History YMMV / MeetTheParents

** Is Greg a hapless and sympathetic ButtMonkey who can never catch a break, or is he a chronic liar who is unworthy of Pam, just as her father thinks? Or does trying to get Jack to like him simply bring out the worse? In the second movie, his mother points out the fact he’s terrified of Jack and in the third movie his own son points out Jack makes him crazy.
** Should Greg have even bothered staying with Pam? In the first film, she rarely stood up for him against her family's nonstop bullying until the very end, and was constantly dropping little bombshells on him, such as the fact that she was engaged, that Kevin was the best man at her sister's wedding, and that her relationship with Kevin was primarily sexual.
** Jack too: a JerkWithAHeartOfGold who sincerely has Pam's best interests at heart, or just a manipulative, domineering bully who likes to control other people (including his family)?

** The MistakenForTerrorist scene in the first movie would be a lot less funny in a movie that came out after 9/11 which happened just a year later.

* {{Sequelitis}}: The first movie was considered by many as "the funniest comedy of the year". The second one received mixed reviews, with some saying it was better than the first one, and others saying it was worse (making it a ContestedSequel). The third movie was universally panned by critics, and Creator/RobertDeNiro said his only reason he was in it was the $20 million salary.

** Pam. As soon as the relationship started to get serious, she should've told Greg to forget about marriage because of the unlikelihood of her father ever giving his blessing. She also should've told him that in the unlikely event that Jack did give his blessing, he would spend the rest of his life treating Greg like garbage and trying to destroy the marriage. But she withheld this vital information from Greg for years, including that of her previous relationship with Kevin (which he lampshaded in the second film when she criticized him on not telling her about him and Isabel).
*** During the scene where Greg's secrets were accidentally revealed (with Jinxy and the gazebo). Whilst Pam was rightfully disappointed and hurt by his lies, accusing him of lying about the MCATS wasn't really justified since she seemingly knows more about his profession than her family does (To be fair, she probably questioned him out of shock rather than malice).
** Bernie and Roz Focker; despite Greg ''begging'' them to control themselves, neither can keep a secret and both lack a filter in conversations with the Byrnes family, needlessly bringing up parts of Greg's childhood that are not only [[{{Squick}} inappropriate to talk about around company]], but also created a major rift between Greg and Jack that would hit a head in the end of the second film where the latter became skeptical of Greg and suspected him of lying [[spoiler: about having an illegitimate son with Isabel, which he never did]]. Essentially they almost destroy Greg's relationship and ruin everything with their refusal to filter themselves.
** Even Greg to some extent. At the climax of the first movie, when he was confronted about his lies and the damage he unwittingly caused by them, instead of apologizing and accepting responsibility for his actions, [[NeverMyFault he made lame excuses for everything that happened]], to which even Dina called Greg out on. At that point, considering all the damage that had been done, [[UnintentionallySympathetic Jack's dislike and distrust of Greg was now justified.]] Blurting out Jack's secrets, and spoiling his surprise honeymoon for Bob and Debbie [[FromBadToWorse didn't help either]].

** Is Greg a hapless and sympathetic ButtMonkey who can never catch a break, or is he a chronic liar who is unworthy of Pam, just as her father thinks?

* {{Squick}}: The response to seeing Jack's [[spoiler:artificial "breast" for assisted breastfeeding]] is to drown one's sorrows in BrainBleach.

* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: Creator/JessicaAlba, in amongst the bonanza of phoning it in and MoneyDearBoy acting that is ''Little Fockers''.

* TheWoobie: Greg - nothing EVER goes right for him and his father-in-law is near impossible to please. His AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents don't make it much better, either.
** Worse yet. In the first movie NONE of Pam's family members and friends, with the exception of Dina and Kevin, find him sympathetic at all. [[spoiler: Ironically, Kevin ends up becoming Greg’s best friend by the third movie.]]

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Is Greg a hapless and sympathetic ButtMonkey who can never catch a break, or is he a chronic liar who is unworthy of Pam, just as her father thinks?