The FBI interviews a woman at a catering company who says "things have slowed down a lot because of COVID, the economy" in an episode that filmed 18 months after Biden took office. In fact, however, the economy was doing fantastic and covid was no longer a problem when they started filming in July of 2022 and the episode aired later that September.
Staff Aside
They say the economy is bad when Biden happens to be president when the opposite is actually true. Companies are having some troubles but it's because the economy is so hot and the unemployment rate so low, they are having trouble finding workers. Little things like this make a HUGE different as conservative audiences are told the economy is doing poorly when Democrats are in charge, and they will believe it no matter how good things are.
Rizzoli says she didn't go to college because she couldn't stand the idea of listening to a professor "drone on and on" and instead wanted to do work right away. Even though she was top student with academic accolades.
Zoe Barnes sleeps with Frank Underwood in order to get inside access
Mickey Haller gives the bailiff $200 in a Christmas card for preferential treatment including moving one of his clients further up the list to save him time.
Matthew represents known criminals including a biker gang and says his worst professional fear is having to defend an innocent person which is depicted as being very unlikely.
Mick Haller (Matthew McConaughey) is depicted as exploiting the legal system to get clients off the hook or getting them to agree to less favorable plea deals so he can make more money.
Matthew McConaughey engages in unethical schemes to get money throughout the movie including hiring a fake freelancer to film his wealthy, high profile client that he "pays off" to get a kickback.
Professor Hadley (David Koechner) is a kooky college professor consumed with proving that Bigfoot is real.
Vanity Fair journalist Christine Everheart has a "one-night stand" with Tony Stark and wakes up in the morning to Pepper Potts bringing her dry-cleaned clothes in a scene that implies this is a regular common occurrence for Tony. Christine quips to Pepper that "Tony still has you picking up the dry cleaning" upon which she replies, "I do anything and everything Mr. Stark requires. Including occasionally taking out the trash."
Female journalist Christine Everheart aggressively interviews Tony Stark and asks him about his nickname "Merchant of Death". His response is, "That's not bad. Let me guess... Berkeley?" and argues that weapons are needed to keep the peace and that "peace means having a bigger stick than the other guy". Tony also points out how their military sales helps fund good things that journalists ignore such as the millions helped by their advancing medical technology and Intelli-crops."
Staff Aside
Her investigative reporting later reveals a dangerous plot that helps Tony thwart the bad guys, but journalists are often treated poorly on screen and used as foils to protagonists for just doing their jobs.
Vanity Fair journalist Christine Everheart has a "one-night stand" with Tony Stark after interviewing him at an event and awakes later alone in his bed with him gone. When Pepper Potts greets Christine with her dry-cleaned clothes, Christine quips, "After all these years, Tony still has you picking up the dry cleaning."
A top male corporate lawyer calls an aggressive woman financial journalist the C-word over the phone for simply doing her job by asking for comment on a true story they are guilty of that she plans on publishing the next day. He relents handing the phone to the company head for comment saying very dismissively, "she will not go away."
When Joey asks his Dad about his homework assignment, "why is the American government the best government?" Nick responds jokingly, "because of our endless appeals system."
Staff Aside
Conservatives favor restricting most all rights (except guns) including those who are accused or convicted of crimes whereas Democrats are defenders of freedom. They also are critical of defense lawyers. So a joke about endless appeals resonates with conservatives.
Heather Holloway (Katie Holmes) is depicted as an unethical reporter who sleeps with Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) to get information from him on a story on his lobbying for the tobacco industry. He never said anything was off the record but just assumed so when they were having sex. He attacks her in the media and she loses her job because of it and is shown in the end stuck doing a weather report in a very bad storm. Joey later adds, "Mom says it's because you have dependency issues and it was all just a matter of time before you threw it all away on some tramp."
Ambassador Mourain (Ben Kingsley) is shown as scared, weak, clueless & unpatriotic during an evacuation of the US embassy in Yemen. He yells in a panic, "Colonel, we can’t wait here! Let’s go! Why are we still here?" just before he is given the embassy's USA flag brave marines took down while under fire. He is later convicted of lying in a plot to frame Samuel Jackson's Colonel Childers.
Staff Aside
In real-life, ambassadors know the risks of regions they serve and act nobly along with all the men and women they serve with.
The football players high school teacher is also a stripper who does a dance to the song "hot for teacher."
Staff Aside
There is a conflict in the movie from his coach and Dad around Mox prioritizing education over football and getting an academic scholarship to Brown. So, they at least depict that favorably, but they still had to make a teacher moonlight as a stripper.
Democratic Arkansas Governor Jack Stanton (John Travolta) is depicted as a deeply flawed and manipulative person who will do anything it takes to become President, even if it means pushing the boundaries of what is legally and politically acceptable. Worse, his character impregnates an underage girl and then he and his campaign try to cover it up.
Historical Context
This movie was based off an anomalously written book purported to be loosely based off then Governor Bill Clinton's 1992 Presidential campaign, but many aspects of the book, and later film, veer wildly off course and can lead an otherwise neutral person to falsely believe it's a true story.
Satan is a criminal defense attorney in human form (Al Pacino) who owns a law firm that gets really bad guilty people off.
A defense lawyer Keanu Reeves gets a child molester who he knows is guilty off by aggressively questioning a 15-year-old girl on stand until she cries. He goes out and celebrates afterwards, and later on we learn he kills a 10-year-old girl.
Gutter (Jon Favreau) hallucinates a mock Congress scene after smoking pot in which he says, "I didn't exhale."
Historical Context
This makes fun of Bill Clinton who on March 29, 1992, admitted he "experimented with marijuana a time or two" but "didn’t inhale." The movie released in 1994, six months before midterm elections in which Republicans regained the house and senate by large margins. Jokes like this about a Democrat in election years help Republicans.
Mitch (Tom Cruise) is hired at a prestigious Memphis law firm he quickly realizes is rife with corruption. The lawyers at the firm help their clients engage in money laundering, tax-avoidance, and a host of other shady practices any respectable defense lawyer wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole.
Reporter Samantha Coleman enters the airport traffic control tower unauthorized attempting to get a statement on what is happening. She inflames an already heated situation and is depicted as intruding and getting in the way of them dealing with the terrorist problem.
Staff Aside
In real life, respected mainstream journalists follow rules and protocols and a code of ethics and would not enter areas they are not authorized.
Local news reporter Richard Thornburg makes a scene on the airplane because he is seated nearby John McClane's wife Holly who hit him in the original Die Hard movie. He later gets his soundperson to tap into the cockpit frequency and learns about the terrorist takeover of the airport threatening his and other planes. He locks himself in a bathroom forcing his way in ahead of other waiting passengers and uses the airplane phone to break the news story live on air which sends everyone at the airport into a panicked frenzy. This of course now makes it harder to law enforcement to deal with the terrorist threat. Flight attendants break into the bathroom where he is tased and taken to his seat. He is whimpering and panicking while everyone else on the plane is relatively calm.
Local news reporter Richard Thornburg is depicted as unethical, over bearing and ruthless in pursuit of a story. The worst of his behavior he threatens John McClane's wife Holly's housekeeper with deportation unless she lets him interview her kids on air. When the interview airs, terrorist leader Hans Gruber realizes that Holly is John McClane's wife putting her and John in much more danger.
Local news anchor Harvey Johnson loses composure having a fight with Richard Thornburg which is depicted as very embarrassing as he doesn't realize he went live on air and shortly after gets corrected by a guest for falsely saying "Helsinki, Sweden" which earns a face palm by his producer.
Monotone voiced teacher Ben Stein calls out Bueller three times while the students look completely and utterly bored. Later, he bores the students more with a quirky lecture style, "In 1930, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, in an effort to alleviate the effects of the... Anyone? Anyone?... the Great Depression, passed the... Anyone? Anyone? The tariff bill? The Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act? Which, anyone? Raised or lowered?... raised tariffs, in an effort to collect more revenue for the federal government. Did it work? Anyone? Anyone know the effects? It did not work."
Staff Aside
It's an iconic funny scene. Which also perpetuates an anti-teacher, anti-intellectual mindset through comedy. We all know it's a joke but some students may use this as an excuse to mock teachers rather than learn. Conservatives benefit from a less educated voter base. The smarter they are the less likely they'll vote for today's Republican party.
Professor Jennings (Donald Sutherland) smokes pot with his students, has been working on a novel for 4 1/2 years which he calls "a piece of shit" and says that he finds famed writer John Milton as boring as his students probably do.
Criminal defense lawyers are often disparaged and portrayed as standing in the way of bringing a suspect to justice instead of as a constitutionally guaranteed advocate for a person charged with a crime.
Chuck Rhodes is a Democratic federal prosecutor who often engages in unethical behavior, dirty politics and often breaks or flouts the law in an overzealous attempt to indict billionaire Bobby Axelrod and other wealthy Wall Street money managers.
Frank & Claire Underwood are Democrats depicted as ruthless, unethical and amoral who will do anything to win elections.
Billy Bob Thornton successfully gets a criminal off the hook who goes on to kill an entire family which leads him to quit the law firm he co-founded. He develops a drinking problem and practices law on his own which is the basis for the series.
31 Tropes
15 Movies
7 TV Shows
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