Glee/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


A-H

  • Abandon Shipping:
    • Many fans of Finn and Rachel jumped ship after the infamous wedding story-line in season 3.
    • For Kurt and Blaine, it's usually either the Chandler incident, the incident in the parking lot of Scandals, or Blaine cheating on Kurt.
  • Actor Shipping: To Rule 34 levels. If you can think of an actor shipping pair, it exists.
    • Interestingly, the two openly gay cast-members (Chris Colfer and Jonathan Groff) are never being shipped with each other, everyone being busy pairing up Chris with a straight guy and Jonathan with a woman. Fandom is a funny place.
    • The most common pairings seem to be the Les Yay HeYa (Heather Morris and Naya Rivera), which makes enough sense as their characters are together, and Achele (Dianna Agron and Lea Michele), which also makes some sense. Well, to fans of it. Dianna and Naya together also seems to be happening now.
    • The Crisscolfer (Darren Criss and Chris Colfer) shipping is... shall we say, intense.
    • Actual couples, like Cory Monteith and Lea Michele, were supported.
    • A lot of people started Crack Pairing Lea Michele with Matthew Morrison (Rachel and Will) after it was revealed that the two had previously dated back when they were both on Broadway.
  • Alternate Aesop Interpretation: The message of Rachel's speech criticizing the celibacy club in the second episode of the first season was probably intended to be "trying to enforce abstinence in high schools is a bad idea", which is certainly a fairly reasonable point to make. However, with the way Rachel phrases things, it can easily seem as if she's actually not just arguing that enforcing abstinence on a collective level doesn't work, but that she's making the sweeping generalization that even personally choosing to remain abstinent is impossible to teenagers because they're so completely under the control of their hormones.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: The show has a lot of this due to having a huge fanbase that can either over-identify with characters or completely hate them, and there's enough leather pants for everyone. To be fair, the creators seem to purposely encourage the fans to have competing interpretations of the characters. It's just part of the fun of the show.
    • Is Brittany really just stupid, or is she also delusional? Among other signs, she believes her cat has been reading her diary. With the episode 'Night of Neglect', a common interpretation is that she's a Genius Ditz mixed with a Cloudcuckoolander. An episode actually showed her cat (on screen) using a computer mouse, so it's clearly smarter than the average cat even if we have no confirmation that it actually read her diary.
    • Is Quinn a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, or the Alpha Bitch, or The Chessmaster, or even a Smug Snake and Manipulative Bastard?
    • For the relationship between Santana and Brittany, is the former an abusive partner in the making? She seems eager to emotionally sway Brittany to her side of an argument no matter what said conflict is, and makes her believe she can do no wrong and makes sure she still remains loyal to her.
    • Is Finn Hudson Obfuscating Stupidity or is he Too Dumb to Live? People are also polarized as to his appearance; sweaty sack of potatoes or actually not that bad looking?
  • Anvilicious: Since the list was getting ridiculous, we now have a whole separate page dedicated to listing every episode's hard-to-miss theme.
  • Arc Fatigue:
    • Some people feel that the Dalton arc—when Kurt transferred to Dalton Academy to get away from bullying—was drawn out too long, and that Kurt was being overshadowed by Blaine and the Warblers in his own storyline. It was supposed to make a point about gay bullying, but for the most part amounted to little more than a few Non Sequitur Scenes and Yaoi scenes. According to Word of God, the Warblers were only supposed to appear for two episodes of the second season, but their immense popularity led to them staying on the show much longer, possibly into the third season. Until "Born This Way", when Kurt finally returned to McKinley, it felt entirely possible that he would be staying there indefinitely.
    • Rachel and Finn's relationship was frequently this, as they were a Foregone Conclusion from the start and yet the show kept finding new ways to break them up and get them back together, even after they promised to "keep them together to focus on other couples" in Season 2. Interestingly, when they did decide to keep them together in Season 3, they made it even worse with the wedding arc which was extremely unpopular with the fanbase (outside of hardcore Finchel shippers), most of whom saw it as out-of-character.
  • Ass Pull:
    • The New Directions get disqualified at Sectionals in Season 4 due to Marley fainting. Of course, Hunter Clarington just had to involve Dalton Academy in doping, getting Dalton disqualified and the New Directions reinstated (and winning). There were three participating schools. One of which did not get disqualified. New Directions still ends up winning...somehow.
    • Finn being Easily Forgiven for outing Santana. The conflict is solved in the duration of one whole episode and it takes a 180 twist on the fact that in the episode before it Finn clearly outed Santana as lashing out at her for insulting him, not because he suddenly "cares for her" and doesn't want to risk her health or life.
    • Suddenly revealed in the same episode is the school's "zero tolerance policy for violence." After our suspension of disbelief's been dragged along with two and a half seasons full of bullying, tossing in the dumpster, violent shoving at lockers (some of those actions being taken by teachers) and several brutal fights about which no adult apparently could do anything about, we are now supposed to buy that a slap is a big deal. The blatant set-up of this situation in order for Finn to look good by "rescuing" Santana doesn't help one bit.
    • During "A Wedding", Brittany reveals that she wants Kurt and Blaine to also get married during her and Santana's wedding, because supposedly she found them to help her be comfortable with her sexuality. Maybe something like that could work for Santana, but Brittany had always been a unique character because she never expressed any angst or worry over her sexuality. She liked boys, she liked girls, and that was that. Season 2 showed that if Santana was willing, Brittany would be more than fine with dating her in public. In the end, it just seems like Character Shilling (or rather pairing shilling) and a cheap excuse to get Kurt and Blaine married.
  • Author's Saving Throw:
    • In 'Duets" and "The Quarterback", Burt brings up his controversial rant to Finn about his use of a homophobic slur, echoing fan sentiments that, while Finn was in the wrong for saying it, he was under a degree of stress at the time and that Kurt's behavior during that episode wasn't acceptable either. Burt also admits that, yes, he may have overreacted just' a little bit.
    • Ryan Murphy got a lot of hate for his supposed mistreatment of certain members of the cast — Dianna Agron in particular — especially when he was heavily favoring others. After the show ended, he issued a statement saying that he regrets how his relationship with a certain cast member or two turned out, and thinks the environment he created because of it may have been what made the show go downhill. A pseudo-apology after the fact may have been a successful saving throw, or may have made things worse.
  • Award Snub:
    • Nominated for 19 Emmys in the 2010 Emmys and only won 4. The Best Comedy Emmy and Best Casting Emmys (Comedy) went to Modern Family instead. Of course, if Modern Family hadn't won those, this entry would be on its page.
    • The fans of Community see Glee as being the cause of its own Award Snub, as it got zero nominations. Even though the shows don't even have the same timeslot.
    • To some fans, Naya Rivera in particular has been a target of this, especially after Santana's coming-out storyline.
    • And Dianna Agron - the writers really hated Quinn, but she got to show off how talented she is.
    • Glee was the reverse of this in Season 2, as it continued to receive loads of nominations even though the critics had soured on it. This changed with Season 3, when Glee only got three Emmy nominations, for Dot Marie Jones' guest performance as Coach Bieste, for make-up and for cinematography - none of which it won.
  • Base Breaker: Just about every single character is one.
  • Bizarro Episode:
    • The Christmas specials, except for "Glee Actually", aren't really connected to the story.
    • "The Spanish Teacher" as well, because Will teaching history is barely touched upon in later episodes and David Martinez never returned.
  • Broken Base:
    • Over the question of whether Rachel or Mercedes is the better singer, an argument which tends to divide along issues of musical taste (those who prefer Broadway or pop tend to prefer Rachel; R&B and hip-hop fans tend to prefer Mercedes).
    • In the first half of Season 1, there was a sort of "Team Rachel"/"Team Quinn" rivalry between fans of the two characters (not in terms of which one belonged more with Finn - with Quinn lying to him about her pregnancy, most fans were on Rachel's side with that one - but with the issue of which one was generally more sympathetic or had more right to feel "wronged" by the other).
      • It was rekindled in the second season after Rachel and Finn broke up and Finn and Quinn got back together. By then, Quinn had been made a lot more sympathetic, and one could have reasonably sided with either character in their battle for Finn (though this changed when it became clearer that Quinn was just dating Finn for his popularity so she could win Prom Queen). Then, of course, there are those fans who think both of them are too good for Finn...or not good enough...
    • The Finn/Kurt subplot in "Theatricality" has sparked quite a hot debate over which character was more in the wrong (Finn for calling Kurt's decor "faggy" or Kurt for the obsessiveness which led to Finn's outburst?). Eventually bled over into the show itself.
    • There have been some fairly intense arguments over whether the pilot or season finale version of "Don't Stop Believing" is better.
    • The second season itself has become a base-breaker. While its themed episodes like "Brittany/Britney", "The Rocky Horror Glee Show", and "A Very Glee Christmas", and various guest stars have received a lot of hype and been fairly popular with the show's younger and/or more casual fans, a lot of viewers think the show has Jumped the Shark and long for the first season, when it was less interested in creating big moments and more in telling a consistent story and building interesting characters.
    • More generally, people who view Glee as a guilty pleasure, or as a legitimately good show. And in the middle, there are those who used to view it as the latter who now see it as the former, or who think it can oscillate between the two from episode to episode.
    • Mercedes' performance of "Sweet Transvestite". Some fans think she brought the house down. Others wish a house would be brought down on her for ruining it. There is very little middle ground.
    • Over Artie's relationship with Brittany, and whether the show has done enough to develop it beyond a Crack Pairing. Some think they are quite sweet together, while others think that it's still just a lazy attempt at Pair the Spares. And that's not even getting into what the Brittana shippers have to say about it...
    • There is something of a battle over Kurt's portrayal. His Camp Gay persona is quite controversial: as the show is so popular, many believe that it gives a bad representation of gays to the mainstream as Will and Grace did years ago. Others believe that having an openly gay character who is neither Invisible to Gaydar nor the least bit ashamed is a good thing.
    • The Gay Aesops of Season 2 also came under fire. There was either too many making them Anvilicious or it was perfectly justified since Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped.
    • There's been a huge debate already on the scene in "Mash-Off" where Finn outs Santana in response to her incessant teasing. Some say that Santana backed Finn into a corner and so it was only human that he would lash out with the only thing that would make Santana stop. Others say that as awful as Santana was, outing her for that is Disproportionate Retribution and never, ever justifiable. Then there's the middle-ground, where they admit that what Finn did was completely wrong but he can't have anticipated where it would lead (to the political ad that uses her lesbianism to bash Sue). It gets ugly no matter which position you take.
    • "Dance With Somebody" broke the base with Kurt's cheating storyline and Blaine's reaction to it through song; part of the base sided fully with Blaine and despised Kurt for flirting with Chandler; some didn't side with either; and some sided with Kurt as they saw Blaine's behavior as hypocritical given his pre-"Michael" relationship with Sebastian.
    • Marley's eating disorder plot is either not funny, or a spotlight on a common thing for teenagers.
    • The cover of Friday and Gangnam Style. There's the camp that simply feel that they were bad covers, and another that feels Glee is doing everything to latch on whatever popular trend is happening at the time.
    • Adam is a divisive figure. Mostly for Die for Our Ship reasons.
    • The Klaine relationship as a whole. Supporters believe it's a powerful relationship that helped save the lives of many gay students in need of representation, that it gives Kurt something good in his life, or that it's a cute relationship. Others despise the pairing for various reasons whether it's coming off strongly as Token Shipping with a Shallow Love Interest, taking up screentime at the expense of more interesting characters and storylines, various instances of emotional abuse being glossed over, that the characters don't have good chemistry or rapport, poor overall execution, or the use of numerous negative gay stereotypes or outright controversial statements which do more harm for gay rights and representation than good (see Unfortunate Implications).
    • At the beginning of season four, the show split narratives between New York and McKinley story lines - an act that effectively split the fandom 50/50 as to which one is the "real" glee (McKinley has the choir room and contains the teenage characters that most viewers relate to, whereas New York contains most of the stars that draw in the general viewer).
    • The season 4 episode "Shooting Star". 50% of people in and out of fandom think that Glee was very brave to approach the topic of School Shootings. The remaining 50% thinks the episode is just using the topic to attract ratings and publicity, comes Too Soon after the Sandy Hook shooting, and its Axes At School ending comes with a glaring unfortunate implication about Down's Syndrome people.
    • Blaine in the episode "Puppet Masters" has split the fandom in two, mostly being his detractors and his fans, but there are some in the middle ground. Some either liked the episode and found it charming and found Blaine to be adorable in it, while others found that Blaine was whiny, selfish, manipulative (with the Kurt puppet) and didn't deserve to be the person to pick the songs they sing for Nationals.
    • The reveal that the rest of season 5 will take place in New York has caused some diversion. Some people disagree with it, saying it completely ruins the point of the show, and the others say that the show should have been doing this since the start of season 4. Then there are those who are happy for the decision, but aren't happy at the idea that this means the Newbies will disappear and the New York side will have more characters added onto them, worried it might ruin it. But then there are those who are happy for that. Basically, this is probably one of the biggest broken bases Glee might have yet.
    • Even before it aired, "Frenemies" was ugly either way. There are fans agreeing with Rachel who say that Santana auditioning for understudy is ridiculous considering she has never shown an interest in Broadway and that's she's just trying to steal Rachel's limelight, and then there are those on Santana's side, saying that Rachel overreacted for much of the situation, taking the simple idea of Santana auditioning to be her understudy and making it a huge deal which she shouldn't have. And some are just Kurt, siding with neither of them.
    • The new newbies in season six. Some are mad that they are essentially replacing Marley, Jake, Ryder, Kitty, and Unique, especially in a shortened final season that won't be able to offer them much in the form of character development. Others are glad that they appear to be more fully-formed characters as opposed to the previous group, which was mostly made of several expies, as well as the fact that they won't be around long enough to be ruined like the writers (which is a common opinion about most of the characters on the show).
  • Canon Sue:
    • Holly Holiday. Any flaws she has only add a sense of nobility to her, and she's loved by everyone.
    • Blaine also fits this trope to a T. Even when he makes a mistake, it's not his fault. There's always something else to blame.
  • Cargo Shipping:
    • Wes/Gavel and Kurt/Kilt are fairly popular, but the most widely known one is Santana/Shrub-shaped-like-a-person (Shrubtana).
    • Don't forget Briano (Brad, the piano player for New Directions and his piano. Though he cheats on it with the keyboard from time to time)
    • Also, Blaine/Hair gel, and Mercedes/Tater tots.
    • Don't forget Blaine/Furniture, Blaine/Microphone, Santana/Breadstix, Finn/Chair, Quinn/Bacon, Emma/Grapes, and Puck/Eggo.
  • Cliché Storm / Troperrific: Critics charge that the show relies too much on hackneyed plot devices; the show really tends to revel in the charge. The fans love it though, and the writers certainly know what they're getting into.
  • Complete Monster: The guys at Karofsky's new school, who outed him as gay and drove him to a, thankfully failed, suicide attempt. They even continued mocking him on Facebook after his suicide attempt!
  • Crack Pairing: They are common sources for one-episode pairings, though a few have had more long-term success, such as Puck/Rachel, Puck/Shelby and Artie/Brittany. Obviously, Puck seems to be a popular target of them (being the Launcher of a Thousand Ships that he is).
  • Critical Research Failure:
    • Tenure in public schools does not work like it was portrayed on this show. Most teachers receive automatic tenure after 3 years working in the same school as insurance against wrongful firing and budget cuts; a tenured position doesn't open up just because a long-time teacher resigns. Likewise, teacher specialties, in this case Spanish and History, are misrepresented: Teachers study from 4-6 years to be qualified to work in their schools, and even then only in their specialty. Scheuster would not have just wandered into the high school and asked for a Spanish position, nor could he have switched to the History department on such short notice. He needed qualifications.
    • When Sunshine says that she's performing "Listen" from the movie Dreamgirls, Rachel chimes in that it was a Broadway show first, which is true... except for the fact that "Listen" was written for the movie and not in the play.
  • Crosses the Line Twice: Almost anything Sue does or says, though she certainly outdid herself in season 5 when she managed to take Figgins's place as principal by planting false evidence in his office, including gambling bills, porn magazines, gay porn magazines, gay porn foot fetish magazines, and an autographed copy of Mein Kampf.
  • Designated Evil: Finn called Kurt's decorating "faggy". While he really shouldn't have said that, Kurt was way over the line, and Burt overreacted when he heard Finn say it. Even if he had handled it more rationally, Kurt clearly never cared that his behavior was seriously inappropriate, and complaining to their parents probably wouldn't have helped because of how protective Burt is toward his son. Though Burt did backtrack on it in "Duets", saying that while Finn shouldn't have said that, Kurt's behavior wasn't acceptable either.
  • Designated Hero: Kurt Hummel. The fact that Ryan Murphy created the character specifically to play up Chris Colfer's strengths after seeing something of himself in the young actor means that Jerkass things Kurt says often go unchecked, and there are many cases where logic takes a backseat so that he’s only half-wrong or whoever he’s wronged reacts so disproportionately to the slight that Kurt comes out smelling like daisies anyway. His own feelings for Finn lead him to purposefully sabotage Rachel by giving her a bad makeover in order to ruin her chances with him, telling her she should be thanking him? It doesn't stop Rachel from giving him a sympathetic wave near the end. He confides in a boy he meets at the local music store through sharing flirty puns and lets Elliott peck him on the cheek in a friendly selfie that they took after some subtle flirting? The first case ends with Kurt telling him that they'll make long-distance work rather than say he's sorry about really screwing up here while Blaine is the one who apologizes, and the second case is set up as karma that hands Blaine his hindquarters for pointing out that sometimes things are just handed to him after being named valedictorian to Artie and Tina's displeasure [1]. Kurt watches Blaine fall into such a deep depression after their engagement is so horribly called off that it affects his NYADA work and leads to him being given the boot without giving two shits, but still expects Blaine not to move on as he talks about getting him back, despite the fact that he made the call to end things, before being horrified upon finding out that Blaine's found someone? It doesn't matter because Blaine immediately forgives him next they meet back in Lima and then tells him that he wanted to see him, thereby absolving Kurt of all guilt over clearly thinking Blaine was waiting for his triumphant return.
  • Die for Our Ship:
    • Artie. At PaleyFest 2011, Kevin McHale revealed that he often gets "hate Tweets" from Brittana shippers, protesting "I'm not Artie!"
    • Quinn, Blaine and Mercedes all got this from the Kurt/Sam shippers. Blaine got it the most, but Mercedes is likely to get more of it with Sam's return in "Hold on to Sixteen," which includes trying to win her back.
    • The Finchel ship gets this from Klaine and Brittana shippers: whether it's because the latter group is confused about who the show's actual protagonists are, or because of legitimate complaints about the discrepancy in treatment of opposite-sex couple vs. same-sex couples on the show.
    • Let's not forget the massive amount of hate the Finchel Fandom itself lets loose against anyone other than Finn that even shows the slightest interest in Rachel. Puck, Jesse, Brody, all of their respective actors and their fandoms catch no end of hell from them. Mark Salling actually got legitimate, police-investigated death threats after Rachel cheated on Finn with Puck in Season 2. In fact, it goes so far as to spill over into the Faberry fandom, a non-canon ship.
    • Sam, due to dating Brittany, and the series' complicated history regarding its depiction of LGBT issues. While Santana was the one to dump Brittany because she wanted to date other people, a lot of people resent the show's aforementioned imbalance in the portrayal of opposite-sex relationships vs. same-sex relationships. Whereas Brittana fans had to wait for over a year to see the two painfully in love characters kiss, Brittany and Sam kissed multiple times in the episode they got together. Once Brittany and Santana's relationship was made official, it took place almost entirely in the background, whereas Brittany and Sam had major plots revolve around their relationship in two consecutive episodes, leading to some resentment towards the character himself. Prefer Brittany with which ever character you like, but you'd be hard pressed to argue that they are treated equally.
    • Some less scrupulous fans were hoping Marley would have died from her fainting spell at Sectionals, so that Jake and Ryder could take comfort in each other.
    • The Klaine fandom sends quite a bit of hate as well. Max Adler, Grant Gustin, and Oliver Kieran-Jones have gotten hate sent to them for being a love interest of either Blaine or Kurt. Even Chris Colfer has gotten hate from Klaine shippers due to Kurt's actions in episodes or comments Chris has said that can be taken as anti-Klaine or pro another pairing like Kadam. Strangely, Darren Criss never really receives hate from Klainers even if he says similar anti-Klaine comments or Blaine shows interest in someone else, like Sam in Sadie Hawkins.
    • Notably subverted with Dani, Santana's new girlfriend. She doesn't receive much hate from Brittana shippers or frankly any other Santana-related shipper. In fact, people wish that she had been featured more and has a sizable fanbase of her own.
  • Draco in Leather Pants:
  • Ear Worm: Going by the shows covers, there are too many to list, but the original songs they have done can be rather catchy. Special mention goes to "Loser Like Me", "My Cup" and "Big Ass Heart".
  • Ensemble Darkhorse:
    • Kurt is frequently cited as the show's "breakout star", as is Sue Sylvester.
    • Brittany, who wasn't in the pilot, didn't speak until Episode 4, gets a handful of lines in every episode and still manages to be one of the most popular characters on the show with her charming minimalistic humor. The TIME TV critic James Poniewozik posts his favorite "Brittany-ism" after every show on his blog. Brittany. She's one of the two best dancers, and a pretty good singer to boot.
    • An actor version: Mike O'Malley, who plays Kurt's father, was basically a stalwart of mediocre sitcoms (Yes, Dear), Nickelodeon game shows and commercials. In Glee, he routinely turns out subtle and heartfelt performances. His character, Burt, as well.
    • Blaine, who's won a lot of fans over with his good looks and excellent voice.
    • Mike Chang is also extremely popular, even before he started getting lines. Having nice abs doesn't hurt one's popularity.
    • Santana Lopez. She started off as a bitch. Then, they let her sing "The Boy is Mine". People embraced her bitchiness as comedy and fell in love with her voice. And then, she was revealed to be a lesbian, and was paired with Brittany...
    • Dave Karofsky, thanks in no small part to Max Adler's talent.
    • Brad the pianist.
    • Bryan Ryan. No surprise there. Everyone loves Neil Patrick Harris.
    • Holly Holiday, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, going from a celebrity guest spot to a recurring character and Love Interest for Will. She's the most frequently-recurring celebrity guest on the show, due to the character's popularity with viewers and the fact that her nature (a substitute teacher who can't stay in one place for long) is easy to work around Paltrow's schedule.
    • Jeff and Nick, two background Warblers who have only had one line between them, have been swooped upon by the shippers, pairing them with Kurt, Blaine, or each other.
    • Becky, even more so due to her inner monologuing.
    • Sugar, especially after she stopped faking Asperger. Ironic because she was apparently intended to be a Hate Sink.
    • Coach Beiste is one of the very few characters of the show that is liked by nearly the entire fanbase. Even people who hate everything else about the show love Shannon/Sheldon Beiste. And her actress, Dot Marie Jones.
    • An odd version since it is a group, rather than a character, but the Troubletones were very popular during season 3 with many fans approving the idea of teenaged girls of different sexual orientation and race (even if that was never really a reason for it forming) and how it made a point in how a lot of characters are constantly shoved in the back in favor of the usual soloists. It became to the point where there was a good portion of Glee fans who wanted them to win Sectionals and were disappointed that they broke up quickly.
    • Season 4 has Melissa Benoist as Marley Rose. Admittedly a polarizing character, due to her basically being Rachel minus the ego, her singing skills nonetheless won fans over.
    • Season 5 has two: Santana's new girlfriend Dani and Eliot "Starchild" Gilbert, who are played by popular singers Demi Lovato and Adam Lambert.
  • Evil Is Cool: Why Sue is commonly held as one of the most popular characters on the show.
  • Fandom Heresy: Let's just say that there aren't many places in the Glee fandom where it's safe to admit that you don't much like Lea Michele's singing voice, and leave it at that. Chris Colfer and Darren Criss (if not their characters) also tend to be sacred cows.
  • Fan Dumb: While it may seem like a theater/band geek/misfit paradise, the forum shows us that a vast majority of fans take the show more seriously than most school work, or in some cases, actual work. Flame wars get started over comments about a character's clothing, a throwaway comment that was played for laughs, song choice, and even seating positions. Numerous thread topics revolve around arguing about Darren Criss being a good actor or not, more topics have become pissing contests on who knows more about Broadway, and there is even a thread claiming The Beatles "aren't that good" and that Glee made their songs better. It's not a wonder that the fans are often more hated than the show itself.
    • Kurt's fan base may or may not be the biggest, but it's certainly the most... let's just say "dedicated" and leave it at that.
    • There's also the Kurt fandom's Distaff Counterpart, the Brittana fangirls. During the second season, they became known on fan sites as Windmill Crusaders for constantly complaining about being oppressed by some hidden mass of Bartie fans - when, in fact, Brittana has always been the Fan-Preferred Couple and it was fan pressure that encouraged the creators to bring them together.
    • Some of the Blaine fangirls seem to be of the opinion that Blaine can do absolutely no wrong and that Kurt is unworthy of Blaine. Conversely, Kurtsies think that Blaine doesn't deserve Kurt because the former is a contradictory jackass who's ruining Kurt's life.
    • Dalton fangirls can be a very scary bunch. Some of them want Kurt to stay at Dalton forever, claiming that the Warblers are "way more interesting" than New Directions and want to get rid of ND altogether. This in spite of the fact that most of the Warblers have been given no personalities whatsoever and the few who've spoken have gotten one or two token lines.
    • If their complaints after Rachel-light episodes are anything to go by, some of the Rachel-fans seem to be of the opinion that Glee should be the Rachel Berry show.
    • The insistence that Sam cannot be straight in any way, shape, or form; while certain moments from various episodes do indeed contain some subtext between him and the male characters - the tenderness of the scene in "Naked" where Blaine tells him that his body is not his only worth, Sam trying to cheer Blaine up in "Makeover" by saying that being the first gay male president is McKinley history being made when he feels like winning wasn't a real accomplishment because it hasn't got Kurt's attention back on him, his immediate crushing on the new school nurse Penny in the wake of Tina dumping him in "Tina in the Sky With Diamonds" seeming a little suspect… really, most of his interactions with Blaine - this doesn't in any way negate his previous relationships with female characters. This most likely comes from the fact that Sam was originally cast as Kurt's love interest for Season 2, but then the writers changed their mind at the last minute and brought in Blaine instead. Unfortunately, some fans chose to start shipping it before the season had even started, leading to some pretty sour grapes when things went in another direction.
      • Many people online also decried his relationship with Mercedes as "unrealistic" because "Sam would never be interested in a girl like Mercedes." There are plenty of valid reasons to agree or disagree with the pairing, but when people fall on that, either they're saying that Sam is shallow and racist, or they're somewhat shallow and racist. It's worth noting that none of these people seem to think that the relationship is unrealistic due to Mercedes not being interested in a boy like Sam.
    • Then there are the Theocrats among the Fan Dumb, who cling to EVERYTHING Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk say or imply in interviews, rather than just watching the show.
    • Following the incident where a fan actually pulled Darren Criss from the stage a Kurtsie said: "I used to think Chris/Kurt fans are the craziest in the fandom, then came the Brittana shippers, and then the Faberry shippers, and now Darren stans."
    • Kurt/Karofsky shippers are constantly insulted and bullied by shippers of other pairings who believe Karofsky doesn't deserve redemption for his bullying. Ummmm...
    • Basically, the Glee Fandom is a great big pool of Fan Dumb.
  • Fanon: The most glorious example was the character of Sugar Motta, where someone on Tumblr remarked that she was basically Brittany & Santana's daughter from the future. Eventually, Vanessa Lengies and Heather Morris themselves found out about it and ran with it, making little nods and such. It got to the point where when Lengies returned for an episode in the final season, she mentioned it to Entertainment Tonight, giving it more exposure. Variants also apply to the characters of Rory and Harmony, painting them to be Klaine and Faberry's kids respectively.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: A good portion of the fandom like to pretend the second half of the series neve happened.
  • Fan Myopia: Glee is a pretty good example of why "insisting that creators and producers should tell the story that the fans want to tell" is such a bad idea, as the Glee writers do actually seem pretty determined to please their Broken Base as much as possible, show quality be damned.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: There were several over the course of the series, but the most popular one was Quinn/Rachel (Faberry). The pairing won the 2012 E!Online poll for favorite couple, with there being so many votes that the site crashed. It's worth noting that they defeated Brittana and Klaine, two of the most popular ships on the show, in the final rounds. The pairing also won the 2012 Zimbio Couples March Madness poll, notably beating out Mercedes/Sam, Emma/Will, Finn/Rachel, Santana/Brittany, and Kurt/Blaine, all of which have been canon at one point or another. In fact, this ship is popular enough to the point that a different phrase containing the word "Faberry" trended each day worldwide for an entire week on Twitter.
    • The pairing of Sam/Blaine (Blam) could easily give Quinn/Rachel a run for its money. Just when Blaine's relationship with Kurt was starting to lose steam in the fourth season after their break up, Sam came in and quickly became close friends with Blaine. This led to a bromance that many fans felt was putting too much emphasis on the "romance" part for the supposedly-heterosexual Sam due to all the Ho Yay involved, and they thought Blaine had better chemistry with him than he did with his actual love interest. Add that to the fact that Sam getting into a relationship with Brittany around this point in the show invoked reactions of No Yay in much of the fandom, and you have Klaine vs Blam actually becoming a viable shipping war.
    • The writers were surprised with the acceptance Rachel/Puck (Puckleberry) got from the fans, which was canon for one episode as a joke before the fans just ran with it.
    • Previous ones included Kurt/Blaine (Klaine) and Santana/Brittany (Brittana) before they became Official Couples; with the latter, fan demand played a large part in the decision to make them official. It was definitely way more popular than Brittany/Artie, and for a while, there was a joke in the fandom about how Brittana fans were getting so fuming-at-the-ears mad over some plotting mass of Bartie fans who didn't actually exist.
  • Foe Yay:
    • Bryan Ryan (Neil Patrick Harris) and Sue, who have angry sex even after Bryan cuts the Cheerios budget in half. Hilarious in Hindsight when you realize that Neil Patrick Harris is gay and that Jane Lynch is a lesbian.
    • Rachel and Quinn anyone? One of the most popular Fan Preferred Couples, and many fans have said if Finn and Puck weren't in the picture, they would've wound up together.
    • Will and Bryan in "Dream On", to combine your Foe Yay with Ho Yay.
    • Kurt and Puck in one of the commercials.
    • Kurt wants to lock Rachel in his basement. Okay. Until one remembers that his basement is also his bedroom. That doesn't have sexual undertones due to his sexuality, but one does have to wonder why he'd want to lock someone he has so many issues with in the place where he sleeps. Then, there's the fact Kurt is just as determined as the other boys to go after Jesse when Jesse eggs Rachel. Rachel gets one by sending the football-playing Glee boys after the guy who has been terrifying Kurt.
    • Say what you want about the "Smooth Criminal" cover, but it's painfully obvious that Sebastian and Santana are both oozing this, despite the Incompatible Orientation.
    • Also, Kurt and Sebastian. Sometimes their sniping at each other seems to take this turn.
    • Will and Sue; "Funk" really drives it home.
    • Mercedes with Santana in "Duets".
    • Although they end up mostly smoothing it over before the end of the episode, Kurt and Elliot/Starchild manage to ooze this in their first interaction.
  • Fountain of Memes: Brittany.
  • Franchise Original Sin:
    • A huge breaking point for a lot of fans was the Season 3 episode "I Kissed a Girl" which among that episode's many, many flaws were some breathtakingly inappropriate song choices for a girl's coming out story including the eponymous "I Kissed a Girl" by Katy Perry, a song about a meaningless dalliance with another woman at a club to get attention from males and "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". This trend of using a song that is horribly inappropriate can actually be seen several times.
    • Season 1's Theatricality was the first time one of the show's aesop split the base. This would become the first of many.
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment:
    • In "Pilot", Finn was blackmailed into joining New Directions when Will claimed he had found marijuana in his locker. That's so funny... until we find out that Finn's actor, Cory Monteith, dropped out of high school due to serious drug addiction problems. It became even less funny come July 13th 2013.
    • Jesse's joke about someone being used as a prop if they die during a Vocal Adrenaline performance becomes a lot less funny when Marley passes out at Sectionals in Season 4.
    • Given the allegations against Woody Allen, one might think Rachel isn't so eager to make a movie with him anymore...
    • Sue lamenting running for public office on a "pro-deportation platform." Fast forward to the 2016 election and later news reports.
  • Genius Bonus: Though it's more like Movie Trivia Awareness Bonus, Will dreams he is performing the "Make 'Em Laugh" number from Singin' in the Rain while sick and feverish; Gene Kelly performed the film's title number with an incredibly high fever.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Sunshine for Filipinos.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • Kurt says that being called "lady" is bullying. That makes this screengrab from Entertainment Tonight especially cringe-worthy.
    • "Rumours" revealed that Sam's family have become victims of the recession, and live in a motel room. Care to remember what song he sang for his New Directions audition? That's right, "Billionaire".
    • In his fake apology to the glee club in "Born This Way", Dave Karofsky says he "read stories about kids who were bullied so much they hung themselves". That speech takes on a whole new light after the events of "On My Way".
    • The Friday before "Heart", the 2012 Valentine's day episode, the music was released for the episode featuring Mercedes doing a cover of Whitney Houston's cover of "I Will Always Love You", the day before Whitney's untimely passing.
    • In "Grilled Cheesus", Puck sings "Only The Good Die Young"; considering Finn was one of the morally good characters of the show, this seems eerily prophetic.
    • Kurt and Blaine's first duet as a couple becomes this after the events of The Breakup. The "I couldn't see when it was you and me," "looks like a solo tonight, but I think I'll be alright," "erase the memory of your face," "One day you will wake up with nothing but you're sorry" - all of it! Listening to it again just makes you cringe, especially if you shipped them together.
    • Marley passing out in the middle of "Gangnam Style", after a man died of a heart attack while doing the dance.
    • In "Journey to Regionals," Puck gives Quinn a speech.

Puck: "Come on, we're in high school. Do you think either one of us is gonna give a damn about Finn in three years? Life's a bunch of experiences. You don't get a medal at the finish line for being good. You just get dead".

    • The revelation that Finn's father actually died from a drug overdose is much harsher considering Cory Monteith's own past with addiction and unexpected death from a fatal combination of heroin and alcohol.
    • Finn's "drug-free" rap in "Good Vibrations."
    • Likewise, the season four episode wherein Finn is partying so hard he almost blows off school. This episode aired shortly before Cory Monteith entered rehab for the last time, and watching some episodes where Finn looks especially rough can be quite heartbreaking.
    • In "Blame It On the Alcohol", Finn is one of the two kids not to get drunk, which results in some really tragic irony.
    • In "Goodbye", Will sings "In my heart you'll be...forever young." The camera stops on Finn. There are moments like this throughout the early episodes of the series, but this moment is particularly prophetic.
    • The character of Finn drew ire from many fans who, at times, wished for him to be written out of the show completely; with the tragic and untimely death of actor Cory Monteith, Finn's character was killed off as well. This is certainly not the way these fans hoped for it to happen, and many have expressed remorse and guilt over their wishes for the character's disappearance.
    • Mark Salling was arrested on charges of possessing child pornography as of 2015. It also makes the "Paedo Will" memes a little harsher.
      • Even worse in one episode Puck and Lauren tried to make a sex-tape only to be told that it is basically child pornography. Or the fact Puck was known for sleeping with older women often.
      • In "Choke", Puck boasted that he called dibs on "all the chicks whose boobs aren't done growing yet".
      • And the pornography was only found because LAPD sex offenders unit were still investigating him after that time he got sent to prison for forcing a girl who may or may not have been underage to have sex with him without a condom, during the filming of season 2 (where Mark was when Puck was in juvie for stealing an ATM).
      • All topped by the tragedy (and arguable Karma Houdini) of Salling taking his own life in January 2018.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • One episode used the song "Gold Digger" mere days before Kanye West made an ass of himself at the VMAs.
    • Jayma Mays (Emma) once played a woman who used her pregnancy to cause discord between her ex-boyfriend and his girlfriend on Ugly Betty. Terri used her (fake) pregnancy to try to keep Will from getting too attached to Emma. Granted, there is a difference in that Henry had broken up with her before dating Betty and Will was actually married...
    • Emma in Episode 3:

"They say it takes certainty more than talent to make a star. I mean, look at John Stamos."

    • Kurt's dad says he hates Duke like he hates the Nazis in "Home". This episode came before the final 4 game where Duke beat Butler (a team from Ryan Murphy's hometown of Indianapolis).
    • Karofsky, in "Britney/Brittany":

"How come all the gay guys get the hot chicks?"

      • Even more hilarious after he and Santana become each others' beards}}.
    • When Glee first came out, Chris Colfer (Kurt) mentioned in an interview that "Kurt's [biggest fear] would be that there would be school uniforms". Guess what happens come Season Two?
    • In Todd in the Shadows review of "Bad Romance", he compared Lady Gaga's evolution to Britney Spears and Madonna. These three are all the women so far with episodes centered around them, with recurrer Justin Bieber to be the only man to hold the title. Well except for Bruno Mars but the episode was not advertised at such.
      • For added fun, in that same video he psyches himself up by saying "courage".
    • The study group in Community encounters the Glee club, an Expy for the cast of Glee. After the study group defeats them, Jeff tells them "Write some original songs!" In February 2011, it was announced that Glee would be doing an episode with original songs.
    • Not to mention that the Glee club in Community is introduced by singing "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" to attract people during a paintball game and take them out, and Glee will use the very same song, mashed up with "One Way Or Another", in a similar situation during a game of dodgeball.
    • Actress Amber Riley was turned down for American Idol (as in, didn't even make it on TV) before being picked up for Glee, which will probably net her more fame than AI ever would.
    • Santana's snarking on Kurt in Episode 5:

Kurt: "Can we discuss the elephant in the room?"
Santana: "Your sexuality?"

      • Also, her comment about "gay jokes" after the Glee club.
      • How about in "Silly Love Songs"? She says that kissing Finn isn't worth paying a dollar for, but she would pay to jiggle one of his "man-boobs". Of course we'd all find out later her affinity for boobs.
    • Puck's line to Quinn in Season 1.

I don't dig fat chicks.

    • In the Season Two premier "Audition", Brittany states instead of being on vacation during the summer as previously believed, she had actually spent the summer lost in the sewers. Later, in the episode "Sexy", Santana tells Brittany that their hook-ups don't constitute cheating because the plumbing is different.
    • It should be acknowledged that many of these occur because the writers make things up as they go along—several plot points (i.e. Santana being a lesbian and the Puck/Lauren ship) were not even dreamed of at the time of those lines being spoken.
      • Which is why they're considered an example of this trope rather than Foreshadowing.
    • In "Mattress", Dave Karofsky is defacing a yearbook picture of the Glee club. If the picture's turned upside down, it looks like he's drawn a heart over Kurt's picture (it seems he was going for breasts). Yeah, it's most likely a teenage boy who has no drawing talent, but considering what we eventually find out...
    • In the middle of Season 3, Puck mentions that global warming means his pool-cleaning business is in demand well into winter. This was meant to be a throwaway joke, but the winter of 2011-12 turned out to be unusually mild for much of the US, with summer-like weather in March.
  • Hollywood Homely: Suzie Pepper (played by the definitely-not-ugly Sarah Drew) saying that she and Rachel are "Mildly Attractive".
  • Hollywood Pudgy:
    • Apparently, seeing Finn in his underwear is supposed to be a bad thing. He probably is the fattest one of the male glee club members at the time, but this isn't saying much.
    • Karofsky's big and has a naturally stockier build, and he's most likely at an appropriate weight for that body type. This hasn't stopped people in-show and out from criticizing him, not that it'd be right even if he were actually fat. Of course, the characters have a little bit more of an excuse due to them doing so in a form of self-defense against his often-times physical terrorizing. He even refers to himself as a "bear cub" in "The First Time", and says it's working for him.
  • Ho Yay: So much it has its own page here.
  • Hype Backlash: It's been experiencing this, since the show's win at the Golden Globes / Emmy nomination.

I-Z

  • Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: Fans of the pairing Quinn and Artie often refer to them as "Wheels + Preggers" due to episodes based around their conditions being named that, though to be fair they are also referred to as Quartie and Quarter.
  • Idiot Plot:
    • The entire fight between Kurt, Finn, and Burt in "Theatricality". Kurt for being too caught up in his ridiculous fantasy to accept that Finn is straight and going to insane lengths to be close to him, Finn for completely failing to articulate the very real squickiness of Kurt's harassment without using a slur and attacking Kurt's homosexuality specifically, and Burt for jumping into the fight without listening to anything other than a single word Finn used. In "Duets", Burt, having learned the whole story from Carole between the two episodes, admits that he overreacted a bit (even though Finn was still wrong to call his son a fag), and he calls Kurt out on how inappropriate he was towards Finn.
    • In "The Break Up", Blaine cheated on Kurt with a Facebook random who we never even see on-screen. In "Guilty Pleasures", it was established that he has feelings for Sam, though that ship got sunk later in the same episode. Then, all of a sudden, he wants to marry Kurt in "Wonder-ful" despite the fact that they are no longer a couple at that point, and Blaine himself even recognizes that it's admittedly a bold move from his part in order to win back Kurt. Fortunately, Burt calls him out on this, pointing out that Blaine should know it's a wrong idea seeing how things turned out for Rachel and Finn, and that he is using the idea of gay-marriage for his own goal.
  • Informed Wrongness:
    • Mike Chang Sr. is treated as unreasonable for not wanting his son to enter a field where very few people succeed.
    • Brittany dumps Artie after he calls her stupid. Keep in mind that he calls her stupid because he was naturally hurt and upset that she was cheating on him with another girl, Santana, who convinced Brittany that it's not cheating "if the plumbing is different." The breakup wouldn't be so bad but the episode in question goes out of its way to paint Artie as the wrong party, and neither Brittany nor Santana are ever called out on it.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Every single character depending on your viewpoint is either this or just a Jerkass.
  • Jumping the Shark: Most fans seem to think that this has occurred, with the most common view being that it happened in either the back nine of Season 1, or with the beginning of Season 2, and the show jumped an addition shark with the beginning of Season 3. However, there are plenty of fans who still genuinely enjoy it and see its critics as "Stop Having Fun!" Guys, while another group attests that the show was always bad and it was only when the novelty of its format wore off that people could see it for what it was.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Puck, Rachel, Kurt. Finn and Santana as well.
    • Jesse too, to the point where there are decent-sized fanbases shipping him with characters he has never actually met (i.e. Blaine and Harmony).
    • Also Dave.
  • Like You Would Really Do It: Played straight and subverted in the first season finale. Glee club actually does lose at Regionals, but they ultimately are not disbanded thanks to a Big Damn Villains moment from Sue.
  • Memetic Badass: Pavarotti, the Warblers mascot, seems to be headed in this direction.
    • Sue Sylvester as well.
    • Lord Tubbington.
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • The "Say A Little Prayer" dance from Quinn, Brittany, and Santana's audition.
    • It's become common for commentary on the show to invoke "Grilled Cheesus".
    • "Did you know dolphins are just gay sharks?"
    • "Do briefs stink??" (taken from a deleted scene circulated on YouTube).
    • There's a new meme around, which consists of making Santana a proper English gentleman. It's hilarious. Gadzooks!
    • Two words: Dapper Blaine.
    • Pedo Will
    • That piano the camera cuts to when Kurt and Blaine finally kiss has been dubbed "That cock-blocking piano."
    • Insanity Rachel.
    • Suddenly... Karofsky!
    • CanniBlaine.
    • Glee Secrets. The hilarious levels of narm and Fan Dumb spawned a troll tumblr that basically parodies everyone in the fandom.
    • "Brittana is on, Brittana was always on."
    • Since it was announced via Twitter that Blaine is a junior, not a senior as previously thought, it became an overnight meme to twist old scenes [dead link] to reflect him as a child. [dead link]
    • Blaine is a magnet for these. Another one involving him is his abusive relationship with furniture.
    • Cargoshipping. Everyone on this show seems to be an objectphile.
    • Blaine is a hobbit.
    • Fancy and Hamhock in the Kurtofsky fandom.
    • Sugar is Brittana's Kid From the Future. The cast themselves think this one is awesome.
      • It's expanded into Rory being Klaine's adopted son, and Harmony as the daughter as either Finchel or Faberry. There's a picture [dead link] to back that up along with the addition of Cameron.
    • Shrubtana: the Crack Ship between Santana and a shrub shaped like a person, based off of a throwaway line in "Sexy".
  • Misaimed Fandom:
    • An alarming number of fans think Sue is actually a good teacher.
    • Another one was the writers' own damn fault; they put Puck and Rachel together for one episode with nothing attracting them to each other besides Matzo Fever simply to poke fun at and deconstruct the Token Minority Couple. However, Puck is a Draco in Leather Pants Mr. Fanservice so people latched onto them with great fervor. It didn't help that they played a Token Minority Couple completely straight with Tina and Mike the next season, with the fact that they got together at Asian Camp even seeming to put a lampshade on it.

Mike: "We should go to Asian couples therapy."
Tina: Why does the couples therapy have to be Asian?"

  • Moral Event Horizon:
    • Terri lying about her pregnancy, for starters.
    • Jesse after defecting back to Vocal Adrenaline, and later getting the entire group to egg Rachel after it appears he might still be a good guy, even though the way he guiltily looks away seems to suggest otherwise (in fact, there apparently was an apology scene in what was supposed to be the following episode "Theatricality", but was cut because FOX decided to air it first.
    • Sebastian throwing a slushee laced with rocksalt at Blaine which caused much damage to the eye. Even though he intended to hit Kurt, it was quite possibly worse than anything any character on the show has done.
    • The guys at Karofsky's new school crossed this when they outed him as gay, drove him to attempt suicide, and mocked him on Facebook even after his suicide attempt.
  • Narm Charm: The unabashedly cheery Christmas Episode aside from the Rachel/Finn subplot should have by all means been a non-stop Glurge fest, and yet it was one of the sweetest episodes of the series, especially when Artie stood up.
    • A lot of the things Finn says or does can be this as well. Him singing "I'll Stand By You" to a sonogram would have been hilarious if done by anyone else, but Finn manages to get away with it somehow.
      • Especially since his mother catches him doing it, forcing him to tell her about the baby.
  • Never Live It Down:
    • In-Universe, Santana's "Yeast-i-stat" commercial garnered her a lot of attention in New York, to the point that several patrons of the diner she works at lost their appetites for bread after seeing her.
    • Another In-Universe example is people are still making jabs about Tina putting vapo-rub on Blaine's chest while he was passed out
    • Fandom will probably never forgive Finn for inadvertently causing Santana to be outed not only to the entire school, but the entire town. It just goes to show how selective fandom's memory can be, since Finn only snapped back after being bullied by Santana all day and had no idea that he was being filmed by someone who was out to get Sue Sylvester.
    • Fandom will also probably never forget Will blackmailing a student into joining the club by planting drugs in his locker.
  • Nightmare Fuel:
    • The episode "Furt", where we already know that Karofsky is gay and has feelings for Kurt, but the way he stands really close and does a glary/smile thing, along with winking. It looks a little perverse and the audience are left a little violated, along with Kurt.
    • Brittany's throwaway lines that sound an awful lot like she was raped, including being visited by aliens. And what it feels like to be roofied.
    • Brittany lifting Artie onto the bed, camera fade without consent.
    • Blaine's drunken near-rape of Kurt in "The First Time".
    • Santana being outed after some girl overheard her argument with Finn in the hallway—where he tells her to come out the closet—and the girl told her uncle, who is running against Sue for the Congress seat and targeted Santana's lesbianism in a smear ad against Sue. For many a closeted teenager, being outed is bad enough, but for it to happen on TELEVISION in front of millions makes it nightmare fuel.
    • EVERYTHING about Karofsky's storyline in "On My Way". Hey, being outed not bad enough for you? How about your homophobic classmates spamming the Internet with hate-speech about you until you hang yourself? And just in case you could sleep, have Karofsky's dad finding his near-dead body and screaming in anguish. And even while in recovery, his mom thinks that he's mentally ill for being gay and his best friend Azimio cuts contact.
    • The effects of Bulimia on Marley. She spends her first five episodes looking warm and bright and cheerful, but once Kitty gets in her head and makes her start vomiting all her meals up she gets less energetic, more pale, and more frail. It all comes to a climax during the Gangnam Style performance: the music starts to cut out near the end, the camera is at weird angles, parts of the song speed up or slow down, and at the end Marley is so malnourished that she collapses onstage. The worst part is the insight to the skewed priorities she's developed, and how such a simple line can become really disturbing.

Marley: I'm so hungry. But at least I fit into my dress.

      • For added points, when they lose Sectionals due to Marley fainting, Tina promptly blames her for them losing.
    • "Feud": It's supposed to be played for laughs, and is never mentioned again, but Sue putting 30 credit cards and a house loan in Blaine's name, singlehandedly ruining his parents' credit, simply because he wouldn't join the Cheerios is quite disturbing.
    • "Shooting Star". A gun goes off at the school. Most of the club is holed up in the choir room, but Brittany is stuck alone in a washroom and Tina is outside the school and can't contact anyone. Marley tries to text her mom, but Millie can't answer because her phone is too far away and she can't risk grabbing it - and Marley starts assuming the worst.
      • The eerie silence during that scene just makes the whole thing worse. If you weren't spending that entire scene on the edge of your seat, wondering when the shooter would burst through the choir room door, gun in hand, then congratulations, you have Nerves of Steel.
      • The metronome going the whole time gave the atmosphere a whole new level of scary.
    • Kurt getting gay bashed in "Bash". Oh my god.
    • Sue has a Room Full of Crazy dedicated to all the people she hates. A large portion of it is dedicated to the New Directions and Will personally. This would be funny, but we see the words "Missing" in a couple of places. We knew Sue hated the Glee Club, but she also might be more than a little unhinged.
      • This also includes a life size doll of Al Roker, which seems plain ol' crazy and weird until you remember that back in "I Do", not only do Quinn and Santana know about him, but Quinn starts the conversation by outright naming him as maybe the only nice guy in the world. It's disturbing to think what that doll may have been used for before or since.
    • Look at Kurt's actions towards Finn during the first season through the latter's eyes. Way back in "Preggers", Finn thought that Kurt was asking him out and politely declined. ("Thanks, but I already have a date to the prom. I'm flattered you asked, though, I know dances are important to gay teens.") To which Kurt said he wasn't gay, but he later sings a love song while looking intently at Finn the whole time, plots to break up his relationship with the girl they both think is pregnant with his child, and works to ruin his opinion of Rachel, who Finn genuinely does have a connection with. It rapidly becomes an open secret in the whole Glee club not only that Kurt's crushing on Finn, but that it's so one-sided since Clingy Jealous Girl Quinn doesn't even bother giving Kurt a single verbal warning. Finn finds out that his mom is dating Kurt's dad when she tells him they're all moving in together, but not until after Kurt asks his opinion on interior decorating for what Finn doesn't yet know will be their shared bedroom. Finn's "faggy" reaction to Kurt's full-on interior design mockup is a very bad word choice, but no one ever seems to consider that not only does Finn have a genuine right to be upset at the situation in general - everyone acts like Finn's honest concern for his personal space from the guy who's rampantly crushing on him is simply homophobia and loudly condemns him for it.
    • In "Child Star", Sue goes into one of her trademark rampages that ends with her slapping a random student for no reason.
    • Throughout the show, there are a disturbing number of implications that Santana is bulimic. Made worse by the show passing them off as jokes and the episode dealing with Sue making the Cheerios basically live off of super unhealthy shakes that seem to actively encourage eating disorders.
  • Non Sequitur Scene:
    • At one point the club is performing one of their songs onstage in front of a closed curtain. At the climax of the song, the curtain opens and an entire gospel choir is revealed and sings along with the cast. This is never brought up again.
    • "Make 'em Laugh" from "The Substitute" was just a dream sequence Will had from being sick and watching Singin in The Rain too much.
    • From the same episode, the Umbrella/Singing in the Rain mash-up featuring the cast performing elaborate choreography in front of a waterfall in their school auditorium. The writers don't even bother trying to explain this.
    • Several of the Dalton numbers feel rather shoehorned into the show. "Baby, It's Cold Outside" had little purpose aside from being Yaoi fanservice, and "Bills, Bills, Bills" came out of nowhere after the commercial break with Regionals practice as its only Hand Wave.
    • And while the shippers loved it, Kurt and Blaine's slow-mo run down a hallway seems a little out of place. It also seemed that way to Chris Colfer, who said that the scene "was too gay even for me."
    • Near the end of "Guilty Pleasures", an episode about... guilty pleasures, Tina reveals her love of Small Wonder. By dressing as Vicki. And chasing Kitty down the hallway.
    • Most of the songs in "Puppet Master" were this. Half of them were gas-induced hallucinations, while the performance of Ylvis' "The Fox" at the end was completely unrelated to anything else in the episode, and was probably included to cash in the song's success.
    • The appearances of Sugar and Joe in season 6. They vanished at the end of season 4 without an explanation, and appeared for single-scene cameos without any explanation for their return either.
    • "Suddenly Seymour" from the Season 6 premiere. It's supposed to get Rachel's spirit, but it's the most random, off-the-wall song choice. Literally any song could be used for the same purpose.
  • No Yay:
    • How some viewers reacted to the Will/Sue relationship in "Funk." Basically, if your reaction wasn't Foe Yay it was probably this.
    • And Karofsky kissing Kurt in "Never Been Kissed", for some people.
    • Kurt/Blaine for some people. Especially after "The First Time" and "Dance With Somebody".
    • Will kissing Coach Beiste in the same episode. Namely because Will's actions seemed predatory rather than endearing.
    • Also how many viewers reacted to Will and Terri hooking up in "The Substitute".
    • Finchel quickly became this due to Seasonal Rot.
    • Season 4 gave us Sam/Brittany. Brittana fans immediately called for Chord Overstreet's head.
    • In the final season, there was Blaine/Karofsky. The second it was announced they would be canon in the wake of Kurt and Blaine's second breakup, Klaine shippers were pissed.
  • Older Than They Think: In 2003, there was a movie named Camp about a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits performing their own elaborately produced renditions of famous songs. The lead character was the Big Man on Campus who not only had to make a Betty and Veronica decision between the Genki Girl and the Alpha Bitch, but was also pursued by a Dogged Nice Guy Camp Gay who had trouble taking "no" for an answer. Camp also took on the darker aspects of kids seeking refuge in the performing arts with little chance of a stable future and had definite shades of Earn Your Happy Ending. Camp not only featured a Cast Full of Gay, and spoke frankly about middle schoolers having sex, but managed to avert Hollywood Homely and Dawson Casting by using real (mostly amateur) theater teens. Glee still faces heavy scrutiny from Media Watchdogs for having one Camp Gay character and a bunch of 20-something actors discuss sexual themes while playing high schoolers. It's funny to think how the mega-hit TV show struggles with some issues when a tiny, independent film managed to take them on six years earlier.
  • Portmanteau Couple Name:
    • Wemma or Wilma (Will/Emma).
    • Finchel (Finn/Rachel).
    • Quick (Quinn/Puck).
    • Puchel/Puckleberry (Puck/Rachel).
    • Faberry/Quinchel (Quinn/Rachel).
    • Winn (Will/Finn).
    • Take a wild guess what Finn/Puck is. Hint: it ain't "Pinn".
    • Puckurt/Purt/Pummel (Puck/Kurt).
    • Furt (Finn/Kurt).
      • Kinn is also becoming popular among Finn/Kurt fans for reasons that become quite obvious once one tries to say "Furt" out loud.
    • Bike (Brittany/Mike).
    • Mark Salling requested that fans make Puck/Artie videos because "Puck + Artie = Party!" My God... He's one of them!
    • Brittana (Brittany/Santana), or "Santittany", according to Naya Rivera.
    • Puckleberry Finn! OT3
    • Puckleberry Quinn!
    • Tartie or Artina (Tina/Artie).
      • Meanwhile, shippers for the actors who play them dub them "McHalowitz".
    • Quartie or Quarter (Quinn/Artie).
    • Changel (Mike Chang/Kurt Hummel).
    • St. Berry (Rachel/Jesse).
    • St. Fabray (Quinn/Jesse).
    • There already exists Skurt or Kum for Sam/Kurt fans.
      • Or the lesser used "Hevans".
    • Shell (Shelby/Will).
    • Chachang (Tina/Mike), also called Chang Squared, Changcest, or Tike. Chitty Chitty Chang Chang was used on the actual show in "Prom Queen".
    • Sack (Sam/Puck).
    • Sinn (Sam/Quinn) as of "Duets". Most fans use Fabrevans or Quam.
      • Sinn was also used for Finn/Sam for a while, but those fans have begun to use Hudevans due to the tumblr tag being filled with "Vampire Diaries, watches, and pornstars".
    • Arittany (Artie/Brittany).
      • More commonly, Bartie - and the less-flattering "Barfie" from the Brittana shippers.
    • Klaine is used for Kurt/Blaine. Though Blurt is also a used alternative.
    • Due to the events of "Never Been Kissed", "Karommel" has been offered for Karofsky/Kurt...although "Kurtofsky" is more popular.
    • Raine for the Crack Pairing of Rachel and Blaine, who kissed twice in "Blame it on the Alcohol".
      • Blainchel is another common name for those two.
    • Blam/Slaine (Blaine/Sam).
      • Kublam for Kurt/Sam/Blaine threesome.
    • Save for Sam/Karofsky and Blainofsky for Blaine/Karofsky have both taken off.
    • Mersamchel for the Mercedes/Sam/Rachel friendship in "Prom Queen", which was used in the Glee-Wind for that episode.
    • Lauren/Puck reference on the show is "Pizes". Fans call them "Luck".
    • Samcedes (Sam/Mercedes) which is now canon.
    • Rory and Karofsky had one long before Rory appeared on the show. So long before that they didn't know what Damian's character's name would be. The shippers went with Irishofsky.
    • After "Extraordinary Merry Christmas", Smory, Sory, and Flanavans have all been popular names for Sam/Rory.
    • Seblaine or Blastian for Sebastian/Blaine; yes, shippers of this do exist. Add Kurt to the mix and it becomes Seklaine.
    • Kurtbastian or Sebkurt for Sebastian/Kurt.
    • Sebofsky is Sebastian/Karofsky. Though they're also known as MeerCub, since Kurt called Sebastian a meerkat and Dave said he was a bear cub.
    • Rory/Sugar is Sugory or, occasionally, Sweet Potatoes.
    • After their performance of "Smooth Criminal", some fans have taken to calling the coupling of Sebastian and Santana 'Sebtana'. Its an interesting pairing, considering that both characters are gay, and as Sebastian's actor Grant Gustin noted, Santana's coming out story has been a pretty important one for her. This, combined with Sebastian's haughty air and confidence, make it seem terribly unlikely that the couple will ever come to fruition.
    • Faberritana as a combination of Quinn/Rachel/Santana/Brittany often crops out in the Les Yay part of the fandom
      • So does any combination out of those: Quinntana (Quinn/Santana), Quitt or Fierce (Quinn/Brittany), Pezberry (Santana/Rachel) and Pieberry (Brittany/Rachel)
    • Rorbastian is Rory/Sebastian.
    • Rormony is Rory/Harmony.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Quinn and Rachel for some. Dave for others.
  • Retroactive Recognition: Go on, watch Criminal Minds or Julie and Julia and catch yourself going "Hey, it's Sue Sylvester!"
    • Or the episodes of Two and A Half Men where she played Alan, and then Charlie's therapist.
    • Or the movies Paul or The 40-Year-Old Virgin.
    • In the first two Warbler performances, fans of Power Rangers: Samurai might spot the gold ranger singing next to Blaine.
  • Romantic Plot Tumor: Rachel and Finn's wedding storyline in Season 3 is very hated. Most fans were praying that it didn't happen. While Quinn's accident put a bit of a halt to it, the storyline dragged on for the rest of the season.
    • Blaine's growing Base Breaker status in Season 3 turned Klaine into this as well.
  • Ron the Death Eater: To put it as delicately as possible, some sections of fandom seem to be under the impression that certain characters are nothing BUT vices.
    • The worst would have to be Blaine Anderson, since some of the more intense fans that dislike the Kurt/Blaine ship will often use him cheating on Kurt because he wasn't there to make him not cheat or urging Kurt to have sex with him in the back seat of a car as a justification for their portrayal of him as an irredeemable sociopath, ignoring the scenes that show him feeling like he is such a bad person for hurting Kurt that he almost goes back to Dalton Academy or making it clear that Kurt was right in that their first time shouldn't be fumbling in a back seat. In regard to his infidelity, telling Kurt that what really matters is that he needed him around and he wasn't there after Kurt kept asking about who it was with is not the same as pretending it wasn't his fault, since it's not like Kurt absolutely needed that information in order to hold Blaine accountable. The fact that Blaine just confessed to cheating on him is enough, and there's also the fact that Blaine's choice of words were more referencing things like Kurt rejecting his calls or their phone date being met with a dial tone after Kurt got a call from a good gossip source and then told Blaine he would call him later... but these fans don't seem to care when Kurt gives one of those fake apologies that does put the blame on the other person ("I'm really sorry if this made you upset!") after Blaine finds out about him sharing flirty texts with a boy he met at the music store in "Dance With Somebody". As for their first time, Kurt being pulled on top of him means that Blaine was in no position to force him to have sex, and Blaine's hands were mostly touching his arm and his face lightly whilst attempting to get Kurt to listen to him rather than actually going "south of the equator". If this was the Attempted Rape that fans often spin it into being, Kurt's anger about the situation would have been more focused on the how and not the when.
    • Special mention goes to Blaine's parents. We've never seen them, and no relatively little about them, other than Blaine doesn't have a very strong relationship with them. The "logical" interpretation of this is that they are vicious homophobes who abuse Blaine worse than the Dursley beat Harry.
    • Adam, Kurt's temporary love interest from season 4. Despite being shown as rather sweet and caring, some Klainers seem to twist him at times into being a huge jerk simply because he interferes with their ship.
  • Scapegoat Creator: Ryan Murphy is often the first person to get any flack for anything disliked on the show. Never mind that he not only doesn't write every episode but there are two other creators who are involved. Although, to be fair, he tends to be the one most likely to play Lying Creator.
  • The Scrappy: Even in Glee's incredibly divided fanbase, where just about everybody is a Base Breaker, you'd still be hard-pressed to find viewers who like Jacob Ben-Israel or Terri's sister Kendra.
    • There are very few fans who like Will, and even most of those who do seem to agree with the general consensus that he is clueless, naïve and generally a pretty bad teacher, yet the characters (and by extension, the writers) often treat him as if he can do no wrong.
    • Terri was this when she was on the show. Granted, she was intended by the writers to be a jerk and a villain, but more of a Love to Hate type. Instead, she was just hated all-around, and viewers seemed to like episodes more the less she was in them. Oddly after she left, this reversed and she was quite well liked by the fandom, but more because Jessalyn Gilsig is actually a very good actress and it was sad to see her go.
    • A lot of fans who didn't watch The Glee Project find some of the characters created for those actors, and their insertion into longer-running storylines focusing on existing characters, rather irritating.
      • Rory Flanagan, largely due to the fact that he was never really developed beyond "the Irish character".
      • Joe, the dreadlocked guy, while not hated, is not particularly liked, which in a show with so many Ensemble Darkhorses is not a good sign. Getting a boner while helping Quinn with her physical therapy didn't particularly win him any fans.
  • Shipping Bed Death: Rachel and Finn's relationship is seen this way by a lot of people. In the front thirteen of the first season, it was so obvious that they would get together, so the delay, the subsequent breakup when they did get together and the way the writing was stacked against Jesse and Quinn was especially frustrating, especially after Ryan Murphy promised they'd stay together in Season 2 to move the focus to other couples.
  • Ship Sinking:
    • Rachel and Puck in Episodes 8 and 17. Probably not going to stop the shippers. Murphy has also said in an interview that he couldn't see them together.
    • Finn and Quinn in "Sectionals", when Finn learns who the real father of Quinn's baby is. At least it seemed like it did until mid-Season 2, when they got back together only for the ship to be sunk again.
    • Episode 21 sinks Rachel/Jesse pretty definitively...or at least it did until he came back in Season 2, though it never got far off the ground even then.
    • Santana's coming-out essentially sunk Santana/Puck and any other ships that had her matched with boys.
    • Season 3 involuntarily sinks Finchel and Klaine every time it tries to show how great they are.
  • Ships That Pass in the Night: Rory has never interacted with Harmony or Sebastian, and the only time he was close to either would have been a brief moment during competitions. However both the Rormony and Rorbastian ships are strong. At least Rormany is justified, since it's basically a carry-over of Damsay from The Glee Project.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat: Up to Eleven due in part to the Love Dodecahedron nature of the show and a "passionate" and "devoted" fan base. In the Glee fandom, choosing an OTP is akin to enlisting in a nation’s armed forces and marching into battle. Forums can become warzones at the drop of a dime and the ensuing conflicts make some of history’s bloodiest battles seem tame. There are actually ship alliances, spies, and even strategic initiatives for things like winning polls for a specific ships (either through spamming or the use of bots) and character bashing.
  • So Bad It's Good: Trouty Mouth.
    • And while we're on the subject some consider the show this
  • Strangled by the Red String:
    • Tina and Mike Chang, who never interacted in season one (Mike only spoke one line) and were mostly put together for Asian jokes. Since then they have at least gotten some relationship development, although much of it was offscreen.
    • Mercedes and Sam. Enforced as Sam's actor temporarily left the series due to contract disputes right after Mercedes and Sam got together. When he returned, the writers treated their relationship like some tragic love story. Because it had next to no development, it was hard for most viewers to buy into that and get invested in the relationship.
    • Brittany and Artie started off this way, and earned the show lots of Internet Backdraft from angry Brittany/Santana fans. It became clearer over time that Artie was intended as a Romantic False Lead, and the whole relationship was designed to force Santana to realize her feelings for Brittany.
    • One that carries some Unfortunate Implications: Sam was originally created to be a love interest for Kurt, but was changed to be straight when Ryan Murphy apparently noticed chemistry between him and Quinn so strong that it just couldn't be denied (and which many fans have been quick to point out doesn't seem to come across onscreen). To his credit, he did also create another character as a love interest for Kurt afterwards.
    • While others saw it as something the show had been building to for quite a while, this is how more cynical viewers saw it when Kurt and Blaine got together in "Original Song". They felt that the scene was sappy and inconsistent with Blaine's previous characterization, since the show seemed to be trying to convince the viewers that the two were Better as Friends by having Blaine fall for other people and turn down Kurt's advances while excelling in a mentor-like role. There is also a subgroup who feels that while their pairing up was to be expected from a Doylist perspective, it happened in a way that was premature for their characterization from a Watsonian perspective, resulting in an early Shipping Bed Death. And that's all that needs to be said about that.
      • Kurt and Blaine's storyline in the last season also counts. After Kurt realizes that being pressured into getting engaged is never a solid foundation to marriage - considering that Blaine's proposal in "Love, Love, Love" is such a Grand Romantic Gesture that it kinda comes across as emotional manipulation because he literally just back together with Kurt and it causes Kurt to be so overwhelmed by the entire situation that he's not exactly in the right frame to say anything else but yes - and officially calls it off, he suddenly realizes that Blaine was the love of his life and then nothing is done about the oh so serious relationship problems that caused the break-up in the first place once they are dragged back together. "A Wedding" shows Kurt telling his new boyfriend Walter, one of the more blatant Romantic False Leads in the series, that he's going with Blaine, to which Walter says that he understands and to savor young love despite that being the very thing that killed their former engagement ("I love you too, but... we're kids"). To drive the point that Kurt and Blaine belong to each other home, Brittany includes - in her own wedding vows, no less - thanks to them for their inspiring path of pursuing his love and living with his sexuality that helped her come to terms with hers. (Never mind that Brittany might be the only queer character in the series who never displayed any angst over her sexuality and her interest in Kurt's only appeared briefly in the first season when she was his beard.)
    • More broadly, the show has been criticized for turning to these repeatedly to create tension between Finn/Rachel, Kurt/Blaine, and Brittany/Santana. They'd split up, often by cheating on or to hook up with a Romantic False Lead out of the blue, and spend half a season needing to re-realize their true feelings for each other.
  • Straw Man Has a Point:
    • Even if Sue's techniques are not the most correct, she is almost always proven right.
    • There is a grain of truth in Bryan Ryan's notion that kids shouldn't plan their lives around succeeding in the arts. The problem is that he doesn't stop at "have a back-up plan," but suggests that they should just give up without having any idea of what their chances are.
    • At least one of the Tea Party members in "Homecoming" talks sense, when she says that Puck shouldn't call them losers if he wants them to listen to them.
  • Squick: Perhaps not for everyone, but Figgins getting sneezed on in slow motion was perhaps a little Squick-y for some.
  • Super Couple: Blaine and Kurt are listed on the trope page. Their first kiss alone caused pretty much the entire LGBT-friendly world to rejoice. The actual LGBTQ world, however, had more varied opinions.
  • Tastes Like Diabetes: The Rachel/Kurt friendship scenes come across this way to some. For roughly the first half of Season 1, they were frenemies, and their rivalry included struggles for solos and for Finn. Then, they made up and became friends, which would fine except that there were some who actually enjoyed their previous rivalry. And even the people who liked seeing Kurt and Rachel as friends eventually started to feel like their scenes together started getting overly-sappy and repetitive. To elaborate, the standard formula for a Kurt/Rachel scene basically started to become the following:

"You're so talented!" "No, you're so talented!" *cue Wicked song* *hug*

    • Many Aesops and character-to-character moments come across this way to some people. The Kurt/Rachel interaction may be the biggest, Tastes Like Diabetes instigator, but there are arguably a lot of others.
  • This Is Your Premise on Drugs: Fame on uppers. Or maybe hallucinogens. Alternately, High School Musical off its antidepressants.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: "Audition" seems to set up an intense rivalry between Quinn and Santana over the position of Head Cheerleader, including the famous catfight in the hallway, which seems like it will be a big deal that season (confirmed by the creators' comments). Nothing comes of it. Quinn offhandedly mentions she needs to keep Santana off her back in "Duets", but nothing to this effect has ever been seen on screen, and, so far, nothing else has come of what initially appeared to be a pretty significant plot development.
    • The Dalton Arc could have been a legitimately interesting side-plot by showing how Blaine's conflict over "running away" drives him to overcompensate in misguided attempts to help Kurt. Instead, Blaine barely got any characterization because 1) the writers kept Pandering to the Base of rabid Yaoi Fangirls, and 2) at least half of the Dalton scenes were songs. And not even relevant ones.
    • Dave Karofsky's suicide attempt for sure, because of the Klaine Fan Dumb and the writers' They Just Didn't Care attitude. Hell, they didn't even mention it in the "Previously On..." in the episode after it.
    • "Big Brother" definitely has this problem. They had a plot perfectly set up in Quinn's car crash aftermath which ended up being almost completely sidelined in favor of bringing in drama with Blaine and his brother.
    • The Sue Sylvester Bowl Shuffle sets up Dave's redemption and his eventual joining New Directions. That got lost in RM's infatuation with his Marty Stu, Blaine...
  • Ugly Cute: When Karofsky isn't being a douche and all ugly with hate, he's actually not too bad looking and has a nice smile. (This is pretty much because Max Adler is, in fact, hot, at least to those who go for the muscly types. And really nice.)
  • Unfortunate Implications:
    • The majority of the girls in the Jane Addams halfway house are black.
    • Kurt has been accused of being an unflattering stereotype of gay people. While Kurt is commended for his courage in not hiding his sexuality and standing up to adversity, he is also rather disliked by many gay viewers for being hard to identify with due to his extreme Camp Gay tendencies or criticized for doing more harm than good for representation of gay people in the media. On top of that is the way he's seen as a mouthpiece for controversial views expressed by some portions of the gay community that are not necessarily shared by the rest of its members.
    • Kurt's behavior in "Grilled Cheesus" was treated as unreasonable, but was it, really? It would be one thing to tell friends they're not allowed to pray, but they went beyond praying - they made a big show of being religious in his dad's waiting room, despite the fact that no one except Carol, Finn and maybe Mercedes actually knew Burt, and Rachel, the person in the room who was the least close to Burt (tied with Quinn) was the one who go the solo over his bedside. Also, Mercedes wouldn't accept Kurt's atheism until he went to church with her, but Kurt is supposed to be the intolerant one? No wonder some atheists got really pissed off.
    • When what happened with Puck and Quinn is revealed in "Journey", it's very clear that Quinn does not want to have sex with him and he keeps trying to talk her into it, altering her state of mind with alcohol. Despite that, the issue of rape is never brought up.
    • The main plot of "Asian F" is pretty racist, especially since an A- doesn't even affect GPA, which just makes it clear that this plot is feeding into Asian stereotypes regarding overly strict parents who push their kids to become doctors. The Asian jokes about Mike and Tina's relationship are also moving toward Unfortunate Implications, if not there already. At first the "dim sum with your mom" jokes were a cute gag, but since then it's become the defining feature of Tina and Mike's relationship and their character development this season, and no scene featuring them can get by without an Asian joke. When Tina asked Mike why "everything has to be Asian", she may as well have been speaking for the fans who wonder why they can't be more than a Token Ship.
    • The "Sexy" episode seemed to give the message that abstinence is completely unrealistic for everyone. Rachel even gets called "frigid" when she says that she doesn't want to have sex in high school. It does appear that it's just Holly Holiday pushing that angle, but no one ever calls her out on it. Emma technically does, but her opposing argument is just as extremist as Holly's, so it really isn't effective. The anti-abstinence messages continue in "The First Time", where Artie encourages three people, including one TEACHER, to lose their virginity just because he thinks it'll make their performances in West Side Story more realistic. When Rachel later objects to this, he tells her that she must have a "strange aversion to fun." Even worse, at the end of the episode everyone thanks him for being such a good director, with no mention of how inappropriate his behavior was.
    • Kurt's speech to Blaine who is questioning his sexuality in "Blame It On The Alcohol", where he states that bisexuality doesn't exist and that men claiming to be bisexual are really just closeted gay people. While it could just be dismissed as Kurt holding the Jerkass Ball, and Blaine does call him out on his insensitivity, the fact that Kurt is validated at the end of the episode combined with his usual history of being seen as an Author Avatar regarding LGBT issues was seen by many viewers as a case of the show being biphobic. Not helping were comments from Ryan Murphy made soon after regarding the fact that Blaine is 100% gay that "it’s very important to young kids that they know this character [Blaine] is one of them", as if bisexual kids don't matter. Especially considering male bisexuality has even less representation in the media than male homosexuality does.
      • The controversy got reignited after "Tina In the Sky With Diamonds", where Santana spends half of her courtship with Dani panicking over having no "real" experience since she dated a bisexual woman, and the other half sighing in relief that she doesn't have to worry about her girlfriend "straying for penis". Between implying that bisexuals aren't "real" members of the LGBT community, claiming that they're unfaithful and promiscuous by nature, and wrongfully smearing Brittany's character (Brittany didn't even end the relationship between she and Santana--Santana did), viewers got angry.
    • The storyline about Quinn trying to get Beth back was criticized by adoption advocates for giving a bad image of open adoptions, as well as just factual inaccuracy (i.e. once the birth parents sign away their parental rights they're gone for good, so if the adoptive parent is declared to be "unfit", the child is taken into foster care, not given to the birth parents). They petitioned the show to do a PSA dispelling myths about adoption; so far, nothing has come of it, but the controversial storyline also seems to have been wrapped up.
    • There was a warning before "The First Time" and none before "On My Way". The former had two couples, one heterosexual, one homosexual, have consensual sex. The latter had a teenager attempt suicide.
  • Unintentionally Sympathetic:
    • Finn in "Theatricality", who essentially got thrown out of his own home for using a bad word to refer to Kurt's interior design choices. We're supposed to hate him because he uses an anti-gay slur, but Kurt had been pursuing him over a long period of time knowing he was straight, even to the point of encouraging their parents to get together because he would have more opportunity to seduce Finn if they were stepbrothers. Kurt gets called out for his part in this situation later on, and it is also established to be a bad habit of Finn's: using offensive words when he's frustrated (i.e., calling Brittany stupid, using a slur to describe Sue's baby [who has Down Syndrome], etc.).
    • Also, Quinn. Yes, she starts out a bully who cheated on her boyfriend with his best friend and then lied to said boyfriend that he was the father of the resulting baby and then made him help pay her medical bills. However, she is only sixteen when all this happens, with two deeply religious and conservative parents who kick her out of her home when they find out. The best friend, a trouble-making bad boy, fed her alcohol until she agreed to sleep with him, and the timeline suggests that the cheating occurred early on in her relationship with the boyfriend, who cheats on her twice before he knows about her own indiscretion. As a result, she is one of the biggest reasons for the many splits in the fandom.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Unnecessary Makeover: Rachel had one in Season One, which gets lampshaded by Finn. It happens again in Season Four with a lot of fans finding it that way. It's hard to argue against it, considering it does change her appearance from Rachel Berry to pretty much Lea Michele.
    • Even her own self agrees it's an unnecessary makeover when sings a duet with herself.
  • Unpopular Popular Character: Rachel.
  • Values Dissonance: Many international viewers have expressed surprise that this show portrays teachers hugging their students, something forbidden in the UK but mostly [2] common in US schools.
  • Viewer Gender Confusion: Some viewers thought Coach Beiste was played by a male crossdresser. In fact, she is played by a woman, Dot Jones. And on the other side of the gender spectrum, more than a few viewers thought Kurt was a girl at first due to his high-pitched voice and somewhat feminine facial features. Now that his actor is older and more well-established, it's less common, though it still happens on occasion for first-time watchers.
  • What an Idiot!: Hiring Terri as the school nurse.
    • It's a wonder Dave didn't just blurt out, 'I didn't kiss Kurt in the locker room!' There's actually a very plausible denial he could have given for checking out Sam's bottom. Namely, Sam was getting a drink out of a water fountain. Dave was thirsty and looked to see who was at the fountain. He saw, and then, continued walking until he found another one. If Santana thought that his eyes were specifically on the bottom, that's probably because that's where hers were. Of course, it probably doesn't help that scene was played so subtly that, even knowing Dave's gay, this troper didn't even realise that's what he was doing until Santana spelled it out.
    • Sure, Kurt, give the guy who assaulted your boyfriend the only evidence of his wrongdoing. Without showing it to anyone who could do something about it. "Now your teammates know what kind of a person you are"? No. They don't. Because they haven't heard the evidence.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?: The way so many "family values" groups reacted to the "Push It" number and the negative portrayal of the celibacy club in Episode 2 is a bit more understandable when you realize that a lot of parents of younger children were under the mistaken impression that Glee was High School Musical: The TV Series. (which had nothing to do with the marketing of the show, but everything to do with the surface similarities - musical comedies set in high schools! - and general public ignorance about musical theatre not always being a "family friendly" medium).
    • If the Parents Television Council's uproar about the GQ cover and the more recent one lambasting Lea Michele's choice to appear in a low-cut photo on Cosmo are anything to go by, people are still not getting it. This was even unintentionally lampshaded by the people in the latter case, who said "Lea Michele may be an adult, but to pretend that she doesn't know her fans are 11 is just ignorance." Why should an actress on a show that has had subplots about teen pregnancy and when to lose your virginity, jokes about oral sex, a former teacher turning to drug dealing, and students taking uppers to do better in competitions be expected to cater to 11-year-olds?
    • It doesn't help that Claire's, a store famous for cheap jewlery aimed at pre-teens, now sells a small ammount of Glee merchandise. Including make up sets for Rachel and Quinn, Team Finn and Team Puck necklaces, bracelets, and even knee socks.
    • The fact that they play quite a few of the original and cover songs on Radio Disney REALLY doesn't help them change the idea.
  • What the Hell, Casting Agency?: Kevin McHale is one of the best dancers on the cast, but it's his character who's in a wheelchair.
    • It made a pretty interesting storyline/scene when he was daydreaming about being able to get up and dance, in the episode "Dream On". If the casting director had cast an actor who was actually handicapped, one can only imagine how that dance dream sequence would have gone.
  • The Woobie:
    • Kurt. So, so much. He lives in a homophobic town and attends a school where he's physically bullied everyday for his sexuality - most of the time in plain view of the teachers, who don't do anything about it - and has his first kiss stolen from him by a closeted homophobic bully. His mother is dead, and when his dad had a heart attack, he seemed to be always on the verge of a breakdown. Instead of offering the support he obviously needed however, his friends were judging him for his lack of belief in religion. He's constantly told that he isn't good enough for things, and he's recently found out that the love of his life cheated on him and that his father has cancer.
    • Sue, when her sister Jean dies.
    • Dave Karofsky divides people between the polar aspects of a Jerkass Woobie, but "Prom Queen" makes him a full-blown Woobie. He finally breaks down crying and apologizes to Kurt for his treatment of him, torn between his complicated feelings for him and his fear of coming out. Even Kurt looked like he wanted to give him a hug during that moment. By "Heart", he has a crush on Kurt, whom he tries to woo with an endearing series of gorilla-grams, but Kurt thought the gorilla-grams were from Blaine and turns Karofsky down when he finds out. Karofsky inadvertently outs himself to a guy from his new high school while spilling his heart out to Kurt. And then there's "On My Way", where he tries to kill himself. Wow.
    • Sam in "Rumours". His family currently lives in a motel because his father lost his job after the economy tanked, he is the sole source of income for his entire family, and was forced to sell his guitar (though the Glee club bought it back for him), and his family shares one room, including his little brother and sister. If you didn't even try to shed a tear during this episode, you probably don't have a soul. It comes to a head when Kurt and Quinn are caught coming out of the motel with him by Finn and Rachel and are immediately accused of cheating on their respective boyfriends, despite the fact that they are helping Sam take care of his siblings. It gets even worse in "Prom Queen", where Sam says his birthday was last week. So on top of all his friends accusing him of being a cheating slut while he's homeless and trying to take care of his family, his friends forgot his birthday.
    • Rory. Irish Exchange student far from home who gets beat up and bullied on a near-daily basis.
  1. ↑ He dismisses the obligatory claims that Kurt's stepping out on him, but it does raise alarming enough suspicions for Blaine to go and angrily confront Elliott that Kurt is his fiancé, not his - however, all it takes is Elliott reassuring him that Kurt loves him for that issue to be dropped entirely.
  2. ↑ prohibited in some schools, yes
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