Ferris Bueller's Day Off/YMMV

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Ferris is a sociopathic Manipulative Bastard who only cares about toying with others. The Spoony Experiment has fun with this one. Word of God confirms this, listen to the commentary track on the DVD.
  • Another interpretation is that the entire movie is Cameron's fantasy, and that Ferris is someone he'd like to be. If you watch the movie under this assumption, things suddenly make a lot more sense. Or less sense given that Cameron would be fantasizing long stretches as both Principal Rooney and Jeanie Bueller.
    • First Rule of Ferris Club: You Do Not Talk About Ferris Club.
  • Likewise, Jeannie is The Chew Toy. She tells the Cassandra Truth that Ferris isn't sick and is called heartless by fellow students. She tries to prove that Ferris snuck out of school (and in a manner not nearly as outrageous as the principal's) and ends up arrested and grounded by her parents. By that point she just goes with it, and to many modern viewers (particularly girls and people who understand rules) she's just been though so much that she's clearly given up. The only thing she did wrong was cut school, which Ferris also did in addition to many, many other wrong things, and yet she was the only one punished for anything.
  • Quite a few modern teens have even said they wanted her to "win" and turn in Ferris to be punished. She managed to not come off as a bad person like Rooney (or Ferris) and her giving in at the end (supposedly a sort of Heel Face Turn) was seen as someone standing up for what they believed in being forced to cave to someone more popular.
  • Alternately, quite a few people have criticized the Alternate Character Interpretation as being an overly serious look at a movie that's basically Rule of Fun incarnate.
• And the Fandom Rejoiced: Coming soon...
  • Too bad it just turned out to be an ad for-- an ad for Honda.
• Black Hole Sue: Arguably, Ferris himself. Go and read the definition of a Black Hole Sue, go and rewatch the movie, and try to refute this. Some of the dialogue from or about him is so stilted and unrealistic, not to mention what he manages to pull off in a single day, that it veers straight over the cliffs of Refuge in Audacity and keeps flying off into the distance. The only difference between a Black Hole Sue and Ferris Bueller is that at least Ferris Bueller is entertaining to watch.
• Canon Sue: Ferris gets away with everything and EVERYONE loves him to a ridiculous degree, (although it's slightly justified because he also gets other students out of trouble) except for the villain characters who are treated unsympathetically.

"...Everything works for him. There's nothing he can't handle. I can't handle anything. School, parents, future; Ferris can do anything."

• Crowning Moment of Awesome: The "Twist and Shout" scene.
• Crowning Music of Awesome: The Dream Academy's cover of "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" played during the Art Institute scene.
  • "March Of The Swivelheads" by the English Beat.
  • "Oh Yeah" by Yello.
  • "Twist And Shout" by (who else?) The Beatles.
  • "The Edge of Forever." Also by Dream Academy.
  • Radio People - Zapp (The Talkbox!)
• Designated Hero: Alternate Character Interpretation (and Word of God) holds that Ferris is spoiled, immature, selfish, obnoxious, and manipulates close friends and family for no reason beyond his own amusement. Despite his near lack of redeeming qualities, his name's in the title, so you're supposed to root for him.
  • Alternately, regardless of any real or imaginary traits in Ferris's moral character, he is still the designated hero simply because, if you think about it, Cameron is the real protagonist.
• Designated Villain / Informed Wrongness: Rooney is depicted as a Dean Bitterman-type who's seemingly trying to stop Ferris and his friends from having fun for no good reason. Except he does have good reason: it's his job to enforce school regulations, and Ferris has been breaking said regs by skipping school at least nine times before he hacks into the school computer to alter the records, and does so by blatantly exploiting the good will of everyone around him, including his parents. Yet, the movie turns the audience against him by having him go way too far in trying to catch Ferris; breaking into his house and assaulting his dog and having him act as though he's trying to catch Ferris out of spite instead of trying to enforce the rules.
  • He even specifically says he wants to destroy Ferris' future... he basically seems to view his high school as a place where he rules over and punishes his students, not where he educates them. The interpretation of him as a designated villain or the "real hero" of the movie would work if he was just trying to get Ferris back into school because school is important and Ferris would one day be glad of his education... as it is, he really is a Dean Bitterman and all the attempts to recast him as something else are just Draco in Leather Pants.
• Ear Worm: The aforementioned "Oh Yeah" by Yello.
• Epileptic Trees: The "it's all in Cameron's head" theory, anyone?
  • Though this doesn't change the fact it makes the movie truly awesome.
• Family-Unfriendly Aesop: Living life to the fullest means defying people who refuse to do so. This can mean lying, cheating and stealing.
  • Also, on Jeannie's end, her Aesop in the end is not to be concerned with anyone else but herself, not even for her brother, after she tried to prove to her parents that he was faking sick and she got arrested for making a call to the police for a faked robbery despite the robbery being real. This can also mean doing self-destructive behaviors such as drugs. The one who gave her that lesson, BTW, is a druggie (who's conveniently played by a young Charlie Sheen).
    • Actually Jeanie's aesop is that she's supposed to be concerned with herself, but not in a "you should only look out for #1" way... spinning it as such is Completely Missing the Point. Everything bad Jeanie went through during the day was because she was obsessed with what Ferris was doing, when what Ferris was doing didn't affect her in any way... her day would have been no different if Ferris had gone to school or skipped it. It was only her resentment and bitterness towards her brother that caused her to spend the day fuming and miserable, skip school herself, and get in trouble. If she'd just gone about her life like normal (focusing on herself) instead of dwelling on Ferris (focusing on others, which was not "concern" but jealousy and resentment), she'd have had a completely average day and Ferris probably would have wound up in trouble anyway since she wouldn't have been there to help him at the end.
• Funny Aneurysm Moment: Jeffery Jones as Ed Rooney is kind of uncomfortable to watch today.
  • Also see Charlie Sheen's Hilarious in Hindsight moment below.
  • And this news story, which really makes you realize that a principal breaking into a student's house would be incredibly disturbing. (In this case, the kids actually were sick.)
• Grey and Gray Morality: Ferris is a con artist without much empathy for other people(or at least a warped sense of empathy that sees manipulation as compassion), and Rooney is on a personal vendetta that involves assaulting a student's dog. Neither of them are particularly great people.
  • Ferris is a teenager, so what's Rooney's excuse?
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The biker Jeannie meets at the police station is played by a very young Charlie Sheen, whose first three lines include the word "drugs"; the first and third lines simply are the word "drugs".
• Magnificent Bastard: Ferris, if one believes him to be a villain.
• Memetic Mutation: How many people have had a class where the teacher didn't say "Bueller? Bueller?" at least once during attendance?
• Ron the Death Eater: Skipping school to have fun with his friends? Ferris Bueller is a monster! Usually, this attitude comes from people who take what's meant to just be a laid-back, fun comedy movie too seriously.
• The Woobie: Cameron. Jeannie counts as one, too, though its more of a Jerkass Woobie.
  • Not too much though. A lot of modern teens (especially ones who understand rules) saw her as more The Chew Toy. She could either A) right a wrong (her brother manipulating her parents and the whole school, which he had done before--9 times) and stand up for what she saw as right and wrong or B) give up. Her giving up was supposed to be a good thing.
    • These modern teens aren't very good at interpreting vocal tones, body language, emotional cues, and paying attention to dialogue then. It's clear from the start that Jeannie is not standing up for principle in her attempts to get Ferris in trouble, she just hates that he gets away with everything and everyone likes him, while she never gets away with anything and people don't like her (probably because she acts like such a sour Jerkass to everyone).

Grace: Mmm-mmm-mmm. What a little asshole.