Things are Tough All Over is a Cheech & Chong film from 1982, in which the duo not only play their usual selves, but also double as the bad guys, Mr. Slyman and Prince Habib, their bosses who send them from Chicago to Las Vegas with a car of money to deliver. The two end up stranded in the desert, and after mistakenly giving away a seat that was full of money, are on the run from their bosses, who also get stuck in the desert.
Includes examples of:
- Axe-Crazy: More like "knife crazy". Whenever Prince Habib gets angry, he often gets out a knife and tries to kill them, with Mr. Slyman struggling to stop him.
- The Cameo: Rip Taylor makes a cameo as himself, finding and giving Cheech and Chong a ride.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: When King Habib sees Cheech in drag, unaware of who he is, he mentions the woman being uglier than his first wife, then uglier than the goat, before Mr. Slyman reminds him that his first wife was the goat.
- Dramatic Irony: At one point, neither of the bad guys watch the road while driving and nearly run over Cheech and Chong, who they were out to kill. Cheech thinks they intentionally tried to run them over, without knowing who it was.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Cheech and Chong have sex with their bosses girlfriends, unaware of the hidden cameras in the hotel. When the bosses chase them into a porno theater, they find that film playing, and they end up liking it enough that they decide not to kill them and instead to pay Cheech and Chong to keep starring in pornos with their girlfriends.
- Everyone Has Standards: While Mr. Slyman is involved in illegal activities and wants Cheech and Chong dead as badly as Prince Habib does, he always stops Habib from stabbing people who have just made him angry.
- Innocently Insensitive: When Cheech complains that he's hungry, Rip Taylor gives him a "TV dinner" – a prop television set with food attached. After Rip realizes Cheech really is hungry he apologizes, saying he thought Cheech had been joking.
- Missed Him by That Much: Prince Habib stabs the air conditioner in the car, with Mr. Slyman trying to stop him. They don't watch the road and don't see that they nearly hit Cheech and Chong, who they were out to kill.
- Mondegreen Gag: After Mr. Slyman gets a hair transplant, he says what sounds like "better than herpes" and that he had herpes on his head. The doctor who made the transplant is worried as he had not been told, but it turns out that he had actually been saying "hair piece", with dialect making "hair piece" sound like "herpes".
- Poor Communication Kills: After the man at the gas station finds that the chair Cheech and Chong gave him is stuffed with money, he tells them that they left some money in the chair. The duo, thinking it was just loose change that had fallen out and expecting to become rich after they deliver the car, decide to just let him keep the money, unaware that that's why they are delivering the vehicle.
