- Awesome Music
- "Scotty Doesn't Know.
" Hilarious, cruel and oh-so-catchy. The remix
heard in Bratislava is surprisingly cool. - The move even starts with some: the very first sound heard is Chapeaumelon's rockin' cover of The Who's "My Generation." In French! It sets the tone for the whole movie.
- 'Du bist alles was ich habe auf der Welt/du bist alles, was ich will/DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU du allein kannst mich verstehn/DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU du darfst nie mehr von mir gehn!'
- "Scotty Doesn't Know.
- Best Known for the Fanservice:
- The movie pretty much runs on the promise of seeing topless European women (and at least one American girl) all the time, and it does not disappoint.
- The trailers were also not shy about showing off Michelle Trachtenberg's bikini scene.
- Lucy Lawless as a dominatrix is considered a spot-on casting decision, as many many men would pay top dollar for the chance to be her bitch.
- Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: During a sequence where the camera comically pans down a very long line to get in the Louvre, it screeches to a stop and runs back to pan up and down a sexy French woman's body emphasizing her legs. No other reason for it than the movie's love of fanservice and Rule of Funny. Could be a Shout-Out to Tex Avery.
- Common Knowledge: Many people believe that this film is a standalone sequel to Road Trip. While it shares producers and has the same themes, the film only got its name to cash in on the latter's success (it was originally titled Ugly Americans).
- Crosses the Line Twice: Enough to earn its own list.
- Cult Classic: Though quickly forgotten at the box office, it's held up as one of the better examples of the post-American Pie teen sex comedies from the Turn of the Millennium.
- Designated Hero: Scotty can come across this way. When Scotty thought Mieke was a man he jumped to the conclusion "he" is a sexual predator and broke off their friendship with a slew of homophobic insults, and he only regrets his decision when he realizes his penpal is actually a hot girl. While he was actually friends with her and probably is interested in her for reasons beyond the physical, the movie doesn't really frame it that way. This also overlooks that Scotty doesn't even know if Mieke sees him in a romantic light or not, she just asked if he wanted to meet in person. The result is that Scotty is portrayed as a teenager that is willing to break laws and all manner of social norms just to have sex with a girl who may not even reciprocate his interest, and whom he called a "sick German freak" just because he thought "he" was a gay man.
- Ensemble Dark Horse:
- The green fairy seen after the men drink absinthe is a scene stealer that combines crass with delight. Helps that he was played by the same actor who played Kenny Bania on Seinfeld.
- The leader of the soccer hooligans as portrayed by Vinnie Jones is also well loved.
- Fan Nickname: Fans have nicknamed the Absinthe Fairy as the Kenny Bania Fairy because he is played by Steven Hytner.
- Friendly Fandoms: With The Cat in the Hat. Helps that the writers were involved in both movies.
- Harsher in Hindsight: After Hostel came out, it can be a little hard to watch a movie that takes the idea of a sex-crazed American backpacker getting tortured while looking to get laid in Europe and plays it for laughs. Not to mention when they stop at a hostel, where the owner goes on and on about the dangers of staying in a hostel.
- Heartwarming Moments:
- Upon arriving in Berlin, Scott goes up to Mieke's apartment alone to finally meet with her. Then Cooper suddenly walks up next to him at the front door. His reason? He travelled all over Europe to help his best friend meet the girl of his dreams, so there's no way he's going to miss it.
- After spending the entire movie gushing about his new Leica M7 camera, Jamie immediately sells it so Scotty will have enough money to travel to Vatican City to meet Mieke. His justification?"The chateaus have been here for three hundred years. Mieke's gone in 12 hours."
- Coop giving Jamie a bear hug before they part ways.
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- The song "Scotty Doesn't Know" is all about... fucking Matt Damon.

- In the movie, the American song "Scotty Doesn't Know" becomes rapidly popular overseas, while in real life it became well-known in Australia some time after the film came out after being used to prank Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
- The song "Scotty Doesn't Know" is all about... fucking Matt Damon.
- Homegrown Hero: The bread and butter of the film, as a group of American tourists explores a landscape of European stereotypes.
- Just Here for Godzilla:
- Many fans of Matt Damon just want to see his cameo.
- Fans of Lucy Lawless want to see her as a dominatrix.
- Buffy fans wanted to see Michelle Trachtenberg all grown up.
- Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: The European stereotypes are so blatant and over the top that they pretty much cease being offensive and Europeans can just enjoy the mocking of the stereotypes, rather than mocking of the Europeans. It also helps that Cooper himself is a stereotype of the culturally ignorant American tourist (and to a degree, so is everyone else), so the film takes shots at both sides.
- Misaimed Fandom: Some use "Scotty Doesn't Know" as an empowering and fun break-up song celebrating someone dumping their lame partner and bragging that they've found someone better. As anyone who has actually seen the scene in the movie where it's played, Scotty is obviously emotionally hurt by what she's done.
- One-Scene Wonder: Donny, the band leader played by Matt Damon stole the show of the prologue.
- Retroactive Recognition: The show saw some popularity with fans of Justified, as fan favorite, stoic badass Tim played by Jacob Pitts, who plays Cooper.
- Song Association: Due to its repeated usage, "Scotty Doesn't Know" is synonymous with the film.
- Signature Scene:
- Matt Damon's cameo because it is where we first hear "Scotty Doesn't Know".
- Scottie fighting the robotman.
- Trailer Joke Decay: Several of the not as racy jokes are prominent in the marketing of the film, which might have been the reason why the film failed at the box office.
- Unintentional Period Piece:
- VCRs, old mobile phones and computers are a clear indicator of the time in which this movie came out; Scotty even has an obscene alert tone for his emails, very much a parody of AOL’s famous “You’ve Got Mail” alert.
- Nobody but Cooper have a cell phone, and it's a professional device landed by his boss. Nowadays Mieke would certainly possess a cell phone, that would end the misunderstanding in Berlin, if her father phoned her to explain the mistake.
- Scotty has a Cleveland Indians pennant pinned to his wall; in the wake of the 2020 George Floyd protests, many brands were renamed, including sports teams. The Indians have been known as The Cleveland Guardians since 2021.
- Neverending lines before entering the Louvre (or any important museum) were still true in the Turn of the Millennium era, but now, e-tickets made it mostly a thing of the past.
- Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Scotty's entire quest. He's going out of his way to prove his love to a girl he only knows via email, who he can't contact directly via the means he would normally. Why? Because, while under the impression they were a gay man, he sent them a viciously homophobic message that flat-out accused his pen pal of being a sexual predator, and she blocked him for it. And his "love" for Mieke is extremely shallow, since he only saw them as a friend while assuming they were a guy, but as soon as he realised they were a hot girl, he decided to fly across the world just to pursue them with lust being his prime motivator (again, after they had blocked him for a viciously mean-spirited message he sent her). It's not hard to assume Scotty probably had it coming.
- Values Dissonance: A rather blink-and-you'll-miss-it example, but when the group is stopped by a Swiss Guard at the Vatican, the excuse Jenny makes up in an attempt to let them enter (at least before the Manchester United hooligans provide a Big Damn Heroes moment) is claiming that Cooper "is mentally retarded" and wanted a tour through the premises. While the tone and context she used indicates that she was using the term in the formal sense it originally had, by the end of the 2000s the term "retarded" fell out of use and was labelled a slur after being repeatedly used as an insult.
- Win Back the Crowd: The film was written by the same writers who did The Cat in the Hat. It's easy to see they made up their differences by doing what they are more comfortable with.
- The Woobie: Scotty during "Scotty Doesn't Know." The song is all about how his ex-girlfriend that just broke up with him has been cheating on him for who-knows-how-long with the guy singing the song (and given the Brick Joke next morning, possibly the other band members), and said song is basically a long bragging rant about all the kinky sexual things they've been doing behind his back, including having sex on his front lawn and on his birthday. And it's on graduation night at a party that the other graduates are attending, and as the band performs the song Fiona is busy doing a strip-tease on stage and rubbing herself all over the singer. The rest of the party-goers don't show Scotty any sympathy, but the viewers sure will.
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