History Film / HaroldAndKumarGoToWhiteCastle

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: There are a large amount of White Castles in and around the areas that Harold and Kumar visited in New Jersey at the time the movie was made. But of course there would be no movie if they just went to the closest White Castle instead of going through their many misadventures prior to achieving their goal.
* AsHimself: Creator/NeilPatrickHarris, though it's a subversion as he specifically requested to be credited "as Neil Patrick Harris" instead of "as Himself", so that people didn't think he was ''actually'' a drug-addicted, car-stealing womanizer.
** In a bit of ActorAllusion, he mentions that he was able to [[Series/DoogieHowserMD perform appendectomies at age 14]].

*** He also claimed to have had sex with Whoopie Goldberg's stand-in while filming ''Clara's Heart'' at age 14.
* AsianAndNerdy: Harold's co-workers cites this as justification for tricking Harold into doing their work for them.
** [[ZigZaggingTrope Zigzagged]] with Harold. He's an uptight neat-freak who lets bullies from his office and neighborhood walk all over him. But he's also a stoner and an expert at beer-pong. He later ends up standing up to his bullies and screwing them over magnificently.
** Subverted by Cindy Kim and her East Asian Club. They appear to be straight-laced nerds, but turn out to be drug-using party animals.

* BaitAndSwitch: After Harold gets knocked off the cheetah and falls unconscious, his subsequent DisneyAcidSequence ends with Maria erotically licking him. One would assume this means the cheetah is the one licking him in reality, but [[spoiler:it’s actually Kumar]].
* [[BeleagueredAssistant Beleagured Coworker]]: Harold to his lazy party animal coworkers.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Harold. After spending a whole night of things going horribly wrong for him, finally stands up to his co-workers when he meets them at White Castle. Possibly, Neil Patrick Harris as well.
* TheBigDamnKiss: At the end, Harold finally gets to kiss Maria, however both stop once Maria brings up how they barely know each other. [[SubvertedTrope But then they go back to kissing almost immediately anyway]].

* BigotWithABadge: The film has an example that is largely PlayedForLaughs and is even loosely based on Creator/KalPenn's own experience[[note]]Specifically Kumar's rant to the cop for giving Harold such a ridiculous ticket on such a bullshit pretext[[/note]]. Harold spends some time in jail with a black professor of literature who was arrested for a crime committed in ''a different city''. Later, the titular characters encounter another black man, a civil rights attorney, who was asleep in bed when a non-existent crime was reported, for which he nevertheless got arrested. One of the movie's [[TheStinger stingers]] shows the sketches the police released of Harold and Kumar, and they're over the top East Asian and Indian caricatures.

-->'''Harold:''' I am so hungry, I could eat... like, twenty of those burgers, man.
-->'''Kumar:''' Dude, fuckin' I will see your twenty burgers and raise you ''five'' orders of fries.

-->'''Harold:''' I don't understand how you can be so calm about all this.
-->'''Tarik:''' Look at me. I'm fat, black, can't dance, and I have two gay fathers. People have been messin' with me my whole life. I learned a long time ago that there's no sense gettin' all riled up every time a bunch of idiots give you a hard time. In the end, the universe tends to unfold as it should. Plus, I have a really large penis. That keeps me happy.

** The beef jerky Harold snagged at Rosenberg and Goldstein's ends up
* BrilliantButLazy: Kumar, who got a perfect score on the MCAT and expertly performs emergency surgery despite not being trained. But he prefers to spend most of his time getting high and deliberately flunks all his medical school interviews.
* BullyingTheDragon: The black men that the racist police arrest and harass turn out to be a professor at Rutgers and an attorney [[spoiler: which lead to the police losing their jobs and getting arrested themselves]].

* CannotSpitItOut: Harold is unable to confess his love for Maria [[spoiler:until the very end.]]

** Creator/NeilPatrickHarris, an openly gay man, as a deviant over-the-top heterosexual. To be fair, he did not come out as gay until over 2 years later.

** Creator/NeilPatrickHarris famously plays [[AdamWesting a highly exaggerated caricature of himself]]. In RealLife, Harris' role in this film was partly responsible for reviving his acting career in the mid-2000s--making you wonder what his career looks like in a world where he never starred in the ''Harold & Kumar'' movies.

* ChivalrousPervert: Harold and Kumar. On the DVD commentary, it's pointed out any other character would come off as sickening/disgusting ogling Freakshow's wife, but because Harold and Kumar are likeable, it doesn't.
* CloudCuckoolander: Freakshow, in a very creepy religious fanatic/serial killer way. Also, Neil Patrick Harris.

-->'''Kumar:''' "Jesus, these guys are frickin' ''everywhere!''"
* CorruptCop
** The Muckleburg PD, hoo boy. They even respond to a call about a shooting (phoned in by Kumar so he can sneak into the police department and break out Harold), and arrest the nearest black man they can find, who was asleep in his home. This turns out to be [[HoistByHisOwnPetard shooting themselves in the foot]] when the guy turns out to be a high priced lawyer who, after being on the receiving end of overwhelming evidence of police brutality is able to team up with the ''other'' black man they wrongfully arrested (who's a college professor) to have all the cops arrested and sue the pants off the department.
** Though he's not actually a cop, the gate guard at Harold's office counts. He lets Billy and J.D. tear out of the parking lot, leaving the gate-thing open, and gives them a thumbs-up, but forces Harold to stop and show his work ID.

* {{Determinator}}: They will stop at nothing to get those burgers.

* DoYouWantToCopulate: Freakshow innocuously offers his wife to Harold and Kumar. When they subsequently meet her she casually asks them both to fuck her at the same time, prompting a SpitTake from Harold.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: Harold and Kumar are ''extremely'' happy to have White Castle burgers after all the crap both of them endured. Harold gets a better ending than Kumar, as he gets to win over Maria and he gets back at Billy and J.D. for dumping all their work on him for the weekend.
* EasilyForgiven: Harold easily lets Billy and J.D. off the hook by simply warning them not to dump all their accounting work on him again or else he'll report them to their boss Berenson. Also, because Harold lost all of Billy's paperwork, Billy might get punished or even fired by Berenson for failing to meet deadlines, while J.D. might get fired for dumping all of his work on Harold.

** The three-way the guys are going to have with Freakshow's hot wife? [[spoiler:Fantasy completely ruined when Freakshow offers to join them - and ''starts undressing''.]]

** During his first elevator ride with Maria, Harold stands there, twitching.[[note]]Props to John Cho for making standing still look like the most uncomfortable thing ever[[/note]] Maria glances over at him and gives a little smile. Clearly she knows he has a crush and thinks it's cute.

** The straight-laced Asian nerds like Cindy Kim throw such a wild party Harold and Kumar almost wish they'd stayed.

-->Plus, I've got a big penis, so that's okay.

* IveComeTooFar: When Harold gets in a police chase after stealing the skateboarders' car.
-->'''Harold''': I'm not going back to jail, man. We've come too far.
** Just as our heroes start their journey, Kumar forgets his cell phone, but decides they've already gone too far to go back. They aren't even on the elevator yet.
* {{Jerkass}}: The racists cops and the Extreme Sports Punks who spend the whole movie harassing minorities. Also, Harold's co-workers Billy and J.D. who dump their workload on Harold and claim he'll have fun for the weekend while they go out.

** The racist cops who keep arresting the nearest black man, regardless of whether he was awake at the time of the alleged crime or even in the correct ''city'' are arrested and sued because they arrested a notable professor and a goddamn ''attorney''.

-->'''Harold''': This whole night, this whole freaking night is your fault!

* MagicalNegro: Played for laughs with Tarik, who gives Harold some inspiring advice. There's even a point where Harold flashes back to Tarik's advice and his face looms up in the corner of the screen.

* MarketBasedTitle: Known as ''Harold and Kumar Get the Munchies'' outside of the US and Canada, because White Castle operates solely within the US, and it can be presumed that most Canadians are familiar with the franchise as well. And only in the Northeastern and Midwestern US, at that. This left viewers in the South and the West Coast confused, as they were not familiar with White Castle. Strangely enough, it was screened as ''Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle'' in Singapore, the Philippines, Australia, Belgium and Canada, all of which do not have a single WC restaurant.
** Ironically, it was mostly filmed in Canada.
* MeaningfulName: [[Theatre/RosencrantzAndGuildensternAreDead Rosenburg and Goldstein, except they're not dead]].

* MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold: Freakshow, somewhat. The guys are convinced he's a SerialKiller, but he's actually just a good-hearted weirdo.

** Harold is the neat freak, Kumar is the slob.

* POVSequel: As noted below, the actors playing the main characters were FunnyForeigner characters in other gross-out comedies and the movie is sort of a perspective shift to focus on them; Harold's coworkers are a parody of the JerkAss [[DesignatedHero Designated Heroes]] of most of these films and amusingly, all of their adventures happen offscreen. Similarly, the two have a pair of [[ReplacementFlatCharacter even nerdier (and Jewish) friends]], Rosenberg and Goldstein who also have adventures off-screen, alluding to the play ''Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'' which is a famous example of this.
* ProductPlacement: Literally in the ''title''. The whole thing is pretty much a giant commercial for White Castle, and there's also various plugs for sodas and snack products.
** The writers originally included Krispy Kreme, but they refused to be associated with a stoner film.
** White Castle had major promotion for the film, to the point where they gave promotional cups (a first for an R-rated film) as well as turned the parking lot on the Sunset Strip into a White Castle.

* RageBreakingPoint: Harold hits this after Neil Patrick Harris steals his car. You can actually see the point where he just snaps and completely loses his shit. And that's not even halfway through the night.
** Also with the racist cops.

* RustProofBlood: Averted; Harold gets blood on his shirt after being attacked by a raccoon and the stain has darken later into the film.

-->'''Harold''': ''(to Neil Patrick Harris)'' Film/DudeWheresMyCar?!\\

* ShownTheirWork: The journey is accurate for the most part.
** But there isn't a White Castle in Cherry Hill. At the time of the film, there was one in nearby Pennsauken. The nearest one to Cherry Hill is in Toms River. There is also a White Castle in Jersey City, about 15 minutes from where Harold and Kumar live.
** Not to mention that the real Cherry Hill is a very suburban area with a shopping mall--it's 20 minutes down a major highway from UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}}[[note]]Also, see [[http://i.imgur.com/Pwnf4.jpg this map]] on {{Joisey}}. It's in the "Happy White Families" in the southwestern section, right next to Collingswood.[[/note]]--it is nowhere near as rural as depicted in the film.
** There is, however, a White Castle in New Brunswick (still open).
** The way Freakshow and his wife talk about Jesus and church would suggest they are from a low Protestant church. Thus they probably wouldn't have many pictures and statuettes of Jesus or Mary.
** In 2016, a White Castle opened in South Brunswick, which is 15 minutes from New Brunswick.
* ASimplePlan: Two guys want to go to a fast food restaurant; what could be simpler? Apparently, a lot.

* WhatTheHellHero: Neil Patrick Harris attempts to avert this at the end of the first movie by approaching Harold and Kumar, apologising for his role in the previous night's events, and offering to pay for their breakfast. They then launch into this trope anyway, leaving him to irritably point out that he's aware of the dick move he pulled, hence the apology-and-offer-to-buy-their-breakfast.
** Also $200 for Harold's car. He made some "love stains" in the back.

-->'''Officer Palumbo:''' KOO-mar? What is it, like five Os or two Us?
-->'''Kumar:''' No, actually, it's one U.
-->'''Palumbo:''' Yeah, bullshit...

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Cheetahs don't roar, they're rarely aggressive toward humans, and there is no way two grown men of normal size could ride one (which weighs on average about 140 lbs). Possibly justified in that they are so high, they might be imagining the cheetah part.

-->'''Tarik:''' Look at me. I'm fat, black, can't dance, and I [[HasTwoMommies have two gay fathers]]. People have been messin' with me my whole life. I learned a long time ago that there's no sense gettin' all riled up every time a bunch of idiots give you a hard time. In the end, the universe tends to unfold as it should. Plus, I have a really large penis. That keeps me happy.

* [[HasTwoMommies Has Two Daddies]]: Tarik, the guy Harold and Kumar meet in jail.

** Despite Kumar deriving from the Sanskrit word "kumara", meaning prince or child of Skanda the Hindu God of War (also an epithet for Kartikeya, son of Shiva), in Persian ("qomar"), Turkish("kumar"), and Arabic ("khumar"), his name would mean abstinence syndrome. In other words, a hangover. It has also become the slang word for narcotic smoke in some regions.

* TheMountainsOfIllinois: That's quite the New Jersey cliff that Harold and Kumar descend from when they finally find the White Castle.