Finally a movie where everything goes wrong for the right reasons.

I'm mostly talking about every film Ben Stiller has ever starred in. There's a whole genre of films where the protagonist is constantly tortured and put through the wringer, nothing goes right, their life is in shambles and the "humor" is watching them being tortured.

I think this film actually got it right. In this case the protagonist is a well-meaning "good" guy so you can sympathize with him, but he's also got a few hang-ups and is being too stubborn and dismissive so he's really shooting himself in the foot. Rather than this being a comedy about someone trying their best and being horrifically tortured and mocked throughout, we get a loving comedy about a guy screwing up and nearing failure, but then accepting help and actually turning it all around.

It also helped and felt much more real that the mother put up with his bullsh!t only for so long before setting him straight. Rather than the perpetual ditz that's often portrayed in Hollywood as being the only kind of person who can be positive, she chooses to be positive and rides it out until her son hits rock bottom with self pity, then she lets him have it.