History YMMV / TheTrumanShow

* 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 too,'' she could've convinced him to stay in Seahaven.

-->'''Producer:''' For God's sake, Chris! The whole world is watching. We can't have him die in front of a live audience!
-->'''Christof:''' He was '''born''' in front of a live audience.

-->'''Meryl:''' ''(to the camera)'' [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness DO SOMETHING!]]

** Creator/JimCarrey's next starring vehicle, the Creator/AndyKaufman biopic ''Film/ManOnTheMoon'', is effectively an inversion of this movie in that it's about a media-savvy performer concocting elaborate fictions for his own amusement in the real world -- or even a tweaked sequel in which Truman becomes a more benevolent, trickster version of Christof (the ''Pop of the Morning'' podcast discusses the similarities and differences between Kaufman and Christof). Indeed, one would think an early scene that depicts 8-year-old Kaufman believing there's a camera in his bedroom wall is a shout out to this film, but it's actually a real life detail! On top of that, Creator/PaulGiamatti, who plays one of Christof's underlings here, plays Kaufman's co-conspirator Bob Zmuda in ''Man on the Moon''.

** Apart from bathroom breaks, showering, or even ADateWithRosiePalms, 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.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EynCFAF8Q2Q This scene]], in which Christof and the actors explain why they want Truman to have a kid: they want to make that kid part of the Truman Show, with a two-channel format to chronicle both their lives. It features a very redeeming moment with Marlon who, with quiet disgust, asks Christof if they [[ArmorPiercingQuestion are gonna go back to a one channel format if Truman dies]].

** 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 lies to Truman.

* 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 too,''. she could've convinced him to stay in Seahaven.

* 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. Meryl choosing to do ProductPlacement in the middle of a serious conversation is what finally destroys her "relationship" with Truman. If Meryl had chosen to put Truman's mental health above her own needs, she could've actually convinced him to stay in Seahaven.

** [[http://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]]).

* WhatAnIdiot:
** Meryl, deciding to do a ProductPlacement while Truman is clearly starting to catch on to the masquerade and is having breakdown as a result. Made worse when she continues to do so even when Truman calls her out on it. Then again, that could be a case of a "Stick to the script or else" directive; later on, when Marlon breaks the fourth wall ("He's gone!"), Christof shits a brick and kills the feed.
** 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}}.
*** Better actors might have morals, forcing them to put aside a mere paycheck. If they were better at improv, they might introduce something into Truman's sealed-off world that Christof doesn't want. So Christof sacrificed having the caliber of actor who wouldn't panic-lapse into a product placement or accidentally call Truman by name when they had never before met him. He could not abide actors who would be better at keeping Truman from dwelling on leaving, because they would at some point take the script places he could not 100 % control, and that was his reason for being. You can see by the way he dwells on Truman having a child, a child who, unlike Truman, was even conceived within his phony kingdom. So better bad actors (morally and skill-wise) than good ones.

* MemeticMutation: Truman's "What the hell are you talking about?" in response to his wife's blatant ProductPlacement about chocolate milk is a popular gif on message boards.

** 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.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Sylvia is (as far as we know) the only person who has a problem with what Christof 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.

* 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.

** Creator/JimCarrey's next starring vehicle, the Creator/AndyKaufman biopic ''Film/ManOnTheMoon'', is effectively an inversion of this movie in that it's about a media-savvy performer concocting elaborate fictions for his own amusement in the real world. (One would think an early scene that depicts 8-year-old Kaufman believing there's a camera in his bedroom wall is a shout out to this film, but it's actually a real life detail.) On top of that, Creator/PaulGiamatti, who plays one of Christof's underlings here, plays Kaufman's co-conspirator Bob Zmuda in that film.

* LesYay: Those two older ladies cuddled up on the couch watching The Truman Show all day. Adorable.
** 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 mainstream Hollywood movie to casually show a gay couple, and so we have to assume the nature of their relationship to be ambiguous at best.

* OlderThanTheyThink: Believe it or not, the plot of ''The Truman Show'' is borrowed from the ''Series/AmazingStories'' episode, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq78vP1Yvho Secret Cinema]]".

* AwardSnub: After winning a UsefulNotes/GoldenGlobe for this film, it was assumed that Creator/JimCarrey would at least get an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nomination, but he didn't. Amazingly, it happened again ''[[Film/ManOnTheMoon the very next year]]''. Just to put the former snub in perspective, winning the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama is a virtual guarantee of an Oscar ''nomination'' at the very least. Carrey was only the fourth man it didn't happen for, and the last time it happened prior to him was in ''1965''. He was also the last such snubee, indicating that the Academy really just didn't want to nominate him. Between these snubs and another for ''Film/EternalSunshineOfTheSpotlessMind'' (which ''was'' nominated for Best Actress for Kate Winslet even as his role is of equal importance), poor Carrey has become an almost archetypal example of a comedic actor who cannot get credit for his dramatic abilities.

** The internet brought the rise of parent blogs and family vloggers, which have drawn controversy for a number of reasons--namely that successful family-oriented Website/YouTube channels can make a ''lot'' of money, usually because of audiences [[JustHereForGodzilla drawn in by the kids]], but unlike child actors, there are no laws in place to ensure the kids will ever see a dime of the money they helped earn. There's also a lot of concern about how a kid being on camera for millions to see throughout their whole childhood can negatively affect their mental health, especially in the cases of more inscrupulous parents who film private, often embarrassing moments, and how being filmed so much can make kids open to predators and exploitation. All of these concerns are illustrated and explored throughout the movie; despite predating the concept by about a decade, ''The Truman Show'' is essentially a family channel taken to the most logical extreme. There have even been accusations of some family vloggers manufacturing or faking major life events and emergencies to get an audience's attention, just like Christof does. All this makes the message about everyone's right to privacy and to be their own person feel even more relevant.

* 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. But regardless, he's already shown bravery and daring, and even if his new life is at his throat, he's bound to create a ''real'' happy ending of his own someday, [[TropesAreTools which ties into the film's themes.]]]]

* AwardSnub: After winning a UsefulNotes/GoldenGlobe for this film, it was assumed that Creator/JimCarrey would at least get an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward 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.
** Just to put this in perspective, winning the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama is a virtual guarantee of an Oscar ''nomination'' at the very least. Carrey was only the fourth man it didn't happen for, and the last time it happened prior to him was in ''1965''. He was also the last such snubee, indicating that the Academy really just didn't want to nominate him.
** The film itself was one of the most acclaimed of 1998, yet failed to receive a Best Picture nom, despite getting nods for Peter Weir's Direction and for the Script.

** Jim Carrey has become an almost archetypal example of a comedic actor who cannot get credit for his dramatic abilities, with this movie being the single biggest reason.

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

** 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.

* LoveToHate: Meryl, mainly due to her feigning her relationship with Truman (even if she is just doing her job). It's part of why the whole "I'm being spontaneous" and "do something!" scenes are so satisfying to watch.

* ParanoiaFuel: The entire film is rife with this, particularly bad is when we see Truman's best friend, someone he has known since school, manipulating him and being fed lines by the director. Then there's the part where he's looking for Truman and has childish "hide-and-seek" lines delivered in sinister fashion.

** Think about any private moment you've had that would've been incredibly humiliating if you were discovered (i.e. showering, ADateWithRosiePalms, etc.). 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 he's never had one single moment of real privacy]].