YMMV / Better Off Dead

• Crosses the Line Twice: Ricky's mom literally exploding because she lit a cigarette after spiking her drink with lighter fluid that Lane intended to use in one of his suicide attempts, thinking it was "liqueur"? Messed up. Lane saying "Gee, I'm real sorry your mom blew up, Ricky..." in the most deadpan tone imaginable immediately after said explosion? Comedy gold...
• Genius Bonus: Dinner Mon Dieu is well-named.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Ricky's role in the film is disturbing when you realize he's played by Dan Schneider, who in recent years has been accused of despicable behavior towards the underage stars of his TV shows.
• Memetic Mutation: "I want my Two Dollars!"
• Nightmare Fuel: The newsboy is really obsessed with that two dollars...
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Lots of people quickly come and go, but two standouts are Vincent Schiavelli as Lane's math teacher and Rima Delane as his would-be blind date.
  • Another would be E.G. Daily, before she switched to voice acting.
• Retroactive Recognition: Ricky Smith is played by Dan Schneider, over a decade before he'd start producing shows for Nickelodeon.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • John Cusack travels back in time to a 1980s ski resort in Hot Tub Time Machine. Somebody is even heard shouting "I want my two dollars!" at one point. This is despite the fact that Cusack evidently considers this film to be an Old Shame.
  • Cusack's protagonist in Grosse Pointe Blank also grew up in the 1980s and also had a Hilariously Abusive Childhood. He ended up becoming a professional assassin. We first meet him shooting a bicycle deliveryman.

---