History Film / MeetTheParents

Greg's situation is further complicated by a series of attempts to impress Pam's family backfiring on him, mostly involving [[FawltyTowersPlot little lies that lead to bigger ones]], plus improbable accidents from flooding the backyard with sewage to setting the wedding altar on fire, until he looks like a complete jackass. It escalates to the point where he gets kicked out of the Byrnes' home. Ultimately, Pam manages to convince her father that she loves Greg and despite the bad first impression it was all because he loves her. After another grilling session, Jack's contempt for Greg dissipates... for the most part.

In the 2000 film, Nurse Greg Focker (Creator/BenStiller) attempts to propose to his schoolteacher girlfriend Pam Byrnes (Creator/TeriPolo), but before he can, Pam gets invited to her sister's wedding. Greg agrees to go along, seeing it as an opportunity to impress her family. However, Pam's [[KnightTemplarParent Knight Templar Father]] Jack (Creator/RobertDeNiro), an ex-CIA operative, is immediately suspicious of Greg and spends the weekend grilling him on any undesirable elements in his background.

* StrongFamilyResemblance: Averted with [[spoiler:Isabel's son, Jorge and Greg]] as it turns out he's not the real father. Its still uncanny though.

* ShownTheirWork: The human lie detector was debunked, due to info on the pulse. However another aspect of lie detecting was still in play. When Jack administers the test, he looks at Greg in the eyes. While Greg looks away a few moments, Jack still keeps his eyes focused on Greg's. This is based off of a popular fact that if you look to the left while answering a question, you are lying. The left side of the brain has been known as the thinking side while the right side is the creative side, but they each control the ''opposite'' side of the body. Looking to the left means you are coming up with some BS story.

* NotUnderTheParentsRoof: Greg and his fiancee Pam are staying with her parents, Jack and Dina. After a disastrous first day, they are just about to have sex in her room, only to be interrupted when Jack and Dina knock at the door. They're there to say not to worry about the events of the day... and to inform Greg that he will be sleeping downstairs in the den. As Dina is leaving, Jack casually informs Greg that while he realizes the two of them have probably had "premarital relations", while they're under his roof it's his way or the Long Island Expressway.

-->'''Pam Byrnes:''' No! After next month, I am going to be Pamela Martha Focker. I... I know how that sounds but I don't care!

** In ''Meet the Fockers'' Roz causes Greg much embarrassment when she talks about Greg's circumcision, and shows the Byrneses his saved foreskin. Even Bernie, who's notorious for being TMI and causing embarrassment by it, thinks that Roz is taking things too far.

* HeelRealization: Jack has one near the end of the first two films, [[IgnoredEpiphany yet continues to give Greg hell despite them]].

** The censors reportedly told the producers they couldn't use the name of the second movie unless they actually found a family with that name; and they did. In [[CanadaEh Canada]].

** In the second, Dina and Pam criticize him judging everyone for keeping secrets while dismissing keeping his own as necessary for the family. Although that only makes him sad enough to take Little Jack and drive away in the RV, hearing Little Jack call him an "asshole" makes him change his mind. Series/SchittsCreek

''Meet The Parents'' is a 2000 KafkaKomedy that is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, based on a [[Film/MeetTheParents1992 1992 independent comedy film]] written by, directed by, and starring Greg Glienna, which was not widely distributed and so is not well known in general public circles. Universal Pictures bought the rights from Glienna to adapt his indie comedy into this feature directed by Creator/JayRoach.

* HeelRealization: Jack has one near the end of the first two films, yet continues to give Greg hell in the sequels.

* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: For someone who claims to be an expert in reading people, Jack is astoundingly bad at it. His laser-focus on Greg makes him completely miss Bob's character flaws and he only realizes it when Bob cheats on Debbie. He also thinks that Kevin, who, while wealthy, is a flighty InLoveWithLove airhead who believes in "alternative medicine" and is bold enough to make advances on an already-married woman, is a better match for Pam than Greg, a skilled nurse who rose through the ranks to become department chair and is clearly dedicated to his wife and children.
* ImproperlyParanoid: Jack's FatalFlaw -- he would rather believe Greg (and his parents, and everybody else who so much as saw his girls) is actively and maliciously trying to do something (and put him through utter hell to force him to tell the truth) than accept that his son-in-law is just a ButtMonkey. The "circle of trust" system is also supposed to allow for an open inter-family relationship, but is becomes apparent long before Pam and Dina call B.S. that Jack is the only one allowed to have secrets.

** Denny, Pam's pothead brother, never gets any comeuppance for framing Greg for smoking marijuana in the first film. In the second however, Dina mentions that he was sent to military school, so it seems that karma caught up with him off-screen.

* PlagueOfGoodFortune: ''Meet the Fockers'' begins with Greg having a smooth and happy experience going through the airport and flying to the Byrnes' house, in a perfect inversion of [[TrainsPlanesAndImbeciles the hell he endured in the previous film]] (he even interacts with the same people and they give him no crap). He really should have figured out that his life was going to become an even bigger nightmare the moment he got within arm's reach of Jack.

* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: For someone who claims to be an expert in reading people, Jack is astoundingly bad at it. His laser-focus on Greg makes him completely miss Bob's character flaws and he only realizes it when he cheats on Debbie. He also thinks that Kevin, who, while wealthy, is a flighty InLoveWithLove airhead who believes in "alternative medicine" and is bold enough to make advances on an already-married woman, is a better match for Pam than Greg, a skilled nurse who rose through the ranks to become department chair and is clearly dedicated to his wife and children.

* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: For someone who claims to be an expert in reading people, Jack is astoundingly bad at it. His laser-focus on Greg makes him completely miss Bob's character flaws and he only realizes it when he cheats on Debbie. He also thinks that Kevin, who, while wealthy, is a flighty InLoveWithLove airhead who believes in "alternative medicine" and is bold enough to make advances on an already-married women, is a better match for Pam than Greg, a skilled nurse who rose through the ranks to become department chair and is clearly dedicated to his wife and children.

* AllTakeAndNoGive: Jack's Circle of Trust, despite its intentions, is unfortunately this. Jack expects the select few in the circle to be utterly honest, but he cannot keep his suspicions in check.

** Pam telling Greg that her dad is "the sweetest man in the world". Also, later, when Jack claims to be a very accepting person.

-->'''Dina:''' [[ArmourPiercingQuestion Who is, Jack?]] Nobody has ever been good enough for your Pam. I mean, do you realize that you never even warmed up to Kevin ''until'' she broke up with him?

-->'''Jack:''' So what if he took the MCATs? He's still not good enough for Pam.
-->'''Dina:''' Who is, Jack? Nobody has ever been good enough for your Pam. I mean, do you realize that you never even warmed up to Kevin ''until'' she broke up with him?

-->'''Dina:''' You only even warmed up to Kevin ''after'' she broke up with him!