F the Prom (also known as F*&% the Prom) is a 2017 direct-to-video teen comedy film directed and produced by Benny Fine of The Fine Brothers and written by the Fine Brothers and Molly Prather.
The movie begins with Maddy Datner (Danielle Campbell) and her Best Friend Cole Reed (Joel Courtney) attending their first day of high school at Charles Adams High. Cole is subjected to a prank by a fellow student, revealing his white briefs, earning him the nickname "Tighty". Rather than stand up for him, Maddy decides not to intervene, and refuses to talk to Cole from that point on. Three years later, Maddy is at the top of the social hierarchy, and is dating the hottest guy at school, Kane (Cameron Palatas). Cole, still shunned by his peers, has decided to apply to a prestigious art college.
Maddy catches her best friend Marissa (Madelaine Petsch) making out with Kane. Revealing her disgust with Maddy's recent self-centered behavior, Marissa explains that she intends to be crowned Queen at the upcoming senior prom, which Maddy was expected to win. That night, Maddy goes to Cole's house, and they reconnect, reminiscing about their former friendship. Maddy suggests that they ruin the prom, enlisting Cole's friend Felicity (Meg DeLacy) to help. Felicity refuses to help at first, but when Maddy stands up for Cole against Kane, she agrees, and enlists the help of other social outcasts to execute the plan.
Tropes
- Accomplice by Inaction: Cole lampshades this in his speech in response to Maddy saying she didn’t do anything, in that she didn’t do anything to stop the bullying nor stand up for him.
- A-Cup Angst: City is bullied because she once got caught stuffing her bra.
- Abusive Parents: Cole's father, Ken. While he does care about him, Ken minces no word calling his son a loser, geek and tearing down Cole's self-esteem whenever possible, though to be fair it seems more so that he's mainly just teasing, and really has no idea how hurtful he is to his son, and Ken eventually openly recognizes he's been an Asshole, not just to his son but to everybody.
- Adults Are Useless: Pretty much all the adults are Cloudcuckoolanders at best and downright creepy at worst. They also do nothing to stop the rampant bullying around school, even joining in at times.
- Age-Inappropriate Dress: Principal Statszill dresses like a teenage girl headed to a party despite being in her 30's/40's. Made even more inappropriate by the fact she's the school principal, but happily wears revealing minidresses and stilettos in her office.
- All Guys Want Cheerleaders: Maddy and Marissa are both cheerleaders and are considered the most popular and desirable girls in school.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Cole and all the other social outcasts at Charles Adam High are subjected to endless torment for a particular reason (Cole got his pants pulled down, City was caught stuffing her bra, Abbey had a sext pic passed around school, Larry sweats a lot, Emile talked weird, Efraim is Jewish and suffers racism, and T.J. is gay).
- Alpha Bitch: Maddy and Marissa, who call themselves the M&Ms, though Maddy eventually makes a Heel–Face Turn. It's unknown who served more as the Alpha Bitch and who served more as the Beta Bitch, though Marissa seems to have a more antagonistic role in the movie and is outwardly nastier than Maddy.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Cole's dad has no qualms about pointing how attractive Maddy is with the strong implication that she should date and/or hook up with his son...sometimes when Maddy is in the same room.
- The Beautiful Elite: The school's popular students are presented as such.
- Better as Friends: Cole and Maddy admit they have feelings for each other at the end and share a kiss, but they ultimately decide to just stay friends.
- Birds of a Feather: Occurs with Efraim and Abbey in that both are Jewish and outcasts. The similarities is what helps them bond together, leading to her giving him a kiss and allowing him to ogle her breast.
- Black Comedy Rape: At one point, Principal Statszill publicly recommends that her underage students should take a senior as their prom date, adding "It's only statutory if you get caught."
- The Breakfast Plot:
Word of God states that the movie is supposed to be this combined with Mean Girls and Can't Hardly Wait. - Coquettish Lip Biting: When she tries to convince Cole to go to the prom with her, hoping he would help her become Prom Queen, Marissa bites her lower lip flirtatiously. Cole does agree to go to the prom with her, but only to further his goal of sabotaging the prom.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Many of the unpopular kids are known by strange nicknames, all of which were given to them due to a series of embarrassing incidents that occurred to them. For example, Cole is known as Tighty because he got de-pantsed on his first day of school, exposing his briefs. Felicity Stufts is known as Stuffs because she was caught stuffing her bra with tissues and has the misfortune of having a conveniently punny surname, etc.
- False Friend: Marissa for Maddy. It's obvious she was only friends with her to leech off her popularity and she steals her boyfriend. When caught, she expresses no remorse, even saying Maddy deserves it because she's been selfish.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Maddy starts as Cole's best friend and a Girl Next Door, only to abandon him for popularity and turn into an Alpha Bitch. Later on in the movie she joins the outcasts to ruin the prom and makes amends with Cole.
- Hypocrite: Marissa calls Maddy out for her self-absorbed behavior when she's an even bigger Alpha Bitch with an obvious It's All About Me complex.
- Idiot Ball: Maddy practically embraces it in the climax of the film. She decides she wants to go to prom after all and just enjoy it, but neglects to tell everyone else in the group this, prompting them to go ahead with the plan. She is then shocked, SHOCKED, when she gets dunked in tar and feathers after being crowned prom queen...even though she knew this would happen because she helped plan it!
- Informed Attribute: Maddy claims to envy the losers because they stay true to themselves instead of trying to be popular. The movie never shows anything to support this, since as far as we see their loser status was entirely the result of things they had no control over.
- In with the In Crowd: Upon attending high school, Maddy quickly integrated herself with the popular kids and by senior year she is one of the most popular girls in school.
- Kids Are Cruel: The teens at Charles Adam High are utterly vicious, from bigotry to Slut-Shaming to jeering at other kids over their speech impediment or medical issues, and not even seconds into Freshman year was Cole humiliated in front of the other students and ended up with his reputation torn to shreds.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Maddy falls victim to the prom-pranking scheme that she helped set up. The fact that she spent most of the movie associating with the student cliques the prank was targeted at adds another layer to it.
- Malicious Misnaming: Tighty, Stuffs, Tig, Sweats, the list goes on.
- Manchild: Most of the teens act more like middle schoolers than 18-year-olds, picking on people for the stupidest reasons (like getting pantsed one time at the very beginning of school) and overall acting immature. The adults as well, who are too eccentric to be taken seriously. Cole's dad acts like a pouty teenager more than a grown man; it's implied he's still holding onto the 'glory days' when he was a popular high schooler. Principal Statszill also acts like a bitchy teenager at times.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: The reason why Cole is so unpopular is that he got his pants pulled down on the first day of Freshman year, which reveals his white briefs. Even after nearly 4 years later, people still mock him for it and call him by his nickname "Tighty".
- Pants-Pulling Prank: Cole was a victim of this on the first day of high school the minute he walked in, which kickstarted his unpopularity. Marissa subjects him to another one after the prom is ruined.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Efraim's flashback shows bullies harassing him by shoving pork products into his face. T.J. also suffers homophobia and once got pranked with dildos stuffed into his locker.
- Potty Emergency: Marissa gets her punch drugged with laxatives at the prom.
- Prom Wrecker: The goal of this movie's protagonists. A rare example of this trope being portrayed sympathetically.
- Slut-Shaming: Abbey's problem, due to a nude photo of her being leaked across the school.
- Straight Gay: T.J., unlike the Camp Gays at his school. Subsequently, he gets picked on by his teammates for being gay, but is also ostracized by the school's gang of Camp Gays because he's not 'gay enough'.
- Tar and Feathers: Maddy is doused with tar at the prom. Emile also suffers a tar-and-feather prank in a flashback.
- Teens Are Monsters: And how. Just let the other tropes explain everything for you. In fact, the whole point of the movie is how popularity and cliques can socially destroy people, and it's pretty on-the-nose about it.
- Toilet Humor: Yes, the movie has this. "Now just reflect, and listen to my urine hit the water."
- Uncool Undies: Cole wears white briefs, hence where his nickname 'Tighty' comes from. They appear to be his preferred choice of underwear as despite that embarrassment, he continues to wear them as a senior.
- We Used to Be Friends: Maddy and Cole, who are now at opposite ends of the social hierarchy despite being lifelong friends growing up. Maddy decided to ignore Cole after he gets pranked, resulting in her becoming a popular cheerleader and Cole becoming an outcast. They do reconcile eventually.
- Woman Scorned: Marissa pantses Cole, once again exposing his white briefs to everyone, after he says no to her date offer and learning she was the intended target of the prank.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Marissa laughingly says this when her pantsing of Cole at the ruined prom reveals he still wears briefs.Marissa: Are you kidding me? Tighty lives!
