Trivia: John Cusack's real-life sister, Joan Cusack, is wearing a neck brace on the bus at the beginning of the film.
Trivia: Director Ivan Reitman performed the demonic voice of Dana/Zuul in the bedroom scene with Peter Venkman.
Trivia: Just in case some people don't know, most of the "German" in this movie is total gibberish. Some sentences are perfectly correct and properly spoken, as with the welcoming speech, the German soldiers and platform announces at the station, the "Ich liebe dich, mein Schatz", etc. But the learning tape, the conversations at the Culture Hall during dinner and the East Germany Anthem are just a bunch of "German-dutch sounding noises." Of course, it's even funnier to know that there are subtitles for all these with content that has nothing to do with it.
Trivia: When Billy's mom takes the picture of Gizmo at the beginning, Gizmo becomes frightened and runs over to Mr. Peltzer. When the scene is slowed, you can see the puppeteer's hand underneath while operating the Gizmo doll. Not a mistake as needs slo-mo, but worth a look. (00:19:10)
Trivia: The film was written by Diane Thomas. Thomas was a struggling waitress and actress, and had been working odd jobs to make ends meet when she wrote the script. While there is some dispute over how it happened, eventually the script made its way to actor Michael Douglas, who championed Thomas and helped get the movie made. The script was so well-liked, she ended up getting numerous offers, and at one point was even attached to help write one of the "Indiana Jones" sequels. Sadly, she was killed in a car accident only a year after this movie's release, and it remains the only film she was credited for writing.
Trivia: Originally, Rob Reiner was going to be in the band, but decided on just directing the film after the comment, "he didn't look good in spandex," was made by Harry Shearer.
Trivia: Was the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time for nearly twenty years until "The Matrix Reloaded" upseated it on June 3, 2003. In the history of R-rated films, it held the longest record for high grosser (19 years).
Trivia: In the scene at the newsstand following the death of Danny DeVito's character, the photo used for the papers is of Louie De Palma; the character that Danny DeVito played on the TV series, Taxi.
Trivia: When the Tri-lambs are watching the Pis on television, Pointdexter ejaculates in his pants which causes a fit of laughter. The laughter is coming from director Jeff Kanew.
Trivia: As Lamia command two women to find Eldest Granny for her, there's a pan of computer screen with names of old women on it, and you can see Ella Kwinto in one line. Kwinto was a surname of main character in "Va Banque", another fine movie directed by Julius Machulski.
Trivia: In this film the title character is never referred to as "The Toxic Avenger"; he is only referred to as "Monster Hero." In his first book, "All I Needed To Know About Filmmaking I Learned From The Toxic Avenger," the director Lloyd Kaufman revealed that the reason for this was because the working title of the movie was "The Monster Hero," and that the change to the title "The Toxic Avenger" only occurred at the "last minute." The character was consistently referred to as Toxic Avenger, or Toxie, throughout this movie's three sequels: "The Toxic Avenger II," "The Toxic Avenger III: The Last Temptation of Toxie," and "The Toxic Avenger IV: Citizen Toxie."
Trivia: The man who got out of his Porsche at the starting line to chew out the driver of the monster truck (who later ran over the Porsche) was director Hal Needham.
Trivia: Michelle Johnson was only 17 when she did her nude scenes for this film.
Trivia: The angry customer who is screaming to Allen about his cherries is director Ron Howard's real-life father, Rance.
Trivia: Robin Williams studied the Russian language, its customs, and even the saxophone for the role.
