It is the practice of Latter-day Saints to send brethren out to visit the homes of the members each month. When done properly, Home Teaching brings about a conversion to the truth and a righteousness among the Saints. When not done properly...
—Opening sequence
The Home Teachers a 2004 comedy film from Halestorm Entertainment, directed by Kurt Hale and written by John E. Moyer.
Home teachingnote is a program in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in which two male members are assigned to visit certain families in the ward each month. The main character, Greg Blazer, doesn't care much for church or home teaching. What he does care about is watching football. His new home teaching companion, Nelson Parker, takes the program very seriously, and manages to drag him out to a few appointments.
The Home Teachers has the following tropes:
- Book and Switch: Greg hides a copy of his sports magazine (it's probably supposed to be Sports Illustrated) in his Ensign magazine. Nelson tries to use this magazine in a lesson at a memorial service, and hilarity ensues.
- Daydream Surprise: Greg has one while he's riding back home in a police car. His mind starts to turn to his relationship with his daughters and realizes he doesn't really know much about them.
- Deadpan Snarker: Greg Blazer.Nelson: (A police car pursues them.) This can't be good.
Greg: Why not? Everything else has been so great. - Dialogue Reversal: Greg tells Nelson "how do you say no to a gift?" when offering him a soda. Nelson tells Greg the same thing when he gives a dog to the Blazer family.
- The "Fun" in "Funeral": Nelson and Greg argue over who has the lesson at a memorial service, and their Ensign magazine somehow gets in the coffin. Greg tries to retrieve the magazine, flipping the body out of the coffin, though he manages to get it back in.
- Fun with Flushing: Greg pretends he needs to use the restroom on their first visit, but instead he listens to the game on the radio. He doesn't notice an ornamental gnome falling into the toilet, so it overflows when he flushes it.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Greg makes the mistake of wandering around the woods wearing a deer head as a hat. Two poachers try to shoot this deer, but they both miss, and two main characters escape.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Greg Blazer often wants to do the right thing, but he's either too lazy or too obsessed with football.
- Kids Driving Cars: The Blazers' eleven-year-old daughter picks them up from church.
- No Animals Were Harmed: Played with in the credits. "No animals were killed in the making of this film. Injured, maybe… No, no, no. That's not funny. A cat got a little wet, but that's it."
- Overly Long Gag: At the end of church, Blazer is desperate to get out. However, Parker is called to give the closing prayer and he takes his sweet sweet time to do so. At one point Blazer sees the clock going backwards. He interrupts the prayer with an "amen" and bolts out the room.
- Playing Sick: Greg tries to fake an injury to get out of home teaching, but Nelson doesn't buy it.
- Running Gag: Ornamental gnomes start to really bug Greg after one clogs the toilet at one of their appointments.
- Shout-Out:
- When Greg tries to fix the Mori's plumbing he references Finding Nemo.
- Greg thinks the person reading the scriptures in Nelson's tapes is the economics teacher from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
- Straight Man and Wise Guy: Nelson Parker is the Straight Man and Greg Blazer provides Plucky Comic Relief.
- Sports Widow: Greg won't even answer the phone while he's watching football, even though he's right next to it.
- Tempting Fate: Greg does this when he tries to convince Nelson to take a shortcut, saying that he thinks the worst is behind them after teaching the Mori family.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Greg starts the movie as a football fan who has very little time for church and his family. By the end of the movie he starts to realize the good he can do as a home teacher.
- Watch the Paint Job: The car of Nelson's mother-in-law. At first Nelson tells Greg not to tap his foot on the dashboard. It gets wrecked when they try to take a "shortcut" down a hillside (though Nelson later manages to salvage it).
