History YMMV / Thriller

* TheScrappy: Some people ''really'' aren't keen on "The Girl Is Mine" for some reason. [[http://zembla.cementhorizon.com/archives/001374.html For example]].

* [[SuspiciouslySimilarSong Suspiciously Similar Riff]]: According to Music/{{Daryl Hall|AndJohnOates}}, Jackson apparently admitted to lifting the bass line of "Billie Jean" from Hall's "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)". Hall wasn't bothered, telling Jackson he himself had lifted it from somewhere else. Jon Anderson of Music/{{Yes}} also felt "Billie Jean" was inspired by a track he recorded with Music/{{Vangelis}} called "State of Independence", but considered it an example of "cross-pollination in music" and wasn't bothered either: “they took the riff and made it funky.” Quincy Jones produced a 1982 Music/DonnaSummer cover of "State of Independence" (with Jackson on backing vocals) that was a hit, so Anderson's assessment about cross-pollination seems accurate.

!!YMMV tropes for the Michael Jackson album and title track music video.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The iconic zombie dance sequence counts as one - it comes in the middle of the music video's plot out of absolutely nowhere, featuring no explanation to why Michael Jackson turned into a zombie (as he isn't shown being bitten) and why the girl isn't. The zombies, which were earlier shown having typical ZombieGait, are somehow able to pull off elaborate dance moves in unison, while the girl is absent from the scene. In the midst of ''this'', there's Michael's UnexplainedRecovery to turn back into a human - another BLAM within a BLAM. Once the scene ends, the girl is back, Michael is a zombie again, and nobody acknowledges that the scene ever occurred. This doesn't stop it from being one of the best scenes recorded in a music video, though.

* FridgeBrilliance: By saving all the choruses for the big dance number, it gives the video an unbelievable momentum. It's 14 minutes long, but it doesn't feel like it.
** Michael invokes the MST3KMantra when he and the girl leave the theater. It may be necessary to apply it to the whole video.
* MemeticMutation: One of the great pre-internet ones, the video popularized the concept of dancing zombies in pop culture, and even today if zombies dance, odds are they're doing something at least highly reminicent of the Thriller Dance.
** And then in internet forums, a GIF image of Michael eating popcorn in the theater is used a lot, as a way of saying PassThePopcorn below in a thread.
* MutuallyFictional: Jackson watches a horror movie with his girlfriend starring two actors who look exactly like them, except for their clothes. Nobody comments on the fact that they are the same person. Even the people in the movie theater!

* NightmareFuel: The initial JumpScare in the music video where he turns around to reveal that he's turning into a werewolf.

* SecondVerseCurse: The bridge does not appear at all in the music video, largely because there's no way to make the lyric fit with the plot.
* SignatureScene: The zombie dance, naturally.

* TheScrappy: Some people ''really'' aren't keen on "The Girl Is Mine" for some reason. [[http://zembla.cementhorizon.com/archives/001374.html For example]].

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: Several executives at Creator/EpicRecords thought ''Thriller'' would bomb. Obviously, it goes without saying that the album's unprecedented success proved them wrong.

* CompleteMonster: [[EvilUncle Uncle Konrad Markesan]], from "The Incredible Doktor Markesan", is a [[MadScientist scientist]] whose own genius allowed him to return from the dead using a formula derived from the mold found in graves. In rage at his former colleagues at Penrose University [[DisproportionateRetribution disbelieving his theories]], Markesan revives them after their deaths, spending each night [[ColdBloodedTorture torturing and tormenting the three]], forcing them to relive their "crimes" against him as they suffer in pain from being revived while [[FateWorseThanDeath begging him to be allowed to die]]. When Markesan's nephew Fred and his wife Molly surprise him, Markesan allows them to stay, but plots to dispose of them as well. Capturing Fred at the end, Markesan plans to murder him and it is only after he is killed for good that Fred discovers Markesan has already murdered Molly and transformed her into one of his undead slaves.

* [[SuspiciouslySimilarSong Suspiciously Similar Riff]]: According to Music/{{Daryl Hall|AndJohnOates}} fame, Jackson apparently admitted to lifting the bass line of "Billie Jean" from Hall's "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)". Hall wasn't bothered, telling Jackson he himself had lifted it from somewhere else. Jon Anderson of Music/{{Yes}} also felt "Billie Jean" was inspired by a track he recorded with Music/{{Vangelis}} called "State of Independence", but considered it an example of "cross-pollination in music" and wasn't bothered either: “they took the riff and made it funky.” Quincy Jones produced a 1982 Music/DonnaSummer cover of "State of Independence" (with Jackson on backing vocals) that was a hit, so Anderson's assessment about cross-pollination seems accurate.

* MutuallyFictional: Jackson watches a horror movie with his girlfriend starring two actors who look exactly like them, except for their clothes. Nobody comments on the fact that they are the same person. Even the people in the movie theatre!

* [[SuspiciouslySimilarSong Suspiciously Similar Riff]]: According to Daryl Hall of Hall and Oates fame, Jackson apparently admitted to lifting the bass line of “Billie Jean” from Hall’s “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)”. Hall wasn’t bothered, telling Jackson he himself had lifted it from somewhere else. Jon Anderson of Music/{{Yes}} also felt “Billie Jean” was inspired by a track he recorded with Music/{{Vangelis}} called “State of Independence”, but considered it an example of “cross-pollination in music” and wasn’t bothered either: “they took the riff and made it funky.” Quincy Jones produced a 1982 Music/DonnaSummer cover of “State of Independence” (with Jackson on backing vocals) that was a hit, so Anderson’s assessment about cross-pollination seems accurate.

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From the Boris Karloff series

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* EvenBetterSequel: Jackson's first album ''Music/OffTheWall'' was already the best selling album by a black/Afro-American artist ever, but his second album, "Thriller", grew out to be the best-selling music album of all time! In terms of album sales this is certainly an improvement.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The iconic zombie dance sequence counts as one - it comes in the middle of the music video's plot out of absolutely nowhere, featuring no explanation to why Michael Jackson turned into a zombie. The zombies, which were earlier shown having typical ZombieGait, are somehow able to pull off elaborate dance moves in unison, while the girl is absent from the scene. In the midst of ''this'', there's Michael's UnexplainedRecovery to turn back into a human - another BLAM within a BLAM. Once the scene ends, the girl is back, Michael is a zombie again, and nobody acknowledges that the scene ever occurred. This doesn't stop it from being one of the best scenes recorded in a music video, though.

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* MagnumOpus: ''Music/{{Thriller}}'' is seen as one of the best albums of all time and by being the best-selling record of all time its hard to deny that status. However, many Jackson fans feel ''Music/OffTheWall'' is much better.

* TheScrappy: For the album: Some people ''really'' aren't keen on "The Girl Is Mine" for some reason. [[http://zembla.cementhorizon.com/archives/001374.html For example]].

* EvenBetterSequel: Jackson's first album "Off The Wall" was already the best selling album by a black/Afro-American artist ever, but his second album, "Thriller", grew out to be the best-selling music album of all time! In terms of album sales this is certainly an improvement.

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: Jackson's first album "Off The Wall" was already the best selling album by a black/Afro-American artist ever, but his second album, "Thriller", grew out to be the best-selling music album of all time! In terms of album sales this is certainly an improvement.