YMMV / Airheads

• Alternative Character Interpretation: The Lone Rangers, or namely Chazz - frustrated Jerk with a Heart of Gold, or just a jerk in a group of jerks?
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: One on The Lone Rangers' demands include "naked pictures of Bea Arthur"; artist John Currin painted a topless picture of her in 1991.
• Awesome Music: The song "Born to Raise Hell" by Motörhead featuring Ice-T and Whitfield Crane, which plays over the opening credits.
• Covered Up: "Degenerated" is not an original song, it was originally performed by hardcore band Reagan Youth. However, far more people know the films version.
• Critical Dissonance: On Rotten Tomatoes, Airheads only has a 21% freshness rating with critics. Among audiences, however, it is moderately popular with a freshness of 51%.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Kayla leaving the Whiskey-A-Go-Go and driving erratically to Rebel Radio becomes less funny when you learn that actress Amy Locane went to prison for killing an elderly woman while driving drunk.
  • The entire plot revolving around three angry men taking over a radio station with fake guns doesn't look quite as funny due to the amount of gun violence in recent years (see Values Dissonance below).
  • The signing of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 would turbocharge the corporatization of music and radio that Chazz rails against during the film, as corporations buying up or closing down radio stations has made it harder for aspiring artists to break through.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Chazz explaining why he's willing to hold Rebel Radio hostage so that he can play his song on the air, saying "I'm average and screwed up enough that I might just write a song that will live forever. And then it's all going to be worth it.", became this after Brendan Fraser, after years of struggling to get new roles, got a widely-praised comeback part in The Whale and won the Academy Award for Best Actor for it.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • When making their fake demands, one of the items cited is "naked pictures of Bea Arthur." In 1994, it's an oddball curiosity, but in 2013, it's worth $1.9 million.
  • The "Lemmy Is God" line became hilarious when he actually did play God in the horror film "Curse Of El-Charro".
  • The "wrestling match" part of the joke became this after Motörhead themselves performed Triple H's themes for both himself ("The Game", "King of Kings") and his Power Stable Evolution ("Line In The Sand").
  • Chazz's dismissive comments on classic rock artists like The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix have become funnier now that rock and metal artists from the '80s and '90s are also being considered "classic rock" nowadays.
• Memetic Badass: Lemmy, thanks in no small part to this movie.
• Memetic Mutation: "Who'd win in a wrestling match, Lemmy or God?" "Trick question. Lemmy is God."
• One-Scene Wonder: Lemmy.
• Squick: Five words: Naked pictures of Bea Arthur.
  Jimmy Wing: Bea Arthur? Outstanding.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • The first cop who arrives at the station (and has a stand-off with Pip) is played by future Happy Madison alum Allen Covert.
  • And, of course, Chris Farley had a minor role in this film as a young, inexperienced police officer before the success of Tommy Boy would turn him into a mainstream comedy star.
• Unintentional Period Piece:
  • This movie really captures the whole music scene of the '90s, especially when a reporter describes our main characters as having "MTV soaked minds", referring to the time before MTV's Network Decay when it was still primarily focused on music.
  • In addition, the movie features classic '90s toys like Stretch Armstrong and someone prominently playing a Game Gear (with SFX from a real GG game, thus averting Pac Man Fever).
  • And of course, the simple fact that the Lone Rangers have no choice - in their own minds at least - but to take over a radio station and forcing the staff to play their demo tape seems even more absurd today in an era where they could easily just upload their music on line by way of various social media sites in order to promote themselves. And don't get started on how much cell phones or satellite radio would impact the plot.
  • To say nothing of only a reel-to-reel and cassette copy of the demo existing...the entire plot would fall apart with a digital version.
• Values Dissonance: It's a goofy comedy about guys taking a radio station hostage with fake Uzis, and we're supposed to root for them. After all the gun violence of the last two decades, if this movie were made today, it would probably be a whole lot darker.
• Values Resonance: ...On the other hand, despite the growth of the world wide web and social media allowing more aspiring musicians to put out their work independently, the music industry executives act the same way over 20 years later, wanting total control over artists and their work.