History YMMV / TheTrumanShow

* SongAssociation: People who saw the film's trailer in heavy rotation might never be able to listen to Music/TalkingHeads' "Music/OnceInALifetime" without thinking of Truman's meticulously controlled artificial life. Hell, any film with comedic yet existentialist tones and themes have done so too, from ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'' to ''Film/{{Downsizing}}''.

** 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 to slit her throat on camera, leaving her a sobbing wreck, is pretty hard to watch.

* ValuesResonance: There was a time when this movie's premise seemed outlandish. Now, with webcams and RealityTV, the degrading definitions of personal privacy and concurrently increasing concerns about online oversharing, and the commodification of personal data for marketing purposes, [[NotSoCrazyAnymore it seems much more plausible]].

* ValuesResonance: There was a time when this movie's premise seemed outlandish. Now, with webcams and RealityTV, plus the degrading definitions of personal privacy and the commodification of personal data for marketing purposes, [[NotSoCrazyAnymore it seems much more plausible]].

* SongAssociation: People who saw the film's trailer in heavy rotation might never be able to listen to Music/TalkingHeads' "Music/OnceInALifetime" without thinking of Truman's meticulously controlled artificial life.

* AwardSnub: After winning a Golden Globe for this film, it was assumed that Creator/JimCarrey would at least get an [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Oscar]] nomination, but he didn't. Amazingly, it happened again ''[[Film/ManOnTheMoon the very next year]]'', making one wonder what it will take for him to get some Academy love.

* UnfortunateImplications: Through how we observe the world outside of Truman's life, many people are unbothered by the fact that a production company spent millions, if not billions, of dollars building a giant domed town dedicated to nothing but broadcasting his life day in and day out and that a full production crew and staff of thousands of extras are paid to keep it all going with Truman not being a willing participant in the show. The human rights violations that this would create alone would shut the production down before it even began. Hell, Truman would probably have a successful lawsuit against the company that was keeping the show going after he got out if he put his mind and funds towards it. He'd be owed ''millions'' of dollars in damages alone, mostly psychological. It really makes you think of if things like the Human Rights Counsel exists or anything of the sort.

* HeartwarmingInHindsight: Jim Carrey (Truman) and Noah Emmerich (Louis/Marlon) met on the set of this film and went on to become good friends in RealLife -- just like their characters. In fact, [[https://twitter.com/jimcarrey/status/295608068669050881 Carrey has even described Emmerich as his best friend]]. What makes this extra heartwarming is that Emmerich's character was the only actor on the show (other than Lauren/Sylvia) who ''did'' genuinely come to care for Truman -- their friendship was one of the few things in Seahaven that ''was'' real.

** Truman's first love, Lauren (a.k.a. Sylvia) is removed from the show when she tries to reveal the BrokenMasquerade. Just before the footage of the event is played, one of the waitresses in the Truman themed bar quips "They got rid of her, but they couldn't [[Film/EternalSunshineOfTheSpotlessMind erase the memory]]."

** Christof and the way he runs the show. As above, he seems to have the actors on a "Stick to the script or else" directive, which as the above scene shows, is ''really'' stupid when Truman goes even a little off-script. You would think he would be trying to hire actors who were, for example, good at [[Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway Improv]] so that they could be better at going along with Truman when he goes off the rails.

** It's hard not to feel bad for Louis Coltrane/Marlon, especially if you've seen the deleted scenes and are familiar with his backstory. Coltrane was a child actor barely old enough to go to school when he was cast as Truman's best friend (one suspects he didn't know what he was in for), and he's had to be in on this lie for almost his entire life. Not to mention that according to his actor the reason why his character is an alcoholic and has been in and out of rehab is because of the immense guilt he feels whenever he's lying to Truman.

** 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 [[WordOfDante 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.

* SongAssociation: People who saw the film's trailer in heavy rotation might never be able to listen to Music/TalkingHeads' [[Music/RemainInLight "Once in a Lifetime"]] without thinking of Truman's meticulously controlled artificial life.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/PaulGiamatti as one of the studio techs. [[Series/SixFeetUnder Peter Krause]] is Truman's boss. [[Series/BrooklynNineNine Joel McKinnon Miller]] is a security guard and one of the show's avid viewers.

** If the film had been made a couple of decades later, the natural interpretation would be that they ''are'' a lesbian couple. In 1998, however, it was rare for a movie to casually show a gay couple, and so we have to assume the nature of their relationship to be ambiguous at best.

** 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 they "woke up" and saw past the illusion.

* HopeSpot: Now he is on the outside, Truman may become a figurehead for people and politicians to stem the intrusion into people's privacy in the ensuing years and decades.

* EsotericHappyEnding: [[spoiler:Truman leaves and gets to see the real world, but since his teachers and bosses were all actors, he has no actual education nor real job experience -- so getting money for his dreams is still going to be a problem.[[note]]Granted, some media giant would probably pay Truman a lot of money to act as their spokesperson[[/note]] There's also the fact he'll have no real friends or family (save for Sylvia), and as pointed out in the film, the real world can be cruel at times]].

* TheScrappy: Aside from Marlon (if deleted scenes are taken into account) and [[EvilIsCool Christof]], '''everyone''' in the fictional town. The fact that they don't care for him ''at all'' and seem to focus more on [[MoneyDearBoy the fact they get paid]] and pretend to simply care for Truman and his well being really does bother some viewers. His "parents" seem to be a big example of this, as does "Meryl".

** It's hard not to feel bad for Louis Coltrane/Marlon, especially if you've seen the deleted scenes and are familiar with his backstory. Coltrane was a child actor barely old enough to go to school when he was cast as Truman's best friend (one suspects he didn't know what he was in for), and he's had to be in on this lie for almost his entire life.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/PaulGiamatti as one of the studio techs. [[Series/SixFeetUnder Peter Krause]] is Truman's boss. [[Series/BrooklynNineNine Joel McKinnon Miller]] is one of the show's avid viewers.

* TheScrappy: Aside from Marlon (if deleted scenes are taken into account) and [[EvilIsCool Cristof]], '''everyone''' in the fictional town. The fact that they don't care for him ''at all'' and seem to focus more on [[MoneyDearBoy the fact they get paid]] and pretend to simply care for Truman and his well being really does bother some viewers. His "parents" seem to be a big example of this, as does "Meryl".

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Sylvia is (as far as we know) the only person who has a problem with what Cristof is doing to Truman. This gives her a unique relationship to Truman (given that apparently no one else is like this) with a lot of material for a great character, but she hardly has a presence in the film.

** Then there's the use of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT7gxs0S5wI Anthem]]" from ''[[Film/{{Koyaanisqatsi}} Powaqqatsi]]'' and "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYGu8ap1FvI Opening]]" from ''Film/MishimaALifeInFourChapters''.