Codename: Kids Next Door/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


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Kids Next Door Mission
Operation:
Y.M.M.V.
Your
Mileage
May
Vary


Codename: Kids Next Door is a show where Your Mileage May Vary. Kids may actually like this show, and even teens and adults. However, some may not like it based on its premise.


YMMV Tropes found in Codename: Kids Next Door

  • Abandon Shipping: Numbuh 1/Numbuh 5 was a fairly popular pairing until the release of the finale, in which was sunk with the revelation that Numbuh 5 married Numbuh 2. While the ship still survives, most ended up latching onto Numbuh 1/Numbuh 362 while showing more love towards Numbuh 2/Numbuh 5.
  • Base Breaker: Oh, so many!
  • Big Lipped Alligator Moment: In Op W.H.I.T.E.H.O.U.S.E., Numbuh One goes Hulk and briefly fights off all of the U.S. forces before they Zerg Rush him and he wakes up from what appears to be a normal dream. It makes slightly more sense in context.
    • The apparent assumption was he realized it was a dream and thus he could do almost anything he wants.
  • Complete Monster: Grandfather. He's probably one of the most evil villains in the entire show. He turned the entire world into 'Senior Citizombies' just because kids annoy him. He's also the reason Father is the way he is. Fridge Horror makes him seem even worse. Remember when Father ended up curled into a ball on the floor from broccoli? Grandfather is revealed to be the cause of this emotional scarring. Pure evil indeed.
    • Minor recurring villain Chester has no qualms about using children in his moneymaking schemes. What makes him a contender for this trope is how his appearances have a disturbing trend of heinousness: he's preying off of unsuspecting children as their camp councilor (a true Adult Fear), he's perfectly willing to sell live "Kid's Meals" to sharks, he attempts to Mind Rape Numbah 1 with a device that traps him in a nightmarish "utopia" (which later comes back into play in another episode), and creates a virus called Moosebumps that he has injected into kids just so he can treat them and make more money.
  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: Has its own page
  • Crowning Moment of Funny: The end of Operation: A.R.C.H.I.V.E.

Father: Ah, time flies when you're laughing with maniacal glee

    • Numbah 1's reaction to finding out that the "code" on the Rainbow Monkey Island tablet in Operation: F.E.R.A.L was not for the safety of the universe, but for a keychain. He didn't take it well.
  • Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: A few here and there but the movie especially has several. Most notable Sector Z, just as they're about to transform back to the Delighfuls, asks Nigel to tell K.N.D they miss them. And near the end of the movie, Nigel's Father, Numbuh Zero purposely destroys the recommission module leaving a hologram note for Nigel on why he did so.
    • "It's nothing, Dad... I was just playing with... an old friend."
    • The end of Operation I.N.T.E.R.V.I.E.W.S. Everybody saying their personalized goodbye to Nigel, starting with his parents and then moving down to every member of Sector V? The passing on of Sector V leadership to Numbuh Five, despite the fact that "it won't be Sector V without him"? The GROUP HUG with everybody crying while the spaceship prepares for takeoff?
    • Real Life incorporated into the show: a Make-A-Wish Foundation patient named Jacob "wished" to be in an episode of KND. Jacob appeared as a scientist named Numbah 275, albeit only a few times and with no spoken lines, in the second half of Operation: F.E.R.A.L.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: The rock opera episode, complete with a score by GWAR, who re-performed the song themselves after being unable to find stock copies.
  • Designated Hero: Sometimes one can't help but tilt their heads at the K.N.D's actions, like in the episode where the agents fight against a rabid, Batman-esque dentist, whose heinous crime is to improve the kids horrendous dental health. On another episode, the kids hijack a delivery truck to destroy Type-P torture devices, aka pianos. So, what about the kids who like playing? They never stop to think about an hypothetical little timmy whose only dream in life is to become a famous musician?
    • In the case of Nightbrace, he turned out to actually be quite heinous because he wasn't even a dentist, but an insane candy shop owner who had flunked out of dental school after trying to put braces on infants, and couldn't stand kids eating the sweet candy that he gave them, so by night he went out to fix their teeth. Even the real dentist didn't approve.
    • As for the piano incident, the focus of the episode was actually about the KND being injured and replaced by hamsters. The piano incident was the pretext for their injuries to occur, so we weren't given the full context since it was a Cold Open. Given how KND villains tend to behave, in context the pianos were probably part of some villain's scheme to enslave children with piano lessons, or something along those lines.
    • Operation: LICE was another good example, as the trouble started with Abby stealing nacho chips from the Delightful Children (as in, she robbed their house). Even Numbuh Four remarked that she could have just gone to the deli down the street. There was also Operation: AFLOAT where they crashed the villains' barbecue. That botched plan would have done them in had Stickybeard not proved something of a Noble Demon who decided to rescue them.
  • Designated Villain: Done deliberately with Professor XXXL, who in all his appearances is just trying to create the perfect snowcone, but the KND always ruin his plans thinking he is doing something evil.
  • Ear Worm (Rainbow Monkeys, Rainbow Monkeys...)
    • And the opening theme. (Dun nun nun NUN nun . . .)
    • Robin Food's theme tune.
    • HIP HOP. HIP HOP. GONNA DROP DA BUNNY!
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Rachel, aka Numbuh 362.
    • Don't forget The Tommy.
    • Count Spankulot became one among the writing staff, starting off as a one-off joke adult villain in a single scene of an early episode before being made into a recurring character.
    • Sector freaking Z!!!!! You won't believe the huge fanbase they have after only, what? Five minutes of sceentime?!?!
    • The females of Sector V, Kuki/Numbuh 3 and Abby/Numbuh 5, are outright loved by the fanbase. Numbuh 3 for being the epitome of cheerful cuteness and Numbuh 5 for being a Little Miss Badass. In fact, their status as this is one of the main reasons why their godawful sisters, Cree and Mushi; are utterly reviled by most of the fanbase.
  • Evil Is Cool: The villains.
  • Evil Is Sexy: About the only reason people seem to tolerate Cree is because of this. Also Chad, even if he's not really a villain.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Numbuh One/Numbuh 362 is the most popular couple by far, thanks to their chemistry and Numbuh 362's popularity (in contrast to Numbuh One's canon girlfriend, Lizzie)
    • Numbuh Two/Numbuh 86
    • Numbuh Three/Four were this in the first season thanks to fan reaction to "Operation: O.F.F.I.C.E." The escalating Ship Tease in the subsequent seasons upgraded them into Official Couple status.
    • Numbuh 65.3/Lizzie: They're both glasses-wearing geeks. In "Operation: L.E.A.D.E.R.", Lizzie pretends to flirt with him and says she likes his pocket protector, making 65.3 blush. In ". In "Operation: G.I.R.L.F.R.I.E.N.D.", 65.3 tells Nigel to say 'hi' to Lizzie for him.
  • Foe Yay: Numbuh 5 and Heinrich Von Marzipan.
  • Fridge Brilliance: Chad's Fake Defector status can seem like an Ass Pull despite his explanation of why he launched the Moonbase, a plot Nigel foiled... wait. Why did he interact with Nigel to begin with? Really?
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment: A day-long KND marathon which ends with kid dominance over Cartoon Network being proclaimed is immediately followed by—yes, Adult Swim.
    • Operation: G.R.O.W.N.-U.P. has Father and a grown-up Numbuh One facing off, and, after Father comments on how useless the DCFDTL are, Numbuh One responds with "that must run in the family". And then, in the same scene, Numbuh One says that "his Grandma can throw better than [Father]." Which, considering Father is Nigel's uncle... yeah.
    • In the Kenny and the Chimp pilot, Kenny got...Swine Flu.
    • "Operation F.U.T.U.R.E" is a Terminator parody, where girly girls take over the world from an all girls school and the last rowdy boys are fighting a losing battle against them. Many academic studies show that in Real Life the girls are increasingly taking over, due to being generally better students and that todays rowdy boys are going to be tomorrows losers.
    • Tiger Moms - the battle against adult tyranny is as important as ever!
  • Growing the Beard: The Season 1 Finale established continuity for the series, as well as the introduction of Father and the fact that the KND is not just the five featured on the show, but rather many different sectors.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: In Kenny and the Chimp, one of the joke diseases that Kenny get is Swine Flu. And then in 2009...
  • It Was His Sled: Many.
    • Heinrich Von Marzipan is actually a girl named Henrietta.
    • Chad is a Reverse Mole.
    • Nigel leaves to join the G:KND.
    • As for shipping, everybody knows Numbuh 3/Numbuh 4 and Numbuh 2/Numbuh 5 are the series endgame couples, as well as Lizzie breaking up with Nigel.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Father, after Operation Z.E.R.O. (and minor moments in I.T. and C.A.K.E.D.-F.I.V.E.). Dear God...
  • Memetic Badass: Just watch Op. K.N.O.T. and try to say Moosk doesn't have the makings of this.
  • Moral Event Horizon:
    • Father has done a lot of crummy things as Big Bad of the overall show, but the true moment he crossed was in "C.A.K.E.D. -F.O.U.R." where his plot involved baking all the kids in the town into a birthday cake.
    • Chester first appeared in C.A.M.P., but it was in F.A.S.T.F.O.O.D. where he qualified, trying to turn kids into hamburgers to feed to sharks.
    • Mr. Boss, on the other hand, crossed it in his first appearance (O.F.F.I.C.E.), holding a "take your daughter to work day" so he could abduct the daughters and then send them on a rocket to Pluto, all because he felt eliminating his employees' families would increase production. This proves Hilarious in Hindsight when it is revealed that Numbuh 86 is his daughter - it does put something of a new twist on O.F.F.I.C.E.
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  • Moral Event Horizon: Chester trying to feed living children to sharks.
    • Nurse Claiborne trying to outright murder Numbuh 3 and turn her into breakfast cereal.
    • Father attempting to bake a whole bunch of children into a giant cake for the Delightful Children in the fourth C.A.K.E.D episode.
    • Grandfather taking over the world, turning kids and adults alike into elderly zombies and forcing them to slave labor in factories that make tapioca. All for him.
    • Many fans thought Cree crossed this when she mistreats and tries to kill her own sister with sheer glee, especially when considering the rest of the villains don't treat their loved ones like that, even if they're heroic, which reinforces this trope even further. Many thought she crossed the line further when she called Numbuh 2 (who had a crush on her, mind you) a Fat Slob in Operation K.I.S.S., setting Dude, Not Funny territory.
    • Chad went over the line for many viewers when he tried to kill Nigel in Operation T.R.E.A.T.Y purely out of jealousy over him being considered the best operative on Earth by Chad's superior officers, who did not order him to go after Nigel the way he did. It's this trope what makes Chad's status as a Reverse Mole so hard to swallow.
  • Nausea Fuel: One episode where "chicken pox" takes the form of literal squirming chicken heads sticking out of one's skin.
    • A villain named the Common Cold attacks by siphoning mucous out of his nose. Especially lovely when he starts to ready a really big attack.
    • In Op PINKEYE, being hit with a water balloon filled with pinkeye mucus would cause crusty red stuff to grow all over you. The episode's villain turns out to be using this crusty stuff as the crumbs in crumb cake.
      • Oh my god I need to throw up.
      • It gets even worse at the end of the episode: "So if the pinkeye was the crust, then what was the filling?" (achoo!)
      • Even worse? In a two later episodes, Numbuh Two still eats the stuff and he comments about it as well!
    • Is no one going to mention Op VIRUS, where there is a close up of Cree's gigantic and disgusting pimple?
    • A few of The Movie's senior citizombies had sagging Gag Boobs. This included the citizombified versions of Numbuh Three and Five.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Apparent in a few episodes.
    • I can not be the only one who was scared to death of the Delightful Children. Comparisons to the Children of the Corn are common among fans.
      • It's even more terrifying when you know who they REALLY are, and what happened to them. Sector Z was captured by Father himself, and put them through such rigorous torture (or as he puts it, Delightfulization) to the point that's it's quite literally IMPOSSIBLE to turn them back (any attempts are just temporary). To think that such honorable members of the KND have been turned into such monsters is not only scary, but you have to think of what kind of treatment father put a couple of TEN YEAR OLDS, not to mention that the torture was so intense that they work as one being.
    • Heinrich, Numbuh Five's nemesis, trying to dunk a live rabbit in molten chocolate. Terrifying.
      • Even worse when he soon after tries to dunk Abigail herself into the molten chocolate.
    • The Crazy Old Cat Lady in her first appearance.
    • Grandfather, Father was originally scary, Grandfather takes it to another level. Sure, he's got some humor, but overall, he's just scary.
    • The Pirates of the Caribbean parody episode. Somehow, turning into licorice skeletons seems scarier than turning into regular ol' skeletons. And that's not mentioning what happens to them when the sun comes up...
    • There is one episode that was so deeply unsettling, I couldn't even watch it without becoming scared during my childhood. The plot involves Nigel reading a report about the creation of adults or something like that, and it seems to appear on a happy term of ending. Until it wasn't. There were scenes shifting to live action showing brains being microwaved and blended, then the scenes started to become more fast paced and Nigel was starting to speak in what appears to be complete gibberish.
    • Am I the only one who was terrified of the part of W.H.I.T.E.H.O.U.S.E where Nigel hulks out?
  • Periphery Demographic
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Lizzie became more tolerable for many when she broke up with Nigel due to her realizing he'll always choose the KND over her, pleasing many shippers. They are others who still hate her, but it's clear she's nowhere near as hated as she used to be nowadays.
  • Ron the Death Eater: True, Lizzie can be annoying, controlling and short-tempered, but the fandom tends to flanderize her into a psychotic Yandere who gets in the way of the fandom's Nigel-centric pairings, ignoring her positive qualities and genuine love for Nigel. The most brazen example is the fandom's reaction to her breaking up with him after he saved her. Many saw her as an Ungrateful Bitch who never loved him and dumped him heartlessly, conveniently forgetting she was broken up about having to do so but knowing their relationship wasn't going anywhere (which almost everyone agrees with).
  • The Scrappy: Lizzie is the most obvious example, with Cree and Mushi coming close seconds, but they still have fans. However, the epitome of this trope is Numbuh 363, who is such a Jerkass that nobody likes him, In-Universe and out. About the only good thing about him is that he's clearly meant to be despised.
  • Squick: Anything that involves Nurse Claiborne.
    • Rainbow Monkey Cereal is made with shredded Rainbow Monkey dolls.
    • Zombiefied Numbuh Three and Four kissing each other. (Shudders)
      • Could've looked way cuter if they were normal, but as old zombies...(pukes)
    • Toenails collection. I mean seriously, what?
      • Even worse was the subtle revelation that the Delightful Children use the bathroom together! Seriously, what the FUCK?!?
  • Strangled by the Red String: Cleverly subverted with Numbuhs 2 and 5. When the Grand Finale came out, it seemed like it was this trope... but rewatching the entire series reveals they had quite a lot of Ship Tease (Hoagie directing all his jokes to Abby to make her laugh, Abby reacting badly whenever Hoagie shows interest in other girls, being paired up in most missions, etc.), but was subtle in comparison to Numbuh One/Lizzie and obviously Numbuh Three/Numbuh Four. It's because of this subversion they became an Ensemble Darkhorse couple within the fandom.
  • Tastes Like Diabetes: It's not hard to see why Numbuh 4's not all that fond of Rainbow Monkeys. Then again...
  • Tear Jerker: Has it's own page.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Arguably done twice in the final season. The KND "Splinter Cell" arc foreshadowed an internal civil war in the KND between the extremist Splinter Cell that believes all adults must be destroyed vs. the more moderate faction that believes only the evil adults should be stopped. It is also revealed that the Splinter Cell had been kidnapping KND scientists for unknown reasons. However, near the end of the series, it turns out that the Splinter Cell is just an front for the KND scientists, who fake their kidnappings so they have more free time to watch their favorite science fiction shows as well as manage "the Galactic Kids Next Door", the workings of which were left very vague in the end.
  • Toy Ship: Several.
    • In the main team alone; 3+4 didn't so much have subtext as it was just plain text from the start, 2+5 was a slightly more debatable case, and 1+5 had some good chemistry. But let's not get into the web that the fans (and creators) have spun.
  • Ugly Cute: Ramon 4 from Op SATURN.
  • Unfortunate Implications: In Op CARAMEL, we find out that bitter villain Heinrich Von Marzipan is really a girl magically turned into an evil boy. After he's returned to being Henrietta Non Marzipan, she instantly stops being a villain. So apparantley the cure to all male evilness is to become female.
    • That isn't the point to the episode; the reason Henrietta became Heinrich is because she ate caramels created from the most vital part of her personality (feminine beauty). As a girl, she sold out for candy. The rest of Sector V fall under the curse during Op CARAMEL, making Nigel indecisive, Hoagie primal, Kuki gothic, Wally cowardly, and Abby nerdy. The aesop is more "Don't change who you are for something you think you want" than anything related to feminine roles.
    • As one two-parter demonstrates, turning guys into girls could make them evil. As in Straw Feminist evil.
    • In Op AFLOAT, Numbah Five hands Stickybeard a purple (grape?) lollipop.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The reason why Cree is such a Scrappy for many. See the main page for details.
    • She's later surpassed by Chad in "Op TREATY".
  • Villain Decay: Father started out as... well, pretty much Satan. Scary, always cloaked in darkness, and biblical in his wrath- and of course, his voice is Maurice LaMarche at his scenery-chewing best. Contrast this with the middle-aged dork he became later on. He became much more funny, though.
    • This one's played with, however, as he has shown to be scarily competent when things get dangerous. It's just that his self-esteem is so low he doesn't exploit his full potential.
  • The Woobie: It's impossible not to see Toiletnator as this. The fact he can be The Cutie despite being an adult only enhances it.

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