YMMV / Tough Guys Don't Dance

• Billing Displacement: Isabella Rossellini is sold as the female romantic lead, both in terms of billing (she's second from Ryan O'Neal) and promotional images. The fact is that she has a fairly small role and of the main characters, probably the least impact on the plot. John Bedford Lloyd has more impact, and leaves more of an impression, than she does. The lead is Debra Sandlund, and the Razzies, of all groups, got it right, nominating Sandlund for Worst Actress and Rossilini for Worst Supporting Actress.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The "OH GOD! OH MAN!" scene gained a life of his own, becoming known as the "Worst Line Reading Ever" and making the rounds in various comedy shows, from The Cinema Snob to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Family Guy.
  • Related to the same scene, Isabella Rossellini (Madeleine) manages to read the letter in such a stilted way that, as several comments across the several videos of the scene online can attest, the part where she says "…unless you plan to kill them." sounds like "…unless your pet killed them."^note Or even "As your pet, kill him." This led to several jokes about how lethal Tim's pet must be.
• Narm: "OH GOD! OH MAN!" It's supposed to signal the character having a breakdown, but the acting doesn't hold it up.
• Signature Scene: "Oh god, oh man, oh god, oh man!"
• So Bad, It's Good:
  • Ryan O'Neal's delivery of the infamous "oh god, oh man!" line.
  • Nearly every actor in the movie performs in a ridiculously over-the-top manner that it only adds to the enjoyment. Special credit must go to Wings Hauser, who leaves no inch of scenery without toothmarks, and Debra Sandlund in her first film role, whose performance (and accent) couldn't be worse if she was the producer's daughter given a role to make her daddy happy. But even the skilled actors with good work on their resumes come off utterly ridiculous. There is, of course, Ryan O'Neal's infamous exclamation (see above), but to give an example, Rossilini not only speaks cryptically of deadly domestic animals (see above) but delivers a truly hilarious line read where she brags to Tim about her new marriage: "Mr. Regency and I make out five times a night! That's what I call him, Mister Five!" Of course, the line itself is so silly that Meryl Streep or Katharine Hepburn couldn't have sold it, so she just went over the top and hoped for the best.
• Watch It for the Meme: Just look at how many examples here are about the "Oh god, oh man!" scene.

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