 Title "Whats Eating Robert" is a spoof of the popular movie "Whats  Eating Gilbert Grape". Struggling to come up with a suitable title,  director Chris Mallery and editor Marion Sistena were goofing off in  English class bouncing movie title spoofs off one another. Finally  Chris came up with "Whats Eating Robert". Another possible spoofed  suggestion was "Theres Something About Robert"(Theres Something  About Mary) which was thought of by Marion.