History Trivia / TropicThunder

* ActorAllusion: In the fake trailers at the beginning of the movie, [[Film/IronMan Tony Stark]] and [[Film/SpiderMan Peter Parker]] as gay monks!

* TomHanksSyndrome: Portnoy is attempting to do this because he is sick of people laughing at him.

** Lampshaded in the Cast Commentary, where Ben Stiller notes Jay and Brandon weren't even present for the commentary (both supposedly had some other appointments at the time).

* FakeNationality: American RobertDowneyJr played an Australian who was playing an African American and even disguised himself as an Asian farmer. He's a dude playing a dude playing as a dude disguised as another dude.

* RoleAssociation: [[MeetTheParents Gaylord Focker]], [[Film/SchoolOfRock Dewey Finn]] and [[Film/IronMan Tony Stark]] do a movie together, with [[NightAtTheMuseum Octavius]] as the director, [[MissionImpossible Ethan Hunt]] as producer and [[EastboundAndDown Kenny Powers]] on special effects.
** Lampshaded and mocked for the MTV Movie Awards intro of 2008: Ben Stiller tries to ramp up popularity by billing Jack Black as [[WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda Po]] and RD Jr. as Iron Man on the poster. From there, he creates a [[Main/ViralMarketing viral video]] with the twosome, the first take of which has them in masks of their respective hit movie characters. Iron Man kicks Po in the crotch, and it just gets worse from there for Black. [[spoiler:It ends with him getting his face exploded. Stiller tries to pass it off as realistic special effects to an understandably annoyed RD Jr.]]
** Also in the fake trailers at the beginning of the movie, [[Film/IronMan Tony Stark]] and [[Film/SpiderMan Peter Parker]] as gay monks!
*** " Dear Mr. Joe Queseda, boy do I have an idea for you..."
*** Could also be an ActorAllusion to the relationship the two actors' characters had in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonder_Boys_%28film%29 "Wonder Boys"]].
** Lampshaded in the Cast Commentary, where Ben Stiller notes Jay and Brandon weren't even present for the commentary (both supposedly had some other appointments at the time).

* MemeticMutation: Several, though the most famous one is actually a case of BeamMeUpScotty

** The dance sequence at the end came from Tom Cruise randomly deciding to start hip-hop dancing during a make-up test. The crew thought it was funny enough that they worked it into the script.

* TheOtherMarty: Owen Wilson was originally set to play Tugg Speedman's agent, Rick Peck, but after his suicide attempt, he understanbly backed out of the role. The role ended up going to Matthew McConaughey.

* PlayingAgainstType: TomCruise in a fat suit and heavy make up that make him almost unrecognizable as a JerkAss film producer in a comedy film is probably one of the biggest examples of this trope in history.

** When Tugg nearly fell into the river while he was crossing alone, Ben Stiller really did trip and nearly drown.

* MemeticMutation: Several, though the most famous one is actually a case of BeamMeUpScotty.

* RoleAssociation: [[MeetTheParents Gaylord Focker]], [[SchoolOfRock Dewey Finn]] and [[Film/IronMan Tony Stark]] do a movie together, with [[NightAtTheMuseum Octavius]] as the director, [[MissionImpossible Ethan Hunt]] as producer and [[EastboundAndDown Kenny Powers]] on special effects.

* DirectedByCastMember: BenStiller. Made filming the movie a little complicated since it's about filming a movie within a movie.

** When Tugg nearly fell into the river while he was crossing alone, Ben Stiller really did trip and nearly drown.

* FakeNationality: American RobertDowneyJr played an Australian who was playing an African American and even disguised himself as an Asian farmer. He's a dude playing a dude playing as a dude disguised as another dude.

** Lampshaded and mocked for the MTV Movie Awards intro of 2008: Ben Stiller tries to ramp up popularity by billing Jack Black as [[KungFuPanda Po]] and RD Jr. as Iron Man on the poster. From there, he creates a [[Main/ViralMarketing viral video]] with the twosome, the first take of which has them in masks of their respective hit movie characters. Iron Man kicks Po in the crotch, and it just gets worse from there for Black. [[spoiler:It ends with him getting his face exploded. Stiller tries to pass it off as realistic special effects to an understandably annoyed RD Jr.]]

* ThrowItIn: A few scenes just happened on its own.

* FakeNationality: American RobertDowneyJr played an Australian who was playing an African American and even disguised himself as an Asian farmer. He's a dude playing a dude who was playing as a dude disguised as another dude.

* FakeNationality: American RobertDowneyJr played an Australian who was playing an African American and even disguised himself as an Asian farmer. He's a dude playing a dude who was playing as a dude disguised as another dude.

* FakeNationality: American RobertDowneyJr. played an Australian who was playing an African American and even disguised himself as Asian Farmer.

** Lampshaded and mocked for the MTV Movie Awards intro of 2008: Ben Stiller tries to ramp up popularity by billing Jack Black as [[KungFuPanda Po]] and RD Jr. as Iron Man on the poster. From there, he creates a [[Main/ViralMarketing viral video]] with the twosome, the first take of which has them in masks of their respective hit movie characters. Iron Man kicks Po in the crotch, and it just gets worse from there for Black...
*** [[spoiler:It ends with him getting his face exploded. Stiller tries to pass it off as realistic special effects to an understandably annoyed RD Jr.]]

* RoleAssociation: [[MeetTheParents Gaylord Focker]], [[SchoolOfRock Dewey Finn]] and [[Film/IronMan Tony Stark]] do a movie together, with [[NightAtTheMuseum Octavius]] as the director and [[MissionImpossible Ethan Hunt]] as producer.

**** " Dear Mr. Joe Queseda, boy do I have an idea for you..."

* DirectedByCastMember: BenStiller. Made filming the movie a little complicated since it's about filming a movie within a movie.

** Lampshaded in the Cast Commentary, where Ben Stiller notes Jay and Brandon weren't even present for the commentary (both supposedly had some other appointments at the time).