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  • Critical Dissonance: The first film was absolutely savaged by reviewers at the time of its release; Hal Hinson of the Washington Post called it "paltry and undernourished," the New York Times said it was "painfully inept", and Variety called it "utterly cliched". But it grossed about 4 times its budget and to this day is generally considered a comedy classic by audiences.
  • Fair for Its Day: Casual homophobia aside (see Values Dissonance), the films had a subtle point about women's right to consent. The Princesses choose Bill and Ted over their arranged marriages and their "happy ending" is being able to marry for love. In the sequel, the Evil Robot Bill and Ted are shown not respecting the Princesses and demanding they put out, and Bill and Ted are shown to be disgusted by this behaviour.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Most shipping fanworks for the film tend to be for the Bill/Tedship, especially on Tumblr. The fact that their actual girlfriends qualify as Satellite Love Interests helps.
  • Genius Bonus: Bill's full name being "Bill S. Preston, Esquire" is a lot funnier if you know that the title "Esquire" denotes that someone is a lawyer (which Bill definitely isn't). The apparent implication is that Bill has no idea what it actually means, and just added it to his name because it sounded cool.
  • Memetic Mutation
    • "Be excellent to each other... and party on, dudes!"
    • "Strange things are afoot at the Circle K."
    • The Wyld Stallyns guitar riff and accompanying hand motions.
    • The picture for Conspiracy Keanu comes from Excellent Adventure.
    • "San Dimas High School football rules!"
    • "Sixty-nine, dudes!"
  • Narm Charm: Acted by anybody else, Bill and Ted's style of speaking would probably get annoying incredibly quickly. However, the sheer earnestness of the characters and their actors' performances makes it an endearing character trait that is now impossible to imagine them without. It helps that it's portrayed completely tongue-in-cheek and not like a legitimate attempt to be "hip".
  • Values Dissonance: When Bill and Ted hug, they always push each other away and humorously shout "Fag". This was okay for an 80's movie that was rated PG. That term is less acceptable now. The same goes for the sequel, where the guys attempt to talk the Evil Robot Usses out of killing them by saying "We love you!", prompting the ERUs to say "Fags!" and then kill them anyway. Acknowledged by one of the writers, Ed Solomon, who confirmed on his Twitter that the third movie won't continue the gag.


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