YMMV / Freddy Got Fingered

• Audience-Alienating Premise: Although mainstream TV ads for the movie looked harmless enough, the film itself followed the misadventures of a Manchild who made it his life's mission to be as bizarre and offensive as possible (licking an open wound, wearing a bloody deer carcass as clothing, etc.). Needless to say, the film was almost universally denounced, disparaged, and ridiculed. Roger Ebert at least paid this movie the compliment of reminding him of the classic surrealist film Un Chien Andalou — but then, moviegoers in 1929 hated that, too.
• Bile Fascination: This movie is not "So Bad, It's Good". It's "So Bad, It's Art"!
• Critical Dissonance: The film seems to be more popular with viewers (who enjoy it more ironically than not) than it is with critics.
• Crosses the Line Twice: More like so many times, it needs its own page.
• Cult Classic: The movie has garnered a cult following in the years since its release, with many people appreciating the sheer ludicrousness of the humor and the meta-fictional angle of the plot. Nathan Rabin and Chris Rock number themselves among the film's such newfound fans.
• Designated Hero: Gord is a self-centered Psychopathic Man Child who terrorizes and abuses everyone around him, including his own friends and family. This becomes especially pronounced late into the film, where he spurs a malicious rumor that tears his family apart and ruins his father's life. Considering the movie was likely a Stealth Parody, this is completely deliberate.
• Ending Fatigue: The movie is padded to all hell (and it was even worse in test screenings, which led to half an hour being cut!), and the prolonged conclusion is downright lampshaded by a man holding a sign reading "When the Fuck Is This Movie Going to End?"
• Escapist Character: Gord. Despite getting rejected from his dream job and abused by his dad, he still gets a hot girlfriend who would rather give him blowjobs than go out to expensive places; and in the end, he gets to be an animator anyway, which pays him $1 million upfront (and it's implied that he didn't have to do anything but create the characters) and gains him a cult following.
• Funny Moments: Admittedly, there are a few jokes are unironically funny, mostly whenever they aren’t trying to be too offensive.
  • While the birth scene is mostly Nausea Fuel, the immediate shift from the insanity of Gord swinging a baby by its umbilical cord to an emotional moment with the mother lovingly looking at her child is so jarring that you can’t help but laugh.
  • This scene, particularly with Rip Torn's delivery of, "Get outta my goddamn scuba gear, you imbecile!"
  • "Daddy would you like some sau-sage? Daddy would you like some sau-sages?" It’s random and kinda stupid, but that’s exactly what makes it so hilarious.
  • A hilarious sight gag towards the end that makes fun of the film’s own Ending Fatigue, consisting of someone holding a sign that reads, "When the fuck is this movie going to end?"
• I Am Not Shazam: "Freddy" is not the name of the protagonist (his name is Gord), but of his brother — and the title refers to an incident in the movie that none of the trailers showed (which was only an accusation by Gord, and never actually happened in the movie). Even some foreign titles of the film became guilty of this, such as in Spain, where it became Freddy el colgao ("Freddy the Wacko").
• It's Not Supposed to Win Oscars: Extreme example: When the film was nominated for five "awards" at the Golden Raspberry Awards, Tom Green showed up to accept them, saying when he did, "When we set out to make this film we wanted to win a Razzie, so this is a dream come true for me."
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "He's a molester! He's a CHIIIIIIIIILD molester!"
  • "Look at me, Daddy, I'm a farmer! I'm a farmer, Daddy!"
  • "Daddy, would you like some sausage?"
• Nausea Fuel: There's plenty of it.
  • First, there's the horse-wank. Repeated later in the climax where Gord causes an elephant to messily ejaculate all over Jim.
  • Then the deer carcass, which Gord wears as clothing.
  • Then Darren's graphically broken leg. "The wrong shoes," indeed.
  • Then the birth. Then the cutting (read: biting) of the baby's umbilical cord.
  • When Betty tries to give Gord a blowjob, we see Gord's own umbilical cord is taped to his stomach for some reason.
  • Gord's dad tries to proposition his mother by making some very freaky faces. Plus, we see his wrinkled old ass.
  • The Zebra-Man cartoon isn't immune to this, either. The promo shows Gord's Author Avatar getting his jaw ripped off by his father, then he's roped to the back of a car and driven around with what's left of his face getting ground up by the road.
  • The movie ends with a little boy getting chopped up by a propeller. He survives, but with the amount blood he'd lost, he'll probably die before they can get him to a hospital.
• Retroactive Recognition: The Zebras in America scene was one of the very first projects created by Titmouse, back when it was just founder Chris Prynoski doing freelance animation work by himself and receiving payment through his T-shirt design company of the same name. Because he was a freelancer and not a production company, Prynoski didn't have production insurance, so he had to accept payment through the T-shirt company's bank account. In Prynoski's words, the entire Titmouse animation studio "grew out of me being too dumb to turn down freelance work."
• So Bad, It's Good: An interesting case; panned in every conceivable way and often a contender for "Worst film of all time", it's since developed a cult following claiming that it's an exercise in dadaism. Roger Ebert even predicted this in his review of the film: "The day may come when Freddy Got Fingered is seen as a classic of neo-surrealism. The day may never come when it is seen as funny."
• Special Effect Failure: Betty's successful attempt at a very fast rocket wheelchair as shown on TV is just stock footage of someone on a slower rocket wheelchair that's been sped up.
• Unintentional Period Piece: Gord's fake phone call during his dinner date with Betty has him loudly complaining about a colleague bungling a wire transfer of 40 million Deutschmarks. Germany replaced the Deutschmark with the Euro in 2002, a year after the movie was released.
• Values Resonance: In many ways, the depiction of Betty counts. She's a disabled woman who nevertheless lives a fulfilling and happy life without being propped up as an Inspirationally Disadvantaged plot device, is a serious love interest for Gord, and portrayed as having her own unique dreams and aspirations just as worthy as anyone else's.
• Vindicated by History: In a sense; the film is still ranked low on many websites and is still considered one of the worst films ever made, but the reaction to it has been more kind in the ensuing years, as The New York Times was one of the few publications that gave it a positive review in 2001, it has sold well on DVD and even Roger Ebert later commended Tom Green for the ambition shown in actually making the film (such as in his review of Stealing Harvard, in which Green plays a supporting role).
• The Woobie:
  • The titular Freddy. He already has to deal with his brutish father and a Big Brother Bully in Gord, but due to an ugly rumor that Gord starts entirely out of spite, he is sent away to a home for abused children, even after he insists that he wasn't. Worse, by the end of the film, he's still there! It was a nice home and all, and the children there are getting the help they need and are handling it well, but still...
  • Darren. Basically, every injury or hardship he goes through is because of Gord and the Toxic Friend Influence he has on him.
  • Julie, having to interact with her constantly angry husband, one son being a Manchild and the other apparently being molested by her husband and sent away.
  • Gord and Jim are more of the Jerkass Woobie variety, namely in dealing with their respective crappy lives and their interactions with each other.
  • Then of course Gord's neighbor, Andy Malloy, the little boy who keeps enduring horrific injuries.

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