"When the world slips you a Jeffery, stroke the furry wall."
— Aldous Snow
Get Him to the Greek is a 2010 Spin-Off movie for Russell Brand's Aldous Snow persona from Forgetting Sarah Marshall, a previous joint from co-producer Judd Apatow and director Nicholas Stoller.
Jonah Hill is Aaron Green, a record company intern who has just been given the moment of a lifetime: Haul infamous Britrock libertine Aldous Snow to the States in time for his 10th Anniversary concert at L.A.'s prestigious Greek Theater. Considering Aaron is a massive Aldous Snow fan, and all he has to do is escort the playboy, this gig shouldn't be too much of a hassle, right?
In the film, Brand hits upon every British rock star stereotype as often as Hill exemplifies the harried and harassed music industry newbie. In addition, P. Diddy appears as Sergio Roma, a lunatic record exec with a fondness for animal fur and 6 kids who all need Air Jordans.
Tropes used:
- Abbey Road Crossing: Complete with tourists walking across.
- Adam Westing: A little bit with P. Diddy, who actually does produce songs and has 6 kids and multiple "baby mamas".
- Also Snow himself is very similar to Russel Brand.
- See Captain Ersatz below.
- Addiction Displacement: Jackie points out to Aldous that even when he was sober, he spent hours every day doing yoga. "There's nothing in this world that you can't turn into heroin."
- Affectionate Parody: Pretty much the entire soundtrack.
- As Himself: Lars Ulrich from Metallica.
- Ass Shove: Twice. "Why does this keep happening to me!?"
- "1, 2, 3, 4 Feels just like coming in the back door. 5, 6, 7, 8 Aaah, feels great!"
- Backhanded Compliment: "Aldous, there's thousands of people out there who love you. I loved you until I met you!"
- Bad News in a Good Way:
- Naples isn't your son. Phew, what a relief it is to have that out in the open. Namaste.Aldous: This is not an appropriate time to say "namaste".
- Sergio's text message.where the fuck are you?! I'm gonna kill you! :)
- Naples isn't your son. Phew, what a relief it is to have that out in the open. Namaste.
- Binge Montage: Almost anytime Aldous and Aaron step foot in a club.
- Black Comedy Rape: "I think I've just been raped."
- Blood Is Squicker in Water: Lampshaded by Aldous after he falls into a swimming pool clipping the edge with his arm and bleeds what looks like a large amount of blood.
- British Rock Star: Aldous.
- Bowdlerization: In-universe: Aaron wakes up to an alarm clock radio playing a version of "Gang Of Lust" where "Let's get fucked" is replaced with "Let's have fun".
- Butt-Monkey: Aaron Green has 72 hours to get Aldous Snow to the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. They are not going to be a fun 72 hours. And Aaron is going to be a literal butt monkey. TWICE.
- The Cameo: Christina Aguilera, P!nk, Tom Felton, Lars Ulrich, Pharrell, Meredith Viera and economist and Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman.
- Captain Ersatz: Brand's Aldous Snow shares many similarities with Brand. Even though the former is a musician and Brand is a comedian. Even Aldous's parents seem to be Captain Ersatz's of Brand's parents. Aldous's father especially, as Brand's own father was more of a buddy to him and not a father. Less so with his mum, though Aldous's relationship with her is very similar to Brand's relationship with his own mum.
- Also Sergio is very similar to Sean Combs, though this is more of an Adam Westing.
- The Casanova: Aldous Snow is the character type personified, until it's revealed he's actually Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places.
- Continuity Nod: The cameo by Sarah Marshall: "Yeah I used to
banghave sex with her."- The DVD features a full advertisement for the show Blind Medicine which Sarah stars in. Like Crime Scene in the previous film, it is shown to have hilariously bad acting.
- Continuity Snarl: It's a little unclear when this movie takes place relative to Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Aldous is 7 years sober in that movie, but this movie implies said sobriety only lasted while he was with Jackie Q. Sarah Marshall was upset he wasn't monogamous with her in the previous movie, so one assumes he wasn't with Jackie then.
- Jackie Q refers to them being on-and-off over a period of several years, so it was probably during one of their "off" periods.
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: The "African white space Christ" Aldous Snow wanted to look like for the "African Child" video.
- Darker and Edgier: They take the weirdo goofy British Rock Star from Forgetting Sarah Marshall and lovingly detail his horrific drug addiction and depressing personal life. Toss in scenes of anal rape and characters being Driven to Suicide and a violent stabbing and—well, it's funny, but seriously.
- Department of Redundancy Department: "Across the mystic desert, is a desert that is mystic."
- Distinction Without a Difference:
- "Don't think of it as a threesome. Think of it as having sex with your girlfriend while someone else also has sex with your girlfriend".
- "Obviously, I'm not saying I'm an African white space Christ. That'd be ridiculous. That's not for me to say. That's for other people. That's for other people to say if they think I'm like Jesus."
- Don't Explain the Joke: Many of the ad-libs and funny lines are outright stating the peculiarities of a scene or sequence of dialogue.
- Also, the end of Jackie Q's horrifically choreographed music video "Ring 'Round": "I'm talking about my asshole."
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: At one point, Aaron is at a party and goes into a room with a woman. After he protests vocally against sexual entanglements of sorts with the woman, she ignores it and does so anyway. It's especially bad in that afterwards, he staggers back to Aldous Snow, clearly traumatised and terrified, stammers out "I think I've just been raped", and Aldous gives him a Jeffery and tells him he'll be fine in a minute. It's in character for the totally emotionally numb Aldous, but the movie itself seems to care about as much as he does.
- Dr. Feelgood: Keep Aldous juiced up long enough to make his concert? Sergio would be delighted!
- Driven to Suicide: Aldous, after coming to terms with how much of a bitch his ex-wife is, how screwed up his parents are, and how much crap he put Aaron through. Subverted though, as he only injures himself.
- Dull Surprise: Elisabeth Moss, most of the time. Completely justified: she's clearly using it to portray her character—another intern—as so overworked and drowsy that she cannot express emotions normally.
- Dumb and Drummer: Aldous's opinion of Lars Ulrich, who happens to be plowing his ex-wife.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: By the end of the events in the film both main characters have gone through comical amounts of abuse, but Aldous comes to terms with the fact that he's better off without Jackie, goes back into sobriety, gets his career back on track, while Aaron has left his job with Sergio and is now working with Aldous as his producer.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Even if the cast gets a bit... sidetracked along the way.
- Fake Band: Aldous Snow's Infant Sorrow. Interestingly, while the movie includes some licensed music from real bands, the official soundtrack album features only fake bands - the majority of it is Infant Sorrow songs, and there's also two songs by Jackie Q, and on some editions, a bonus track by Chocolate Daddy note .
- Fake-Out Opening: The introductory scene depicts an African warzone...which turns out to be the set of Aldous Snow's latest music video.
- Fluffy the Terrible: "Who could be scared of a Jeffrey?"
- For Inconvenience, Press "1":[[Aldous: Aaron is very busy now. Press 7 for fellatio."]] *Beep*.
- Freak Out: You'd have one too if you were pumped full of adrenaline and various narcotic substances.
- Freudian Excuse: Aldous Snow's womanizing (and self-destructive) ways are revealed to be resultant of a deadbeat father and his inability to get over Jackie Q.
- Funny Background Event: At the Today Show, host Meredith Viera is about to introduce Aldous's outdoor performance. Aaron is seen behind her through the window frantically asking anyone in the crowd if they know the lyrics to Aldous's song "African Child", which he has forgotten and is about to sing.
- Gargle Blaster: A surprisingly rare drug example in the Jeffrey, a narcotic that looks like a homemade cigarette and hits like a heart attack.
- Happy Dance: It's Biggest Loser time! It's Biggest Loser time! It's daddy's favorite show! ♪
- Hitler Ate Sugar: Aaron pulls this against his doctor girlfriend Daphne. "Just because you're a doctor doesn't mean you're a good person! The Nazis had doctors, Daphne!".
- I Have No Son!: Aldous awkwardly rebuffs Naples gestures of affection after learning that he's not actually his biological son. In a deleted scene, he does come around to deciding that he wants to still be in the boy's life...as his friend.
- Intercourse with You: Several.
- Love Explodes
- "Ride me, inside me supertight!"
- "There's got to be a part of me inside of you!"
- "Ring Around My Posey"
- Jerkass: Aldous, big time.
- Jonathan Snow, Aldous' father, definitely takes the cake as he tries to exploit him for money and refers to Sergio as Sammy (as in Sammy Davis Jr.), which could be a racist interpretation.
- Really, did Aaron have any reason for making fun of Tom Felton? Repeatedly?
- He was trying to be funny, and failing epically.
- Karma Houdini: Jackie Q.
- Large Ham: Possibly Russell Brand (KEEP STROKING THE WALL!!!), but then he is playing a rock star. Definitely Sergio Roma (YOU CANNOT OUTRUN ME! I AM BLACK!!). P Diddy borders on Chewing the Scenery, especially when he fights Aldous's dad for no apparent reason.
- He was just trying to out-party the Brits!
- This actually makes more sense if you watch the deleted scenes: Aldous's dad directs an undercurrent of racism towards Sergio in several scenes.
- Live but Delayed: Someone at the control board of Today responds to Aldous's swearing by asking if they can censor the delayed live broadcast.
- Lysistrata Gambit: Discussed/inverted/subverted. Aaron wants to know whether the trope works for males (or is simply based on a Double Standard), and tries to ban Daphne from his dick. Obviously, it fails.
- Made of Iron: Sergio shrugs off fire, opium, and cars.
- Mean Boss: Sergio. "Throw that phone outta my office."
- Mighty Whitey: Aldous styles himself the white savior of black Africa in the African Child video.
- Mood Whiplash: The movie oscillates between gross-out comedy and very somber moments.
- Mushroom Samba: When Aaron puts his foot down about getting Aldous back to his room for rest, Aldous agrees, but adds that they'll each have one shot of absinthe and then go to bed. What follows is Aaron's second crazy night, in which he hallucinates Sergio's disembodied head eating itself.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: It's hard to imagine Aldous's generic, oversexed popstar love interest doesn't draw some inspiration from Katy Perry.
- Opposites Attract Revenge: "I would like a threesome now, please."
- Overly Narrow Superlative: A critic wrote that the film "contains the greatest cameo ever by a winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics."
- The Power of Rock: For all his rock star antics screw him up, his actual music career comes off in a positive light.
- Prophetic Name: There's a lot of snow in Mr. Snow.
- Real Trailer, Fake Show: Blind Medicine.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Pharrell is wearing a pink polo shirt while shooting a video, which Sergio disagrees with.Sergio: It's not gangsta.
Pharell: That's your problem man, you're always trying to be gangsta.
Sergio: What are you talking about?! The name of the song is called I'm Gangsta! - Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll: Aldous Snow lives this life to the T, both positively and negatively.
- Sex Is Evil: Every promiscuous act imaginable, all portrayed as unflatteringly and seedy as possible.
- Shot to the Heart: Aldous does this to Aaron when he begins to have a heart attack.
- Spin-Off: Of the Aldous Snow character introduced in Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
- Snorri Cam: When Aaron is shot with adrenaline.
- Stoners Are Funny: One of the film's funniest moments involves Aaron having a drug-influenced freakout in a Las Vegas hotel suite.
- Stylistic Suck: Many of the videos, especially "African Child." The songs generally sound good, even when the lyrics are stupid (or because of it).
- That's All, Folks!: Sergio's disembodied head saying, "Go home. Get the fuck outta this theater. Seriously." appears after the credits.
- Three-Way Sex: Aldous convinces Aaron's girlfriend into it, who then guilts Aaron into it. It does not end well.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Applies to Aldous when you compare his behavior in Forgetting Sarah Marshall with his behavior in this film. In Forgetting Sarah Marshall Aldous is actually a pretty nice guy who is polite and cordial towards Peter and even gives advice to a young newlywed on how to please his wife sexually. In Get Him To The Greek, however, Aldous spends most of the film as a self-centered, inconsiderate asshole who makes Aaron's life a living hell. Though this one is somewhat justified since Aldous at this point in time has become a drug addict which would easily explain his jerkass behaviour.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Subverted. Elisabeth Moss is fairly good looking while Big Beautiful Man Jonah Hill's character gets more disheveled and appears in a manner that downplay whatever attractiveness he has. It's mentioned she finds his sense of humor attractive.
- The Unfair Sex: Daphne trying to justify setting up the threesome with Aaron & Aldous.
- Another example of this trope is Daphne accepting a job offer and deciding that she and Aaron are moving to Seattle without even asking if he wanted to move. When Aaron is rightfully upset that she just expects him to agree and go along with her, they have a fight and apparently break up. After they reconcile at the end of the movie they do end up moving to Seattle together.
- Verbal Backspace: Sergio states that he has 20 Koo-Koo Roos, then his secretary tells him he has 21. He corrects himself.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Aldous and Aaron seem to be this by the end of the movie.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Several — and all of them come from Aaron.
- Worst Aid: You do not give a man (possibly) having a heart attack a shot of adrenaline to the heart. Luckily, Aldous misses the heart.
