YMMV / The Birdcage

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Any time the Keeleys bring up a "return to family values" and other such Moral Guardian concerns, it seems to only be for the sake of the senator's public image. It's possible that, while conservative, the senator and his family are more concerned with their public image than anything else.
• Alternative Joke Interpretation: Agador claims that wearing a butler's suit (rather than his usual tied-up midriff-bearing shirt and denim cutoffs) would make him "look like a fag." Sarcasm Mode or Comically Missing the Point?
• Base-Breaking Character: Albert. His emotional instability and tendency to cry at the drop of a hat is either hilariously endearing or annoying, depending on who you ask.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Kevin's colleague, Eli Jackson, who co-led the "Coalition for Moral Order", dying is a bit of Black Comedy. Then, to hammer in the political irony, it's revealed he died in bed with a prostitute...who was underage...and black! The more information that comes out (the prostitute didn't question why he passed out because he was smiling, and his last words were "Your money's on the dresser, chocolate"), the more amusingly cringeworthy it gets.
  • Albert, as Val's mother, goes along with the pro-life sentiment by saying they should kill mothers who seek out abortions. When Armand tries to distract Albert, Albert doubles down, insisting the fetus would die anyway and the mothers would just be "going down with the ship." Val awkwardly tries to defend this as comparable to Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Agador is a walking gay stereotype in and of himself, but he's one of the more popular characters from the movie because of his tendency to go over-the-top in every single scene that he's in.
• Fair for Its Day: On the one hand, even with all the Camp Gay stereotypes, the pro-gay-rights message still resonates today. However, the views publicly expressed by the conservatives in this movie come across as much more of a Strawman Political than they did at the time. This is particularly true of the idea that conservative figures having gay relatives is a major liability, as many prominent Republicans now do (Dick Cheney's daughter, Michele Bachman's stepsister, and Phyllis Schlafly's son). That said, when the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of gay marriage in 2015, political commentators noted that Birdcage was one of the movies that started public opinion viewing gay families as acceptable.
• Genius Bonus: Senator Keeley calls Grover's Corners "a darn good place to call home", apparently unaware that the play it's featured in, Our Town, was written by a gay man.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Armand having to talk Albert out of killing himself. Sadly, Robin Williams didn't take his own advice.
  • In the dinner scene, Albert, as Val's mother, goes along with the pro-life sentiment by saying they should kill mothers who seek out abortions. When Armand tries to distract Albert, Albert doubles down, insisting the fetus would die anyway and the mothers would just be "going down with the ship." Considering the anti-abortion laws passed in Texas in 2021/2022 (which make it a felony if a woman even has a natural miscarriage), and that Texas currently is one of the harshest death penalty accepting states in the US, Albert's over-the-top exaggeration no longer seems so funny.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Back in 1996 when this film was made, same-sex couples couldn't legally marry in the United States, so Albert and Armand sign a palimony agreement as the next-best thing. In 2015, gay marriage was legalized by the United States Supreme Court, with many states rolling it out immediately. In addition, the Respect for Marriage Act of 2022 requires every state in America to recognize same-sex marriages (as long as they were performed in a state where it was legal). Knowing that Albert and Armand could actually legally marry in any modern remake is a very sweet thought.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The Reveal in the 2000s that hyper-conservative Sen. Strom Thurmond had an affair (and love child) with a black maid and that the revelation came out only after Thurmond had died.
  • Val's actor Dan Futterman would later win several awards for writing the film Capote, about the famously Camp Gay author.
  • For dinner, Agador only makes his "sweet and sour peasant soup" but no entree. Upon finding out, Val asks, flabbergasted, if that means there's only soup.
• Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: As it was one of the first, not to mention most successful, films to portray Camp Gay characters sympathetically, many openly gay men find the movie both hilarious and relatable. Hank Azaria was actually afraid that his voice for Agador would be too stereotypical, until a friend of his who was gay told him otherwise.
• The Scrappy: Val, to some, both because of the hell he puts his parents through for the sake of his own happiness and his general lack of personality. In the same vein, Barbara tends to not be particularly memorable. It doesn't help that, despite being essentially living macguffins, the film ends on a freeze-frame of them.
• Trans Audience Interpretation: With Albert adopting feminine pronouns (referring to himself as Val's "mother" or "Auntie Albert") and even identifying as a woman at moments, one has to wonder if it goes beyond camp gayness and that he might actually be genderfluid.
• Unintentional Period Piece: The film was made in 1996, when same-gender couples couldn't legally marry in the United States and the Keeleys' conservative attitude was reasonable. Sen. Keeley's concern about his career now comes off as quite overblown after several conservative politicians have carried on just fine after being revealed to have a gay relative.
• Values Resonance: Even though it was based on the (relatively) old French play La Cage aux folles, the film did a very good job of updating the material for the '90s, and it still resonates in the 21st century. Of particular note is an outright mention of "same-sex marriage": not only was this a revolutionary concept at the time, but the very terminology was rare compared to the much blunter phrase "gay marriage."
• The Woobie: Albert. He's not only the nicest but also the most emotional character in the whole movie, and is utterly destroyed when he thinks that his family is embarrassed by him. And while it's still a funny joke, the scene of him forcing back his usual sashay while dressed in a conservative black suit (and hot pink socks) looks physically painful.