History YMMV / TheBigShort

* ValuesResonance:
** The film manages to take a complex and technical explanation of banking loans and the housing market crash and turn it into a primer into better understanding how the economic systems in place are flawed while also able to be manipulated[[note]]Simply put, shorting stocks is borrowing stock to sell, then buying new stock and returning it to the owner after a quick turnaround. It's anticipating a minor market crash using the theoretical value of the stock, but if the price goes up you lose money because you sold the previous stock at a lower cost. If a company implodes, their stock nominally becomes worth nothing, letting you return the stock to the owner and making it basically free money[[/note]]. In early 2021 a [[Website/{{Reddit}} Subreddit]] forum saw similar attempts by hedge funds to short the stocks for the company Gamestop, and developed a targeted campaign which set out to make the Gamestop shares skyrocket in value, which in turn screwed over those hedge funds, as shorting left them with drastically underpriced stock. The event came to be seen as a rare moment where a grassroots scheme managed to poke a dent in the larger corporations.
** The mark left by this book and film also inspired other creators like [[WebVideo/FoldingIdeas Dan Olson]] to speak out against the then NFT and cryptocurrency craze of 2021, pointing out in detail and with simplified terms the reality behind the two and of the dire effects they have and would have if they were adopted ''en masse.''

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: The author himself notes that there's basically two ways you can view the protagonists: either they're a group of outcasts using intelligence and integrity to make money at the expense of a thoroughly corrupt system, or a bunch of holier-than-thou hypocrites gambling on human misery, little better than the bankers themselves.

* InformedWrongness: While we're supposed to view Baum's group as just as amoral as the banks when the S&P officer calls him a hypocrite, it comes off as forced and looks more like a bad attempt at BlackAndGrayMorality since a) what the S&P group is doing is largely still illegal ''and'' borderline fraudulent, while what Baum is doing is actually very legal, if capitalistic; and b) Baum is betting against the banks, who are hardly innocent in this case, while S&P and the banks are largely screwing up ''a whole country'' and people that are largely ignorant of what's going on because they've been '''lied to''' about being able to refinance their debt (which they couldn't). Fundamentally, while the protagonists are making money off the financial crash, they haven't caused it or done anything to make it worse, in fact all they've done is what they're supposed to do - look at the facts, look at the data, and invest accordingly in their clients' best interests without lying or fabricating anything. If the banks or the ratings agencies had just done that, the crisis either wouldn't have happened or been a lot milder.

* SpiritualAntithesis: To ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet''. While ''The Wolf of Wall Street'' follows the shenanigans of Jordan Belfort during his rise and fall, showcasing many of the excesses that he and his associates got away with thanks to their fraud scheme, ''The Big Short'' follows a cast of people betting against fraudulent people like Belfort, outright condemns those attitudes and stunts as [[{{Manchild}} utterly immature]], [[NeverMyFault selfishly irresponsible]], [[{{Greed}} insidiously avaricious]] and/or [[StupidEvil maliciously stupid at their core]], and unlike ''The Wolf of Wall Street'', the film makes a point of showing the devastating consequences of having people like Belfort controlling the reins of the economy and how they both hurt the common person with their reckless, self-centered and greedy behaviour and are inevitably self-destructive both to them and everyone else. It is best seen in the scenes comparing the excesses of brokers and their lifestyle. In ''Wolf'', that's the cool stuff to be jealous of. In ''Big Short'', the exact same antics are present as incredibly childish, done by people that shouldn't be entrusted with any sort of responsibility, not to mention global economy.

* {{Anvilicious}}: Unregulated capitalism is bad. ''The Big Short'' takes this stance when examining how the banks' actions led to the 2007-08 financial crisis by way of the housing bubble bursting. Nowhere is this made more obvious than in the WhereAreTheyNow epilogue, which reveals that only one banker was given any sort of criminal penalty for his involvement in the financial crisis and that the banks are still selling [=CDOs=], albeit under a new name.

** The mark left by this book and film also inspired other creators like [[WebVideo/FoldingIdeas Dan Olson]] to speak out against the then NFT and cryptocurrency craze of 2021, pointing out in detail and with simplified terms the reality behind the two and of the dire effects they have and would have if they were adopted in mass.

** The mark left by this book and film also inspired other creators like [[WebVideo/FoldingIdeas Dan Olsen]] to speak out against the then NFT and cryptocurrency craze of 2021, pointing out in detail and with simplified terms the reality behind the two and of the dire effects they have and would have if they were adopted in mass.

* SpiritualAntithesis: To the ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet''. While ''The Wolf of Wall Street'' follows the shenanigans of Jordan Belfort during his rise and fall, showcasing many of the excesses that he and his associates got away with thanks to their fraud scheme, ''The Big Short'' follows a cast of people betting against fraudulent people like Belfort, outright condemns those attitudes and stunts as [[{{Manchild}} utterly immature]], [[NeverMyFault selfishly irresponsible]], [[{{Greed}} insidiously avaricious]] and/or [[StupidEvil maliciously stupid at their core]], and unlike ''The Wolf of Wall Street'', the film makes a point of showing the devastating consequences of having people like Belfort controlling the reins of the economy and how they both hurt the common person with their reckless, self-centered and greedy behaviour and are inevitably self-destructive both to them and everyone else. It is best seen in the scenes comparing the excesses of brokers and their lifestyle. In ''Wolf'', that's the cool stuff to be jealous of. In ''Big Short'', the exact same antics are present as incredibly childish, done by people that shouldn't be entrusted with any sort of responsibility, not to mention global economy.

* ValuesResonance: The film manages to take a complex and technical explanation of banking loans and the housing market crash and turn it into a primer into better understanding how the economic systems in place are flawed while also able to be manipulated[[note]]Simply put, shorting stocks is borrowing stock to sell, then buying new stock and returning it to the owner after a quick turnaround. It's anticipating a minor market crash using the theoretical value of the stock, but if the price goes up you lose money because you sold the previous stock at a lower cost. If a company implodes, their stock nominally becomes worth nothing, letting you return the stock to the owner and making it basically free money[[/note]]. In early 2021 a [[Website/{{Reddit}} Subreddit]] forum saw similar attempts by hedge funds to short the stocks for the company Gamestop, and developed a targeted campaign which set out to make the Gamestop shares skyrocket in value, which in turn screwed over those hedge funds, as shorting left them with drastically underpriced stock. The event came to be seen as a rare moment where a grassroots scheme managed to poke a dent in the larger corporations.

* {{Narm}}: [[WhatTheHellIsThatAccent “THE CONTRACTS ARE VOIDED!? THE CONTRACTS ARE VOIDED!? Holy SHIT! OH, MUTHERFUCKA!”]]