Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Theseus’s advertising scene is one, even if explained away as the effects of fairy magic.
Crosses the Line Twice: Playing the bad acting of a bunch of janitors for laughs is tasteless. Having their acting be So Bad, It's Good and interrupted by frequent out-of-character moments, improvisations, and plagued by falling apart props is hilarious.
Fountain of Memes: The cast and crew have had a heck of a time editing pictures of and repeating lines from the play. “It’s because of our difference in HEIGHT, isn’t it?”; ‘Fab Roxanne Shanaynay Draco’ (the crazy-dancing fairy); the ‘flying snake’; various ‘ass’-related puns; and so on.
One-Scene Wonder: The soloist who plays the opening and closing pieces (okay, two-scene wonder…). Not a character, but the projector shows up at the very first scene, and is never seen again.
So Bad, It's Good: The Pyramus and Thisbe scene is a gods-awful tragedy. But a brilliant comedy.
Values Dissonance: The only couple that is never shown fighting or having any other sort of problem is the duke and duchess - a couple that married after the former raped the latter. For the fairies, cheating on one’s spouse is, at worst, a cause for embarrassment. The clumsy stupidity of a bunch of janitors is cause for amusement. A mother’s power of life or death over her daughter is considered normal and accepted. Racial slurs against blacks and gypsies are commonplace. Nearly everyone has some sort of condescending sexist attitude towards women (this applies only to the mortals; the fairies seem to be extremely egalitarian). The fact that Demetrius ends up requiting Helena’s love because he remains under the fairies’ spell is part of the happy ending.
