History Film / HeDiedWithAFelafelInHisHand

* CallBack: Danny's story ends with the neighbour waking up in a cold sweat and finding that his hand is missing. In the Melbourne part of the movie, Danny wakes up in a cold sweat, with one hand under the pillow. (He's fine, obviously, this isn't that kind of movie.)

* NoNameGiven: You can count the number of people with full names in this movie on one hand- and several of the first names aren't even hinted at.

* [[GranolaGirl Granola Guy]]: Iain, from Melbourne. Complete with a rant about how milk bottles are an inch too short to hold dried fettuccine.

* TheHipster: Iain, with his eating healthy food, rant about the government doing everyone down and talk about communism.

* [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff Japanese Love Star Wars]]: Despite barely speaking English, Satomi/Tiger Girl instantly recognises the name 'Jabba the Hutt'.

* OneSceneWonder: The cat who apparently knows exactly how Danny feels, in one scene in Brisbane. He never shows up before or after that.

* BlackComedy: Oh yeah. [[spoiler: The pagans sacrificing Milo]] is played for laughs, as is [[spoiler: the cops threatening Danny and co]], along with just about every other serious scene.

* HeroicBSOD: Danny has one after [[spoiler: Flip dies.]]

** The beginning has "Golden Brown" by the Stranglers playing very loudly, prompting Danny to go outside and demand that Flip turn it off. Turns out that Flip was watching some kind of music video-centric show, and he died while watching it.

* CatchPhrase: Danny has a habit of headdesking and sighing ''"Fuck"'' whenever someone's at the door.

* NoNameGiven: You can count the number of people with full names in this movie on one hand.

* SorryILeftTheBGMOn: When Sammy [[spoiler: tries to kill herself]], she puts on NickCave's "The Mercy Seat", which wakes Danny up. He turns it off, but when he discovers what's going on, the music comes back on.

''He Died With A Felafel In His Hand'' (2001) is a flamboyantly pointless housemates-from-hell story, based on a book by John Birmingham. Despite mediocre circulation, it’s become something of a CultClassic among unemployed yobbos, leftist uni students, and anybody else who’s experienced the joys of sharehouse living in UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}. Memorable mainly for that scene in backyard Brisbane, plus a kick-arse Music/NickCave-centric soundtrack and snappy writing that makes it the most quotable text since Creator/OscarWilde.

* BlackComedy: It can get fairly bleak at times, but carefully avoids BlackComedy.

-> I've lived in 49 shared households in what seems as many years… I've lived with tent-dwelling bank clerks, albino moon tanners, nitrous suckers, psycho fucking drama queens, ACID EATERS, MUSHROOM FARMERS, FUCKING BROTHEL CRAWLERS, FRIDGE-PISSERS, HARDCORE SEPARATIST LESBIANS, AND OBSCURELY TIGER-SUITED JAPANESE GIRLS! AND NOW THE BEST FRIEND I'VE EVER HAD IN THE FUCKING WORLD WON'T EVEN FUCKING TALK TO ME! I'M IN A PSYCHO FUCKING NIGHTMARE FROM HELL, AND I'M ''FUCKING FED UP WITH IT''!

''He Died With A Felafel In His Hand'' (2001) is a flamboyantly pointless housemates-from-hell story, based on a book by John Birmingham. Despite mediocre circulation, it’s become something of a CultClassic among unemployed yobbos, leftist uni students, and anybody else who’s experienced the joys of sharehouse living in Australia. Memorable mainly for that scene in backyard Brisbane, plus a kick-arse NickCave-centric soundtrack and snappy writing that makes it the most quotable text since Oscar Wilde.

* DirtyCop: Apparently Melbourne’s finest work for the local casino. Almost TruthInTelevision at the time…

* HoYay: [[Invoked]] Milo seems a bit ''too'' upset when everyone starts reading homoerotic Subtext into his favourite RatedMForManly movie, ''Film/ReservoirDogs''. Not to mention he seems suspiciously attached to Otis.

* HeadTiltinglyKinky: When Cashmere Sweater Babe and her Flat-Headed Rugby Type hookup are going at it like lamb chops on the front lawn.

* TrashOfTheTitans: Ho-ly shit. Some of the filth mention in the book's opening chapter has to be read to be disbelieved.

* BiTheWay: Every single female housemate.

* BrainyBrunette – Sam
* CampGay – Dirk tries to be this after coming out.
* [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov’s Yarn]] – Danny’s masturbation story. It starts off as an off-the-cuff TallTale and ends up getting printed in Penthouse.
* CloudCuckooLander – Taylor before his ‘epiphany’ concerning prostitutes. He plays golf with cane toads, sets the washing-up on fire, calls for backup from neo-Nazis and shoots Danny in the head with a water pistol and declares, ‘If this were for real, you’d be dog meat by now.’
* ClusterFBomb – The entire script. TruthInTelevision because it was made in Australia.
* DirtyCop – Apparently Melbourne’s finest work for the local casino. Almost TruthInTelevision at the time…

* DistractedByTheSexy – The guys’ collective IQ drops sharply around Anya. Milo almost becomes TooDumbToLive.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin – The opening shot is of a stiff, cadaverous arm holding up a felafel.
* HeadTiltinglyKinky – When Cashmere Sweater Babe and her Flat-Headed Rugby Type hookup are going at it like lamb chops on the front lawn.

* HoYay – [[Invoked]] Milo seems a bit ''too'' upset when everyone starts reading homoerotic Subtext into his favourite RatedMForManly movie, ''Film/ReservoirDogs''. Not to mention he seems suspiciously attached to Otis.

* HomageShot – Neo-Nazis are brought in to deal with the rent situation. The youngest of them breaks into ''[[{{Cabaret}} Tomorrow Belongs To Me]]'', for [[RuleOfFunny some reason]], and the neo-pagans join in for a nice campfire sing-along. Doubles as a parody, obviously.

* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace – The [[BadCopIncompetentCop incompetent Melbourne detective]] accidentally shoots Iain in the shoulder. To be fair, Iain was [[TooDumbToLive trying to grab it at the time]], but the other detective had told him repeatedly:

* LandDownUnder – As with ''TheCastle'', Australia’s own version of the trope: Sydney is horribly plastic and full of anal retentives, Melbourne is a town of corrupt cops where it’s always raining miserably, and Brisbane is overrun with cane toads.
* MeaninglessMeaningfulWords – About half of Danny’s lines, mimicking the faux-philosophical ramblings of [[TroperDemographics Australia’s semi-educated]].
* ObjectCeilingCling - 'It's a beef patty. Been up there for years.'
* OminousLatinChanting – The neo-pagans in the backyard. Although it's actually a list of goddesses from every culture imaginable.
* OneSceneTwoMonologues – Frequently. These people don’t communicate well.
* OnlySaneMan – Arguably, Danny. Despite spending virtually the whole movie in a HeroicBSOD, he’s more or less the OnlySaneMan by elimination.

* RatedMForManly – Milo’s favourite war movie, the ‘bonding’ session over Elvis’ cover of ‘You Were Always On My Mind,’ and everything Taylor does until his Melbourne brothel-crawl.
* RefugeInAudacity – Milo’s ‘condoms with Aboriginal tribal paintings on them’ spiel. That he and Otis were [[DrugsAreBad stoned at the time]] from a home-made [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome bucket bong]] isn’t really an excuse.
* SacredHospitality – They serve tea and biscuits to the Brisbane landlord’s goon. While he’s threatening them.

* SeriousBusiness – Writing. And Nick Cave. And neo-pagan moon festivals…
* ShellShockedVeteran – Parodied with Taylor. Not only is he not the American Vietnam veteran he acts like, he’s not even American (his accent switches halfway through).
* StrawFeminist – Sam, at first.
* TheBet – Played straight when the guys go ga-ga over Anya.
* TheImmodestOrgasm - Sammy and Anya in the movie, but it's pretty much background music in the book. John even admits that he could 'listen to his housemates going at it all day' and used to position his chair at the point in the house of maximum creaking and groaning.
* TitleDrop – Near the end, written on a wall ''Film/ApocalypseNow''-style. In the book it's the very first line.
* TransparentCloset – Dirk.
* TrashOfTheTitans - Ho-ly shit. Some of the filth mention in the book's opening chapter has to be read to be disbelieved.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory - The movie is a very condensed version of the book, which itself is a collection of John's actual experiences in sharehousing. Definitely not a tale for those who wish to retain their faith in humanity.
* WelcomeToHell – Sydney, during the segment ‘Hell is other people’ (which could have been the movie’s other title).

* WorldOfChaos – Neo-pagan babes want to sacrifice one of the housemates over a backyard fire. The other housemates deal with it by calling in the local skinheads, who ride dirt bikes through the house, cut the back of the house off with a chainsaw and then stand around and sing ‘Auld Lang Sine’ with the pagans. Just another Thursday night in Bris-vegas…

* [[AluminumChristmasTrees Aluminium Christmas Trees]] – One of the first shots in the movie is at the Brisbane house, where [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Taylor plays golf with a cane toad]]. Golf ain’t the half of it; cane toads have reached plague proportions and everyone turns a blind eye when it comes to how you kill them...
* [[AllThereInTheManual All There In The Novel]] - A lot of the film's dialogue and more obscure moments are lifted directly from the book.
* ArcWords – Somehow everyone Danny’s ever lived with has met his mum.

* AsianAirhead – Satomi aka. ‘Tiger Girl,’ although it might just be that her English doesn't extend further than, 'I move in now, yes?'
* AttentionWhore – Nina the wannabe actress.
* BeigeProse – Danny writes possibly the least arousing porn ever written. For Penthouse.

* BlackComedy – It can get fairly bleak at times, but carefully avoids BlackComedy.
* BookEnds – Flip’s corpse shot. [[TheReveal It’s a lot more graphic the second time]]. Also: