YMMV / The Campaign

• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • The sex tape/campaign ad.
  • The answering machine message that puts Brady on the spot. Really, Cam takes the line and spends his entire day repeatedly crossing it.
  • Some of the things the Huggins boys confess.
  • A baby getting punched in the face shouldn't be hilarious, but thanks to the addition of slow motion, Cam's Oh, Crap! face, and a healthy dose of Soundtrack Dissonance, it's considered the movie's most iconic gag.
  • Marty just outright shooting Cam on the skeet range.
  • Cam getting wounded on a dangerous jungle gym. Sad. Marty having scars all over his body. Hilarious.
• Genius Bonus: Zach Galifianakis is originally from North Carolina, and his uncle Nick Galifianakis was a well-known U.S. Congressman from the state.
• Harsher in Hindsight: With the erosion of regulations regarding campaign financing, the movie becomes quite scary knowing that much of the behind-the-scenes tactics depicted are not far off from what actually happens in US elections.
• Magnificent Bastard: Tim Wattley is an international criminal from Greece named Leonidas Stavros under the employment of Glenn and Wade Motch. Fully complicit in the Motch brothers' plan to turn Hammond into a factory complex for their Chinese business partners, Tim would become Marty Huggins' campaign manager to mold him into the Motch brothers' puppet. Tim would completely reinvent Marty's character, home, and lifestyle, making it more appealing to voters but also create a rift between Marty and his family. When Marty learns about the nefarious plans for Hammond and goes against them, Tim defects to Marty's rival Cam Brady and uses the same tactics to get Cam ahead of Marty in the votes. When Cam withdrawals from the election and helps Marty get rid of the corruption in Hammond, Tim finds a way to escape justice while the Motch brothers get arrested for their association with him.
• Signature Scene: The baby-punching scene.
• The Woobie: Marty has his moments. A loving family man, Marty wants to save his home state from the incompetent tyranny of Cam Brady only to be manipulated by Tim Wattley and the Motch Brothers into what basically amounts to a diet alternative, having a sterile public persona forced on him that makes him deeply unhappy and nearly tears his family apart.