Get Him to The Greek

Aaron Green has 72 hours to get a rock star from London to L.A.

Pray for him.
—Tagline
When the world slips you a Jeffery, stroke the furry wall.
—Aldous Snow

Jonah Hill is Aaron Green, a record company intern who has just been given the moment of a lifetime: Haul infamous Britrock libertine Aldous Snow to the States in time for his 10th Anniversary concert at L.A.'s prestigious Greek Theater. Considering Jonah Hill's character is a massive Aldous Snow fan, and all he has to do is escort the playboy, this gig shouldn't be too much of a hassle, right?

Wrong as a bombed album.

Get Him To The Greek is a Spin-Off movie for Russell Brand's Aldous Snow persona from Forgetting Sarah Marshall, a previous joint from Judd Apatow and Jason Segel. Expanding upon the former film's depiction, Brand hits upon every British rock star stereotype as often as Hill exemplifies the harried and harassed music industry newbie. In addition, P. Diddy appears as Sergio Roma, a lunatic record exec with a fondness for animal fur and six kids who all need Air Jordans.

Tropes used in Get Him to The Greek include:
  • Abbey Road Crossing: Complete with tourists walking across.
  • Adam Westing: A little bit with P. Diddy, who actually does produce songs and has six kids and multiple "baby mamas".
  • Affectionate Parody: Pretty much the entire soundtrack.
  • Ass Shove: Twice. "Why does this keep happening to me!?"
    • "1, 2, 3, 4 Feels just like coming in the back door. 5, 6, 7, 8 Aaah, feels great!"
  • Backhanded Compliment: "Aldous, there's thousands of people out there who love you. I loved you until I met you!"
  • Bad News in a Good Way: Naples isn't your son. Phew, what a relief it is to have that out in the open. Namaste.

Aldous: This is not an appropriate time to say "namaste".

    • Sergio's text message.

where the fuck are you?! I'm gonna kill you! :)

  • Binge Montage: Almost anytime Aldous and Aaron step foot in a club.
  • Blood Is Squicker in Water: Lampshaded by Aldous after he falls into a swimming pool clipping the edge with his arm and bleeds what looks like a large amount of blood.
  • Breakout Character: Sean "Diddy" Combs' character Sergio Roma, Aaron's neurotic and outright insane boss who hold basically every Crowning Moment of Funny in the film.. Much like the Aldous Snow character, there's been buzz about there being a spinoff focusing on Sergio.
  • British Rock Star: Aldous.
  • Bowdlerization: In universe: Aaron wakes up to an alarm clock radio playing a version of "Gang Of Lust" where "Let's get fucked" is replaced with "Let's have fun".
  • Butt Monkey: Aaron Green has 72 hours to get Aldous Snow to the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. They are not going to be a fun 72 hours. And Aaron is going to be a literal butt monkey. TWICE.
  • The Cameo: Christina Aguilera, P!nk, Tom Felton, Lars Ulrich, Pharrell, Meredith Viera and economist and Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman.
  • Casanova: Aldous Snow is the character type personified, until it's revealed he's actually Looking for Love In All the Wrong Places.
  • Continuity Nod: The cameo by Sarah Marshall: "Yeah I used to banghave sex with her."
    • The DVD features a a full advertisement for the show Blind Medicine which Sarah stars in. Like Crime Scene in the previous film, it is shown to have hilariously bad acting.
  • Continuity Snarl: It's a little unclear when this movie takes place relative to Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Aldous is 7 years sober in that movie, but this movie implies said sobriety only lasted while he was with Jackie Q. Sarah Marshall was upset he wasn't monogamous with her in the previous movie, so one assumes he wasn't with Jackie then.
    • Jackie Q refers to them being on-and-off over a period of several years, so it was probably during one of their "off" period.
  • Completely Missing the Point: A commercial for a show about a blind doctor. In braille.
  • Crystal Dragon Jesus: The "African white space Christ" Aldous Snow wanted to look like for the "African Child" video.
  • Darker and Edgier: They take the weirdo goofy British Rock Star from Forgetting Sarah Marshall and lovingly detail his horrific drug addiction and depressing personal life. Toss in scenes of anal rape and characters being Driven to Suicide and a violent stabbing and--well, it's funny, but seriously.
  • Department of Redundancy Department: "Across the mystic desert, is a desert that is mystic."
  • Don't Explain the Joke: Many of the ad libs and funny lines are outright stating the peculiarities of a scene or sequence of dialogue.
  • Dr. Feelgood: Keep Aldous juiced up long enough to make his concert? Sergio would be delighted!
  • Driven to Suicide: Aldous, after coming to terms with how much of a bitch his ex-wife is, how screwed up his parents are, and how much crap he put Aaron through. Subverted though, as he only injures himself.
  • Drugs Are Bad: Taken surprisingly seriously.
  • Dull Surprise: Elisabeth Moss, most of the time. Completely justified: she's clearly using it to portray her character--another intern--as so overworked and drowsy that she cannot express emotions normally.
  • Dumb and Drummer: Aldous' opinion of Lars Ulrich, who happens to be plowing his ex-wife.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Even if the cast gets a bit... sidetracked along the way.
  • Fake Band: Aldous Snow's Infant Sorrow.
  • Fake-Out Opening: The introductory scene depicts an African warzone...which turns out to be the set of Aldous Snow's latest music video.
  • Fluffy the Terrible: "Who could be scared of a Jeffrey?"
  • Freak-Out: You'd have one too if you were pumped full of adrenaline and various narcotic substances.
  • Freudian Excuse: Aldous Snow's womanizing (and self-destructive) ways are revealed to be resultant of a deadbeat father and his inability to get over Jackie Q.
  • Funny Background Event: At the Today Show, host Meredith Viera is about to introduce Aldous' outdoor performance. Aaron is seen behind her through the window frantically asking anyone in the crowd if they now the lyrics to Aldous' song "African Child" which he has forgotten and is about to sing.
  • Gargle Blaster: A surprisingly rare drug example in the Jeffrey, a narcotic that looks like a homemade cigarette and hits like a heart attack.
  • Happy Dance: It's Biggest Loser time! It's Biggest Loser time! It's daddy's favorite show! ♪
  • Hitler Ate Sugar: Aaron pulls this against his doctor girlfriend Daphne. "Just because you're a doctor doesn't mean you're a good person! The Nazis had doctors, Daphne!".
  • Horrible Hollywood: "THIS is what the music industry is about!"
  • Intercourse with You: Several.
  • Jerkass: Aldous, big time.
    • Really, did Aaron have any reason for making fun of Tom Felton? Repeatedly?
  • Karma Houdini: Jackie Q.
  • Judd Apatow: Yet another of his productions.
  • Large Ham: Possibly Russell Brand (KEEP STROKING THE WALL!!!), but then he is playing a rock star. Definitely Sergio Roma (YOU CANNOT OUTRUN ME! I AM BLACK!!). P Diddy borders on Chewing the Scenery, especially when he fights Aldous' dad for no apparent reason.
    • He was just trying to out-party the Brits!
    • This actually makes more sense if you watch the deleted scenes: Aldous' dad directs an undercurrent of racism towards Sergio in several scenes.
  • Live but Delayed: Someone at the control board of The Today Show responds to Aldous's swearing by asking if they can censor the delayed live broadcast.
  • Lysistrata Gambit: Discussed/inverted/subverted. Aaron wants to know whether the trope works for males (or is simply based on a Double Standard), and tries to ban Daphne from his dick. Obviously, it fails.
  • Made of Iron: Sergio shrugs off fire, opium, and cars.
  • Mean Boss: Sergio. "Throw that phone outta my office."
  • Mighty Whitey: Aldous styles himself the white savior of black Africa in the African Child video.
  • Missing Trailer Scene: Several brief but prominent moments from the trailer never made it to the movie. Examples include someone suggesting "Mexican Jonas Brothers" as an idea at the record company meeting and Aldous driving down a hallway naked in a toy car saying "I'm a motorist!"
  • Mood Whiplash: The movie oscillates between gross-out comedy and Tear Jerker moments.
  • Name's the Same: Sergio Roma is awfully similar to San Francisco Giants relief pitcher Sergio Romo.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: It's hard to imagine Russell's Aldous's generic, oversexed popstar love interest doesn't draw some inspiration from Katy Perry.
  • No Except Yes: "Don't think of at as a threesome. Think of it as having sex with your girlfriend while someone else also has sex with your girlfriend".
    • "Obviously, I'm not saying I'm an African white space Christ. That'd be ridiculous. That's not for me to say. That's for other people. That's for other people to say if they think I'm like Jesus."
  • Oedipus Complex: Aldous definitely has issues in this general mold; the climactic "Going Down" (bridge: "Please use them breasts to feed me!") and "Searching For a Father" ("I am my own father; I gave birth to me.") are pretty blatant.
  • One-Scene Wonder: Aziz Anzari as one of Aaron's co-workers, who informs him of the after-party for Jay-Z's new single that he missed.

"I was doin' lines off some girls' titties! [...] I woke up with glitter on my dick!"

    • Not quite one scene, but the hotel employee Aaron goes with to find Heroin steals the scene completely
    • Pharrell Williams and his (not gangsta) pink polo shirt.
  • Opposites Attract Revenge: "I would like a threesome now, please."
  • Overly Narrow Superlative: A critic wrote that the film "contains the greatest cameo ever by a winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics."
    • Some of the narrowness in that statement is due to the fact that the Swedish central bank created the prize by themselves; economics was not deemed important in Nobel's will.
  • The Power of Rock: For all his rockstar antics screw him up, his actual music career comes off in a positive light.
  • Prophetic Name: There's a lot of snow in Mr. Snow.
  • Black Comedy Rape: "I think I've just been raped."
  • Real Trailer, Fake Show: Blind Doctor.
  • Reality Subtext: In his younger years, Russel Brand used to be a drug addict, a heavy drinker and a complete mess in general. The actor stated on many occasions that Aldous Snow is a hyperbolic version of himself in his 20's.
  • Real Men Wear Pink: Pharell is wearing a pink polo shirt while shooting a video, which Sergio disagrees with.

Sergio: It's not gangsta.
Pharell: That's your problem man, you're always trying to be gangsta.
Sergio: What are you talking about?! The name of the song is called I'm Gangsta!

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