So You Think You Can Dance/YMMV


 * Awesome Music: Quite a lot of it.
 * Occasionally averted when the music doesn't seem to match the dance- sometimes dark dances have upbeat music, or dances have music with lyrics that are the opposite of the intended meaning.
 * Creators Pet: A crap ton of people still can't figure out why Tony Bellissimo ever made it into the Top 20.
 * Some fans feel Nigel shows favoritism to attractive young blondes, and those contestants, such as season 4's Kherington or season 6's Mollee, can attract a Hatedom as a result. That doesn't stop Nigel from lauding them. Season 3's Lauren also fits into this territory, as many fans hate her for either her stupid comments, her costing the fans their favorite girl (Jessi, Jaimie, Sara...) or for her reported bitchiness to Lacey
 * Elimination Houdini: Comfort Fedoke from season 4 is often considered this because she stayed on for several weeks even though she struggled with every routine that wasn't hip hop and landed in the bottom three several times.
 * To elaborate: After auditions and all, Season 4 was 9 weeks long. Comfort was in the competition for 7 of those 9 weeks. Of the 7 weeks she was in the competition, Comfort was in the bottom 3 or 4 or eliminated in 6 of them. She holds SYTYCD's record for most appearances in the bottom, beating out season 3's Lauren, who was her season's Houdini.
 * This can apply to anyone who gets paired up with a much-more-popular partner. Kherington, also from season 4, wasn't terribly well-liked, but she was paired with the wildly popular Twitch. As a pair those two were only once in the bottom three, but once it became an individual competition she was immediately voted off, even before Comfort, who had been voted off the previous week but had come back due to Jessica getting injured.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: It's all but inevitable that viewers will disagree about the dancers, the choreography, the choreographers, the execution, the musical selections, the judges, and even the stage. One thing many fans agree on, though, is Cat Deeley. She is a ray of sunshine no matter what's going on.
 * Funny Moments: In Season 5, Jeanine and Philip did a dance that involved the two of them being constantly connected by a chain. After they performed, Cat brought up some of the problems they'd had, such as the chain breaking. Jeanine said that they spent four hours trying to work out everything that could go wrong, and then mentioned that 'there are chains all over our apartment." To which Cat responded, "I thought that was only in certain clubs on the weekend!" Hilarity Ensued, including Nigel holding his hands up and repeating "Too Much Information!"
 * Season 7, after contestant Lauren and All-Star Dominic (known for his crush on hostess Cat Deely) performed a hip-hop piece about abusive relationships,the judges remarked how Lauren had gone to a deeper place emotionally for the routine. Cue Cat turning to Dominic and coyly asking, "Want to head to a deeper place?"
 * Ellen De Generes filling in for Alex for his hip-hop piece with Twitch. Doubles as a Moment of Awesome as well.
 * The antics of the judges after Mellanie and Marko's season 8 kiss.
 * Ho Yay: Watch Kent & Neil's contemporary piece by Travis. Then try to convince the Youtube commenters that it was just about "friends." Good luck.
 * Moment of Awesome: In Season 7, host Cat Deeley gets one for coming to Adechike's, a trained contemporary dancer, aid after the judges bash his Bollywood routine for infusing it with too much of his own personality. This came about two weeks after Jose, an untrained b-boy, did a routine in the same style and was praised for infusing it with his personality to hide his lack of training. After said judge-smackdown, the audience, including the Bollywood choreographer, was on its feet cheering for both Adechike and Cat. Emmy Committee, give that woman a nomination!
 * Good News (and another CoA, to boot: After six years, and said judge-smackdown, Cat Deeley got her first Emmy nomination in 2011.
 * Alex's first hip-hop dance ever in season 7 will make you weep the following week.
 * Of course, any routine can be this, depending on the viewer's tastes. This troper for one found that piece to be good, but somewhat overblown while Alex's contemporary routine with Allison fit this trope more. Again, totally subjective.
 * Most Annoying Sound: Mary's laugh can turn off some fans.
 * Portmanteau Couple Name: Many of the longer lasting pre-Top Ten couples. Also applies to choreographer couple Tabitha and Napoleon (officially known as "Nappy Tabs", but called "Taboleon" by fans). Occasionally acknowledged by the show, such as Season 2's "Benjelle" (Benji/Donyelle), which was parodied at the end of the season with "Tranji" (Travis/Benji).
 * Danny and Lacey became "Dancey," complete with rhinestone wristbands.
 * In the first Top 20 episode of Season 4, Twitch (aka Stephen Boss) officially dubbed himself and Kherington "Twitchington." Cat promptly started using it.
 * Also from season 4: "Katua" (Katee/Joshua), "Gevney" (Gev/Courtney), and "Marksie" (Mark/Chelsie). These three couples, with Twitchington, are all wildly popular, and seem to be the golden couples of the season.
 * UK season 2: Katie Love and Lee B became "Team Love Lee". Thankfully, Cat's attempted portmanteau of Rithy (pronounced "rich-ee") and Shane as "Shane Richie" (the name of a well-known soap actor and light entertainment host in the UK) didn't last.
 * Seasonal Rot: Most viewers will have some seasons they like less than others, often depending on whether their favorite dancer did well. Season 8 was a low point for a number of viewers; most liked Melanie but were annoyed at her seemingly effortless victory (with only Sasha providing her any competition), as well as the overabundance of contemporary, increasingly infrequent ballroom, and lack of some of the big-name choreographers like Wade Robson and Mia Michaels. All this is hugely subjective, though.
 * Shipping: Katee and Joshua, anyone?
 * Mark and Chelsie, and Gev and Courtney are also popular.
 * Check the SYTYCD Fanfic boards to see just how ardently Marksie fans believed Mark and Chelsie were a real life couple. Boy, did they believe...
 * Ivan and Allison, much to the displeasure of Ivan's girlfriend.
 * There are also some moderatedly sized ships for Ivan + Travis and Allison + Travis.
 * Jeanine and Jason from the fifth season.
 * There are also quite a few shippers of Janette and Jason, especially ever since it was revealed that their love is Canon.
 * Lauren and Kent
 * Poor Kent seemed to have a large, one-sided crush on Lauren, who is now apparently dating Dominic (as of the Season 7 tour).
 * Ashley and Robert get some shipping as well
 * While I don't think there's a large following for them, this troper is partial to Robert/Kathryn, thanks to that lovely Stacey Tookey piece.
 * I believe Hok and Lacey also dated for a time, adding to the several Real Life Romance On The Set examples that have occurred (the two reportedly began dating on tour).
 * Mellanie and Marko prompted this when they were partners for the Top 20-12 portion of Season 8, especially after a dramatic kiss during a Nappy Tabs routine set to "I Got You". It helps that they were both individually talented and popular enough to be in the finale. Eventually Mellanie pointed out she had a boyfriend.
 * Cue Pormanteau Couple Naming.
 * She Really Can Dance: Comfort didn't exactly light up the stage in season 4 (see Elimination Houdini above), but her return as an all-star in season 7 (as the designated hip-hop female) allowed her to show off how good she was in her style as well as, perhaps, some improved partnering skills.
 * Squick: Some fans find actual kissing in a dance very inappropriate. The judges appear to love it, though.
 * Tear Jerker: Season 5's "breast cancer dance" (at least, to those viewers who didn't find it blatantly emotionally manipulative)
 * Same goes for Mia Micheal's “Addiction” performed by Kayla and Kupono.
 * Travis Wall's piece dedicated to his mother. The song used is "Fix You" and Travis' mom has been suffering severe health issues,thus Real Life Writes the Plot.
 * "A New Day Has Come," featuring Twitchington; dedicated to / inspired by chorographer Jean-Marc's daughter. He explains it better than I could.
 * Season 2 of the Canadian version of the show had a dance about mental illness that qualifies, especially for judge Rex Harrington.
 * Alex's departure due to injury. He was dominating his season, and probably had the purest desire for learning and growth and exploration of anyone in the show's history. For him to leave like that... * sniff* ...
 * That One Style: The Quickstep has been the bane of contestants because of the sheer, well, quickness of the steps. Krump routines also tend to send dancers into the bottom as well.
 * The quickstep tends to be an all or nothing dance- i.e., contestants will either nail it or fail it. Krump can be a disaster if not done well.
 * Even when they do a good quickstep it can kill them. Vitolio's and Karla's quickstep in season five was praised by the judges, but they were still gone the next night.
 * Worse, tap. Season 6 had three tap dancers in the top 20. They were all eliminated consecutively, and apart from a solo and a performance on the 'Meet the Top 20' episode, we never saw any tap performances on the show.
 * Nigel has acknowledged that they will probably never have tap as a random draw, because if the dancers don't know how to do it already, it would be virtually impossible to pick up in less than a week.
 * True Art Is Incomprehensible: Happens quite a bit in Contemporary. Sometimes it works, such as the beloved "Hummingbird" routine form Season 3. Other times... let's put is this way: Season 5 gave us an alien who just destroyed Earth. Now she wants to mate with the last human left, and won't take "Somebody help me!" for an answer.
 * Season 8 gave us a hip-hop routine that was allegedly about children forced to fight in the war in Uganda. The only things that even remotely hinted at this, other than the explanation in the intro bit, were the T-shirts for a relevant charity worn by the dancers. At least the audience wasn't the only one left utterly confused by this; the judges were just as befuddled.
 * The Woobie: Season 5's Evan. The judges' often unnecessary criticism of him (too short, droopy eyes) caused thousands of "Kasprzaktivists" to vote for the poor guy, with him finishing in 3rd and never having been in the bottom.
 * WTH Costuming Department - The 90's hip-hop routine from Season 3 with Danny Tidwell and Sara Von Gillern is an example the judges even commented on, but they've suffered from it on and off since season one.
 * For clarification the costuming was actually perfect for the New Jack Swing that Danny and Sara performed. The judges and most of the audience probably didn't know why the costuming was used and there was no one on the panel to explain that gaudy outfits with loud colors was normal and appropriate for the song.
 * Judge Sisco Gomez on the UK version, often as not. He's a man who knows the power of Refuge in Audacity.