YMMV / Joe Dirt

• Angst? What Angst?: Joe is very good at this. Until he discovered that his parents left him on purpose.
• Critical Dissonance: Critics hated it (Roger Ebert even listed it as one of his most hated films of all time), but audiences generally liked it. It even has enough of a cult following that TBS was considering making it into an animated series at one point, and Sony helped to finance a sequel to be shown through Crackle.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Many people feel that casting Kid Rock as Robby was a stroke of genius, as he plays the character perfectly
• First Installment Wins: Although the first movie was by no means a masterpiece, audiences still felt the movie wasn't without its charms. The sequel on the other hand was largely detested by critics and fans alike, including those who enjoyed or loved the first movie, due to its humor, unnecessary convoluted time travel plot, a more serious and depressing tone and scenes that dragged on for far too long.
• He Really Can Act: David Spade sounds genuinely on the verge of tears as he describes how miserable he felt during all his years growing up after his parents ditched him.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Joe realizing who his true "family" was.
  • Zander Kelly getting genuinely upset on Joe's behalf when he finds out that Brandy found his parents and didn't tell him (she had a good reason, but Joe didn't know that). He started off mocking Joe, but has gotten invested enough in his life story that he insists on helping bring Joe the closure he needs.
  • Brandy tells Joe that his parents didn't abandon him, he left them.
  • The end of the sequel. Joe's family loves him simply for who he is.
• Iron Woobie: Joe keeps his upbeat demeanor in spite of all the crap he takes from so many people.
• Moment of Awesome:
  • Clem telling Robby that he'll "stab him in the face with a soldering iron" if he talks down on Joe again. It might not seem too awesome, until you realize who's playing Clem...
  • Joe absolutely smokes Robby in a drag race at the end of the film when he finally gets his Hemi out of impound.
  • When Joe finally learns that his parents intentionally abandoned him, he becomes enraged and begins trashing their trailer while angrily berating them.
• Moral Event Horizon: Joe's parents didn't lose him at the Grand Canyon. They just left him. The only reason they wanted to see Joe again was because he had become famous and they wanted in.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Clem the Janitor. Christopher Walken cameo role, hellllllooooooo?
  • The woman that Joe kisses at the oil rig, whose actress was uncredited.
• Padding: The sequel suffers from this for having many scenes where characters simply talk for minutes with little else going on, drawing comparisons to a director's cut and severely affecting the pacing and humor of the film. While this was clearly apparent in the original release that clocked in at 106 minutes, a few minutes longer than the first film, the Blu-ray featured an extended version that ran at nearly two hours.
• Squick: The "meteor" Joe finds at one point during his travels as well as the "A-Bomb".
• Tear Jerker: When Joe finally fell into despair after discovering his parents left him on purpose.
• Values Dissonance:
  • The rather liberal use of "Queer" as an insult and various other homophobic jokes definitely wouldn't fly today.
  • The scene where Joe makes a woman show her boobs by threatening her with a bomb - though his getting literally covered in excrement immediately afterward could mollify those who didn't find that joke funny.
• The Woobie: Joe, who is constantly treated like shit pretty much throughout his life and turns out to have extremely unloving parents.

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