I was unaware that being comedic prohibited basic story structure.
So where’s the setup and punchline? A humorous situation is not a joke in and of itself.
Really? Bad teacher was a movie about an asshole gold digger scheming and plotting. She never learned a lesson and she never grew as a character or filled out in depth and if she had, you’d all be sitting here complaining about the tacked on saccharine ending.
Setup: Diaz moves to new job that better suits her talents.
Payoff: Job is guidance counselor, a career that usually requires a lot more empathy and caring than her character ever demonstrated. If you missed that, I’m surprised. It’s a rather wellworn trope. See Southpark or Easy A for other examples of it.
I thought Cameron Diaz’s character in Bad Teacher showed a little development. She was a gold digger for most of the movie, but I think that changed by the end. Otherwise, why would she have stayed with Jason Segel’s character? I think she learned that she’d be happiest with someone who’s something of a kindred spirit than with someone she couldn’t stand who had money. Granted, that’s kind of an obvious lesson, but I think she learned it. That doesn’t mean she’s changed much. She’s still basically the same person she was at the beginning of the movie, just a little less selfish.
And as far as her qualifications for the counseling position go, I think her conversation with the boy toward the end of the movie was spot on. It’s not the kind of thing you’d hear from a “real” guidance counselor, I’m sure, but I remember thinking at the time, “Yeah, he probably will have to wait till college for a chance for things to be different.”
She probably shouldn’t have given him her bra, though.