Revenge of the Nerds / YMMV

Alternative Character Interpretation: There are some people who downplay the Bed Trick on Betty in the first film, and even claim she knew it wasn't Stan—perhaps that she knew it was Lewis all along—and went along with it willingly.
Awesome Music:
- The Tri-Lambda/Omega-Mus' musical number at the Talent Show.
- The use of Queen's "We Are the Champions" at the end of the first movie, especially the rendition by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
- The "No on 15" song as well as 38 Special's "Back to Paradise" in the second movie.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In his introductory scene, Ogre throws an unnamed college student off the roof of the Alpha Beta house, presumably killing him in front of several witnesses as well. This is never brought up again though and he's never even called out on it.
Character Perception Evolution: When the film was released, the titular nerds were highly praised as atypical heroes who inverted the traditional Slobs Versus Snobs dynamic, fighting back against and defeating the jocks and cliques that bullied them. However, as the decades went by, not only did their "nerd" elements look increasingly antiquated in the wake of other geek-centric works that helped normalize nerdiness in the public consciousness, but the film's portrayal of their revenge also aged horrendously, consisting of repeated instances of sexual misconduct, up to and including a Bed Trick (which is legally considered rape by deception). As the film became Condemned by History as a result of its severe Values Dissonance, so too did the nerds' reputations decline, with them coming off to modern audiences as uncomfortably creepy relics of how sex and sexuality were depicted in the '80s.
Character Rerailment: In the first movie Booger calls the Mus "pigs" but comes to love them, then in the second movie he only hits on the conventionally attractive girls. And in the third and fourth movie he's back to Ugly Cute Mus.
Condemned by History: Upon its release, the film was a huge hit, and for years it was fondly remembered as not only one of the greatest sex comedies of The '80s but also one of the canonical depictions of nerds as heroes in Hollywood movies. However, due to changing societal attitudes (particularly beginning around the mid-2000s), the film aged horribly. Not only does its definition of a "nerd" look incredibly silly and antiquated, but more importantly, the nerds' antics, which range from revenge porn to a Bed Trick and are presented as heroic, went from funny to outright horrifying^note. Today, now that nerds are better respected and more clearly defined in most works (e.g., The Big Bang Theory), and that colleges will crack down on anything involving sexual harassment and assault (especially in the wake of the #MeToo movement), the film feels like everything is wrong with '80s college sex comedies^note. It didn't help that an attempted reboot in 2007 (when raunchy comedies were making a comeback) was cancelled after the school where filming was meant to happen saw the script, realized what it was, and promptly backed out, with no other school/college willing to allow filming to occur on their premises. The film even got an unflattering Robot Chicken parody where the nerds are sent to prison for their actions and get murdered in a prison riot.
Designated Hero: The Tri-Lambs' revenge on Betty Childs is hardly the action one would expect of the heroic characters they are supposed to be. While she was a Grade-A bitch, putting secret cameras in her bedroom, selling naked photos of her taken without her knowledge or permission to the entire school, and tricking her into having sex by making her think she's having sex with her boyfriend — which actually fits the legal definition of rape by deception — is, to say the least, grossly Karmic Overkill and would easily get someone registered as a serious sex offender in real life.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Ogre. He was the only one of the Alphas to return for the second film and joins the Tri-Lams at the end.
Hilarious in Hindsight: During the charity carnival, Donald Gibb's character Ogre is wearing a viking costume. Years later, Gibb went on to play a viking in the Capital One television commercials.
Hollywood Homely: Both the Triple Lambda guys themselves and the Omega Mu girls. Lampshaded by Booger:
The Omega Mus?! But they're pigs!
Jerkass Woobie: Betty may be a pretty big asshole, but her basically being raped is massively Karmic Overkill.
Karmic Overkill: There's no denying that Betty Childs was a rude snob in need of an attitude adjustment, but most viewers today think her being subjected to rape by deception was a completely unacceptable form of "retribution".
Mandela Effect: Eddie Deezen has said that he is frequently complimented by strangers for his iconic role in the movie, which would be especially flattering if he was actually in the movie at all.
Memetic Mutation:
- "My son, soon you will take over."
- "To truly hock a loogie, one must not retrieve the phlegm from the throat, but from the soul."
- All together now - "NERRRRRRRRRDS!"
- AH, HAHAHAHAHA!
Moral Event Horizon: The Alpha Betas cross it early on when they drop a guy off the roof of their fraternity mansion. Considering it's about a 20-30 drop, this is straight-up attempted murder.
Signature Scene:
- The talent show.
- Due to being the most famous example of why this movie aged poorly, the Bed Trick where one of the protagonists commits rape.
Unintentional Period Piece: Now that the terms geek and nerd have been appropriated willy nilly by the mainstream as something trendy to label yourself. Also, the nerds' supposedly cutting edge understanding of technology has also become dated, such as the "spy-cam" they used to spy the girls' dorm.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: While Betty is undoubtedly an Alpha Bitch, the Tri-Lambs' revenge on her — culminating in a Bed Trick that would constitute rape by fraud — has led many viewers to feel a good deal more sorry for her than was intended by the filmmakers.
Values Dissonance: A lot, especially since the concept of "nerds" and how they're perceived has changed a great deal since 1984.
- Booger, Lamar, and Takashi probably wouldn't even be called nerds at all nowadays; Booger is closer to the "burnout" stereotype, for one. The term "nerd" is more akin to a member of a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits than someone who's a nerd by modern standards.
- Our nerd protagonists don't exactly hold women in high regard: they plant video cameras in their dorm rooms to spy on them naked, sell photos of one woman's breasts at a carnival, and one girl is even tricked into sleeping with one of them as revenge for being snotty, all of which are considered heroic accomplishments. Not to mention that this whole time, the underage Harold is in tow. Bill Maher even devoted part of one of his "new rules" editorials to shutting down this kind of macho college culture. Some now regard the Tri-Lambs as Villain Protagonists outright, though typically Evil Versus Evil at worst, or Black-and-Gray Morality context with the Tri-Lambs as the gray (because while the antics of the Tri-Lambs may not have aged well, it does not vindicate the Alpha Betas in any way).
- Lewis' Bed Trick on Betty is literally rape. Today, most jurisdictions would call it "rape by deception", and in the modern environment, he'd never get away with it on any college campus, regardless of what local law says. In the movie, it is played off as a cute surprise.
- Lamar's depiction as a limp-wristed sissy (even his javelin is limp!) is par for the course when it comes to the depiction of gay men in movies from the '80s, and is most definitely made to be a walking punchline. It's extremely difficult to find anything funny about him several decades on.
- Likewise, Takashi's Japanese ethnicity being treated as a punchline would be seen as racially insensitive today.
- In the second movie, Lewis cheats on Betty with a girl he met during a fraternity convention. He is still depicted as the movie's hero and suffers no negative consequences for this indiscretion.
- The Alpha Betas in the second movie dress up as Seminole Native Americans, egregious brownface and all.
- The nerds showing Harold, who is clearly underage, anything even resembling nudity, let alone full frontal nudity, is treated as relatively harmless and even for comedy. In the modern era, thanks to the widespread knowledge of what kids witnessing something unhealthy can do to them and the long-lasting impacts it can have, deliberately or even negligently exposing Harold to this type of content would have guaranteed child endangerment charges.
- The way nerds are treated as a discriminated class already rings weird now that nerds are no longer considered outcasts, but even considering that it was made in a time where nerds were considered uncool, the way the film goes to the extent of treating them akin to a racial minority, comparing them to the all-black fraternity for their minority status, can feel pretty weird to some viewers.
- The central conflict in the series may be harder for modern audiences to grasp. After nerds became millionaires and billionaires in the 1990s and 2000s, they suddenly became much more acceptable to mainstream society, and along with the term "geek," is considered a badge of honor. Indeed, many who would not actually be considered to be a "nerd" may label themselves as such for various reasons.
- In the same vein, there's how near the ending of the movie, a squad of said all-black fraternity shows up to stand up for Gilbert against the Alpha Betas, having the only black characters other than Lamar being depicted as Scary Black Men whose only role in the film is to help the white protagonist.

YMMV / Revenge of the Nerds

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