Line #80 Film/BadSanta


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6	[[quoteright:285:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Bad_Santa_4679.jpg]]
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8	''Bad Santa'' is a 2003 American Christmas BlackComedy film produced by Creator/TheCoenBrothers (who also provided uncredited rewrites) and directed by Creator/TerryZwigoff -- his only financially successful movie to date.
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10	Willie Soke (Creator/BillyBobThornton) is a drunk sort-of {{Jerkass}} safe cracker who along with his dwarf accomplice Marcus (Creator/TonyCox) has a yearly routine of getting jobs as a MallSanta and Elf respectively during the holidays and robbing the mall's safe on Christmas Eve after closing time. During one such stint, Wille meets a boy named Thurman Merman (who is mostly referred to in the movie as "The Kid") who inadvertently saves him from being raped. After an inquiry launched by the mall's unscrupulous security chief Gin Slagel (Creator/BernieMac), Willie moves in with The Kid who lives alone with his senile grandmother ([[ParentalAbandonment his mother is dead and his dad is in jail for embezzlement]]) to evade the cops. He and his girlfriend Sue Willie start to warm up to the Kid and Willie starts acting as a surrogate father... of sorts.
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12	Music/{{Eminem}}, who was a fan of this movie, included clips of this into his music video "Just Lose It" with himself playing the titular Bad Santa. A sequel called ''Film/BadSanta2'' had been released in theaters on November 23, 2016.
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15	!!You want tropes and cookies?
16	* TheAlcoholic: Willie is drunk for almost the entirety of the film.
17	* AllThereInTheScript: Until the closing credits, the closest thing Sue has to a name is "Mrs. Santa's Sister."
18	** Inverted with Thurman Merman, whose name is conspicuously revealed in the dialogue but is still billed as simply "The Kid."
19	* AbusiveParents: Willie had an abusive father. He did teach him how to crack a safe, though.
20	* AdultsAreUseless: Thurman mostly has to fend for himself; his parents are either dead or incarcerated and his grandmother is too senile. Willie does partially avert this trope though by stepping up as an anti-heroic BigGood.
21	* AirVentPassageway: More justified than most examples, given that the person doing the crawling through the vents is a dwarf.
22	* AntiHero: Willie may be a thief, a safecracker, a drunk, and a sex offender, but he still means well for the Kid.
23	* AssholeVictim: Gin, who blackmails Willie and Marcus for half their stolen loot, gets rammed by a 1979 Dodge Van (by Lois), and after Marcus shocks him with a car wire, is buried in the desert. Marcus later remarks, "Store dick's dead! Fuck the fucking store dick!"
24	* AutoErotica: The first time Willie and Sue have sex.
25	* BadSanta: Literally the entire film's plot. He's a Santa who is a thief, safecracker, serial fornicator and intense '''DRUNK'''.
26	* BadJobWorseUniform: Willie hates having to be Santa.
27	** Marcus for his part ''despises'' dressing up like an elf, but at least he's good at his role.
28	* BadassBoast: When he sees the safe in the climax, Willie notes that a badass safecracker once told him that model can't be cracked. Marcus then goes on a rant about how he held Willie together this whole time only to learn that he can't crack it.
29	-->'''Marcus:''' Now you're telling me you can't crack it, is that what you're telling me?!\
30	'''Willie:''' No, I'm just saying it's gonna take a minute.
31	* BaitAndSwitch: After robbing the mall in the opening, Willie says he will use his share to go to Miami and open a bar. Marcus replies that this is not gonna happen. We then cut to several months later, where Willie appears to be running a bar on the beach, but then it is shown that he merely walks behind the bar to steal drinks.
32	* BecomingTheMask: Willie at first disavows he'll ever be a real Santa Claus, but at the end, he tries to deliver the pink elephant Thurman always wanted and narrowly succeeds, but in the course of it he [[spoiler: gets into a high-speed chase with the police who pump several bullets into him, which he (barely) survives]].
33	* BerserkButton: Willie does not like being asked a lot of questions or being interrupted during his lunch break.
34	** He also loses it and beats the fuck out of the Kid's tormentors when he sees that one of them blackened the Kid's eye. Willie's own history of childhood abuse probably accounts for this being a sensitive spot for him.
35	* BigBad: Gin seems to be set up as this, but in the end it's actually [[spoiler: Marcus himself]].
36	* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler:The cops arrive just in time to stop the robbery and save Willie from being killed by Marcus. Though problems still arise because Willie forgot that he tipped them off and they didn't know that he was the one who did so at the time.]]
37	* BigGood: Willie becomes this to Thurman as the movie progresses, since he is able to help Thurman fend off the bullies who torment him everyday after school, [[spoiler:gets him the pink stuffed elephant he always wanted]], and finally helps him attain a proper parental substitute (Sue) to look after him.
38	* BookEnds: Both the beginning and end play Chopin's "Nocturne", albeit the ending's version is louder and more sophisticated with an orchestra accompanying the piano due to being far more dramatic.
39	* BrokenAce: Willie is a brilliant safecracker and skilled fistfighter who, were this any other movie, would be a wisecracking member of a BadassCrew. Since this is not any other movie, Willie is a miserable alcoholic asshole who hates himself and everybody else, and spends much of his time blackout-drunk and soaked in his own piss.
40	* TheBully: Thurman deals with one who Willie proceeds to beat within an inch of his life.
41	* BullyingADragon:
42	** Willie testing [[spoiler:Marcus]]'s temper with daily "Fuck you"s and many insults about his [[spoiler:height and lack of sex life]] leads to [[spoiler:Marcus pulling out a gun on him as soon as he decides Willie helped him rob enough safes for many Christmases to retire]].
43	** Gin Slagel, a security officer, tries blackmailing Marcus for a cut of the spoils on their next heist. Marcus has his wife Lois ram him with a car, shocks him, and dumps Gin's body in the desert.
44	* ButtMonkey: Thurman, until Willie teaches him to stick up for himself.
45	* CameraAbuse: When Willie is thrown out of the bar in Miami, he throws a glass of gin which splashes against the camera.
46	* CarFu: How Marcus and Lois kill Gin. Lois rams into him repeatedly while he's helping to start Marcus' supposedly disabled car.
47	* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:About halfway through the film, Willie has the kid deliver a letter to the police. At the end, it turns out to contain all the details for the robbery, which allows them to appear and arrest Marcus, incidentally preventing Willie's murder at the hands of Marcus.]]
48	* ChildhoodBrainDamage: Hinted by Willie as a possible reason for Thurman's behavior.
49	--->'''Willie:''' Jesus, what ''is'' it with you? Somebody drop you on your fucking head?
50	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Thurman.
51	-->'''Thurman:''' "Now I don't want an elephant at all. I want a gorilla named Davy for beating up the skateboard kids who pull on my underwear. And he can take his orders from the talking walnut, so it won't be my bad thing."
52	* ClusterFBomb: According to IMDB, the word "fuck" is used 159 times (170 in the unrated version). ''[[RefugeInAudacity In a Christmas movie.]]'' Bad Santa currently holds the distinction of being in the top 100 films with the highest rate-per-minute uses of the word, at 1.9 per minute.
53	* ComicallyMissingThePoint: A mainstay of the film. Willie constantly misinterprets people's comments as something sexual, as when Bob asks about his performance (you mean ''sexual'' performance?) or when Sue asks if he likes kids (I'm not some fucking pervert!). Thurman, due to being an idiot, also takes conversations in wildly unexpected directions.
54	* DeadpanSnarker: Willie and Marcus both.
55	** Gin Slagel as well, particularly during his conversations with Bob Chipeska.
56	* DeconReconSwitch: At the beginning of the film, its feel is ''very'' cynical (what with dealing with [[DepravedKidsShowHost Mall Santas]] and all), but by the end, [[spoiler:while keeping the salty language, the movie's more like "Hey, it's Christmas after all"]].
57	** The movie plays itself as one for Christmas movie tropes. No actual Santa Clause or the magical nature other Christmas films usually carry, by the end of the film it still ends on a rather idealistic note that you don't need any of that cliched stuff to be a better person.
58	* {{Determinator}}: [[spoiler:After fleeing from the police, Willie reaches the kid's house in order to give him his present. Even after being shot eight times, he still tries to crawl to the door with the toy elephant.]]
59	* DisproportionateRetribution: [[spoiler:At the end of the final mall job, the only thing Willie has in his possession is a pink stuffed elephant. And the police absolutely riddle him with bullets as he attempts to deliver the gift.]]
60	* DistractedByTheSexy: When he and Marcus first meet Bob Chipeska, Willie becomes [[MaleGaze distracted by the voluptuous ass of a passing female shopper]], so much so that when he returns to the conversation and hears Chipeska uttering the word "performance", he misunderstands (due to his previously lascivious thoughts when he was ogling the woman) and thinks it's a comment on his ''sexual performance'' rather than his performance as Santa Claus!
61	* TheDitz: Even for his age, Thurman is unbelievably stupid. His vocabulary is very limited, he poorly comprehends things and has poor memory. And he usually can't even remember events from the previous day.
62	* [[DoesNotLikeSpam Does Not Like Cookies]]: Willie seriously hates sugar, dairy, and non-alcoholic carbs. He prefers salads and meat over milk and cookies.
63	* TheDragon: Lois to Marcus. She serves as Marcus's getaway driver and physical back-up.
64	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:About halfway through the movie, Willie tries to kill himself through carbon monoxide poisoning. Fortunately, he snaps out of his funk when Thurman comes to check on him and he sees the kid has a black eye, prompting a RageBreakingPoint as he beats the crap out of the bullies who hurt him.]]
65	* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:Willie (inadverdantly) tips the cops off about the robbery and gets Marcus arrested. He's given a job as a sensitivity trainer for the police, and also secures a capable adult to watch over Thurman. He also gets the kid a few presents, and Thurman in turn now knows how to handle the bullies.]]
66	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Willie may be a bastard, but hurting children is low, even for him.
67	** He's also aghast at Marcus and Lois' over the top materialism:
68	--> '''Willie:''' "You people are monsters. I'm not talking about you [[spoiler:taking me out]]; that part, I get. But look at all that shit. Do you really need all that shit? For Christ sakes, it's Christmas."
69	* ExtremeDoormat: Bob Chipeska, who lets Willie and Marcus race-card him into not firing them for inappropriate workplace conduct.
70	* FaceCam: This occurs as Willie is at one point about to pass out from his own drunken stupor.
71	* FatAndSkinny: Thurman is fat, Willie is skinny.
72	* FreeRangeChildren: Thurman wanders around the city and even takes regular trips to the mall all by himself. Justified in that the only person around to raise him is his senile grandmother.
73	* GoodFeelsGood: For a given value of good anyway, but Willie comes to this conclusion when he [[BullyHunter beats up some bullies]] who had been harassing Thurman.
74	* GrandparentalObliviousness: Thurman's grandma reacts to absolutely nothing around her. When she isn't sitting in her chair watching TV, she's fixing up some sandwiches. She ignores a strange man in a Santa outfit and ski mask in her house and also her grandson screaming in pain with his hand bleeding.
75	* GreenEyedMonster: Marcus is easily jealous of Willie for being tall and strong enough to sexually pursue young women of his choice and eventually score with Sue.
76	* GroinAttack: When teaching the kid how to fight, the kid ends up kicking Marcus right in the crotch. This causes Marcus to retaliate against the kid in the same fashion. When Willie raises protest about punching a child in the crotch, Marcus yells "fuck you, Willie!", and punches Willie in the balls — and then Willie punches Marcus in the balls. The scene ends with all three lying on the ground groaning in pain (and trying to kick each other in the balls).
77	** [[spoiler:When Marcus and Lois kill Gin at the end by smashing him between two cars, they seemingly impale him right in the crotch, but it's off-camera, so it's hard to tell.]]
78	** In the movie's final scene, Thurman kicks the main mall bully right in the nuts.
79	* HarmlessVillain: Willie's an expert safecracker and he's been involved in a lot of mall robberies in the past, but his drunken antics make him more of a liability to ThePlan than anything else.
80	* HarmfulToMinors: After Willy's flight from the cops brings them into the heart of Thurman's neighbourhood, two small children walk out onto a balcony in time to witness [[spoiler: a skinny Santa getting gunned down by the police]].
81	* HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday: The Hindustani barfly who attacks Willie in the parking lot while insisting that he is most definitely ''not'' gay. All because Willie looked in his direction for a split second.
82	* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Gin is a security chief who penalizes shoplifting (and unnecessarily roughs up shoplifters), but he's not above stealing either, as he blackmails Willie and Marcus for half the spoils from their next heist.
83	* HeadTurningBeauty: The attractive, pear-shaped woman in the mall whom Willie lustfully admires.
84	* HeelRealization: Willie has one when he remembers that he ate all the candy in Thurman's advent calendar and realizes how low that was.
85	* HeelFaceTurn: Willie at the end.
86	** Unlike most Christmas films, though, his personality is still foul-mouthed and sarcastic. But now a better person.
87	* HighVoltageDeath: How Marcus ends up murdering [[spoiler:Gin Slagel]] after his wife rams the man with their van.
88	* HypocriticalHumor:
89	** Willie complains about kids pissing themselves on his lap, while he does that himself about half the time he's in his Santa costume.
90	** Marcus insults Willie that the latter would fall apart without him. Though it's clear that Marcus needs Willie far more than the other way around, since Marcus's only ambition is to steal money and needs Willie to crack safes, while Willie was able to leech off Thurman for a car, cash on hand, and a place to sleep.
91	* InsultBackfire:
92	-->'''Gin:''' I could stick you up my ass, small fry!
93	-->'''Marcus:''' Yeah? You sure it ain't too sore from last night?!
94	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Starting off as what seems to some as a pure {{Jerkass}} (though he rarely if ever picked his verbal battles), Willie eventually becomes this.
95	* KavorkaMan: Despite his unkempt appearance and over the top alcoholism, Willie is implied to get a number of women. A lot of women ''do'' love a Santa. It's played for laughs with Sue riding Willie in his car shouting "Fuck me Santa! Fuck me Santa!".
96	-->'''Willie:''' Can I at least take the hat off?\
97	'''Sue:''' No! I love the hat!
98	* LazyBum: Willie is incredibly lazy, and also his alcoholism makes him too sleepy or unstable to hold down a paying job. Because of this, he has to steal or leech off others for money and housing.
99	* LeavingFoodForSanta: Equating Willie to Santa, Thurman keeps offering Willie some milk and cookies or sandwiches. Ironically, Willie doesn't like sugary or starchy foods much (his actor is even a strict vegan who is allergic to wheat).
100	* TheMall: Willie's preferred target.
101	* MallSanta: Multiple scenes take place with the main character dressed as Santa in a mall.
102	* MakingLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: Willie in one of the mall dressing rooms — in more ways than one.
103	* TheMillstone: Marcus begins to view Willie as this, since his unprofessional behavior has almost gotten them fired or arrested on numerous occasions. [[spoiler:This ultimately leads to him turning against Willie at the end.]]
104	* MoralityPet: The kid serves as this for Willie. Curiously enough, Zwigoff removed most of the scenes with him and Willie in the Director's Cut, making it ''shorter'' than the theatrical release. The ending is still one massive PetTheDog sequence for Willie.
105	* NoHonorAmongThieves: Angry that Willie led the security guard Gin straight into their tracks of mall robberies every Christmas, Marcus [[spoiler:decides to shoot Willie at the climax]].
106	* NotSoHarmlessVillain: [[spoiler:Marcus makes this clear when he murders Gin Slagel. [[HighVoltageDeath With jumper cables.]]]]
107	* OffscreenKarma: The polic department [[spoiler:gunning down Willie despite the fact he was only holding a stuffed toy while dressed as Sanata ''on Christmas Eve'']] results in the department being raked over the coals for shooting an unarmed Santa and having to treat an obnoxious profane alcholic like royalty because he has them by the balls and could bankrupt them with one call to a lawyer.
108	* OnlySaneMan: Marcus spends most of his time doing damage control for Willie and giving him a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech now and then. Subverted [[spoiler:when he betrays Willie, though Willie double subverts it when he admits that that's the sane response to his behavior]].
109	* PapaWolf: Willie evolves into somewhat of one, to the point where he gives the bullies who harass The Kid a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown.
110	* ParentalAbandonment: The kid's mother is dead and his father is off exploring the mountains (a [[GoodIsDumb kid-friendly lie]] for sitting in prison for embezzlement). His grandmother is his only guardian, but she struggles to stay awake.
111	* PintSizedPowerhouse: Marcus, despite his dwarfism, can tackle Willie with force.
112	* PoliceAreUseless: Justified in that Willie and Marcus always plan out every single half-second of their contingency plans to crack safes and know how to evade arrest, that Willie can get away with robberies even while drunk (but only because Marcus pulls him out of the crime scene every time). Gin came close to busting them, but [[spoiler:he tried extorting them for a cut of their loot rather than turn them in — which winds into his own undoing]].
113	* PottyFailure: Willie mentions that he pissed himself after he drunkenly destroys the Santa display.
114	* RefugeInAudacity: It's a Christmas film about an alcoholic, [[SirSwearsALot foul-mouthed]] mall Santa who has "screaming brats" on his lap for about a month and is plotting to rob a store on Christmas Eve, and that's for starters. Marcus is meticulous in his audacity, thoroughly planning every heist. Willie just seems to drunkenly stumble from one success to the next, uncaught because seriously, who would ever do that?
115	* RepetitiveName: The kid's real name is [[spoiler:Thurman Murman]].
116	* SatiatingSandwich: Averted. Willie doesn't want any. "What is it with you and fixing fucking sandwiches?"
117	* ShownTheirWork: Though it may have been a lucky break for the writers, Willie sending a letter to the cops actually would be taken into account, legally (in some jurisdictions). It's an affirmative action taken to step away from the criminal conspiracy.
118	* SirSwearsALot: Willie, which is no surprise, considering his actor. The movie uses 173 uses of the word "fuck", not including the extended version. Marcus isn't afraid to drop a few dirty words every now and then, either.
119	* SnarkToSnarkCombat: This is the primary method through which Willie and Marcus communicate, peppered with some colorful language for good measure. Gin Slagel later gets in on the act.
120	* SoundtrackDissonance: When Willie and Marcus first arrive at the mall in Phoenix, the song "Let It Snow" is being played, even though it is warm and the sun is out. Given the black comedy nature of this film, this is likely intentional.
121	** Not to mention the soothing, almost hypnotizing classical score that always picks up in tempo during the film's more audacious moments.
122	* StealthPun: Thurman asks Willie, a raging alcoholic, to get him a pink elephant for Christmas.
123	* StopOrIWillShoot: During the climax, the police shoot at Willie when he refuses to surrender, despite the fact that the most dangerous thing on him is a plush pink elephant toy. When Willie reaches Thurman's house, he is [[spoiler:shot by the police eight times on the front walkways in front of all the neighbours]], which results in a...
124	* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Though he survives, Willie being shot eight times while fleeing from the cops despite not having a weapon proves to be a massive embarrassment to the Phoenix Police Department, who also receives extensive outrage from the public for shooting an unarmed Santa, with Willie being treated like royalty by the department, likely so he won't file a massive lawsuit.
125	* SuspiciousSkiMask: PlayedForLaughs when Willie puts on one of these before he enters Thurman's home with intention to rob it. After entering inside, he encounters Thurman's grandmother, [[GrandparentalObliviousness who declares that she's going to make sandwiches for them]] [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight despite seeing Willie wearing a ski mask]]. Even Willie seems [[EveryoneHasStandards perturbed by this]] as well as the fact that someone as clearly incapable of being a caretaker as Thurman's grandmother is the only other person besides him who lives in the house. [[CloudCuckooLander Thurman]] himself also doesn't care that Willie put on a ski mask.
126	* TeethClenchedTeamwork: It's very clear that at least by this point in their partnership, Willie and Marcus simply do not like each other — Marcus views Willie as a liability to their scheme due to his alcoholism and sex addiction jeopardizing his role in their annual operation, whereas Willie seldom misses an opportunity to insult Marcus (generally over his dwarfism, and usually in response to whenever Marcus criticizes and insults Willie over his aforementioned issues). Suffice to say, this tense partnership and Willie's increasing incompetence are what drive Marcus to [[spoiler:betray and attempt to kill Willie in the climax]].
127	* TheThingThatWouldNotLeave: An ironic variant where the house guest is the victim, not the perpetrator, since Willie depends on Thurman for free room and board, but Thurman is the one who keeps annoying Willie.
128	* ThisIsGonnaSuck: Marcus takes a deep breath before throwing himself down the AirVentPassageway in the climax, because he's going to slide down an increasingly steep passage and then drop a dozen feet onto a table.
129	* ThreatBackfire: When approached by a little boy's mother for a "lap" request, Willie screams at them that he's on his lunch break and doesn't want to do it now. The mother threatens to report his behavior to the manager, and Willie rebukes her back that he isn't intimidated because the likelihood that his supervisor [[ExtremeDoormat Bob Chipeska]] could possibly make his life any more miserable is low.
130	* TookALevelInBadass: Thurman, as evidenced by the well-deserved GroinAttack he inflicts on a bully.
131	* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Thurman's is sandwiches, Willie's is salads. In the extended version, however, Willie was seen eating corn dogs and turkey legs.
132	* TwoferTokenMinority: Marcus is an African-American with dwarfism. A fact that he uses to his advantage when faced with possible termination.
133	* VillainProtagonist: The film's protagonist is Willie, a man who dresses as Santa in order to pull off heists.
134	* VolleyingInsults: Between Gin and Marcus when they have to handle Willie passing out in the mall.
135	* WhosOnFirst: The banter between Willie and The Kid about why the latter acts slow:
136	-->'''Willie:''' What is it with you? Somebody drop you on your fucking head?
137	-->'''Thurman:''' On ''my'' head?
138	-->'''Willie:''' Yeah, well, what, are they gonna drop you on somebody else's head?
139	-->'''Thurman:''' How can they drop me onto my own head?
140	-->'''Willie:''' No, not ''onto'' your own— would— GODDAMN IT, ARE YOU FUCKING WITH ME?!
141	* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: Lois orders Marcus to do this when [[spoiler:the two have Willie at gunpoint at the completion of their heist]], complaining that she's losing patience and wants to leave already.
142	* WouldHurtAChild: Marcus, at the least if said child [[GroinAttack kicks him in the balls]]. [[WhatTheHellHero Willie calls him out on this.]]
143	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:Once the safe is cracked and he gets everything he wants out of the mall, Marcus decides it's time to off Willie since he's no longer reliable. Marcus]] asserts that Willie's behavior has deteriorated from his alcoholism and feels that it is way past time [[spoiler:for them to break ties]].

Context Film / BadSanta