YMMV / The Dictator

• Aluminum Christmas Trees: The rank of Admiral-General is real, it's just not used the same way as in the movie.
  • And the epilogue where Aladeen calls himself President Prime Minister? Not one but two real-world dictators did that — Kārlis Ulmanis of Latvia and Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines.
• Awesome Music: The amazingly catchy Arabic language pop song covers. Including Dr. Dre's "The Next Episode" in Arabic. Somehow they pulled it off.
  "Aladeeen muthafuckaaaa!"
• Crosses the Line Twice: How could a movie about a racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, pedophiliac dictator of his own deprived and disadvantaged country be a successful comedy? By cranking those characteristics all the way up and more!
• Esoteric Happy Ending: Alladeen wins and ends up happily married but Wadiya remains a repressive dictatorship, Alladeen remains a tyrant and Wadiya remains a threat to democracy.
• Genius Bonus: According to the in-universe map, Wadiya is supposed to be located at the place of Eritrea. In real life, Eritrea is itself a very repressive dictatorship which has been compared to North Korea.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • This film was made during the spike of optimism surrounding the Arab spring and the death of Kim Jong Il. The idea that dictatorships are dying out is repeated throughout the film. The Arab winter, the revelation that Kim Jong Un might actually be worse than his father, and the Ukranian crisis (reminding the world that many very powerful countries are de-facto dictatorships) have proved that dictatorships not only still exist but they are still an active threat to democracy. A lot of the humor in the film can elicit shudders rather than laughter.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • There would be another movie that involved a figurehead for a violent Middle Eastesque group being paid off with luxuries and women, while being otherwise useless, played by Ben Kingsley. So basically, Tamir became Aladeen a few months after the film was released.
  • As the main page says, the whole concept of the movie is somewhat similar to a canceled sitcom from 1988, named The Dictator, who would have starred Christopher Lloyd as Joseph Paul Domingo, the titular despot from a Caribbean island. Domingo was deposed and exiled to New York where he opened a laundromat with the help of his wife and former general. Only two episodes were made and they were never aired; more info on the Lost Media Wiki.
• Hollywood Homely: Anna Farris as Zoey, barring the hairy armpits.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "You are HIV Aladeen."
  • "Aladeen" being used as a catch-all placeholder, for that matter.
  • "It has to be pointy!"
  • "Gonna tell my kids that this is Oppenheimer"^Explanation This post
• Moment of Awesome: Aladeen's speech comparing America's more questionable actions in recent memory to a dictatorship.
  Admiral General Aladeen: Why are you guys so anti-dictators? Imagine if America was a dictatorship. You could let 1% of the people have all the nation's wealth. You could help your rich friends get richer by cutting their taxes. And bailing them out when they gamble and lose. You could ignore the needs of the poor for health care and education. Your media would appear free, but would secretly be controlled by one person and his family. You could wiretap phones. You could torture foreign prisoners. You could have rigged elections. You could lie about why you go to war. You could fill your prisons with one particular racial group, and no one would complain. You could use the media to scare the people into supporting policies that are against their interests. I know this is hard for you Americans to imagine but please try!
• Narm Charm: Aladeen's "dictatorship scene" is certainly heavy-handed and preachy. But for those with a dim view of the American political system, it comes off as insightful nevertheless.
• Signature Scene:
  • The scene where it's revealed that Aladeen changed the Wadiyan words for "positive" and "negative", along with about half the language, to his name.
  • Nadal and Aladeen stealing the head of the African warlord during his funeral to get his beard, and to a lesser extent the following scenes of Aladeen pranking Nadal with it.
  • Aladeen's speech at the United Nations where he talks about how "great" dictatorship is, obliviously making the observation that America has behaved like a dictatorship.
• Squick: The scene where Aladeen and Zoey help deliver a baby...which features Aladeen getting his phone stuck up Zoey's genitals...
• Spiritual Successor:
  • The movie can be seen as a R rated version of The Emperor's New Groove. Both are crazy comedies about a spoiled and selfish ruler who after casting away and firing too many enemies loses his rank and identity.
  • Of all things, to the 1977 anime Voltes V. Both are about a narcissistic, psychopathic ruler of a country (planet in Voltes V's case), and a Princeling Rivalry of an uncle trying to get rid of his nephew (who's one of the protagonists) because he's a threat to the throne. Said nephews are also oblivious to their uncles' plots, and are pretty tyrannical themselves, being highly nationalistic and ready to punish anyone who disobeys them. Both end with the authoritarian monarchy overturned. The two also have shared themes of oppression, unjust imprisonment and revolution.
• Vindicated by History: It received mediocre ratings when it was released, but has since become beloved over time because of just how much it Crosses the Line Twice, especially the "dictatorship scene" above.