Tropedia

  • Before making a single edit, Tropedia EXPECTS our site policy and manual of style to be followed. Failure to do so may result in deletion of contributions and blocks of users who refuse to learn to do so. Our policies can be reviewed here.
  • All images MUST now have proper attribution, those who neglect to assign at least the "fair use" licensing to an image may have it deleted. All new pages should use the preloadable templates feature on the edit page to add the appropriate basic page markup. Pages that don't do this will be subject to deletion, with or without explanation.
  • All new trope pages will be made with the "Trope Workshop" found on the "Troper Tools" menu and worked on until they have at least three examples. The Trope workshop specific templates can then be removed and it will be regarded as a regular trope page after being moved to the Main namespace. THIS SHOULD BE WORKING NOW, REPORT ANY ISSUES TO Janna2000, SelfCloak or RRabbit42. DON'T MAKE PAGES MANUALLY UNLESS A TEMPLATE IS BROKEN, AND REPORT IT THAT IS THE CASE. PAGES WILL BE DELETED OTHERWISE IF THEY ARE MISSING BASIC MARKUP.

READ MORE

Tropedia
Register
Advertisement
Farm-Fresh balanceYMMVTransmit blueRadarWikEd fancyquotesQuotes • (Emoticon happyFunnyHeartHeartwarmingSilk award star gold 3Awesome) • RefridgeratorFridgeGroupCharactersScript editFanfic RecsSkull0Nightmare FuelRsz 1rsz 2rsz 1shout-out iconShout OutMagnifierPlotGota iconoTear JerkerBug-silkHeadscratchersHelpTriviaWMGFilmRoll-smallRecapRainbowHo YayPhoto linkImage LinksNyan-Cat-OriginalMemesHaiku-wide-iconHaikuLaconicLibrary science symbol SourceSetting
Scrooged-001 5043
Cquote1

 Frank Cross: I get it. You're here to show me my past, and I'm supposed to get all dully-eyed and mushy. Well, forget it, pal, you got the wrong guy!

Ghost of Christmas Past: That's exactly what Attila the Hun said. But when he saw his mother... Niagara Falls.

Cquote2


Scrooged is a 1988 loose modern retelling of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, with the twist of taking place In a World where everyone's already familiar with Dickens' tale. Bill Murray stars as Frank Cross, a cynical, selfish TV executive who is planning a live adaptation of A Christmas Carol for a holiday special. Cross' own childhood memories of Christmas were less than fond, leaving him initially unable to appreciate the spirit of the season.

However things start to go downhill when his dead former boss smashes his way into his office to inform him that he is doomed unless he changes his ways. True to the source material he is visited by the three very strange Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future.

Intended to ride on Murray's earlier success in Ghostbusters, Scrooged contains many references to the earlier (if largely unrelated) film; one of the taglines was, "Bill Murray is back amongst the ghosts, only this time it's three on one."

It's also pretty damn funny, but we shouldn't need to tell you that, right?


This movie contains examples of:[]

Cquote1

 Frank: (thinks he sees a ghost) AH-HAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaa!

Waiter: Oh no sir, that's the Baked Alaska, sir, that's a dessert.

Cquote2
Cquote1

  Ghost of Christmas Present: Oh! What's this...it's a TOASTER! *SMACK*

Cquote2
Cquote1

 Claire Phillips: Taxi! Can you get me to the IBC building in three minutes?

Ghost of Christmas Past: Which floor?

Cquote2
  • Drowning My Sorrows: Elliot tries to do this after losing his job, but a Roadside Wave wets the paper bag holding his booze and causes it to fall out. He tries again later, only for the Ghost of Christmas Past to drive by and steal his booze.
  • Dumb Struck: Calvin hadn't spoken since he saw his father murdered five years earlier.
  • Dying For His Art: All the abuse Bill Murray takes from Carol Kane? It's all real.
  • Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Cross is driven to tears when he sees his mother in a vision of one of his first Christmases. The Ghost of Christmas Past had earlier mentioned even "Attila the Hun cried" when he saw his own mother.
Cquote1

  Ghost of Christmas Past: Niagara Falls, "Frankie Angel."

Cquote2
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Frank genuinely does love his brother James. He's the only person aside from Claire that he isn't a flat-out jerk to.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Though Frank is a self-centered creep, there were some redeeming factors to him prior to the climax. Before he sees the ghost of Christmas past, he dumps water on a waiter, thinking he was on fire. It was merely an illusion by the ghost to get him outside. The thought counts, though. Afterwards he makes some friends with the homeless people, even singing with them before the big "Bah Humbug parody." Lastly after seeing the Ghost of Christmas Present, he was devastated that one of the homeless men he met was found dead in the sewer he landed in. He even berates the guy for not staying at Operation Reachout where his ex-girlfriend Claire works.
Cquote1

  Frank Cross: You jerk! You moron! Why didn't you stay at Claire's? Why didn't you stay with Claire!? She would have taken care of you! You would have eaten and been warm! You might be alive! You'd be a prettier color, I'll tell you that!

Cquote2
    • At one point he is suprised by the show's Ghost of Christmas Future coming out of the elevator, believing it to be the real one and immediately pushes Grace away in a very rough manner in a misguided attempt to save her from the ghost.
  • Expy
    • Ebenezer Scrooge - Frank Cross
    • Bob Cratchit - Grace Cooley
    • Tiny Tim - Calvin
    • Fred, (Scrooge's only nephew) - James (Frank's only brother)
    • Alice (Fred's skeptical wife) - Wendie (James's skeptical wife)
    • Jacob Marley - Lew Hayward
  • Family-Unfriendly Death: A lot, though the crowning example has to be Frank's vision of his own funeral by cremation - from inside the coffin.
  • Flipping the Bird: Frank does this to the old woman after stealing a ride from her.
  • Gatling Good: Lee Majors wields a minigun in The Night the Reindeer Died.
  • Genre Savvy: Frank knows the whole Scrooge thing, he has A Christmas Carol In Prose produced for TV right then. Not that his Genre Savviness helps him.
  • The Grinch: Frank, at first.
  • Groin Attack: "The Ballbreaker Suite", indeed.
  • Heel Face Turn
  • Hellevator: Frank meets the Ghost of Christmas Future here. At the bottom is the funeral noted up in Family-Unfriendly Death.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: The German dub is an interesting case. For a change, Bill Murray isn't voiced by Arne Elsholtz who is also Tom Hanks' German voice but by Manfred Lehmann who is usually Bruce Willis' German voice and hams it up even beyond his Gérard Depardieu standard. Robert Mitchum sounds as usual, namely like John Wayne (Arnold Marquis), and Gerd Duwner (Ernie) supplies Buddy Hackett's voice. Also, Edgar Ott as the TV Ghost of Christmas Present. If that ain't cool...
  • Hollywood Driving: The Ghost of Christmas Past takes it Up to Eleven, panicking Frank. In fact, while in the present, his taxi can hit other objects.
  • Improv: Half of Frank's lines; the entire closing sequence.
  • Invisible Holes: Frank's old boss, Lew Hayward.
  • Meaningful Name: Lampshaded.
Cquote1

 Poster in Frank's Office: "Cross: (n) a thing they nail people to."

Cquote2
Cquote1

 Stagehand: We've tried everything to glue these antlers on this little guy, but it just won't stick.

Claire: Oh, what a cute little mouse!

Frank: Have you thought about... staples!?

Cquote2
Cquote1

  Frank Cross: "Listen, I know I haven't talked to you in... *checks watch* ...about 10 or 15 years, but..."

Cquote2
Advertisement