History Film / TheLoveBug

* IncrediblyLamePun: From ''The Love Bug'' (1969):
-->'''Peter Thorndyke''': What part of Ireland did you say your mother came from?
-->'''Tennessee Steinmetz''': Coney Ireland. ''[starts laughing]''

* OverzealousUnderling: In ''Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo'', Detective Fonetoy of the French police tries a bit too hard to be a ProfessionalButtKisser to his boss the Chief [[spoiler:who is secretly the BigBad]] to the point he gets in the way of the Chief's plans. To provide an example: at the end of the second act, the Chief takes Herbie under protective custody [[spoiler:after his goons tried and failed repeatedly to get Herbie and the diamond in his fuel tank, which almost ruined his entry into the race]] and swears to Jim up and down that, on his honor, Herbie will be safe. The Chief's plan [[spoiler:to exploit being alone with Herbie to just get his hand in the fuel tank and fish out the diamond]] is screwed over by Fonetoy loading Herbie inside of an armored truck while the Chief is talking to Jim and heading off to a super-secret location where Herbie will be safe for the night (the Chief asks Fonetoy to tell him where this super-secret location is. Fonetoy’s answers roughly is: "well, it would not be super-secret if I told someone else, would it? Don’t worry, Chief, you can rest assured I will make you proud!"). At the day of the race, the Chief hoped that [[spoiler:Fonetoy would arrive on time and he would hopefully have enough time to get the diamond while Jim gets Herbie ready]] but Fonetoy arrives extremely late because of his measures to avoid being followed, so Jim has to take off immediately [[spoiler:forcing the Chief to order his goons to get Herbie mid-race]]. When everything is said and done, [[spoiler:the Chief hollers to Fonetoy that it's this kind of constant attitude from him that drove him so up the wall he orchestrated the theft of the diamond to have a good enough retirement fund to get the hell away from him forever.]]

* AnachronismStew: The later films used Volkswagens past the '63 model Herbie is, which have minor changes, such as larger windows or a slightly differently shaped body, likely due to the difficulty in procuring multiple '63s further and further past their production year.

* ''Herbie: Rescue Rally'' (2007) -- A racing game for the Nintendo DS developed by Buena Vista Games. It involves the main character Louise Noble and Herbie having to compete in a cross-state race to win 1,000,000$ in order to prevent her family's animal sanctuary from being bought out by Edward Vile, owner of the E.Vile Corporation Chemical Factory. Louise has always wanted to work at the speedway and gets her chance due to the Cross State Grand Prix being on during the summer. Mentored by Jackson, he introduces Louise to Herbie. The Love Bug takes a shine to Louise and together, they set off to win the Grand Prix. Throughout the game Louise is involved in several races against Big Bob and his monster truck Rusty and also Edward himself whose cars are Chip and later [[EvilKnockoff H.E.R.M.A.N]](Hydro Energetic Roto Magnetic Automated Nanocar).

* MagicBus: Herbie, Giselle, and Horace (artificially). The little yellow New Beetle in ''Herbie Fully Loaded'' is a slight case. Also, the numerous Bugs in "Rides Again," as Herbie's horn seems to magically power them up to drive alongside of him against Hawk.

** Jim Douglas also, after he stops being a JerkAss in the first film. In "Monte Carlo," he and Herbie are best of friends, and in the brief T.V. series, [[spoiler: he misses his own wedding when Herbie goes missing and he finds out he's been replaced by a made-up duplicate. Once he tracks down Herbie to a wrecking yard, about to be crushed, Douglas is completely hostile to the wrecking yard owner, (and for good reason, as he knew at the very least he was about to crush a stolen car) demanding Herbie be carefully lifted from the compactor and repeatedly barking, "Not a scratch on him!" After Herbie is on the ground, he starts shaking, honking his horn sadly, and "crying" with jets of windshield washer fluid due to almost being crushed, and Jim hugs him (to the best of his abilities) to comfort him and makes a vain attempt to dry Herbie's windshield with his pocket handkerchief.]]

** The movies that don't star Creator/DeanJones as Jim Douglas have a tendency to unwittingly make Douglas into a jerk. He leaves Herbie in "Rides Again" to race overseas, and again leaves him in Mexico for his nephew to collect in "Bananas." At the start of the 1997 T.V. film, Jones makes a lengthy cameo appearance, but again, Herbie starts the film not in Douglas' possession, and is in disrepair and a potential prize in a fix-it race. Based on how close Jim and Herbie are established as being in "Monte Carlo" and the brief T.V. series, the writers of the other films definitely seem to throw Jones' character under the bus to further the plots of their own films. While he's not officially in either the second or the fourth films, based on the canon of the series and Jim's importance, the actions of other writers on the other films cast Douglas' actions in a WhatTheHellHero light.

* ''Herbie Rides Again'' (1974) -- Herbie is left with Tennessee's aunt Mrs. Steinmetz (Helen Hayes) while Jim and Tennessee are out of the country, and helps save her home from evil property developer Alonzo Hawk (Creator/KeenanWynn), all while helping tough airline stewardess Nicole Harris (Stefanie Powers) fall in love with timid lawyer Willoughby Whitfield (Ken Berry), who turns out to be Hawk's nephew. Features a DisneyAcidSequence not found in other films.

* {{Expy}}: Detective Fontenoy from ''Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo'' is a klutzy French detective trying to solve the theft of a precious diamond and aggravates his superior [[spoiler:to the point of villainy]]. Sounds a lot like Inspector Clouseau from ''Film/ThePinkPanther'' films.

* ''Herbie: Rescue Rally'' (2007) -- A racing game for the Nintendo DS developed by Buena Vista Games. It involves the main character Louise Noble and Herbie having to compete in a cross-state race to win 1,000,000$ in order to prevent her family's animal sanctuary from being bought out by Edward Vile, owner of the E.Vile Corporation Chemical Factory. Louise has always wanted to work at the speedway and gets her chance due to the Cross State Grand Prix being on during the summer. Mentored by Jackson, he introduces Louise to Herbie. The Love Bug takes a shine to Louise and together, they set off to win the Grand Prix. Throughout the game Louise is involved in several races against Big Bob and his monster truck Rusty and also Edward himself whose cars are Chip and later [[EvilKnockoff H.E.R.M.A.N]] [[FunWithAcronyms(Hydro Energetic Roto Magnetic Automated Nanocar)]].