his trailer on fire, unaware that his jock strap-eating opponent he won against in pick-up basketball lit it and poured gasoline over it.
• Book Ends: The film begins on the first night of Hanukkah and ends on the last.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Davey is understandably reluctant to hear Whitey recount the night his parents died in a car accident. Whitey, on the other hand, isn't wrong when he tells Davey that he should face what happened head-on.
• Brake Angrily: While riding with Whitey in his car, Davey ends up revealing that the peanut brittle he's eating right now was actually stolen, causing the old man to furiously slam on the brakes.
  Davey: Easy, seizure boy!
  Whitey: That's it! I'm calling the judge!
• Brick Joke:
  • Davey picks on the fat kid in his team, telling him to wear a bra next time he comes on the court. We next see him at the mall trying on a bra in a changing stall.
  • Whitey thoroughly enjoys the Bavarian cream-filled doughnut Jennifer serves him at the mall. During the final song, the townspeople bring it up:
    It's your moment, Whitey
    Enjoy, our tiny friend
    Like the Bavarian cream-filled doughnut
    You ate last week
• Butt-Monkey: Whitey, who suffers grand-mal seizures, eletrocutions, insults and many physical injuries from Davey and the townspeople of Dukesberry for their amusement. Until the ending.
• But Thou Must!: A rare non-videogame example. Before Davey could leave the city on a bus, all of the tires pop right in front of the venue where the All-Star Banquet is being held.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Whitey isn't exactly normal, but his sister Eleanore makes him look sane.
  Ahh, a burglar! Take what you want, but please don't chop my legs off!
• Cool Old Guy: Whitey, a 69-year-old volunteer referee from Davey's former basketball league willing to help out others from the goodness of his heart.
• Convulsive Seizures: Both Whitey and Eleanore suffer from these throughout the film, always Played for Laughs. In fact, the very last shot of the film is Whitey convulsing on the floor of the mall, declaring it "the happiest seizure he's ever had."
• Covers Always Lie:
  • The film's two promotional posters and its soundtrack album features Davey, with a devilish look on his face, flying his trailer through town and up into the air, with Whitey, Eleanore and the deer hanging onto a cord with various bits of Christmas and Hanukkah decor as they trail behind him. Davey's trailer doesn't fly in the film proper, nor is there any implication of magic existing.
  • The DVD cover for the 2-Disc Special Edition features Davey throwing a snowball at the... well, at you, as Whitey, Eleanore, Jennifer and her (Jennifer's) son Benjamin, stand by him, smiling over it (except for Eleanore, who reacts as you'd expect her to). Jennifer is most certainly not shown smiling or otherwise approving of any of Davey's antics or Jerkass behavior in the actual film (unless it's meant to represent Davey becoming a better person and having a playful snowball fight with someone, though that doesn't seem too likely).
• Creator Provincialism: The film's setting of Dukesberry, New Hampshire is based on Adam Sandler's hometown of Manchester, NH.
• Dark and Troubled Past: The reason why Davey is such a jerk to everyone is caused by his parents killed in a car accident.
• Did Not Get the Girl: Davey discovers his Childhood Friend and sweetheart, Jennifer, got married, had a son and was then cheated on by her husband, leaving her to raise the son as a single parent.
• Disney Creatures of the Farce: The reindeer. They are deliberately made to be as cutesy and wholesome as possible and help out Whitey whenever they can. This makes it more surprising to see them eat feces and poop out little brown pellets from laughing too hard.
• Disproportionate Retribution: In the technical foul song, Eleanore threatens to hit Davey with a baseball bat if he touches the thermostat. She proceeds to make several other threats over similarly minor offenses.
  • Also, near the end:
  • Eleanore: “Now go live happily ever after or I’ll drop kick the teeth out of your mouth.”
• Dude, Not Funny!: Davey makes fun of a fat kid playing in a basketball game, and both his parents glare at him for doing so.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Had Davey not got the town to acknowledge of how much of a jerk they've been to Whitey and what a service he did to the town, they wouldn't have given Whitey the recognition he deserved and Davey wouldn't be off the hook for the break-in.
• Easily Forgiven: Whitey forgives Davey for dumping Whitey in the porta potty, freezing with him a hose, and leaving him to freeze to death in the blizzard.
• Freudian Excuse: The reason why Davey is such a Jerkass, especially during the winter holidays is that his parents were killed in a car crash during that time.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Combined with Mushroom Samba in "Intervention Song" (Davey's broken into the mall, drunk off his sorry jerk ass) and done by product placement of all things.
• Gosh Darn It to Heck!: From "Technical Foul".
  Davey: Ohhhh, this is such bull-shit!
  Whitey: In this house, we say bull spit!
  • Gets a Call-Back during "Bum Biddy:"
    Davey (singing): I was such a shiiiiiiitheeeeeead...
    Flashback!Whitey: Feces!
  • Also in "Technical Foul", Eleanore asks Davey to say "hiney" instead of "ass".
• Graceful Loser: After losing the patch award to someone who donated money, Whitey stands up and claps for the man before leaving quietly.
  • After losing the basketball game with Davey and Benjamin, their opponent follows through on the bet of eating a sweaty fat man's jockstrap. However, it becomes subverted when the same guy is shown burning Davey's trailer down soon afterwards... with the jockstrap still seen in his mouth.
• Holiday Pardon: Zig-Zagged. When Davey Stone arrives at the award banquet, the police grab him and are about to arrest him when Jennifer — noticing Davey seems genuinely remorseful — calls for everyone to at least hear him out. They agree to hear him out, deciding to punish him after he's had his say. But after Davey calls them all out for being such assholes to Whitey, they instead follow him to where Whitey is so they can give him the award he so richly deserved. Davey is let off not because it's the holidays, but because of what he did for Whitey.
• Hook Hand: Tom Baltezor has a hook for a left hand.
  • "I wonder if that guy ever wiped his ass, with the wrong hand?!" "Yes..."
• "I Am" Song: The first song in the movie, "Davey's Song" has Davey singing about how much he hates the holidays while causing mischief through the town.
• Informed Attribute: Whitey's been coaching youth basketball for over fifty years, despite his deformity, but the one time we see him in action, he's constantly out of breath and disoriented as if he's never stepped on a court in his life. One could argue that his years are finally catching up with him though.
• I Got Bigger: One of the awards at the All-Star Banquet is for the biggest growth spurt, from 4 foot 2 inches to six foot five.
• In the Style of: The film's animation design is amazingly similar to that of The Iron Giant; most of the animation crew had recently been laid off from Warner Bros. now-defunct feature animation unit.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Nearly all of the name actors in the film, including Adam Sandler himself (based of photos of him from his early twenties) and many of his Saturday Night Live alumni friends. Davey's parents also resemble Adam Sandler's mother and father, who do their voices.
• Intentional Engrish for Funny: The Chinese waiter, given that he's voiced by Rob Schneider.
• "I Want" Song: The second song, where Whitey sings about his hopes for the All-Star Banquet.
• Jerkass: Davey is incredibly boorish, mean-spirited, sexist and antagonistic during the first half of the film.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Davey repeatedly says he doesn't want to talk about the night his parents died, but they go ahead and discuss it right in front of him regardless. Can you blame him for snapping at them afterwards? Even when about to be arrested in front of the other townspeople, he manages to get through to them how they didn't act any better to Whitey than he did.
• Jerkass Realization: During Davey's speech, the townsfolk realize how mean they've been by taking advantage of Whitey and try to repent.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Davey starts to become this in the second half where he warms up to Jennifer's son, Benjamin, and starts treating Whitey and Eleanore better. Then, in the end, he calls out the townspeople for taking advantage of Whitey.
• Karma Houdini: The basketball player who sets Davey's trailer on fire as revenge for beating him in a game of basketball... and making him eat a fat sweaty man's jockstrap. He never receives any comeuppance for setting Dave's trailer on fire.
• Kick the Dog: Davey does a lot of mean things, but by far the cruelest is ream out Whitey as being a worthless nobody who is deluding himself into believing anyone cares about him in spite of 35 years of work with nothing to show for it, and all because Whitey rightfully called him out on refusing to come to terms with the death of his parents. Whitey is so heartbroken from this, that once he loses the chance to get a patch (at first), he descends into a full blown Despair Event Horizon. It's also one of the very few scenes of Davey's nastiness that isn't played for laughs.
• Logo Joke: Eleanore takes the place of the Columbia Pictures Lady in the movie’s opening.
• Male Gaze: Davey (and the camera) focuses on Jennifer’s butt as she walks away in her introductory scene.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • Davey and Jennifer's song where they reminisce about their childhoods is interrupted when the former sees his home on fire.
  • The finale has Whitey and Davey exchange wishes of "Happy Hanukkah" and "Merry Christmas" before the pair hug.
  Whitey: You know, Stone, if my imaginary-wife and I ever have a son, I hope that you consider him a brother.
  Davey: Thanks, Whitey. And I'll pretend I never heard you say that.
  Whitey: 'preciate it.
  • The last shot of the film is Whitey, after a joyous moment of recognition, on the ground having "the happiest seizure ever."
• Mr. Fanservice: For a character who's supposed to be a lazy alcoholic based visually on Adam Sandler, Davey is pretty ripped (Word of God is that Davey was designed to look like "an Adam Sandler action figure," with all that that implies).
• Multi Boobage: "Even Mrs. Selman with the one extra breast!"
• Musicalis Interruptus: "Long Ago'' comes to an abrupt stop when Davey notices his trailer is on fire.
  Jennifer: Now he's just a loner, and a liar.
  Davey: And my trailer's caught on fire... FIRE?!
• My God, What Have I Done?: All of the townspeople. IN SONG!
• Nice Jewish Boy: Benjamin, Jennifer's son is a very nice and well-mannered little boy. Davey was also this as a young child before his parents died.
• Non-Indicative Name: While the film takes place over the course of the eight nights of Hanukkah and has several references to the holiday, it's not really about Hanukkah itself and is more of a buddy comedy. It was released on the first night of Hanukkah, though it didn't coincide with Christmas (in 2002, Hanukkah started the day after Thanksgiving).

• Peking Duck Christmas: The first scene involves Davey (who is Jewish) trying to pull a Dine and Dash after eating at a Chinese restaurant during the holidays.
• Prank Call: A group of kids call Eleanore's house for one "Ophelia Hiney."
• Prank Date: Type 2. During the song "Bum Biddy", one of the women reveals she went to high school with Whitey; as a joke she told him to meet her at the prom. When he got there, she was already taken with another guy and told Whitey, "I can't believe you ever thought I was serious!" causing everyone to laugh at him. This was enough for Whitey to run home crying and have to slow dance with his mom.
• Produce Pelting: Working as a youth basketball referee, Davey challenges the crowd to throw things at him and he gets his wish. The court becomes littered with concessions in no time.
• Product Placement:
  • Foot Locker, Panda Express, The Sharper Image, Victoria's Secret, See's Candies etc. It's typical for an Adam Sandler movie, but what's not typical is for them to come to life and sing a song about how Davey should cry over the loss of his parents when he was young.
  • One of Benjamin's Hanukkah presents is a GameBoy Advance.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Or rather, song, as Davey derides the town (and himself) for making fun of Whitey while ignoring Whitey's selfless acts.
• Recycled Animation: A shot of three kids laughing during the annual Banquet is used twice in the same scene.
• Santa Clausmas: Despite Hanukkah and Christmas being the central holidays for this movie, there are very little aspects of either interwoven into the movie’s plot.
• Scenery Porn: The town of Dukesberry is very visually stunning thanks to the high quality animation and artwork.
• Shirtless Scene: Davey, Whitey and Benjamin during the shirts-and-skins basketball game.
• Singing Simlish: The chorus to the song "Bum Biddy", which is a parody of nigunim, a series of melodies accompanied by nonsense syllables sung in Jewish religious services.
• So Unfunny, It's Funny: The mayor has this little gem that erupts all the people gathered at the All-Star Banquet into uncontrollable laughter.
  Mayor Dewey: "Knock-knock." "Who's there?" "Dontcha." "Dontcha who?" "Don'tcha wish I wouldn't have gone to the hardware store so that I could've come up with a better joke this year?"
  • The reactions of the people vary wildly. Some kids have snot erupt from their noses. Mr. Chin rips off his shirt. One man does That Russian Squat Dance. Even the deer outside are laughing so hard, they’re pooping out little brown pellets onto the snow.
  • The only people there who don’t laugh are Benjamin and Jennifer. Benjamin’s confused why everyone is laughing so hard, while Jennifer tells him people are doing it to be nice.
• Spontaneous Choreography: It's to be expected from a movie that's basically a series of musicals.
• Start of Darkness: Davey's descent to a life of drinking and jerkassery began because his parents died on Hanukkah.
• Toilet Humor: A fair bit throughout. For instance, a deer "projectile shits" from laughing so hard. There's also Whitey's port-a-potty ride. And when he gets frozen just afterward by Davey hosing him down, he's cleaned up by the deer... and one turns to grin at the camera with crap in its teeth. But then again, it is an Adam Sandler movie.
• Trashy Trailer Home: Davey Stone lives in a very small trailer near a junkyard. His trailer has no electricity and no running water, because no one wants to hire an insulting, alcoholic jerkass. Davey is somewhat looking forward to being sent to jail for his misdemeanors, as jail has heated cells and working toilets. Davey loses what little he had when a Sore Loser sets his trailer ablaze.
• Two Scenes, One Dialogue: Or in this case, multiple scenes all singing in chorus, specifically in the song "Long Ago".
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: "See anything?" "Just some deer doing a pyramid." The police attempt to locate Davey for his crime. Only to stumble upon several reindeer hiding him by making a pyramid formation together. Nothing unusual for the police, so they leave.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Davey. As a child, he was a star basketball player in his hometown. After his parents died, he spent the next twenty years in an out of foster homes, refusing to come to terms with the tragedy, until he became the delinquent he is today.
• Visual Pun: Davey squeezes an old woman's (water)melons in one scene.
• Wham Line: Whitey is a hard working individual working odd-jobs to pay his bills and hoping to win the Dukesberry All-Star Patch. Only for Davey to crush him with just one insult about how the townspeople of Dukesberry really think about Whitey Duvall:
  Davey: Cause the truth is, nobody in this town even knows you EXIST!
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Some details in the movie go unaddressed.
  • There's no indication that Davey does the time in jail he earned after the events of the film. To elaborate, that night, the judge said that Davey's sentence starts now. However, we don't ever see if he decided to drop that or not. Did Davey end up going to jail or not?
  • Also, the basketball player who sets Davey's trailer on fire as revenge for beating him in a game of basketball. He just disappears and isn't mentioned again.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Davey chews out the townsfolk for their treatment of Whitey through song after they fail to recognize his devotion for the 35th year in a row.
• White-Tailed Reindeer: Although the deer are called reindeer, they look like typical deer with brown bodies, thin coats of fur, and average sized antlers on the males.
• Vocal Dissonance: Whitey has an incredibly high-pitched voice that does not sound like the kind of voice you would expect from an old man.
• X-Ray Sparks: In the song "Bum Biddy", this happened to Whitey when he opted to be the TV antenna during a thunderstorm.
• You Monster!: After Davey verbally abuses Whitey in public, Eleanore snaps back at him "You're an animal!", only for him to rip her wig off and shout "AND YOU'RE BALD!" back.

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