YMMV / Caddyshack

• Awesome Music:
  • The theme song "I'm Alright". It is Kenny Loggins.
  • Mr. Loggins later returned with "Nobody's Fool" in the sequel. It might be the only thing about said sequel that's looked upon fondly.
  • The goofy rendition of the 1812 Overture as Carl sets his explosives off.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The synchronized swimming during the pool scene.
• Critical Dissonance: While Leonard Maltin gave both films only two stars, he gave a slight edge to the sequel, praising Jackie Mason's character as a welcome addition. Needless to say, most of the fanbase disagreed.
• Designated Hero: Al Czervik may be charismatic and funny, but Judge Smails isn't wrong when he declares the man a menace. In addition to generally being rude and insulting, he breaks etiquette by annoying and disrupting others midgame, illegally gambles against club rules, puts a lot of his partner's money on the line by repeatedly upping the wager, and when he's on the verge of losing all this cash, he cheats by faking an injury and choosing a stronger player to take his place. In addition to all that, Czervik proves to be a genuine danger to those around him when he carelessly drives his boat and nearly runs down several people while destroying others' property. And while Smails is a huge asshole, it's Czervik who starts their drama by actively antagonizing the guy before he's done anything to him.
• Designated Villain: Make no mistake about it, Judge Smails is a massive jerk. At the same time, his initial behavior doesn't go beyond just acting very mean, with him still following the rules of the club, unlike his frequent tormentor Al Czervik. Smails' behavior does get worse later on, but it's pretty clear he's breaking down from all his recent misfortune, and after all the trouble Czervik has caused, he's well within his rights to want the man out of the club. At least... that explains his behavior toward Czervik. His exploitative, dismissive, abusive, racist and manipulative behavior toward Danny (and the rest of the Club staff for that matter) doesn't really have an excuse.
• Genre Turning Point: Despite its reputation as one of the greatest comedies of all time, that's partly due to the fact that it was a great stoner flick when a certain generation of Hollywood writers were college stoners. Later comedies have taken the good parts of the movie and run with it, discarding the things that didn't work, a lot of which came from its troubled production.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Ted Knight's character's Groin Attack by golf ball is more wincing as Ted Knight was diagnosed with colon cancer, that would claim his life six years following the release of this movie, which spread to his bladder and required him to have surgery to remove a tumor from his urinary tract.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: After Harold Ramis' death, none other than Barack Obama stated that he had hopefully achieved total consciousness.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • You'd swear the scene of Smails breaking through the door while chasing Danny was a parody of The Shining. But that film was only released two months earlier, so it's highly unlikely to be a deliberate reference.
  • At one point while trying to kill the gopher, Carl mumbles "What's up doc?". Bill Murray would go on to share a scene with the rabbit himself 16 years later.
• Hype Backlash: Given how much praise this movie gets as a comedy classic, many new viewers tend to go in feeling let down by the movie's directionless plot and odd pacing, both of which were byproducts of the film's rather Troubled Production (as detailed in the "Trivia" tab).
• Jerkass Woobie: Elihu Smails is an exceptionally unpleasant, elitist snob. Still, he takes a lot of abuse throughout the film, and some it really isn't warranted.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Who's here to watch young Danny's story, and who's here to watch comic pros Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, and Bill Murray? Even the filmmakers realized people would prefer their more colorful antics and emphasized their roles at the expense of Danny and the intended main story.
• Love to Hate: Ted Knight plays Judge Smails with such relish and perfect comedic timing that you can't help but crack up at his nastiness and misfortune.
• Memetic Mutation: Every golf-related scene and quote has been hijacked and parodied by sports channels. Actually, this movie's created so many memes that a Saturday Night Live sketch in the late 1990s had Bill Murray, the night's guest host, present a Parody Commercial for the book The Quotable Caddyshack. The ad argues that if you're a guy, knowing Caddyshack memes is vital to relating to other guys.
  • Judge Smails: "How 'bout a Fresca?"
  • "...so I got that goin' for me."
    • Which is nice.
  • "Well? We're waiting!"
  • "Cinderella story, out of nowhere..."
  • As plenty of lifeguards in The '80s and The '90s can tell you, thanks to this movie, Baby Ruth bars were frequently snuck into pools as a prank.
  • The sailing-related parts also have a high tendency to get referenced online in any thread about sailing or boats.
  • "So don't tell them you're Jewish."
• Mis-blamed: Harold Ramis and PJ Torokvei for the second movie. They're the credited writers, but they actually backed out when Rodney Dangerfield left the project. Uncredited writers finished the script. According to Ramis, he wanted to have his name removed, but executives convinced him that would only cause bad publicity once the trades found out.
• Moral Event Horizon: In the sequel, the "snobby" country club members behave far worse than their counterparts in the first movie. They actively interfere with a low-income housing construction project (claiming a falling down carriage house is a historical site) and interfere with his construction business. But the ring-leader, Club President Chandler Young, crosses right over it when he hires a comically inept hitman to kill Jack after he buys out the club and turns it into a gaudy amusement park as a pressure tactic.
• Romantic Plot Tumor: Danny has a girlfriend. Oh, maybe she's pregnant! She isn't? OK, forget it. (Actually an inversion: the residual romantic plot is what's left of the movie's main plot line after the comedy bits took over and stole most of the movie's running time).
• Sequelitis: The second movie came out almost a decade later, only brings back one original cast member (Chevy Chase) and Suspiciously Similar Substitutes of the first movie's main characters who hit the same beats story-wise.
• So Okay, It's Average: Caddyshack 2 is a shameless retread of the original movie with much of the original cast replaced with Suspiciously Similar Substitute characters. However, Dan Akroyd is certainly not a bad substitute for Bill Murray and Chevy Chase's enlarged role helps the film stay watchable.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • To Animal House. In fact, the film was pitched as Animal House in a country club. Harold Ramis and Doug Kenney co-wrote both films.
  • Ramis later quipped that they had intended to make a poignant coming-of-age story but instead made a Marx Brothers movie, presumably with Rodney Dangerfield in the Groucho part, Chevy Chase in the Chico part, Bill Murray in the Harpo part, Michael O'Keefe in the Zeppo part, and Ted Knight in the Margaret Dumont part.
• Strawman Has a Point: Smails is unquestionably being a dick when he tells Danny "The world needs ditch-diggers, too!", but it turns out, yeah; there's really nothing wrong with working blue-collar (and in Real Life, the pay and benefits are usually pretty good).
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Judge Smails is an undeniable Jerkass, but that doesn't mean its okay for Czervik to repeatedly target and humiliate him unprompted. Additionally, according to the rules of golf, Danny's last putt would not count as going in, meaning Smails would be the real winner and justified in refusing to pay Czervik. He almost certainly doesn't know this due to not citing the rule in his refusal, but even if he's being a prideful dick, he's technically in the right.
• Vanilla Protagonist: The filmmakers themselves realized that their intended protagonist Danny was much less entertaining than the supporting cast, so they expanded their roles at the expense of his. This simultaneously makes the trope less of an issue while also making it all the more noticeable how overshadowed the nominal lead is.
• Vindicated by History: Only an average success at release, has gone on to become one of the most memorable comedies of all time.
  • Vindicated by Cable: ...almost certainly due to frequent rotation in edited form on CBS, among other places.

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