YMMV / Step Brothers

• Accidental Aesop: Although Dale and Brennan spend the first half as whiny man children with no intention of growing up, they do make a genuine effort to change their ways in the second half. While their struggles to adjust are still primarily Played for Laughs, it ultimately goes to show that some people simply have a harder time transitioning into adulthood than others.
  Brennan: (to his therapist) How do I become an adult?
• Awesome Music: Brennan's rendition of Por Ti Volare.
• Better on DVD: The unrated version adds in better jokes.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Many scenes, given the fact that it's a R-rated comedy:
  • "Brennan Has A Mangina" and the fact that Nancy actually joined in on it.
  • Brennan and Dale dressing up respectively as a Nazi officer and a Klansman to scare away prospective homebuyers.
  • Also, during the credits when the two main characters beat up a bunch of children at a playground (although, in the context of the film, you're actually rooting for Brennan and Dale).
• Cult Classic: The film's gleefully juvenile humor and highly quotable dialogue have earned it an enthusiastic following long past its middling theatrical reception.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Richard Jenkins and Mary Steenburgen as Brennan and Dale's parents steal the show in many cases, due to Robert's ferociously increasing temper and hearing Nancy say the most hilarious things in that soft, pleasant voice.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: With the two films having a similar Villain Protagonist premise, it's rather amusing to see Megamind and Wreck-It Ralph as step-siblings ^note Though In-Universe, the latter only plays the villain, but it's still a funny coincidence..
• Jerkass Woobie: Dale and Brennan are childish jerks who wreak havoc across the house, but they do have their own problems dealing with Derek and the children who torment them that make it rather easy to sympathize with them.
• Love to Hate: Derek is a smug, egotistical, douchebag bully, but all of his awful traits are played so over the top that you can't help but marvel over what an enormous asshole he is when you're not too busy cracking up at Adam Scott's hilarious performance.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Boats n' hoes!"
  • "POW!"
  • "Brennan/Dale has a mangina!"
  • "So many activities!"
  • "Did we just become best friends?" "YUP!"
  • "This house is a fucking prison!" "On planet BULLSHIT" "IN THE GALAXY OF THIS SUCKS CAMEL DICKS!!"
• One-Scene Wonder: Rob Riggle as Randy, Derek's Yes-Man who backs up his speech with cries of "POW" while also miming the act of eating another man's penis.
• Signature Scene:
  • Derek's intro, making his whole family sing "Sweet Child O' Mine".
  • Brennan and Dale's "savage fight" over the former touching the latter's drumset.
  • The bunk bed scene, where Dale accidentally crushes Brennan with the top bunk.
  • The final battle scene between the two titular characters and Gardocki's Gang of Bullies.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Alice pretty much indulges in Double Standard Rape: Female on Male against Dale, and is never called out for this. Dale admittedly has no complaints, but it's still at best a highly unsettling situation that hurts The Woobie's sympathy points.
• Unpopular Popular Character: The two main characters. In-Universe, most people cannot stand them due to being such immature losers, but viewers of the movie find them utterly hilarious.
• The Woobie:
  • Alice is stuck in an unhappy marriage to Derek, and even her short-lived affair with Dale ends with her miserable. While she's clearly not completely sane, it's entirely possible that her miserable life made her this way.
  • Nancy and Robert can count, as they have to put up with some seriously messed up Manchild sons, who have clearly caused them both plenty of grief in the past and very nearly ruin their marriage.

---