History Film / TheAbsentMindedProfessor

* FiftiesHair: Most of the characters, even the college students, this is also mixed with early 60s hairdos like the beehive and crew cuts and bouffants and flips.

* AintNoRule: How Medfield wins - technically, there's no rule that says that one team can't jump higher than the other.
* ArtisticLicenseSports: In reality, there is no way the Professor's basketball team could have played with those flubber enhanced shoes for long before a competent referee would have called them for cheating.

* CloudCuckoolander: Brainard, to a degree, whom Biff Hawk calls "Neddy the Nut".

* DeliberatelyMonochrome: Filmed in black-and-white to better hide any flaws in the special effects.

* DrivingADesk: Each driving scene, whether set on land or in air, was filmed with rear projection.
* DumbJock: Biff Hawk flunks Brainard's chemistry class, disqualifying him from the big game and making his father upset--at Professor Brainard.

* FootballFightSong: “The Medfield Fight Song”, the first of many, many songs Music/TheShermanBrothers wrote for a Disney movie.
* GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion: Disney released a colorized version in TheEighties.

* LoopholeAbuse: When the opposing coach in the basketball game calls shenanigans over the other team's Flubber-enhanced jumping abilities, the referee points out that there's no rule that says one team can't jump higher than the other.

* MoodWhiplash: In "Son of Flubber", as Brainard is carted off by the police after Medfield wins the football game against Rutland, a bunch of [[SpinningPaper Spinning Papers]] appear, headlining the trial of Brainard. The music sobers up dramatically, too.

* PassThePopcorn: After Brainard and Betsy trick Hawk into wearing a pair of Flubber-shoes and set him bouncing outside, a larger and larger crowd begins to form, until there are snack vendors selling their wares, and even reporters commentating. Even Biff enjoys the show, even as he is trying to call on others to help get his father down safely.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: The government official stops listening to Brainard when he's listing all the areas of government could help when he gets to Agriculture and transfers him to the agriculture department, where another official starts listing off a series of questions without even listening to what Brainard is saying.

* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Brainard is shown stalking his jilted ex-fiancee who currently wants nothing to do with him and also terrorizing the man that she's now dating; a character mind you that hasn't really done anything that bad except currently be the main character's [[DesignatedVillain romantic rival]]. Also, basketball players putting flubber in their shoes to make them jump extra high and win the game? Since the audience is on their side, it's a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome. However, if the OpposingSportsTeam did it, it would surely be seen as blatant cheating.

* DistinguishedGentlemansPipe: Brainard.

-->'''Hawk:''' Say that again.\\
-->'''Biff:''' I said it's Neddy the Nut flying his--''(finally gets it)''.

-->'''Betsy:''' That's exactly the way I feel about it.

''The Absent-Minded Professor'' is a black and white 1961 live action Creator/{{Disney}} movie. Professor Brainard, the eponymous AbsentMindedProfessor, forgets his wedding, not for the first time, but nonetheless succeeds in inventing a substance, flubber, which has mysterious properties including the ability to add kinetic energy with every bounce and flight. With this substance, he proceeds to foil the amorous attempts of a rival English professor on his fiancee, cause the college basketball team to unexpectedly win their game, and to win the girl. Unfortunately, the only one interested in giving Brainard any money for his invention is CorruptCorporateExecutive Alonzo Hawk, who's threatening to foreclose on the college...

* CareerVersusMan: "I'm just tired of having a spinster for a secretary."

* WhatDoesDheSeeInHim: Even Brainard's KindlyHousekeeper tells him that Betsy is too good for him and its surprising she stayed around after missing their wedding two times.

* TakeThat: At the US government. When the military officer is about to fire missiles at the flying car, he hears that it went on the other side of the capital building, but keeps counting down. He is told that Congress is in session, and he keeps counting down. He hears the building just got remodeled, and finally decides to hold his fire.

'''Hawk:''' Say that again.\\
'''Biff:''' I said it's Neddy the Nut flying his--''(finally gets it)''.

'''Betsy:''' That's exactly the way I feel about it.

* ObstructiveBureucrat: The government official stops listening to Brainard when he's listing all the areas of government could help when he gets to Agriculture and transfers him to the agriculture department, where another official starts listing off a series of questions without even listening to what Brainard is saying.

* JerkJock: Averted. Biff Hawk is the star player of the basketball team, but is actually quite a [[SpoiledSweet nice kid]] - especially when his father's not badgering him to help with the [[FamilyBusiness family business]].

* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Brainard is shown stalking his jilted ex-fiancee who currently wants nothing to do with him and also terrorizing the man that she's now dating; a character mind you that hasn't really done anything that bad except currently be the main character's [[DesignatedVillain romantic rival]]. Also, basketball players putting flubber in their shoes to make them jump extra high and win the game? Since the audience is on their side, it's a CrowningMomentOfAwesome. However, if the OpposingSportsTeam did it, it would surely be seen as blatant cheating.

-->'''Hawk:''' (in "Son of Flubber", after the fact) If you weren't so deductible, I'd disown you!

* HelloAgainOfficer: Shelby Ashton and Alonzo Hawk and his henchmen are all constantly foiled whenever their car crashes into a cop car, which always causes the same two cops in question to spill "BOILING HOT COFFEE!!" in their lap. Needless to say, they promptly arrest them.

* LoanShark: Alonzo Hawk is president of the Auld Lang Syne Loan Company. An important scene takes place in his warehouse full of repossessed items.

* PassThePopcorn: After Brainard and Betsy trick Hawk into wearing a pair of Flubber-shoes and set him bouncing outside, a larger and larger crowd begins to form, until there are snack vendors selling their wares, and even reporters commentating. Even Biff enjoys the show.

* ReedRichardsIsUseless: Subverted. Brainard tries to sell flubber to the government, but all he talks to are uninterested bureaucrats who don't understand or care. By the time he manages to get someone to come down to check out his invention, it's already been stolen and replaced with a fake by his rival, making him look like a fool.

* SmugSnake: Shelby, to Brainard's disgust.

* CrossOver: Alonzo Hawk appears as the same character in both this movie and ''HerbieRidesAgain''.[[note]]Keenan Wynn, who plays Hawk in all of these movies, also plays similar, if not identical, characters (with different names) in other films such as ''Snowball Express'' and ''The Shaggy D.A.''[[/note]] The fictional Medfield College was also featured as the location of ''Film/TheComputerWoreTennisShoes'' and its sequels.

-->'''Biff:''' Oh, it's just Neddy the Nut out flying his old Model T.
-->'''Hawk:''' Say that again.
-->'''Biff:''' I said it's Neddy the Nut flying his--''(finally gets it)''.

-->'''Professor Brainard:''' That's why we call it repulsive energy!
-->'''Betsy:''' That's exactly the way I feel about it.

* CrossOver: Alonzo Hawk appears as the same character in both this movie and ''HerbieRidesAgain''.[[note]]Keenan Wynn, who plays Hawk in all of these movies, also plays similar, if not identical, characters (with different names) in other films such as ''Snowball Express'' and ''The Shaggy D.A.''[[/note]] The fictional Medfield College was also featured as the location of ''The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes'' and its sequels.

The movie has one sequel, ''Son of Flubber'', made in 1963, and was remade twice, once in 1988 as a TV movie, also titled ''The Absent-Minded Professor'' which introduced the idea of a computer sidekick and once in 1997 as ''{{Flubber}}''.

* PinkElephants: The police officer assumes that Shelby was hallucinating when he describes the unseen flying car that gave him the "Shelby Stomp."

* CrossOver: Alonzo Hawk appears as the same character in both this movie and ''HerbieRidesAgain''. Keenan Wynn, who plays Hawk in all of these movies, also plays similar, if not identical, characters (with different names) in other films such as ''Snowball Express'' and ''The Shaggy D.A.''

* InterServiceRivalry: The army, the navy, and the air force all squabble to get their hands on the rights to flubber.

* CrossOver: Alonzo Hawk appears as the same character in both this movie and HerbieRidesAgain.

''The Absent-Minded Professor'' is a black and white 1961 live action {{Disney}} movie. Professor Brainard, the eponymous AbsentMindedProfessor, forgets his wedding, not for the first time, but nonetheless succeeds in inventing a substance, flubber, which has mysterious properties including the ability to add kinetic energy with every bounce and flight. With this substance, he proceeds to foil the amorous attempts of a rival English professor on his fiancee, cause the college basketball team to unexpectedly win their game, and to win the girl. Unfortunately, the only one interested in giving Brainard any money for his invention is CorruptCorporateExecutive Alonzo Hawk, who's threatening to foreclose on the college...

* SmugSnake: Shelby, to Brainard's disgust.