History YMMV / TheTrumanShow

* NotSoCrazyAnymore: The entire plot. See ValuesResonance below.

* AccidentalAesop: If someone you know is having a breakdown, don't belittle their feelings or put your material needs above them, or you'll make their problems worse and drive them out of your life. Meryl choosing to do ProductPlacement in the middle of a serious conversation finally destroys her "relationship" with Truman. If Meryl had chosen to put Truman's mental health above her own needs, or at least ''pretended to,'' she could've convinced him to stay in Seahaven.

** Is Louis/Marlon just another one of Truman's captors, or does he -- in stark contrast to his fellow actors -- genuinely care about Truman and want to help him? While the movie provides little in the way of background for Louis and sheds no light on his motivations, his [[WordOfSaintPaul actor has suggested]] that Louis is deeply conflicted about what he's being asked to do and, as a result, suffers from substance abuse issues. Deleted scenes that show Louis reacting with slight bitterness to Christof's proposals for a 'spin-off' focusing on Truman's son ("[[ArmorPiercingQuestion So when Truman dies, we go back to the single-channel format, right?]]") and looking the other way for Truman after stumbling across him during his escape muddies the water further.

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** There's a theory going around that Simeon (the TV engineer played by Paul Giamatti) is a deep-cover mole for the Free Truman Movement, and that he purposely did the things that made Truman start questioning his reality (the light falling, the rain mishap, the wonky radio transmission, the actor of his father managing to sneak on set and appear before Truman) so Truman could figure out what was going on and leave by his own free will. The fact that Simeon was goofing off in the Director's chair reading a newspaper before Christof came in at the start of the third act under the guise of letting his apprentice get some hands-on experience with the cameras and [[spoiler: he didn't wake up Christof to tell him that Truman now was sleeping in the basement despite his direct orders to tell him immediately of unpredictable behavior]] adds to the theory.

* MemeticMutation: Truman's "What the hell are you talking about?" in response to his wife's blatant ProductPlacement about cocoa is a popular GIF on message boards.
** It got further resurgence thanks to ''Series/{{Ozark}}'', where Creator/LauraLinney plays an unhinged sociopath similar to Meryl, constantly feigning real emotions.

** Conspiracy theorists. The film matches their worldview, making it easy to relate to Truman -- he spots errors with the official story, realizes everybody in the world is actually hiding the truth and/or plotting against him, [[spoiler:before discovering and beating a shadowy figure pulling all the strings behind the scenes]]. As such, some take the film's small-scale, poorly kept-together conspiracy as evidence their own, world-wide theory has to be correct because they, like Truman, "woke up" and saw past the illusion.

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: The biggest villain is Christof, since he's the creator of ''The Truman Show'' and the main manipulator of Truman's life, but he's also a [[EvilIsCool cool]], interesting and enigmatic character, and has some AntiVillain trais. On the other hand, Truman's "parents" and his wife "Meryl" just come off as unlikable and uncaring people who only use Truman for their careers. "Meryl" gets this treatment the most, due to her blatant BitchInSheepsClothing obnoxiousness and having many scenes with Truman.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Meryl is meant to be sympathized when Truman threatens her with a knife, but her gaslighting Truman beforehand and her only caring about "unprofessional working conditions" hinders the viewer to sympathize with her.

** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truman_Show_delusion The Truman Show delusion]] is a documented psychiatric condition, often afflicting those with schizophrenia. It is so-called because many who report the delusion specifically relate their lives to the film. This is different from gangstalking, where people think someone is monitoring their lives on hidden cameras (and [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/chevy-chase-landlord-used-tiny-cameras-to-peep-on-tenants-police-say/2013/02/16/022252cc-76c1-11e2-aa12-e6cf1d31106b_story.html sometimes, they are right]]).

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Though in a different way than you'd normally expect. ''Truman'' is essentially an effects-less film, but dozens of little touches exist throughout, most notably the subtle altering of a skyline to make it match the Geodome's shape. Everything looks so ''right'' that you wouldn't notice it until you were looking for it....just as happens to Truman in-universe!

* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: Jim Carrey really spread his wings here and showed he could do more than just "zany". In fact, Creator/GeneSiskel and Creator/RogerEbert publicly apologized to Carrey on their show for saying that he would never have a career when ''Film/AceVenturaPetDetective'' was panned, although the latter had already turned the corner with Carrey with positive reviews for ''Film/TheMask'' and ''Film/LiarLiar''.

* NightmareFuel:
** While the scene is intended to be darkly humorous, Truman getting angry at his wife as she spouts ProductPlacement, temporarily going mad, taking his fictional "wife" hostage and threatening the first person that comes into the house with a knife, leaving her a sobbing wreck, is pretty hard to watch. In-universe, it's the first and only thing that shocks Meryl enough to break the show's fourth wall.
--->'''Meryl:''' ''(to the camera)'' [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness DO SOMETHING!]]
** The scene where Truman disappears and a set-wide search begins to find him. The atmosphere is tense. The moon is used like a prison search light, a siren is blaring in the background, and everyone is marching down the streets in formation searching for Truman. The previously friendly dalmatian is being used as a growling search dog. The way the search is conducted feels robotic, fitting in with the already artificial nature of Seahaven, as if everyone on the set were drones to scan the streets with. Then after failing to find him, everyone is ordered to assume first position, and they just... freeze in their respective places as if time stopped. It's a chilling shot.
** When Truman nearly [[spoiler: drowns while trying to escape]].
** Christof is nightmare fuel unto himself, simply for how much power he wields over an entire human life. What really makes him chilling is that, despite the fact that he's mindful of the ratings, he's not OnlyInItForTheMoney at all -- he's really an absurdly overprotective father figure, who is obsessed with keeping Truman "pure" and is willing to go to sociopathic [[spoiler: and even homicidal]] lengths to preserve this.
** Apart from bathroom breaks, showering, or even masturbation, think about any private moment you've had where you were alone that still would've been pretty humiliating if you were discovered (i.e. acting out daydreams). Now imagine doing that unknowingly having almost ''the entire world'' as an audience. Since Truman's life was broadcast 24/7 without commercial interruption (even while he's sleeping), [[AndIMustScream there are only a handful of moments throughout his day where he has genuine privacy]]. Evil as he is, Christof is at least courteous enough to not film Truman in truly inappropriate situations, but it's still creepy to think about.