Accidental Aesop: While the death of Jay's dog, Benji, taught Jay the obvious lesson "Lying has consequences". For Jay's dad, the lesson would be "Don't believe everything you hear until you see the evidence for yourself", which should especially ring true given Jay's penchant for Blatant Lies. Benji's death was because Jay's dad immediately believed him that Benji crapped on the carpet without looking for evidence or questioning any other reason as to why it happened. Considering he called Benji a "shitting machine", his grudges played a role in Benji's death and it tags on to the lesson by saying "Don't let your biases cloud your better judgement".
Alternative Character Interpretation: The heavy emphasis the show places on the main four causes a lot of this to occur among the secondary characters:
Although Carli is hated by many fans, Emily Head (the actress who plays her) disagrees that she is a bitch, saying she gets exasperated around Simon because he "is such an idiot around her. She never sees the sweet, lovelorn side of him."
A reasonable interpretation may be that she is Drunk with Power around Simon only. She knows she has complete power over him and can make him do anything she wants because his love has made him blind, and she can't help taking advantage of this power. Around other characters, she seems fairly friendly or at least tolerable — she evens stopsDonovan when he gives Will a wedgie in The Movie. That said, she doesn't seem to like Jay, although given the sort of person he is, this is perfectly understandable.
Jay. He cockblocks Simon with Carli, which makes him seen like a Jerkass. However, given how Carli seems to be only leading Simon on, Jay's actions (backed up by the fact that he tries to set him up with another girl at one point) can be seen as him trying to keep Simon from getting his heart broken by Carli, which does happen.
Adding to that, was the advice he gave Jay about his girlfriend simply well-meaning but stupid advice, or was he trying to break them up because he either thought the girl was ugly or because Jay was a bit too into her and it was going to end in tears anyway?
Mr. Gilbert. Is his dickish behaviour towards Will just because he's a Jerkass, or to give Will an exercise in humility? Or does he still have a grudge towards Will over his "impression" in episode one? Despite being very hostile to Will, he rarely sets out to antagonize him unless Will actually does something to provoke him (although this can also be considered Disproportionate Retribution).
There's also him getting together with Will's mum in the second movie. Does he actually care about Will, or does he look forward to tormenting him as his new stepfather?
Is he as apathetic as he lets on towards the rest of the student body? It's worth noting that the only prominent interaction we see him have with any of the other students is with Will. The only time we see any shades of meanness towards other students, is giving Jay and Neil a week's after school detention for their "Waterside" remark and, even then, that might have only been an attempt to teach them some humility, especially Jay who, let's face it, needs it as badly as Will.
Did Simon start "Friend!" just because it was funny and to annoy Jay, or was he actually jealous that Jay had a new friend and it was a roundabout way of getting Jay back?
Is Alistair Scott a Jerkass with no redeeming qualities, who Jay was completely right about? Or does he only become a dick to Will after the latter essentially tries to ruin the night for his own reasons? A bit of both?
Is Neil's dad really gay? Or is he just victim to a lot of unfortunate coincidences?
Are Simon's parents the closest thing the show has to a depiction of honest-to-goodness Good Parents? Or intrusive, passive-agressive jerks who emotionally abuse their son nearly as often as Jay's dad does to his own? By the same metric, is Simon's tendency to blow up at them whenever they try to speak to him completely unwarranted and a display of him being an Entitled BastardSpoiled Brat, or a natural response to them constantly belittling him?
Donovan: Is he merely an unpleasant Jerkass? Or is his over-the-top aggression hiding the fact that he's an Armoured Closet Gay? The fact that he enjoys taking pictures of Will in the toilet implies something, and there's a whiff of homoeroticism about a group of boys in their mid-teens playing 'shirts-versus-skins' football. This could be the reason why Charlotte, a girl who clearly has a high sex drive, dumped him - her jibe about wanting a "real man" might be directed at Donovan as well as Will.
Is Will's dad nothing but a bully who regards his son as a pathetic loser, or is he an Innocently Insensitive man who shares his son's well-intentioned tactlessness? Did he avoid inviting Will to his second marriage out of fear of being embarrassed by him, or as a misguided attempt at keeping him from having to leave his comfort zone? Are his tears of joy at the end of the movie meant to show that Will has finally earned his respect, or that he always loved him from the start? While cheating on his wife with a much younger woman is pretty unequivocally terrible behavior that casts a bad light on him, the fact that we only ever hear about it from Will's subjective point of view leaves some plausibility that the situation wasn't as cut and dry as we're led to believe.
Angst? What Angst?: Neil's not the least bit disturbed by the fact that "Paedo" Kennedy repeatedly attempts to sexually assault him. In fact, he simply brushes off one attempt with a cheerful "Oh, right" before instantly falling asleep.
Base-Breaking Character: While Carli is often viewed as a a borderline Hate Sink by large portions of the fandom for her supposedly manipulative treatment of Simon, some fans come to her defence for having a rather believably exasperated reaction to Simon's borderline obsessive and often awkwardly expressed crush on her. These fans also argue that some of the hate directed towards her is based on the Double Standard of how romantic relationships are often depicted in media, with her being labeled as a "bitch" and a "tease" simply for not being receptive to the advances of a Dogged Nice Guy despite a majority of these advances being poorly thought out and destined to fail from the outset. The Movie choosing to depict her as an out-and-out Bitch in Sheep's Clothing only widened the divide.
The opening theme, an instrumental version of Morning Runner's "Gone Up in Flames".
The series makes use of several licensed songs by indie artists like The Wombats ("Moving to New York" played at the end of "Thorpe Park"), Arctic Monkeys ("Fluorescent Adolescent", which appears in a number of episodes), The Libertines ("Don't Look Back Into the Sun", which plays at the end of "First Day") and Kate Nash ("Foundations", which appears in several episodes).
Designated Hero: Despite being the two characters the audience is most frequently meant to root for, both Simon and Will are prone to being callous, selfish and idiotic dickheads who are more than deserving of the punishments that they almost always end up facing. Of course, given the sadistic nature of the show, they're both clearly invoking the Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist trope.
Designated Monkey: Will, after he tells Kerry that they are not in a relationship. While his ensuing rant is inappropriate for the situation (Neil's birthday party) and rather tactless, it is true that Kerry lied to everybody about his intentions, and the fact that her father recently died does not guarantee her the right to date him. Despite this, everybody seemingly takes Kerry's side, and Neil's dad even orders Will out of the house. Most fans, though, believe that Will was in the right even though he could have handled the situation better.
Discredited Meme: Quotes from the series became so memetic in the UK that Simon Bird got sick of them before the series ended its run.
Things gameshow audiences do not do: Shout out quotes from The Inbetweeners such as: Clunge. Bus Wankers. Football Friend. Right, that's all you're getting.
Draco in Leather Pants: While Simon is arguably the most consistently sympathetic of the four protagonists, he's still regularly shown to be a selfish idiot with even fewer moments of kindness than Jay. It's common for fanworks to downplay his less savoury traits and portray him as a full-on Nice Guy.
The inimitable Mr. Gilbert. Greg Davies so embodies a teacher who is so hilariously tired of his idiot students, he starts to turn up a little more often during the show (likely because Greg Davies actually used to be a teacher).
Tara, Simon's series three girlfriend, tends to get a lot of love due to being the only long-lasting Love Interest (rather than an unrequited crush or Lust Object) any of the boys ever get.
Apparently, MTV didn't learn the lesson from their Skins remake in that when you try to blatantly copy a popular cross-Atlantic show at a time when creating international hype and finding episodes to watch are just a short mouse click away, you're just going after an audience that's already been widely exposed to the original product. There's instantly a built-in been there, done that apathy, and needless to say the American remake didn't last long.
Fountain of Memes: Jay is so quotable (with lines such as "Bus wankers!" and "Completed it, mate") that he just oozes memes.
Simon's romantic moments with Lucy in light of the second movie.
For that matter, all of the gang's love interests in that movie, given that three of them are dumped by that point, and the fourth one wishes he was.
Jay's comments about D of E awards consisting of being "bummed by a royal bloke up a mountain" look a lot different in light of allegations about Prince Andrew and his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
"Bus wanker" took on a darker turn when public masturbation on a bus became a subplot in Sex Education.
Jay's use of the phrase "Fuck off, you fat wanker" is made all the more funny when you consider that his American counterpart ''is'' a fat wanker.
In the first episode of series three, Mr. Gilbert tells Will "It's not the First World War and he can't conscientiously object" out of the fashion show. Fast forward to 2013, and Simon Bird (Will's actor) is in a show about World War I conscientious objectors, though his character was medically ineligible.
In the first episode, Jay has a fake ID that says he is from Australia and he starts speaking in a hilariously terrible accent. Guess where Jay ends up going in the second movie?
Although the guys are markedly unpopular they aren't bad-looking by any means (with only Will plausibly fitting the usual nerd stereotype) as it's more their complete lack of social graces, frequent public Idiot Ball moments and Jay's often repulsive behaviour that seems to doom them.
In the American remake, this is played straight...with the major exception of Jay. You've got to wonder why they're considered outcasts.
Will finds Kerry and specifically her height as unattractive but by most people's standards, she's fine. Neil even points this out to Jay at one point, Foreshadowing that Neil gets a blowjob off her.
Although he handles it in the worst possible way in "Will's Dilemma", he was doing the right thing to stop leading Kerry on by continuing to date her even if he didn't want to just in the hopes of receiving sexual favours, and that he wasn't obligated to keep doing so against his will just because of Kerry's admittedly sad death in the family.
That Frisbee was his (he had a receipt!) and the disabled girl had no right to refuse to return it to him.
Simon also gets a mention here. We're supposed to view him as a Jerkass for frequently losing his temper at his parents, as well as swearing at them, supposedly without any provocation. The only problem is that his parents do like to tease and provoke him and laugh at him when he loses his temper (see Unintentionally Unsympathetic below).
It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: The American version did exactly the same thing as the ill-advised Skins remake, only much worse, changing the word "wankers" to "turds" and essentially working word-for-word from the original - which heavily relied on British humour, experiences, and cultural references, something that can't be recreated IN AMERICA! simply by making the script different.
Jay. He's a little stuck up and arrogant, but clearly has several emotional issues, not to mention that his dad is disgracefully cruel to him at times.
Alistair is portrayed as a total arsehole, and while he clearly crosses the line by telling Will that he hopes he gets a life-threatening illness, he's still a young teenager whose life has been seriously impacted by a horrible ailment, and Will certainly didn't help matters by being incredibly condescending, aggressive, and hypocritical in his behaviour regarding the fashion show.
Memetic Molester: Mr Kennedy is an in-universe example. The fact that he attempts to sexually assault Neil on a couple of occasions and is actually nicknamed "Paedo" speaks volumes about his reputation.
To a lesser extent, Jay could be considered one as well. Will in particular considers him a borderline sex pest. This is seen in Series Two when he tries in vain to find a sexy older housewife by propositioning every woman over thirty he meets (including an old woman at an ice cream stall), and in Series Three when he attempts to harass a Dutch student because he was told she likes younger guys.
Memetic Mutation: Tons of examples. Try counting how many Facebook groups there are titled after quotes from this show. Lampshaded/discredited by Simon Bird (Will's actor) during a stand-up routine he did on the student circuit. Before going onstage, he set up a presentation telling the audience what hosts of gameshows are supposed to do. "And now for things gameshow hosts DO NOT do: Spout out quotes from The Inbetweeners. Things gameshow audiences DO NOT do: Shout out quotes from The Inbetweeners. Such as: Clunge. Bus Wankers. Football Friend. Right, that's all you're getting!"
While Simon is meant to be sympathized with, the show also goes out of its way to demonstrate that his Dogged Nice Guy tendencies are misguided and ultimately more a display of his immaturity and selfishness than any real kind of romanticism. Despite this, many fans take them at face value and embrace Simon as a male Unrequited Tragic Maiden that the universe is unreasonably cruel to rather than the fallible Jerk with a Heart of Gold who is more often than not his own worst enemy that he actually is.
Moral Event Horizon: Although Alistair is partially disabled due to a previous kidney failure and comes across as a bit of a selfish prig, it's when he wishes a serious illness upon Will that he really becomes irredeemable.
Nightmare Fuel: The fact that "Paedo" Kennedy is still employed by the school despite his repeated attempts to molest students, Neil in particular. And worse still is the fact that Gilbert is covering for him.
Periphery Demographic: The show has a sizable female following due to having four reasonably attractive young men as its leads. They're very aware of it, and have half-jokingly described themselves as being like a Boy Band.
Jay's dad is hated for his unpleasant and vulgar personality, and for his callous treatment of Jay. If none of that was bad enough, he also puts down Jay's dog in one episode.
Jay in the MTV remake is disliked for being an obnoxious Jonah Hill wannabe.
Likewise. Mr. Gilbert's character in the MTV remake is just as hated for being a wimpyPaul Giamatti wannabe who is noticeably far less intimidating than Greg Davies' portrayal in the original show.
Jay is caught wanking by his mum but, having given himself a numb arm, he can't turn the porn on his laptop off. In the Big Damn Movie, this is taken up to eleven when his mum catches him again - only this time, his mum is accompanied by his prepubescent sister and Jay's wearing a diving mask and oven mitts, in addition to using slices of ham.
Jay's dad at the Caravan Club. He gets piss all over the floor in the toilets, and even Neil is offended by the smell of his farts.
Simon puking all over Carli's little brother.
Whatever Neil and the punk girl got up to in Simon's car.
Tara snogging Simon immediately after throwing up.
Simon's Wardrobe Malfunction at the fashion show, leaving one of his testicles on display for all to see.
Jay rubbing hair removal cream over Will's pubes while he's asleep, and Will's subsequent attempt to cover up his lack of pubes in yet another doomed attempt to get lucky.
Jay wanking in an old lady's bedroom and then shaking someone's hand, getting his jizz on that person's hand in the process.
Will shitting himself in an exam, and later turning up at the pub with his soiled trousers in a plastic bag.
Neil wetting the bed and pissing over Will and Jay when they go to Warwick. The urine is green in colour.
Jay's attempt to give himself an ear-piercing, which results in a nasty infection.
The lads eating uncooked sausages during a camping trip, then Neil vomits when they're all trying to sleep, thus setting off a puke chain reaction while Jay panics and fails to unzip the tent flap.
Ships That Pass in the Night: Parodied a bit with Will/Rachel in !A Night Out In London" with Will suddenly thinking she's into him after only asking him a question despite no evidence of any previous interactions and her role mainly just consisting of being a Satellite Character to Carli, though perhaps he's directed to that assumption thanks to a bit of ( ultimately incorrect) Fridge Brilliance by Neil. It's quickly and brutally revealed to be a one-sided crush.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: It seems like they couldn't decide if Tara was supposed to be a Deadpan Snarker, a borderline Genki Girl or just a Generic Girl counterpart to the rest of the Inbetweeners. Her line about Simon's car is one of her funnier moments, but other than that one instance she's mostly just a Satellite Love Interest for Simon who gets little interaction with the rest of the group.
"Actually, I like Simon's car. It's so tragic at least I know he's not out picking up other girls in it."
Girls in general have this problem in the TV series, as most of them aside from possibly Charlotte are not characters in their own right but lust objects for the lads. The movie does a somewhat better job with fleshing out the female parts into actual people, though Lisa and Lucy still suffer a bit and Lucy gets turned into a total psychopath for the second movie.
Many wish Simon’s snarky younger brother Andrew got more scenes.
Really, this could extend to the entire secondary cast; the focus is always so tight on the main four that even the more prominent characters like Mr. Gilbert or Big John rarely get more than one scene an episode.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: To go along with the above, the lack of exploration of Carli becoming jealous of Simon's relationship with Tara in series 3 is seen as a waste of a lot of potential.
Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: The protagonists are all obnoxious, self-centered Jerkasses who have no hobbies or interests outside of being obsessed with getting laid and/or drunk, their peers aren't that much better and the universe just loves to kick them in their collective crotches. Not to mention the sheer amount of cringe comedy can turn a lot of people off.
Tough Act to Follow: The US remake was panned for its inability to recreate any of the humour while making the characters even less likable than they're supposed to be.
Ugly Cute: A rare inanimate example: there's no denying that Simon's Fiat Cinquecento is shit, but there's something undeniably charming about it, in a "so uncool it's cool" kind of way.
The teenage experience depicted was fairly consistent from about 1970 up to 2010 but changed dramatically shortly afterwards. Notably, the series' spiritual successors (such as Derry Girls) have tended to be intentional period pieces or set in an Ambiguous Time Period rather than being contemporary.
The soundtrack comprises of popular music taken from that period.
Mobile phones used by the characters are of the pre-smartphone variety and there are no tablets. The characters also happen to use PS3s and Nintendo Wiis, social networks in use are Facebook, Myspace and Bebo (The latter two of which have fallen out of favour since), while Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram are not. ThisGuardian article notes that the finale aired just twelve days before the launch of Instagram.
In the first season, Neil makes reference to Nuts magazine, which had become defunct by the time the second movie came out. Furthermore, porn magazines are still shown to be widely available, something that also diminished greatly in the time since.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: Will gets this a lot. Despite his Know-Nothing Know-It-All tendencies, the people he pisses off tend to be a lot worse than him. This hits its peak in Work Experience. He may have been rather condescending towards the mechanics, but that didn't justify them abusing a minor.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Simon's parents are supposed to be seen as kind and loving parents who have to put up with their oldest son, Simon, being ill-tempered and unappreciative towards them. However, there are moments throughout the show where they come across as being little better than Jay's parents, since they are utterly tactless, in addition which they seem to enjoy teasing or provoking Simon into flying into a rage; as a result, it's difficult to entirely blame Simon when he loses his temper with them. A good example is when they discuss their sex life right in front of him, despite knowing full well that it makes him uncomfortable. Another good example is in the fashion show episode, when they are not just unsupportive of Simon's desire to take part, they tease him for doing so and when he inevitably loses his temper with them, they just laugh at him. It's no wonder their bond with Simon is so poor.
Wangst: Will is guilty from time to time, but the real expert is Simon.
Simon: a good portion of his suffering may be self inflicted, but a lot more of it comes out of Carli leading him on and the other three pressuring him into things he otherwise refuses to do. He also has an obnoxious younger brother and equally obnoxious parents who are not above teasing or provoking him.
Will gets a turn when Charlotte just dates him to get back at Donovan, and when Simon tells him this he refuses to believe it and storms off in a huff ... only for his heart to get broken when Charlotte goes on a Blind Date-esque show at school, leaving Will to run off crying to his mum.
Kerry is constantly mocked and humiliated for her height, but she's nothing but kind to Will (at least until he dumps her). Plus, her dad died recently. While blatantly lying about Will trying to have sex with her pushes her towards Jerkass Woobie territory, that was actually what the other boys had encouraged Will to do.
Carli's little brother. Gets freaked out by Will talking about terrorists and then puked on by Simon in the same episode. Later, Simon breaks into his room and touches him up (try explaining to him that Simon thought he was breaking into Carli's room). Poor kid.
The Movie
Americans Hate Tingle: The film's Rotten Tomatoes 'Approval Rating' dropped from 75% to 55% after it opened in America. Subsequently, The Inbetweeners 2 never even received a DVD release in the USA.
Broken Base: Befitting a Base-Breaking Character, Carli's depiction in The Movie is fairly divisive among fans. Some consider it to be a satisfying culmination of the series' repeated suggestions that she isn't as nice of a person as she initially seems that enables Simon to finally move on from her, while others find it to be a jarring case of Derailing Love Interests that ignores the numerous legitimate reasons she has to not be interested in Simon for the sake of vilifying her.
Jane, Lisa and Nicole are Love Interests to the boys. Later on, the actresses playing them went on to do a show described as the "female Inbetweeners."
A Jimmy Carr poster can be seen in Simon's room - Jimmy is a fan of the show and hosted the 10-year anniversary special.
Part of the joke with the rowdy Burnley fans on the coach is that at the time Burnley was a mid-table Championship side with very little prospect of playing in Europe, implying these fans are so dedicated they've flown all the way to Greece just to watch a friendly. Six years later, and Burnley did qualify for Europe, and even better, their first game was against a Greek club. It'll be a small comfort for Will to know they were knocked out immediately.
Informed Wrongness: Will was right about the disabled girl not needing a sun lounger, although it was rather callous of him to point that out. Additionally, her family had no right to use their towels to reserve them, given that there was a sign warning against exactly that.
Retroactive Recognition: A pre Star WarsDaisy Ridley got her start on this show. However, her role from the second film ended up being cut due to her being unavailable for reshoots.
Signature Scene: Neil, Simon and Will dancing to impress the girls.
Neil shitting in the bidet and then getting it on the floor in the movie.
Jay tricks James into snorting cocaine with a banknote that he'd previously been keeping in his rectum, leading James to not only snort Jay's shit but spend the rest of the boat party wandering around with shit on his nose. Given that James is an out-and-out Jerkass, this also counts as a rare Moment of Awesome for Jay.
And, of course, Fernando - "the master of self-fellatio"!
The Woobie: Lisa gets relentlessly strung along by Neil, only to get pushed aside as Neil gets off with some cougars then we find out that not only did he lie to her about his girlfriend dumping him, but that she's become a Sequel Non-Entity.
, an instrumental version of Morning Runner's "Gone Up in Flames".