History Film / AmericanFiction

* RuleOfPool: When he and Coraline find Monk swimming at night, Cliff pulls Monk into the pool.

* SmashToBlack: {{Discussed|Trope}}. The film seems to end on a SmashToBlack just as Monk gets up at the awards dinner--but no, it's just the first ending Monk pitches to Wiley the director.

* HeadDesk: Monk's response when some businesspeople approve of his ironic proposal to rename ''My Pafology'' to ''Fuck.''

* HiddenDepths: Monk regards Sintara Golden as a pandering phony, but is discomfited when she turns out to be very intelligent and has a nuanced understanding of her own genre and does a lot of research for her own work and is able to spot ''Fuck'' as a piece of crap.
* HollywoodPudgy: [[invoked]] Discussed in-universe. His mother says YouAreFat (which he agrees with). Lorraine tells him that in Arkansas, he would be a "beauty queen."
* HopeSpot: Monk sends Coraline a text message apologizing and asking her to be his date for the awards ceremony. The dots in front of her name indicate that she's typing a response, only to abruptly stop, showing that she's changed her mind and decided to ignore him.

* IAmOneOfThoseToo: When Monk is interviewing the movie director Wiley and pretending to be a fugitive who was once in prison as part of his persona, Wiley reveals that he has been in prison for a month. Monk has to be vague and secretive about his experience to avoid tipping Wiley off that he was never actually in prison.

* NotThatKindOfDoctor: Monk's sister, Lisa, is an OB/GYN and his brother, Cliff, is a plastic surgeon. When Monk says that Lisa is a doctor, she says "so are you", and he has to point out that he's not a ''medical'' doctor (presumably a doctorate holder as a college professor). It gets reversed on him when Monk expresses worry that Cliff gave Oxycontin to Lorraine, only for Cliff to tell him that that helps "if [they] need to revive a sentence."

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Monk is never referred to as "Thelonious", not even by his mother or siblings.

** Monk's father once kissed a white woman while still married to his mother, which his sister saw. It's a RecurringGag.

* RuleOfSymbolism: During Sintara's reading of ''We's Lives In Da Ghetto'', the camera focuses on Monk's dismayed reaction...before he's blocked (in the shot) by an applauding white woman. This shot neatly summarizes the theme's films -- white audiences eating up the type of "black" content Monk hates, while steamrolling over his own objections.

* UncleTomfoolery: Monk writes this type of book, featuring black thugs in a crime-ridden community, to spite the trope, but it becomes a success.

* AdvertisedExtra: Creator/TraceeEllisRoss [[spoiler:because her character dies fifteen minutes into the film]]. Creator/IssaRae is in around ten minutes overall, but is still on the poster with the other more important characters.

* PaintingTheFourthWall: The first line is

* FreudianTrio: The three siblings. Lisa is the superego, as the rational and wise sibling, and [[WomenAreWiser the only daughter.]] Monk is the ego; he steps up for his mother ''My Pafology/''Fuck''

* NotThatKindOfDoctor: Monk's sister, Lisa, is an OB/GYN and his brother, Cliff, is a plastic surgeon. When Monk says that Lisa is a doctor, she says "so are you", and he has to point out that he's not a ''medical'' doctor (presumably a doctorate holder as a college professor).

* WhereTheWhiteWomenAt: Monk's father once kissed a white woman while still married to his mother, which his sister saw. Monk also gets made fun of by his siblings and mother for having brought a white woman home at some point, while his brother Cliff was also married to a white woman, though he declares that "[[TheBeard Beards don't count]]."

* {{Foreshadowing}}: After the very tough scene where his mother tells him "I always knew you weren't a queer," Cliff decides to fly back and candidly tells Coraline, "This family will break your heart." [[spoiler:Sadly, he's right. Monk snaps at Coraline when he finds a copy of "Fuck" in her bag and she defends the book to him, so she breaks up with him over his rude comments.]]

* TwoferTokenMinority: Downplayed. Cliff is African American and gay, but when the cast has many other African American characters, the first one isn't really token.

* TwoferTokenMinority: Cliff is African American and gay.

* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: Monk's nickname is actually not his real name. His first name is Thelonious, but since his parents are both black boomers, it's highly likely that he was named after the famous jazz player Thelonious Monk. The last name of said player is obviously a lot easier to say and spell than the first name, so it's why Monk has the nickname within his family and friends circles.

* RageAgainstTheAuthor: When Monk is initially writing ''My Pafology'', he imagines the scene of the 2 characters he's writing. When one shoots the other, the shot character calls Monk out in annoyance to which he just shrugs.

** [[spoiler: Monk abruptly [[RaceForYourLoveruns out of the award ceremony to Coraline's house]].]] Wiley rejects this one for being too cheesy.

* AmbiguousEnding: Monk steps up to the award show microphone to admit the truth and the film cuts to black. He says to the director he didn't say anything at the awards regarding being the true author of "Fuck/My Pafology." The director knows this--he addresses Monk as "Monk", and the film they're making is about Monk's experience in writing the book--but it's not clear who else does (though the last scene implies that Monk has let Cliff in on the secret).

** [[spoiler:The story ends [[NoEnding just as Monk gets on stage and is about to confess something]].]] Wiley rejects this for being too ambiguous.

* NotThatKindOfDoctor: Monk's sister, Lisa, is an OB/GYN and his brother, Cliff, is a plastic surgeon. In contrast, Monk himself presumably has an academic doctorate as a college professor.

* PlayingUpTheStereotype: Monk is a black professor from a well-off background, and resents how the white-dominated publishing industry only wants to sell stereotypically black stories (i.e. about racism, urban crime, etcetera). As a joke, he writes a "hood" novel filled with stereotypes like deadbeat dads and drug addiction, and passes himself off as a thuggy ex-con (even having to affect a ghetto accent). It gets rave reviews.

* TakeThat: Understandably, there are a few shots taken at Creator/TylerPerry, given that his empire is built upon pretty much nothing but films about UncleTomfoolery and other negative black stereotypes.

* TruthInTelevision: Most of what's portrayed about the publishing world is spot on in accuracy. The American publishing industry still remains between 80-90% white and is 74% female.

* UncleTomfoolery: Monk writes this type of book to spite the trope, but it becomes a success.

Thelonious "Monk" Ellison is a black author who is struggling to sell his books because audiences only want to read books from black writers if they wrote about "black things." As family financial troubles start mounting up, he writes a stereotypical "black" novel on a whim in one night to prove his agent wrong. Only problem is...[[SpringtimeForHitler publishers love it, and so do audiences]].

* HypocriticalHumor: Judges for the Literary Award talk about how ''Fuck'' is important as a sign that people are listening to black voices, when three of the five judges present are ignoring the black man and black woman actually rejecting the idea that ''Fuck'' is worthy of an award. The camera shot even drives home the point, with the three white judges sitting across from the two black ones.

* SpringTimeForHitler: Monk wrote ''My Pafology'' to spite itself and prove audiences that WhiteGuilt books are not good literature and when publishers and audiences love it, he doubles down trying to make it worse, only for them to love it more. Even renaming it ''Fuck'' doesn’t stop its success with the novel eventually becoming a best seller, getting a movie deal, and winning a prestigious award, becoming Monk's most successful work, much to his chagrin.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: It's very sad, but it's not unrealistic that [[spoiler:Coraline dumps Monk after their big argument and won't return his calls and text messages.]]
** Monk doesn't say anything at the awards show. Presumably to maintain his current financial gains to support his mother.
** Despite being presumably well-paid doctors, both Cliff and Lisa take major financial hits after their respective divorces, leaving them struggling to contribute to their mother's care. Monk himself, despite being an equally presumably well-paid college professor, is also very worried about how he can manage, hence is deciding to take the book deal.

* MinorityShowGhetto: [[invoked]] In-universe. Monk is a talented writer, but his manuscripts keep getting rejected by publishers that want him to write more "Black" stories and his books are even put into African American studies section of the bookstore despite having nothing to do with it. He writes "My Pafology/Fuck" as a parody of the tropes in this.

* MinorityShowGhetto: [[invoked]] In-universe. Monk is a talented writer, but his manuscripts keep getting rejected by publishers that want him to write more "Black" stories and his books are even put into African American literature section of the bookstore despite having nothing to do with it. He writes My Pafology as a parody of the tropes in this.

* {{Foil}}: Sindra and Monk are foils to one another. Both are black authors who write urban fiction, but Sindra has accepted this particular type of black culture while Monk soundly rejects it, stating that it causes white people to think they can't be anything more than people who struggle. Sindra argues that he is instead mad at ''white people'' for believing black people are stereotypical struggling thugs and hoes, not at her and not at the black community. This causes Monk to have a bit of an epiphany, even though he disagrees with her.

** [[spoiler:[[NoEnding The story ends just as Monk gets on stage and is about to confess something]].]] Wiley rejects this for being too ambiguous.
** [[spoiler:[[RaceForYourLove Monk abruptly runs out of the award ceremony to Coraline's house]].]] Wiley rejects this one for being too cheesy.

* HopeSpot: Monk sends Coraline a text message apologizing and asking her to be his date for the awards ceremony. The dots in front of her name indicate that she's typing a response, only to abruptly stop, showing that's changed her mind and decided to ignore him.