History Film / BigFatLiar

* MeanBoss: Marty Wolf is a hardcore example of this, demeaning every single employee that works for him and the majority of them get it by him screaming to their faces. It's no wonder why they all agreed to help Jason expose Marty's plagiarism.
* MeaningfulName: Perpetual liar Jason Shepherd has his English paper stolen by Marty Wolf and, of course, Jason isn't believed when he explains this. [[DontExplainTheJoke Note: Their last names refer to Aesop's fable the Boy Who Cried Wolf.]]

* MortalityPhobia: During the part of the climactic hustle where Marty is forced to of a tandem jump with stuntman Vince, Marty is screaming he doesn't want to die all the way down.

* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: [[spoiler:Wolf is such a Jerkass, that his assistant Monty and pretty much ''every one'' of his employees plot his downfall with Jason.]]
* MockingMusic: Thanks to Jason and Kaylee tampering with his car, Marty's radio is stuck on a station playing Music/Eiffel65's "I'm Blue (Ba Da Bee)", right after getting his skin tinted.

* TheNotLoveInterest: Kaylee to Jason, who goes to Hollywood with him and helps his quest to get his credit and story from Wolf, but neither hint at anything other than pure friendship. Frankie Muniz said this trope was intentional on the part of the filmmakers, feeling a true platonic friendship without ever bringing up the subject of romantic interest was more authentic to actual friendships of kids their age.
* ObsoleteMentor: Wolf treats Vince the stunt coordinator like this when he's still perfectly qualified, calling him names like "Gramps" and "Methuselah."

* PlatonicLifePartners: Jason and Kaylee. They don't really have a romance arc on the film, but rather are two "dudes" tearing apart someone who wronged one of them.
* PrimaDonnaDirector: Technically a producer but Marty still fits this with ego that would rival Creator/JamesCameron. Amusingly enough, the actual InUniverse director of ''Big Fat Liar'', Dustin "Dusty" Wong, is himself actually a ReasonableAuthorityFigure and actually spends quite a bit of the film as one of Marty's chew toys.

* RefugeInAudacity: Like any director would steal creative writing from some kid's backpack and turn it into his next big movie... which is the reason why Wolf did it in the first place.
* TheReveal: In the rooftop climax, Marty gloats that Jason is the only one who's heard the confession he's about to make. Following the multiple cameras that caught him there, he goes over to the edge of the roof to find... a giant crowd, including most of the not-yet-accounted-for victims and Jason's parents, and a collection of TV screens on which it was clearly broadcast.

* ShowWithinAShow: The short story ''Big Fat Liar'', written by Jason Shepherd and plagiarized by Marty Wolf, the filming process of it which happens on the background of the main plot and Jason disrupts at various moments to try to strong-arm Marty into confessing.
* ShowdownAtHighNoon: Wolf casually passes by Jason on a set that looks like an old Wild West road, does a double take after mentioning him, and... the chase is on.
* SkywardScream: After his car is sabotaged by Jason and Kaylee, all Wolf can do is rage against the "rotten kids" and taking his anger out on his car before screaming out "[[SayMyName SHEPHEEEEEEEEERD!]]" to the skies as [[MockingMusic "I'm Blue (Ba Da Bee)"]] plays at full volume.

* SmugSnake: Marty Wolf does whatever he wants and has no respect for anybody. He doesn't care about a meeting with Marcus Duncan, a vice president of the studio, until he learns that Marcus was promoted and is now president.

* UngratefulBastard: Jason helps Wolf make the BFL premiere party a smashing success and restore the latter's career to impress Mr. Duncan. How does Wolf repay Jason? [[spoiler: Go back on his promise once again to and instead have security escort him and Kaylee out.]] Especially despicable since he had just ''sincerely'' thanked him for his help with the party!

* VehicularSabotage: Besides Jason and Kaylee dying his skin blue, his hair orange and super-gluing his headset, they also tampered the controls Marty's car causing humorous malfunctions.
* VillainBall: If Marty had just called Jason's father like he asked (and he had the chance to ''twice''), Jason would have just let the whole thing go and he'd still have his movie ''and'' career. After all, who's going to believe Jason's father over a famous Hollywood producer?

* YoungerThanTheyLook: Jason and Kaylee are both 14, but appear like they can be 16-17 years old.
* ZanyScheme: Jason comes up with these, ASimplePlan, and then the most elaborate plan of all

* ActorAllusion: Vince the stuntman that defends practical stunts and effects to JerkAss producer Marty who thinks CGI can do anything and thus derisively calls him an "old man", played by Lee Majors... [[Series/TheFallGuy Gee, Colt, times have changed, haven't they?]]
* AdamWesting: Creator/JaleelWhite. Don't call him Urkel -- he ''will'' get pissed. (One has to wonder what would've happened if they called him [[WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog the]] [[WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM fastest thing]] [[WesternAnimation/SonicUnderground alive]].)
* AdultsAreUseless: While played straight in the beginning, it is later {{Subverted|Trope}} when Jason and Kaylee soon find that there is a healthy number of adults in Hollywood who help them in their payback plot.

** The wrestler guy also does this when Marty accidentally rear-ends his monster truck, then again in the final scene at the ending when Marty shows up at his house [[spoiler: as a clown]]. Both are PunctuatedForEmphasis!
* BoxOfficeBomb: InUniverse, Wolf's film ''Whittiker and Fowl'' about a police officer who's partners with a ''chicken'', is a 30 million dollar bomb (not to mention the scathing reviews it receives by critics) which almost gets production of ''Big Fat Liar'' shut down.
* BreakTheHaughty: The main plot of the film -- the protagonists prank him over and over in an attempt to get him to give Jason the credit.

** At one point in Jason's revenge scheme against Wolf, he tricks his assistant into having him going to a stunt actor's grandson's birthday party, with the kids mistaking his blue and orange "features" as his being a birthday clown. [[spoiler:After he ends up fired, his new job is being an actual birthday clown. [[TheDogBitesBack And the birthday kid happens to be the son of the angry muscleman he pissed off earlier.]]]]
** Wolf calls his overweight vice president of public relations the "VP of Twinkies". [[spoiler:Guess what she chows down on after bringing a crowd to Wolf's EngineeredPublicConfession?]]

* CassandraTruth: The main plot of the movie involves Jason being completely unable to convince anybody (except for his best friend) that Marty Wolf plagiarized his short story because he's got a history of chronic lying (it even is the reason why there's NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup of said short story for him to give proof -- the teacher wanted him to write it by hand to make sure he didn't just copy-pasted some short tale from the Internet and tried to pass it off as his).

* ChekhovsSkill: All of Marty's former employees utilize one in the payback.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Marty treats every single one of his employees like crap. It's no wonder why Jason and Kaylee have hardly any trouble getting all of them involved in their plot.

* CoolOldGuy: Vince, who has been a stuntman for a very long time.
* CreatorKiller: InUniverse, [[spoiler: Marty's career is destroyed once his EngineeredPublicConfession over his plagiarism of Jason's story happens]].
* CryingWolf: Doing this all the time is what keeps everyone from believing that Jason lost his homework on his way to school. That and the fact that a director stealing a kid's script is highly ''improbable'' under ordinary circumstances, so, unfortunately, even if Jason ''didn't'' have a reputation as a liar, it would be a pretty easy thing to disbelieve anyway.

** Frank the limo driver's beef with Wolf started because of this; an aspiring actor, Frank asked Wolf if he could audition for a movie the latter was producing. Rather than just saying no, Wolf fired him, vandalized Frank's headshot, and faxed it to every casting agent in Los Angeles, torpedoing his career before it even got off the ground. [[spoiler: He ends up getting the lead role for Jason's version of ''Big Fat Liar'' after Wolf's downfall]].
* DisturbedDoves: See IronicEcho below. A whole lot of them appear on the final confrontation for no good reason other than an InUniverse invocation of the RuleOfCool.

* TheDogBitesBack: Both the old lady and the muscle guy Wolf crashes his car into. Along with all of his employees.
* DoubleStandardViolenceChildOnAdult: The film tries to play the party kids [[spoiler: and later Masher's son]] beating up Marty as a hilarious joke. Granted, Marty is a ''huge'' {{Jerkass}}, but those kids are ''only'' beating him up because they think he's a clown. Imagine if the adults did that to kids.

* DumbMuscle: The Masher. Marty has a good reason to call him a steroid-pusher...except for the fact that he runs over Marty's car with his monster truck. Marty said that within earshot of The Masher so... yeah, he was asking for it.
* EasilyForgiven: Rare protagonist example. Jason lied to limo driver Frank Jackson to get transportation. Frank is understandably mad when he sees Jason again pointing out the trouble he got Frank into got into because Jason caused him to miss the person he was actually supposed to chauffeur. Then Jason mentions he is trying to get Marty Wolf and Frank reveals he has some very bad history with him and is immediately on board with helping Jason get Wolf.

* EngineeredPublicConfession: [[spoiler: In the climax, Wolf shouts "I stole Jason Shepard's paper and turned it into ''Big Fat Liar''!", then brags to Jason that nobody will ever know the truth about the plagiarism. Director Dustin "Dusty" Wong and his crew were filming the whole thing on multiple cameras and showing it to the news media, Marcus Duncan, and Jason's parents, dramatically vindicating Jason once and for all and sending Wolf's career right down the toilet]].

* FormallyNamedPet: Marty Wolf has a stuffed monkey named Mr. Funnybones that he's... [[CargoShip oddly attached to]].

* GirlFriday: Kaylee, to Jason, and how.
* GrandparentalObliviousness: Kaylee's grandmother Pearl. Quoth Jason, "That woman doesn't even know what year it is."

* HatedByAll: Absolutely nobody likes Marty Wolf. Just mentioning the plan to get back at Wolf is instantly enough to rally absolutely everyone to Jason's side.

* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Monty has one, along with all of Marty Wolf's employees.]]

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Marty's over-arrogance is what pretty much does him in.

** Kaylee is definitely this for Jason in the fact that, while he is a good idea man, Kaylee is the one doing things like legwork and doing fake calls with her voice disguised.

* ImpliedLoveInterest: Kaylee to Jason, they are best friends with only hints here and there that there might be something more.

** Jocelyn Davis, the "VP of Twinkies" makes a visual BrickJoke out of hers. Look at what thing she takes a huge bite out if while sarcastically telling Marty that she invited ''everybody'' to watch his final HumiliationConga.

* KickTheDog: Marty Wolf, constantly. A few notable examples include:

* KidsAreCruel: Wolf finds himself hit hard with this one at two birthday parties. In the first, the kids mistake him for a clown. In the other, when he really is working as a party clown, they have no reaction to his presence until the birthday boy is instructed to make with his "nutcracker" on him (which he does).

* LiteralMetaphor: The InUniverse story ''Big Fat Liar'' involves... a liar that somehow becomes a giant.

* LonelyAtTheTop: Marty is probably one of the most successful directors in the movie biz but he's pretty much alienated anyone close to him which ends up ''biting him in the rear.''

* MachiavelliWasWrong: [[AnAesop The film's lesson]] is that being a self-serving liar will ''not'' work out in the long run. After using a web of lies to get out of trouble, Jason is dumped into summer school when his parents and teacher [[CryingWolf don't believe him when he says that some Hollywood producer stole his homework]]. That producer, Marty Wolf, has spent his whole life being a lying, [[BadBoss abusive jerk to his employees]]. [[spoiler: When Jason plans one last glorious revenge scheme, [[TheDogBitesBack all of his employees]] jump at the chance to do it]]. The specific moment when [[spoiler: Wolf's secretary turns on him is when Wolf gets Jason arrested, [[UngratefulBastard despite Jason helping him out]]]].

* DoubleStandardViolenceChildOnAdult: The film tries to play the party kids [[spoiler: and later Masher's son]] beating up Marty as a hilarious joke. Granted, Marty is a ''huge'' {{Jerkass}}, but those kids are ''only'' beating him up because they think he's a clown. Imagine if adults did that to kids.

* DoubleStandardViolenceChildOnAdult: The film portrays Marty as wrong for cheating Jason, but shows the party kids [[spoiler: and later the Masher's son]] attack on Marty, which was unprovoked, as a hilarious moment.

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Absolutely nobody likes Marty Wolf. Just mentioning the plan to get back at Wolf is instantly enough to rally absolutely everyone to Jason's side.

* MassiveMultiplayerScam: Emphasis on "Massive." As in at least a dozen people ''minimum'', and maybe ''hundreds'', all of them banding together under the single banner of hating Marty Wolf '''that''' much.

* MrExposition / MissionBriefing: Jason in his presentation of the MassiveMultiplayerScam against Wolf.

* SavvyGuyEnergeticGirl: Gender inverted for Kaylee and Jason, though they play it absolutely straight during the MissionBriefing for the MassiveMultiplayerScam.

* WellDoneSonGuy: Jason seems noticeably more interested in proving his honesty to his father than to his mother.

* BrickJoke:

* KidsAreCruel: The kids at the birthday party immediately and enthusiastically attack Wolf believing that he's a clown.

** Marty gets one when he's in the shower and finally realizes that he's [[BlueAndOrangeContrast covered in blue thanks to the blue dye put in his pool, and has just put orange coloring in his hair to top it all off.]]
** The wrestler guy also does this when Marty accidentally rear ends his monster truck, then again in the final scene at the ending when Marty shows up at his house [[spoiler: as a clown]]. Both are PunctuatedForEmphasis!

* BrilliantButLazy: Jason is a HighSchoolHustler, TheChessmaster and also capable of writing a short story good enough to be seen as Hollywood-adaptation material in a single night. He's a RidiculousProcrastinator with a lying habit.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Marty accidentally rear ended The Masher's tire for his monster truck, resulting his CoolCar getting smashed.

* EasilyForgiven: Rare protagonist example. Jason lied to limo driver Frank Jackson to get transportation. Frank is understandably mad when he sees Jason again pointing out the trouble he got Frank into got into because Jason caused him to miss the person he was actually supposed to chauffeur. Then Jason mentions he is trying to get Marty Wolf and Frank reveals he has some very bad history with him, and is immediately on board with helping Jason get Wolf.

* TheFarmerAndTheViper: The whole movie, Marty's just been having one KickTheDog moment after another, but what really makes it clear what a scumbag he is, is when [[spoiler:Jason helps him save the movie, only for Marty to trick Jason into thinking he was going to hold his end of the bargain, but immediately call security as he gloats about his victory.]] This comes back to bite him hard, after his behavior causes his secretary to make a HeelFaceTurn.

* EngineeredPublicConfession: [[spoiler: In the climax, Wolf shouts "I stole Jason Shepard's paper and turned it into ''Big Fat Liar''!", then brags to Jason that nobody will ever know the truth about the plagiarism. Director Dustin "Dusty" Wong and his crew were filming the whole thing on multiple cameras and showing it to the news media, Marcus Duncan, and Jason's parents, dramatically vindicating Jason once and for all and destroying Wolf's career]].

-->'''Wolf:''' [[SoreLoser I am gonna]] ''[[SuddenlyShouting GET YOU, SHEPHERD!!!]]''

* EasilyForgiven: Rare protagonist example. Jason lied to a limo driver to get transportation. The limo driver is understandably mad when he sees Jason again pointing out the trouble the driver got into because Jason caused him to miss the person he was actually supposed to chauffeur. Then Jason mentions he is trying to get Marty Wolf and the driver reveals he has some very bad history with him, and is immediately on board with helping Jason get Wolf.

** The wrestler guy also does this when he recognizes him from earlier in the ending of the film.

* LikeBrotherAndSister: Contrary to expectation, there's no romantic relationship developed between Jason and Kaylee.

** At one point in Jason's revenge scheme against Wolf, he tricks his assistant into having him going to a stunt actor's grandson's birthday party, with the kids mistaking his blue and orange "features" as his being a birthday clown. [[spoiler:After he ends up fired, his new job is being an actual birthday clown. [[TheDogBitesBack And the birthday party he's sent to is the one for the kid of the angry muscle man he pissed off earlier.]]]]

* AdamWesting: Creator/JaleelWhite. Don't call him Urkel -- he ''will'' get pissed. (One has to wonder what would've happened if they called him [[WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog the]] [[WesternAnimation/SonicSatAM fastest thing]] [[WesternAnimation/SonicUnderground alive]].)

* AdamWesting: Jaleel White. Don't call him Urkel -- he ''will'' get pissed. (One has to wonder what would've happened if they called him [[WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog the]] [[WesternAnimation/SonicSatAM fastest thing]] [[WesternAnimation/SonicUnderground alive]].)

* AsHimself: Jaleel White appears in many scenes as himself in large part to poke fun at child actors still trying to stay relevant in their adult years.

** The "VP of Twinkies" makes a visual BrickJoke out of hers. Look at what thing she takes a huge bite out if while sarcastically telling Marty that she invited ''everybody'' to watch his final HumiliationConga.

''Big Fat Liar'' is a 2002 kids' comedy film starring Creator/FrankieMuniz, Creator/AmandaBynes, and Creator/PaulGiamatti. Very over-the-top, although [[{{Series/Zoey 101}} what]] [[Series/DrakeAndJosh can]] [[Series/TheAmandaShow you]] [[Series/AllThat expect]] [[Series/ICarly from]] writer Creator/DanSchneider and director Creator/ShawnLevy.

* UngratefulBastard: Jason helps Wolf make the BFL premiere party a smashing success and restore the latter's career to impress Mr. Duncan. How does Wolf repay him? [[spoiler: Go back on his promise once again to and instead have security escort him and Kaylee out.]] Especially despicable since he had just ''sincerely'' thanked him for his help with the party!