Thank You for Smoking: Difference between revisions
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It's worth noting that while the movie deals with smoking advertising in films, it never once shows a character actually smoking. Make of that what you will.
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Alliterative Name]]: Nick Naylor.
** Heather Holloway.
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* [[The Barnum]]: Nick Naylor himself.
* [[Because I'm Good At It]]
* [[Black Comedy]]: It's a ''Comedy'' about ''smoking
* [[Bowdlerise]]: Parodied. After the events of the movie Senator Finistirre is still hard at work, attempting to censor cigarettes in old movies by covering them with bananas and other ludicrous objects.
* [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick]]: Nick's speech to his colleagues at the MOD Squad after his [[Heroic BSOD]].
{{quote|'''Nick:''' "And right there, looking into Joey's eyes, it all came back in a rush. Why I do what I do. Defending the defenseless. Protecting the [[Acceptable Targets|disenfranchised corporations]] that had been abandoned by their very own consumers. [[Gaia's Lament|The logger]]. [[Ethnic Menial Labor|The sweatshop foreman]]. [[There Will Be Blood|The oil driller]]. [[Land Mine Goes Click|The landmine developer]]. [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick|The baby seal poacher]]."
'''Polly:''' "''Baby seal poacher.''"
'''Bobby:''' "Even ''[[American Gun Politics|I]]'' think that's kind of cruel..."
* [[Chekhov's Gunman]]: Late in the book (only), {{spoiler|Gomez saves Nick's bacon and provides him with clues
* [[Chewbacca Defense]]: Many of Nick's arguments are more sophistry than substance, as he illustrates with Vanilla vs. Chocolate Ice Cream, and "We don't want [[Littlest Cancer Patient|Cancer Boy]] to die, we'd lose a valuable customer!"
* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: A strange example. When discussing the potential movie that's supposed to show how [[Smoking Is Cool]] [[Recycled in Space|IN SPACE]], Nick mentions to the director that smoking in a space shuttle wouldn't be possible, since the director didn't do his research, and that smoking in a oxygen atmosphere would be a fire hazard. It gets odd when you realize that ''Nick'' doesn't know what he's talking about, because space shuttles don't have pure oxygen for the air, for the very reason Nick pointed out (
** Also acknowledged by the agent he's pitching the idea with, who admits that research doesn't really matter in movies.
{{quote|It's an easy fix; one line of dialog. "Thank God they invented the whatever device."}}
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* [[Hand Wave]]: The entire concept is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]]:
{{quote|'''Jeff''': Sony has a futuristic sci-fi movie they're looking to make.
'''Nick Naylor''': Cigarettes [[Recycled in Space|in space?]]
'''Jeff''': It's the final frontier, Nick.
'''Nick Naylor''': But wouldn't they blow up in an all-oxygen environment?
'''Jeff''': ... probably. But it's an easy fix. One line of dialogue. "Thank God we invented the, [[Applied Phlebotinum|you know... whatever... device]]."
* [[Herr Doctor]]: Dr Meisenbach.
* [[Hypocrite]]: Nick himself. The lobbyist for the tobacco industry is never seen smoking in the film.
* [[Hypocritical Humor]]: Senator Finistirre.
{{quote|'''Nick:''' I'm just tickled by the idea of the gentleman from Vermont calling me a hypocrite, when the same man in one day held a press conference where he called for American tobacco fields to be slashed and burned, and then jumped on a private jet and flew out to farmyard where he rode a tractor on-stage as he bemoaned the downfall of the American farmer.
'''Dennis Miller:''' Care to comment, Senator?
'''Finistirre:''' [[Angrish|The... I... shh...]] ''No''.
'''Dennis Miller:''' [[Deadpan Snarker|Eloquent in its brevity]].
* [[Informed Attribute]]: They say Nick is a heavy smoker but you never see him smoking.
** We did, however, see him trying to smoke, only to find he ran out of them.
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{{quote|'''Larry King:''' Care to Comment Nick?
'''Nick:''' Not really, Larry.
'''Larry King:''' Emotional issue.
* [[Irrelevant Thesis]]: Nick Naylor, constantly.
* [[Jerkass]]: Jill, Nick's ex-wife. She gets uppity when Nick tries to spend time with their son- she seems to think that, since he defends Big Tobacco, he's obviously going to tie their son down and force him to smoke at gunpoint. At one point she basically says to him "Why would he want to hang out with you when he could hang out with Brad?" (Joey's
* [[Karmic Death]]/[[Death by Irony]]: Inverted {{spoiler|when some anti-tobacco activists kidnap Nick and try to overdose him on Nicotine Patches, it's his lifetime of smoking that gave him the resistance to fight it. It does become a [[Cool and Unusual Punishment]] though, as he can never smoke again on pain of death
** A second example in the book:
* [[Knight Templar]]:
* [[Littlest Cancer Patient]]: "And where in the hell did you find Cancer Boy?
* [[Logical Fallacies]]: Many of the arguments concerning cigarettes are quickly deflected by Nick Naylor by subtly changing the subject. His debating partners, most of whom aren't really good at debating at all, rarely call him out on this. Naylor even admits to his son that he never has to prove that he's right, but only has to discredit his opponents somehow or twist their arguments so they look bad even if they are entirely correct. It's notable that Naylor seems perfectly aware that he's really only playing the masses and the viewers, and that it requires a certain moral flexibility on his part rather than actual facts.
* [[Major Injury Underreaction]]: Surprisingly, Bobby Jay, while fighting Panamanians.
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* [[Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate]]: The German scientist who works for the tobacco companies.
{{quote|'''Nick:''' He's been researching tobacco for thirty years and hasn't found any conclusive evidence linking cigarettes and cancer. This guy's a ''genius''. The man could disprove ''gravity''.}}
* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: Senator Feinstein, I mean, Finistirre.
** Averted in the book with Oprah Winfrey, Larry King, and others.
* [[No Smoking]]: As noted elsewhere on this page, despite the movie being about smoking, we never actually see anyone smoke.
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* [[Wall-Bang Her]]: Nick and the hot reporter.
* [[Wham! Line]]: {{spoiler|"The Captain died this morning."}}
* [[Zero-G Spot]]: Discussed, in combination with [[Smoking Hot Sex]].
{{reflist}}
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