History Film / Superbad

* InformedAttractiveness: At one point, Seth and Evan spot a woman who is allegedly very attractive and used to be very busty (she recently had breast reduction surgery). However, the audience never gets to know how attractive she is because we only see her from the rear.

* IronButtMonkey: Seth is this; he gets hit by a car twice, cops a baseball bat to the back of the head and collapses face first into pavement without a scratch to show for it.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Officer Slater's reaction to being spat at by some dumb kid is a [[DisproportionateRetribution pretty severe overreaction]] and would be disturbing PoliceBrutality in any other context. But the kid deserved it.

* BuxomIsBetter: Seth is disappointed upon finding out that a once-bosomy local woman got breast reduction surgery.

-->'''Seth:''' When I was a kid, I would... draw pictures of dicks.\\

-->'''Fogell:''' Why would you park in the staff parking lot?\\

** Seth also lashes out at Evan for getting into Dartmouth, complaining that they were supposed to go to the same college together. Having worked hard and earned the sufficient grades to get accepted there, Evan retorts he didn't do anything wrong.

* UnfortunateNames: Officers Slater and Michaels note that they once arrested someone legally named "Phuck." They're pretty sure the person was Vietnamese, but it's still startling to see on a license.[[note]]Phúc is a real name.[[/note]]

* AboveTheInfluence: Played straight in one instance and inverted in another. [[spoiler: At the climax, Evan gets together with Becca, but can't bring himself to have sex with her because she's obviously inebriated. Meanwhile, Seth gets together with Jules, who admits that she would be perfectly willing to have sex with him if he wasn't drunk.]]

-->'''Evan''': It's up to you, Fogell. This guy [liquor store clerk] is either gonna think "Here's another kid with a fake ID", or "Here's [=McLovin=], the 25-year-old Hawaiian organ donor". Okay? So what's it gonna be?\\
'''Fogell''': ...I am [=McLovin=]! Yeah.\\
'''Seth''': No, you're not! No one's [=McLovin=]! [=McLovin=]'s never existed because it's a MADE-UP DUMB FUCKING FAIRY TALE NAME, YOU ''FUCK!''

* ButLiquorIsQuicker: The key to Seth's plot to more or less DateRape Jules. [[spoiler: It ends up backfiring, since he gets ''himself'' drunk instead, and Jules (who stays completely sober) refuses to have sex with him while he's drunk.]] He tries to get Evan to do the same to Becca, but Evan would rather get her to have sex with him by being honest about his feelings. [[spoiler:When he gets to the party, Becca is already wasted and wants to have sex with him right then and there, but he decides he can't take advantage of her in this state and stops her right before she starts vomiting from all the booze she drank.]]

'''Evan''': Dicks? Like a ''man'' dick?\\

* CellPhonesAreUseless: PlayedForLaughs when Becca calls Evan but they have a bad connection, so all she can hear is him [[ClusterFBomb cursing in frustration at his phone]], thinking he's talking to her. [[spoiler: She seems to have forgotten all about it by the time they meet up, which is understandable given how much she's had to drink.]]

* InformedAbility: Evan and Fogell got into Dartmouth College, an Ivy League university in New Hampshire. However, neither of them seem to be particularly academic or intellectual, and one would assume gaining entry into a highly prestigious university meant they had (at the very least) high grade point averages. They don’t really carry themselves as intelligently as you’d expect future Ivy Leaguers to.

* NoPeriodsPeriod: Averted. Someone points out a red spot on Seth's pant legs, and Seth is confused about where it came from until someone else asks "Dude, were you dancing with a chick in there?". Indeed he had been, and hilarity ensues.

* PrecisionFStrike: Jules, who's usually polite and soft-spoken, lets out a big angry swear after [[spoiler:a drunk Seth accidentally headbutts her in the eye after passing out]].
-->'''Jules:''' What the ''fuck?!''

--> '''Greg:''' What the fuck, Evan, we're down two points!\\
'''Evan:''' Fucking calm down, Greg, [[SoccerHatingAmericans it's soccer.]]

* UnfortunateNames: Officers Slater and Michaels note that they once arrested someone legally named "Phuck." They're pretty sure the person was Vietnamese, but it's still startling to see on a license. [[note]]Phúc is a real name.[[/note]]
* VomitIndiscretionShot: When Evan throws up on Seth in a flashback, and when [[spoiler: Becca throws up on Jules's bed.]]

->''You know when you hear girls say 'Ah man, I was so shit faced last night, I shouldn't have fucked that guy?' We could be that mistake!''

* AlphaBitch: Averted BIG TIME with Jules. She is not only one of the most popular girls at school, but is by far the nicest/most polite character in the movie. The reversal of this trope actually plays into the plot, as Seth assumes she will be a drunk party animal as a popular girl, and gets equally hammered in preparation for that, and it turns out Jules does not even drink.
* AmbiguouslyBi: Seth professes to be into girls and wants to sleep with Jules, but there are several signs that he might actually or also be into dudes. For example, when explaining to Evan why he doesn't like Becca, he reveals that one time as a child he became obsessed with drawing penises. While discussing what kind of porn they can buy without their parents finding out, he mentions that it's a problem for him if the movie doesn't show "dick going in", because he thinks a vagina on its own just looks kind of gross. Last but not least is his behavior toward Evan, which has some homoromantic and homoerotic overtones.

* * ComedicWorkSeriousScene: Seth and Evan's PlatonicDeclarationOfLove is PlayedForDrama, and it's one of the more heartwarming examples of this trope.

-->'''Seth:''' Hey Greg, why don't you go piss your pants?\\

* AdultsAreUseless: A good majority of the adults are either unhinged, ignorant, or outright indifferent. Special mention goes to the ApatheticClerk who doesn't bother to search for evidence of Fogell's true identity and straight-up allows him to purchase alcohol without question.

* UnfortunateNames: Officers Slater and Michaels note that they once arrested someone legally named "Phuck." They're pretty sure the person was Vietnamese, but it's still startling to see on a license.

* EverytownAmerica: The film takes place in an unnamed town in Clark County, USA. As of 2019, twelve states have a Clark County and there's little evidence in the film to suggest which one it might be. Notably, those twelve states do not include California where filming actually takes place.

* EverytownAmerica: The film takes place in an unnamed town in Clark County, USA. As of 2019, twelve states have a Clark County and there's little evidence in the film to suggest which one it might be.

Seth (Creator/JonahHill) and Evan (Creator/MichaelCera) are best friends, seniors in high school who are going off to different colleges next year. [[QuestForSex It's their life's ambition to get laid before they leave high school.]] To achieve this, they volunteer to bring the alcohol to an end-of-the-year party where both of their respective crushes will be. They are forced to enlist the help of an annoying friend, Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), and his fake ID, which identifies him [[OnlyOneName only as "McLovin"]]. Trying to buy the alcohol, he is caught up in the middle of a robbery, makes friends with the cops (Creator/SethRogen and Creator/BillHader), and spends the rest of the night being entertained by them. (That's not a euphemism. It looks like a great time.) Seth and Evan, assuming he's been arrested, strike out on their own to find some alcohol and make it to the party... which they eventually do, except the rest of the night isn't what they were expecting it to be.

* HollywoodNerd: Totally averted. Seth, Fogell, and Evan all look like believable high school outcasts. The film actually goes further in making even the cute popular girls like Becca and Jules only be normal school pretty rather than Hollywood goddesses...

* PrecisionFStrike: Jules, who's usually nice and soft-spoke, lets out a big angry swear after [[spoiler:a drunk Seth accidentally headbutts her in the eye after passing out]].

-->'''Seth:''' [beat] Why the [[PrecisionFStrike FUCK]] would it be between that and Muhammad?! Why didn't you just pick a common name like a normal person?

* PrecisionFStrike:
-->'''Jules:''' ''(after a drunk Seth accidentally headbutts her in the eye after passing out)'' What the ''fuck?!''

'''Fogell:''' Seth, Seth, Seth. Listen up, ass-face. Every day, hundreds of kids go into the liquor store with their fake IDs, and every single one says they're 21. How many 21 year olds do you think there are in this town? It's called fucking strategy, all right??\\

* TVTeen: Averted; the teenagers in the cast are quite realistic.
* UnfortunateNames:
** Literally, in the case of the film's Italian edition. Since it is customary for Italian youth to use "X" (as in, the multiplication symbol) instead of "per" (because "per" in Italian also means "times") while texting and in slang, the distributors, thinking of a supposed appeal to young moviegoers, did the same to this film's title. The result... SUXBAD.
** Officers Slater and Michaels also note that they once arrested someone legally named "Phuck." They're pretty sure the person was Vietnamese, but it's still startling to see on a license.

* LaserGuidedKarma: Minor case. That particular kid mentioned above received it not just for spitting on Slater, but he also insulted and spat on Seth in the beginning of the movie.

* DeniedFoodAsPunishment: Due to his fetish for drawing penises all day, Seth was forced by his parents to forgo eating foods that remotely looked phallic, (hot dogs, Popsicles, sub sandwiches, stick lollipops, bananas), with Seth saying that they were the "good kind" of food.

** Fogel gets half-laid with a hottie and it's heavily implied that he's gonna get some later.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Officer Slater's reaction to being spat at by some dumb kid is a pretty severe overreaction and would be disturbing police brutality in any other context. But the kid deserved it.

* DumbassHasAPoint: While Fogell messed up on the ID, he makes a good point on the logic regarding his decision of the age he chose.

* BowChickaWowWow: Fogell, when he start becoming more like his [=McLovin=] persona, is prone to this.