History YMMV / AnAmericanPickle

** Ben's parents have died and he's trying to pay tribute to them by building an app. Said app takes him 5 years to fine tune, only to be considered unfeasible due to circumstances outside his control. When Ben tries to retool the app for better market value, he's still rejected. Then after having to watch Herschel succeed seemingly overnight despite Ben's efforts to sabotague him, Ben still falls short. And ''then'' after managing to actually get Herschel targeted by immigration, Ben feels guilty and tries to help his relative, only to be mistaken for Herschel and deported.

* CrossesTheLineTwice: America's customs office in 1918 does ''not'' get the PoliticallyCorrectHistory treatment. One customs officer clearly says "lets get these pollacks out of the way" right in front of a Polish family and Jewish immigrants have their papers kept in a case simply labelled "JEWS".

* IdiotPlot: Ben's [=BoopBop=] app could have avoided his now-tarnished reputation if he released it under a psuedonym.

** Ben's plot when held in contrast to Herschel's could be viewed as a TakeThat at Millennials. Ben is depicted as whining over FirstWorldProblems and bitter at Herschel's success - which Herschel achieved while living on the streets - to the point where he deliberately tries to ruin him rather than focus on his own career. Also, Ben frequently hangs out at hipster-friendly cafes, which in real life are notoriously expensive.

** Likely unintentional, but a good chunk of the movie does seem like it's praising the more extreme parts of Capitalism. A foreign man who has had no time to adapt to his surroundings is somehow able to establish a small business within what's implied to be a few months at the most. Business regulations such as taxes and quality assurance are seen as oppressive. Said business also relies on unpaid labour to meet production demands, but it's called "interning" rather than slavery. Also, any country that isn't America is portrayed as snow-ridden and wild.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Herschel's intern Clara. Once Herschel is vilified for making intolerant comments on Twitter, she publicly washes her hands of him with little more than an empty apology. In her defense, she was basically just doing unpaid labour under the guise of interning for a man whose reputation and credentials likely wouldn't have done her any favours in the long-term.
* WhatAnIdiot: One would think that, growing up in times and places where Jews were oppressed by a Christian majority, that Herschel's life would have depended on not making insulting statements about Christians in public, but he's confident that he's not saying anything controversial by calling the Virgin Mary a lying prostitute. His ignorance just falls under RuleOfFunny.

* GrowingTheBeard: ''An American Pickle'' is one for Seth Rogen's filmography. The humour isn't as vulgar, the overall tone and atmosphere is LighterandSofter, and the story appeals more to 20-30 somethings than it would to teenagers.

* GrowingTheBeard: ''An American Pickle'' is one for Seth Rogen's filmography. The humour isn't as vulgar and the story appeals more to 20-30 somethings than it would to teenagers.