Happy Tree Friends/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Lots of characters have different perspectives from fans.
    • Is Cuddles a troublemaker who wants others to do dangerous activities, or does he want others to have fun and is unaware of how dangerous stunts can be?
    • Is Lumpy a dimwitted moose that is a threat to civilization, or is he just trying to help his friends, but keeps on making careless mistakes that lead to their deaths?
    • Is Petunia a true Neat Freak, or did she suffer a severe illness that soon led her to keeping everything germ free and organized?
    • Is Pop a truly neglectful parent, or does he really care about his son and just simply makes careless mistakes (similarily to Lumpy)?
    • Is Flaky a mentally unstable character that has a load of fears, a character that cares about her friends but is scared about facing any danger likely due to a tragic event she has faced, or is she the only sane character on the show that is trying to point out to everyone about all the dangers that happen?
    • Is Disco Bear a pervert who loves flirting with women, or is he just trying to act cool and just doesn't know how to?
    • Is Splendid a parttime "superhero" that doesn't care about his job, or does he try his best to help others, but simply causes more problems than he solves?
    • Is Lammy a psychopath who believes a pickle is killing others when it's really her doing all the killing, a killer that's trying to frame a pickle for all the killing, or is she a victim to Mr. Pickels who is really killing others and framing it on Lammy?
  • Non Sequitur Scene: The second half of A Sucker For Love. Most of the episode is a random montage of Nutty's fantasy about loving, dating, marrying, impregnating, murdering for, and dying old with a box of chocolates.
  • Complete Monster: Fliqpy - the insane part of Flippy.
    • Lumpy in the episode "We're Scrooged!" where he murders Toothy to sell his body parts to children. He later receives a Karmic Death.
    • The ants. Yes, Sniffles is trying to eat them, but that doesn't justify all the Cold-Blooded Torture they deliberately put him through before killing him.
  • Creator's Pet: Lumpy for a great part of the fanbase. It doesn't help that there were only two TV episodes Lumpy didn't appear in. In some of these he didn't have much of a role other than just to be there. This is only justified by the fact that the writers seem to work on a "take the dumbest character in the series and throw him into jobs that require brains and see what happens" system.
    • Another thing pushing him into Creator's Pet territory is that he doesn't die nearly as often as the rest of the cast. Too Dumb To Die, maybe?
  • Crosses the Line Twice: The whole point.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Girls just can't seem to stop pairing up Flippy with their original characters... or just Flaky.
    • Somewhat justified, as Flippy is only a Draco when he flips—otherwise, he's a sweetheart.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Flippy, Flaky and Splendid. There's enough pictures where they are hanging around, that people who knew nothing of the show would assume that it's only about them or as if they form the main trio of the show. The fandom created this perspective which imposed itself on the entire fanart and fanfiction. They're kinda like the Harry, Ron and Hermione or Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura, from the fandom's point of view. If you don't believe it, check out Pixiv, Zerochan and Deviantart. Some examples are here.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Flippy and Flaky is the most popular couple in the whole fandom . One of the reasons people prefer them together is that Flaky appears to be Flippy's closest friend despite that he has killed her several times and that she develops a phobia of him in the latter episodes. Although the fact that he has stopped killing her recently, for an unknown reason, and a few other hints imply that he may like her.
    • On the girls' part, even though Cuddles / Giggles and Handy / Petunia are official couples, in the anime fandom Giggles is commonly paired with Splendid, while Petunia is often paired with both Flippy and Shifty. Flaky is a Launcher of a Thousand Ships, as she's paired with almost every male character in the series (especially with Flippy, with which she makes the Fan-Preferred Couple). She's most commonly paired with Flippy, Nutty, Lumpy, Splendid, Splendont, Cuddles, or both Lifty and Shifty at the same time (although she's more often paired with Lifty, while Petunia is more often paired with Shifty).
    • On the Ho Yay part, Flippy/Splendid has the largest following, especially in the japanese fandom. One of the main reasons may be that people always wanted them to fight each other so that they could see who would win. In Japan, it is probably the most popular pairing, after Flippy/Flaky. Other common Ho Yay couples are: Nutty/ Sniffles, Splendid/Splendont, Lifty/Shifty, Good Flippy/Evil Flippy, Giggles/Petunia, Splendid with both Shifty and Lifty, Pop/Disco Bear, Lumpy/Russell and Lumpy/The Mole.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: In "Water You Wading For", Cuddles is attacked by a gator, which aired in 2000. Fast forward to 2016, where a boy was killed in Floirda by an gator at a Disney park.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The show's garnered a following in Japan.
  • Idiot Plot: Nearly every episode. Especially ones starring Lumpy.
  • Misaimed Fandom: The fact that there are quite a lot of people who make OC Tree Friends and pair them off with characters, just like in any other popular fandom, makes you wonder if they actually saw the show.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Lumpy crosses this in "We're Scrooged" when he kills Toothy and sells his body parts to children.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Particularly if any small children accidentally watch it. And some older viewers too, if they aren't into that sort of thing.
  • The Scrappy: Disco Bear for some. At first, only co-creator Rhode Montijo liked him, but the other staff members say they warmed up to Disco Bear considerably while making the TV series, in part because they enjoyed seeing him get killed.
    • Some veteran fans of the show see Lammy as a Scrappy because of her having a dark murderous side brought on by mental illness, something that's already been done with Flippy, making seem like the creators are trying to make that brand of psychopathic lightning that made Flippy so popular strike twice. Some rumors have started that Flippy is in fact cured (as evidenced by the fact he hasn't flipped out in years) - or, since On My Mind, getting better - meaning Lammy could be another kind of Scrappy altogether.
    • Let's just say that not a lot of people like the Ants.
    • Averted for Cro-Marmot. While he has close to zero fans, there aren't really any haters of him either. Seeing how he's more a setpiece than a character (and doesn't show up all that often anyway), the fanbase seems to be pretty much indifferent towards him.
  • Squick
  • Viewer Gender Confusion: Is Flaky a boy or girl? Fans and creators usually go with girl. Although Graff sometimes trolls the fanbase regarding Flaky's gender because he likes seeing fans fight over it.
    • Played for laughs in the episode Something Fishy, where Flaky's shown trying to decide which bathroom to go in. We never do find out the answer.
    • Although it's not really much of a mystery anymore since the creator has already stated a few times that she's a girl.
  • The Woobie: Depending on your tastes, pretty much everyone, but the most prominent being Flaky, who - unlike her sometimes blissfully unaware friends - responds with the appropriate amount of fear to the messes she ends up in. Runners up would be Toothy for his tendency to cry and Sniffles (and to a lesser extent, Petunia) for their often exceptionally brutal and prolonged deaths.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids??
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