Madea's Big Happy Family is a dramedy film.
The story concerns an aging woman, named Shirley, with terminal cancer and how she tries to unite them under one roof (and table) to tell them that she hasn't long for this world.
However, unfortunately, her family doesn't get along with each other with Tammy and Kimberly at each other's throats, Harold being a doormat to his wife, and Byron not having his life together.
Madea's Big Happy Family provides examples of:
- Adults Are Useless: This is exactly why Kimberly is so resentful towards her mother, Shirley, because Shirley wanted to keep her rape secret and so never got the former help for her trauma.
- Adapted Out: In the Play, Shirley had an older kid named "Joyce" but she's not the movie, except for her name being mentioned. Also in the play, the character Donnie was Kimberly's child instead of Byron.
- Awful Truth: Byron finding out Kimberly is really his mother.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: What the eponymous family really is.
- The Bully: Tammy is this towards her husband. He eventually has had enough and stands up for himself.
- Calling Parents by Their Name: Tammy's oldest son calls his mother by her first name.
- Child by Rape: Byron was revealed to be Kimberly's son, not her brother, who was conceived after Kimberly was raped by her paternal uncle.
- Dirty Old Woman: Aunt Bam, who doesn't stop at anything to flirt with any attractive man she sees.
- Exact Words: Madea tells Leroy Brown that he will say "something nice to him, for once." She literally tells him those words.
- Extreme Doormat: Subverted. Harold wishes he had the strength to stand up to his domineering wife, but he doesn’t. Madea later helps him with that, and he succeeds.
- Family Relationship Switcheroo: As we find out later in the story, Kimberly is really Byron's mother.
- Fat and Skinny: Tammy, a short and heavyset woman and Kimberly, who has a tall, willowy figure.
- Flipping the Bird: Tammy flips off Harold on their wedding anniversary after he brings her flowers, considering the gesture to be weak and overall annoyed by his doting behavior.
- Foreshadowing:
- When Byron arrives at Shirley's house, Shirley tells Bam "the baby's here". It's clear she isn't talking about Byron Jr..
- When Shirley goes to Kimberly and Calvin's home to get bail money for Byron, Kimberly asks why she should help Byron, and she responds "a mother knows", to which Kimberly repeats the same thing.
- Shirley tells Madea she needs to tell Byron the truth before it’s too late. It’s not about the cancer.
- During the dinner scene, when Tammy reveals Kimberly had a baby at 13, Kimberly briefly, yet subtly looks at Byron, the “baby” in question.
- Freudian Excuse: Kimberly resents her family because she had been raped by her uncle at 12 and had his child at 13, but her mother never got her help for it and her family preferred to act as one big happy family instead of addressing their issues.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Although Madea is very sympathetic towards Kimberly’s Freudian Excuse, she chews Kimberly out on taking her anger out on everyone (though she is somewhat justified towards her family) and tells the latter to get some professional help. This is probably why Madea is one of the only family members that Kimberly isn't resentful towards. Other than Madea being... Madea.
- Good Parents: Calvin does everything he can to ensure that his child is raised in a good environment. This may be why Kimberly's authoritarian parenting bothered him.
- Although Byron tries to be this, his criminal record and Sabrina’s greediness makes it difficult for him to do so.
- Gospel Choirs Are Just Better: A whole scene is devoted to this at Shirley's funeral towards the end of the film.
- Grew a Spine: After getting some advice from Madea, Harold finally stands up to Tammy and lets her know that her being mean to him is no longer going to be tolerated.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Both Kimberly and Tammy have these. Kimberly is consistently touchy with a chip on her shoulder due to her past while Tammy seems to angered for no reason, especially by anything Kimberly or Harold says or does. According to Harold, she was like this when he met her.
- Henpecked Husband: Harold is this to Tammy, as she's loud and domineering.
- Hypocrite: During the big family argument where it's discovered that Kimberly is Byron's mother, not Shirley, who is actually his grandmother, Madea and Bam stop Shirley from interfering with the argument, saying how it "needs to happen", though they're upset with how Tammy revealed it. Let's not forget that Shirley raised her kids to tell no lies and keep no secrets.
- Jerkass: Kimberly, Tammy, Sabrina, and Renee for varying reasons:
- Kimberly is this mostly because of the pent of pain of being sexually abused by a paternal uncle when she was 12 (having Byron at 13) and the inaction her family took regarding this issue and thinks she's better than her family though this is due to their willingness to ignore their issues.
- Tammy is one because she belittles and undermines Harold and threw her sister's pregnancy, caused by rape, in her face to win an argument.
- Sabrina is this because she mostly seems to live to make Byron (more) miserable than what he is, as she lies and mostly tends to spend whatever child support money she gets on herself, and does everything to force Byron back into the drug dealing game in order to get more money (including getting him arrested for back child support, which also leads to him getting fired from his job, and humiliating him on The Maury Show).
- Renee, Byron's current girlfriend, as we know, is a Gold Digger, who wants nothing to do with Byron unless he's bringing in the big money from pushing drugs.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While Kimberly was unnecessarily harsh to her child, she admits that she only does this out of fear that her child will become as bad as Tammy's kids. The thing is, Kimberly is right about Tammy's kids being poorly raised. Even Madea says that the boys are spoiled and rude.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: A few:
- Madea, as per usual, with her rather asshole-ish nature but she doesn't hesitate to help Shirley with her situation.
- Byron, though he's not so much a "jerk", just painfully misguided but he does care about his family.
- Tammy's sons become this later, though that wasn't without Madea slapping them, though.
- It's implied that Kimberly will eventually become this after Calvin learns why she's so angry and mean.
- Karma Houdini: Kimberly's paternal uncle, who, from what can be implied, never got punished for raping her.
- Kick the Dog:
- Tammy throwing back in Kimberly's face her teenage pregnancy, which was conceived through incestuous rape, and in front of their younger "brother", Byron, who was the result of that event and who knew nothing about the circumstances all of his life, just so she could win the argument. Even Madea calls her out on this.
- After Byron gets fired from his job because he was arrested (thanks to Sabrina) and he knocks over some boxes in anger, his boss then insults him and tells him to clean them up.
- Joe to Madea. See Laser-Guided Karma below.
- Even as a genuine Nice Guy (and one of the few truly decent people in the film), Calvin does this to Kimberly after an argument where he decides to leave and take their baby son with him. Over her desperate protests not to take the boy, he then spitefully says "You already have the one you left on the doorstep". However, this played with in that A) Byron was conceived from sexual abuse and so, due to the situation at the time, Shirley raised Byron alongside her kids and B) he (and the viewers) didn't know this until later, retroactively making the move this trope.
- Laser-Guided Karma: From all the annoying behavior she committed in the film and her calling out the family for all of their wrongdoings, Madea then goes on Maury for a paternity test and is devastated to learn that Mr. Brown is not the father of Cora. Meanwhile, Joe, watching the episode at home and amused by the turn of events, laughs at her and makes a Call-Back to his joke of "1-800-Choke-That-Ho".
- It can be said that Shirley’s cancer and eventual death is this, as she covered up the fact that not only was Kimberly raped by an uncle at a young age, but also had said uncle’s child, Byron, as a result.
- Love Triangle: Between Byron, Sabrina and Renee. He actually likes the fact that both women are fighting over him, but he eventually settles his differences with Sabrina (with some forceful urging by Madea) and cuts ties with Renee by the end of the film.
- Mama Bear: Madea calls out everyone over their flaws, and the first one she chews out is Sabrina for using her baby son to purposely ruin her ex boyfriend's life while sponging off the child support money and points out her son will certainly grow up resenting her for her behavior. Madea reminds Sabrina that her son is a human being, not a pawn to be used to make his father's life miserable. She also threatens to beat up Sabrina should she catch her doing her old antics.
- Nice Guy:
- Calvin. He's nothing but patient with Kimberly, despite how she is and he goes out of his way to help Byron and Shirley, despite Kimberly being less inclined. He even comes to sympathize with Kimberly when he finds out about her terrible past and he and her have a better marriage as the latter agrees to get help.
- Shirley, who only wants to have a nice dinner and keep peace so she can tell her family about her terminal cancer, which isn't helping her situation any. However, she's a deconstruction, as "keeping the peace" doesn't help matters when your daughter has some unresolved trauma from being raped as a child and your family's issues get worse and worse.
- Never Got to Say Goodbye: Kimberly to Shirley. She arrives at the hospital soon after she passes away. Worse, Kimberly purposely ignored her family’s calls out of spite but once her husband breaks the news, she tearfully apologizes to her mother’s corpse.
- Only Sane Man:
- Calvin is one of the few people in this film who has common sense.
- While Kimberly is a jerkass, she veers into this regarding her family and the issues they have, as she's the only one not interested in running away from their issues.
- Pac Man Fever: At one point in the film, Tammy's sons are playing video games with what looks like Atari-style joysticks, complete with generic beeping sounds.
- Parents as People: Kimberly loves her child, but she’s tough towards him so that he won't turn out like Tammy's kids. The problem is that she punishes him for doing things normal for his age (he's about 6 months old). Calvin (understandably) eventually has had enough and leaves, taking the baby with him.
- Parting-Words Regret: In the end, Kimberly never got to tells Shirley she's sorry. Its only after she finds out Shirley’s death does Kimberly cry out how sorry she is towards her mother’s corpse.
- Pushover Parents: Tammy allows her sons to be rude and disrespectful to their elders. This changes after Madea gets through to her and her family.
- Really Gets Around: Madea admits that when she was young, she "put the 'h' in 'ho'", and that if Mr. Brown isn't Cora's father, she no longer remembers who could be.
- Secretly Dying: Subverted. It's not that Shirley is keeping her prognosis a secret, it's that her family won't get along well enough for her to tell them, so they find out as she's on her deathbed.
- Shout-Out: The release poster/DVD cover seems to feature a vague one to The Brady Bunch.
- Sibling Rivalry: Kimberly and Tammy.
- Spoiled Brat: Tammy’s sons, but mostly because Tammy placates them and Harold is too much of doormat to do otherwise. Madea, however, quickly resolves this.
- The Stoner: Aunt Bam, which adds some funny moments, as earlier in the film, she's seen smoking weed and, when it's brought up that Byron used to deal drugs, she asks about a dime bag.
- Talk Show Appearance: Madea eventually goes on Maury to learn if Mr. Brown is her adult daughter, Cora's, father. He is not, and Madea freaks out like any other disappointed mother all while Joe happily watches at home and makes fun Of her.
- Teen Pregnancy: Kimberly was raped at age 12 and gave birth to Byron at 13.
- Upper-Class Twit: Kimberly comes off as this towards her family. It's justified, given what happened to her.
- Useless Bystander Parent: Although Shirley prides herself on being a decent, single parent who brought up her children to be God-fearing and respectful, the reality is all three of her children have substantial issues. Worst of all is those of eldest daughter Kimberly, who was raped by her paternal uncle at the age of 13 which culminated in her getting pregnant with her "brother" Byron, who Shirley decided to keep the whole thing a secret, never getting Kimberly help in any form.
- Wham Line: Tammy delivers two during the family dinner. One to Kimberly, the other to Byron.Tammy: I'm not jealous of you. I'm not the one who got pregnant at 13 and had Mama to raise my child.
[After Kimberly storms out, Byron demands to know where the baby is now]
Tammy: You should look in the mirror. - What the Hell, Hero?: Madea rightly calls Tammy out on the way she revealed to everyone on the table how Bryon was Kimberly's child instead of her brother. She also calls out everyone else on their flaws at the end of Shirley's funeral.
- Byron is justifiably angry when he finds out Kimberly is his biological mother, and calls Shirley out for teaching them to never tell lies or keep any secrets, yet kept this hidden from him his entire life. He then angrily takes his son and leaves.
