YMMV / American Pie

• Angst? What Angst?: Nadia was subjected to voyeurism without her knowledge and when her sponsors found out, it's implied they blamed her for it, since she was sent back home the very next day. The movie ends with Nadia and Jim staying pen-pals and in the second movie Nadia is even more attracted to Jim. It's even implied in Reunion that she isn't completely over him.
• Best Known for the Fanservice: Every film in the main franchise has at least one famous scene featuring female nudity.
  • Nadia's changing/masturbation scene in American Pie.
  • The girl-on-girl teasing in American Pie 2.
  • Everybody really does remember the strippers when it comes to American Wedding.
  • Jim trying to get a drunk, topless teenage girl back into her house without her parents finding out in American Reunion.
• The Catchphrase Catches On: The term "MILF" existed long before American Pie came out, but the movie is the reason it entered everyone's vocabulary.
• Crazy Is Cool: The Stifmeister! Steal his prom date by spreading false rumors? He'll spike your drink with laxatives. Wedding got ruined at the last minute? He'll call in an entire football team to fix things. Splash him at the beach? He'll shit in your cooler and destroy your jetskis.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Stifler went from being a minor antagonist in the first movie to the main protagonist of the third.
  • Jim's Dad. He's the only character from the main canon that carried over into the (now non canon) spinoffs.
  • Stifler's Mom, to the point where the term "MILF" entered everyone's vocabulary, despite her having less than five minutes of screen time.
  • Jill, the red-headed dominatrix from Naked Mile, was popular enough that her actress returned in a non-speaking cameo in Beta House. Possibly because she got some of the raciest fanservice in the whole movie...
• Fair for Its Day: The video of Nadia has made the first film come across as having an unenlightened view of sexual harassment typical of the '80s coming-of-age sex comedies it was homaging, like Revenge of the Nerds and Porky's. At the time, however, American Pie was considered a big step away from films like those that depicted girls as little more than prizes to be won. Jim's relationship with Nadia is ruined by the video, Kevin and Oz have to put in considerable effort to show their respective girlfriends that they genuinely care for them (with Kevin ultimately having to let go of Vicky anyway), Finch's attempt to score through lying backfires spectacularly and Sherman's attempt to lie about scoring gets him publicly humiliated at prom by the girl he claimed to have slept with. The irony with Sherman is that, if he hadn't pretended that they'd had sex (as opposed to staying up all night and having a deep conversation) and just treated her with respect like the protagonists do with their dates, they may have actually consummated their burgeoning romance at the prom.
• Fanon Discontinuity: The Direct to Video sequels, even before the fourth theatrical film (released after the DTV sequels) officially erased them from continuity.
  • While Reunion does retcon a few plot points, most notably from Band Camp, your mileage may vary if the rest of it is canon or not, such as Jim’s Dad being the original writer of "The Bible".
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Stifler and Jessica, mostly for their Distaff Counterpart and Ship Tease moments in 2. Pity her character was discarded for Wedding and relegated to a cameo in Reunion.
• Franchise Original Sin: It's generally agreed that Stifler was hilarious in small doses in the first two films, but when later films took notice of his Ensemble Dark Horse status and made him one of the heroes, he became a lot more polarizing.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Ironically for a film with an American Title, American Reunion did pretty poorly in the US, not even managing to make back its budget, but earned the better part of $200 million outside of its home country.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The webcam scene is a lot less humorous in light of what happened to Tyler Clementi in 2010.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In Wedding, Stifler (pretending to be a super-polite guy) says "I love old people". This becomes literally true when he accidentally has sex with Jim's grandmother.
  • Sherman's obsession with the Terminator films becomes ironic when Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines came out the same year that American Wedding did. The one film Sherman didn't appear in.
• Ho Yay: The MILF guys in Reunion.
• Jerkass Woobie: Stifler in Reunion when the guys give him a "The Reason You Suck" Speech by telling him he's trapped in the past because things will never be the way they were in high school, and that they didn't bother to catch up with him about the reunion because they knew Stifler would find a way to ruin it. Bonus points because Stifler was aware they were intentionally avoiding him the entire time, but acted like his normal self not to show it.
  • Sherman really did act like a jerk to the guys when he made it appear he slept with a girl before they did, but you have to feel sympathy for him in the sequel when he's still a virgin and discovers his Sherminator act doesn't work. It's fixed at the end of the movie when he hooks up with Nadia. By the time of the reunion, however, his life has once again hit the skids as he's divorced and Alone Among the Couples. By this point even Stifler feels sorry for him.
• Love to Hate: Stifler, as was intended by Seann William Scott, who refers to him as a "loveable dick."
• Memetic Mutation:
  • This movie gave the word "MILF" to the language.
  • This one time, at band camp...
  • HOGARTH SAID FUCK ^Explanation There are fans of The Iron Giant that know Stifler's brother as Hogarth Hughes, so they can't tell the difference.
• Monochrome Casting: Although there are some non-white characters, they are mostly rather peripheral. The attempt to diversify the main cast is considered the only redeeming element of the otherwise reviled Girls' Rules film.
• Nausea Fuel: In Reunion Jim slams his laptop shut and catches his penis, which immediately starts bleeding. Later on he tries to preserve his modesty with the lid of a crock-pot...that's made of glass.
  • There's also Stifler drinking cum, getting pissed on, putting dog poo in his mouth, taking a dump in a cooler and giving sloppy cunnilingus.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • John Cho, now best known for the Harold and Kumar films and the Star Trek reboot films, played one of the MILF guys.
  • January Jones, who played Michelle's hot sister Cadence in American Wedding, is now more famous for playing Betty Draper and Emma Frost.
• Ron the Death Eater:
  • Jeanine Stifler is often considered a sexual predator who is only saved by the Double Standard Rape: Female on Male society has, because she slept with Finch while he was in high school and she's a lot older than him. However, their relationship is wholly consensual and they bonded in the first place because Finch is mature for his age and was more comfortable chatting with her over a drink than hanging out at the party. Further, while they hook up again at least twice in the years to come, Finch realizes that he wants a long-term relationship she can't provide and he pursues romance elsewhere, so he clearly has no problem with what happened and it didn't affect his development in a negative way.
  • Vicky in the first movie makes it clear she won't sleep with Kevin until he says he loves her. The very next morning, she breaks up with him. While her reasons for doing so were made clear in the moment, to some it can seem like she's taking Kevin for granted.
• The Scrappy: Out of all of the Stiflers, good luck finding people who like Scott. Unlike his cousins, he is a boring, uncharismatic Jerk Jock with few redeeming qualities as well as having a minor role unlike the rest who were at least prominent supporting characters.
• Sequelitis: The Direct to Video sequels. News of a fifth installment that features an all-female cast elicited a lot of groans from people sick of studios remaking movies with the protagonists' genders being the only noticeable difference.
• Signature Scene:
  • For the first film: Both the pie scene and Jim's cringe-worthy striptease.
  • The sequel: Jim awkwardly playing the trombone in front of an entire audience.
  • Wedding: Stifler's dance-off with Bear.
  • Reunion: Stifler destroying some jerk's jet-skis.
• Signature Song: "Laid" by James and "Sway" by Bic Runga are the songs most associated with the franchise.
• Squick:
  • In the first movie, Stifler, Kevin and Finch are all enraptured with the prospect of seeing their good friend Jim boinking Nadia on webcam.
  • Jim's mother kissing him on the cheek when he's trying to watch porn and sporting an erection.
  • That beer... Stifler usually gets the brunt of these.
  • In the second movie, he gets pissed on from a balcony, and tastes it, thinking it is champagne.
  • In the third movie, the ring scene.
  • The fourth movie reverses this by having him take a shit in the Jerk Jock posse's beer cooler.
• Spiritual Successor: The relationship between Oz and his new girlfriend in American Reunion bares a strong resemblance to that between Zack and Taylor in She's All That.
• Strawman Has a Point: In Reunion the guys promptly tell Stifler he's pretty much always been a horrible friend to them. Stifler snaps back they often don't treat him like a friend, and brings up the fact they pointedly didn't invite him to get together with them before the reunion. They reply they did so because they knew he would be, well, Stifler, but he makes a fair point.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: A version of the theme from The Terminator plays as Sherman's about to perform "Shermination". In the second with Nadia, in the fourth with Loni Lipstein.
• Sweet Dreams Fuel: Jim and Michelle's relationship. What started as a rebound for him and a one-night stand for her grows over time and culminates in a rather touching (but still hilariously cringeworthy) marriage proposal.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Wedding for Kevin and Oz. Kevin because there was no story for him in the movie to the point that he was basically just...there. He might as well have been a background character. Meanwhile, Oz is a complete no-show despite being one of the main lead friends of the previous two films, which it's hard to believe that he would miss out on Jim's wedding.
  • Jessica is presented as wise about sex and gets some interesting interactions with the main cast, but she's ultimately not explored outside of giving Vicky and Finch advice. She's teased as a potential love interest, but quickly pushed aside as soon as she shoots down the idea. Reunion has her appear for all of two short scenes despite being advertised with the other characters.
  • Cadence is a complete no-show for Reunion, which can really throw people off after it looked like her and Stifler were still together by the end of Wedding. She doesn't even get the bare minimum of at least a mention in dialogue regarding her current whereabouts.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: Girls' Rules had altogether pretty negative reception from most viewers, having the lowest average rating of all the American Pie Presents films on IMDB, but the four main actresses all turn in pretty good performances and have great chemistry with one another, Piper Curda's performance is especially enjoyable.
• Unintentional Period Piece:
  • The first movie was made in 1999, and it shows through right from the opening scene, in which Jim uses grainy, scrambled cable channels and print magazines as masturbation aids. The characters could also be forgiven for thinking that Czechoslovakia was still one country, as the "Velvet Divorce" between the Czech Republic and Slovakia had only happened seven years prior in 1992. The big one, though, is the scene of Jim's Home Porn Movie Gone Horribly Wrong. Not only was this a time when streaming video and internet memes were still cute novelties, it was also a time before 'revenge porn' became a major concern. Today, Stifler (and possibly Jim as well, for being a part of it) likely would've faced legal reprimand or even jail time for filming Nadia naked without her consent. Shannon Elizabeth, in an interview twenty years later, said that that scene would have gone down very differently if the film were made in 2019, especially since Nadia, and not Jim or Stifler, is the only character who faces any punishment for it.
  • The second and third films likewise bled into the early '00s, especially with their soundtracks.
  • The fourth film, 2012's American Reunion, lampshades this during the scene where Jim returns to his childhood bedroom for the first time in years; the computer is an old brick with a bulky, plug-in webcam, and his Porn Stash sits hidden under an old issue of Consumer Reports hyping the Y2K problem.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Heather gets a moment of this in the first movie where she gets mad at Oz for making fun of her with his lacrosse buddies...only, he wasn't. Stifler and the others were, Oz just stood there looking mildly uncomfortable, which makes Heather look like kind of a drama queen. Sure, it sucks to have idiots making gross comments about you, but it seems unfair of her to go off on Oz when he didn't do anything.
• Unpopular Popular Character: Stifler. He's The Friend Nobody Likes, barely tolerated by Jim and the gang, and in Band Camp it's revealed that he was hated by pretty much everyone in high school because of his Jerkass attitude. But it goes without saying he's adored by the fans, being one of the main reasons why the franchise was so popular.
• Values Dissonance: As noted above, the Home Porn Movie scene is one that makes Jim and Stifler look terrible in hindsight, especially with the growing controversy surrounding 'revenge porn'. Nowadays, both of them probably would've faced legal reprimand and possibly even jail time. Shannon Elizabeth made note of this in an interview twenty years later.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: In the late 90s and early 2000's, many teens and children, some of whom were elementary-school age, went with their parents or bought a ticket to another movie to sneak in to see it, mistaken that this was just a silly high school teen comedy, when the franchise itself revolves around scenes of a sexual nature.
• The Woobie:
  • Jim and Finch have their moments in the original: Jim for the webcam incident, and Finch for the Laxative Prank. Jim's prom night manages to be saved when he loses his virginity to Michelle, who just happens to be his future wife, and Finch gets revenge on Stifler by banging his mother, and then going on to do it two more times in the sequels.
  • Jim more so throughout the whole series. The poor guy can never catch a break.

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