Blue's Clues / YMMV

Adorkable:
- Steve is cheerful, friendly, and a little naive, with a tendency to start rambling things that may or may not make sense in the context of the episode.
- Joe is not far behind, his love for ducks, unpredictability, unstoppable creativity and general joy for everything that exists make him remembered very fondly by the fans of his era.
Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Some fans depict Steve and Joe as not brothers, but gay lovers. Which is contradicted by the series itself in the episode "Blue's First Holiday".
- Are Steve and Joe really as absent minded as they seem? Several moments imply that they are more intelligent and aware than they appear to be. Is it possible that they are intelligent men who function in peculiar ways? Are they really missing incredibly obvious clues, or are they playing with the viewer and trying to make them feel smart? Or perhaps the difference in the viewer's field of vision helps a little? As evidenced in "Blue Big Musical Movie" where Steve is only able to find the clue because it is out of the viewer's field of vision.
Broken Base: Fans well always argue about which of the distinct eras is the best. Steve Era or Joe Era? Classic Era or Blue's Room Era? Early Joe Era or Blue's Room Joe Era? All of these have specific in-fights that continue to this day.
Character Perception Evolution: When Steve left the series and his younger brother Joe became the new host, Joe was initially seen as an inferior replacement to him. As the years went on, people became more accepting of Joe when they decided that he had his own charm. Kids who grew up watching Donovan Patton's stint as Joe have no such bias about replacing Steve, and as people start realizing that the many changes made to the show around the time was not Patton's fault at all, they started to warm up to Joe. Today, the reception of Joe is now largely positive.
Common Knowledge:
- It's commonly spread that Blue is female and Magenta is male, and that was intentionally done to invert gender roles. That's incorrect. They're both female.
- During the show's original run, people assumed that Steve Burns was a Fred Rogers-type character who created and produced the show himself. This came from the fact that his character's name was also Steve. Although Burns did have a co-producer credit, he did not create the show.
Crossover Ship: There's some Ceri X Blue (Bleri) fans out there, due to both being smart problem-solving female dogs. Likewise, Blue X Courage is a fairly popular ship.
Diagnosed by the Audience: Steve is commonly theorized by fans to be on the autism spectrum. Among Steve's characteristics that fit the spectrum, the most visible are his fixation on anteaters, difficulties understanding social cues, need to follow a routine, blindness to sarcasm, problems with attention and coordination, and the fact that he has been stuck with the same type of clothing since his early childhood. In the reboot, he is revealed to have three friends who help him maintain a routine and work around his attention problems, which may remind some of how in real life some disabled/neurodiverse people are accompanied by support professionals to perform some tasks seen as basic for other people.
Discredited Meme: "Steve and Joe are schizophrenic/use drugs" theories/jokes will commonly be met with anger or annoyance. Especially because over time this type of theory started to be seen as a form of ableism and are in general considered annoying and oversaturated.
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Magenta didn't appear as often as the rest of the main characters but was just as popular with fans of the show. She ends up making more frequent appearances in the reboot. In fact, when the extended opening for the reboot was uploaded to Youtube, many of the comments (before the feature was disabled due to the Elsagate settlement in the fall of 2019) exclaimed joy when it was confirmed Magenta would be returning.
- Green Puppy appeared less frequently than Magenta and didn't have as much merchandise produced compared to her and of course, Blue, however she tends to be just as popular with the fans.
Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Blue is not a male puppy, and Magenta is not her sister, girlfriend ^note, nor best male friend. The rumors are so persistent that they bug fans.
Fan Nickname:
- Fans have dubbed the leitmotif that plays after all three clues are found "Race to the Thinking Chair". It's often associated with the version that plays when the host needs to skidoo back home.
- The yellow house (as it is referred to in the reboot synopses) is commonly called "the Blue's Clues House".
Fanon:
- The fictional Steve's last name was never mentioned, but many fans assume it's Burns (which would make Joe's full name Joe Burns).
- Steve and Joe's grandmother was never named and was just called "Grandma" on screen, some fans assume her name is "Rue" just like her actress.
Friendly Fandoms: Blue's Clues and Llan-ar-goll-en fans seem to overlap, thanks to both shows being about a live-action man and his animated female dog solving mysteries.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
- Hispanic American children adored this show, to the point where MTV Tr3s would occasionally air it, usually on holidays when children are off from school.
- When the UK Nick Jr. channel premiered, the localized version of Blue's Clues was the second-highest rated show (behind Magic Adventures of Mumfie). It continued to be popular in the UK as re-runs still aired, and it was one of the only shows left over from the network's original launch (the other two being Little Bill and Thomas & Friends).
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- At one point in "Blue's News," Steve and Blue jump into a chalkboard, whereupon Steve grabs a piece of chalk and starts drawing. Steve invented ChalkZone.
- Also, the fact that Blue and Steve can "skidoo" into the paintings by jumping into them. Sound familiar?
- In "Bluestock", They Might Be Giants guest appeared in the show. Less than two years later, former host Steve Burns did a Cover Up of their song "Dead".
- A purple kangaroo is a minor character in this show. A purple kangaroo would become a major character in another Nick Jr. show.
- After Blue's Big Musical Movie revealed she had a hidden talent for singing, this became a major part of Sidetable Drawer's character for the rest of the series. Her voice actress, Aleisha Allen, would later sing backup for School of Rock.
Ho Yay: A lot of adult watchers think of Magenta as Blue's girlfriend. Of course, it didn't help that a good amount of people thought that Blue was a boy.
Just Here for Godzilla: Even though the other elements of the show are well received enough, a lot of fans admit that Steve was the best thing about the show and tuned into it just for him alone.
Memetic Mutation:
- "There's a sock in a bakery?"
- Jokes about what happened to Steve after he left the show. Steve in general is a meme.
- "Steve Burns is Alive", which even became Steve's actual Twitter and Instagram handle.
- The Thinking Chair as well, which Steve owns.
- Steve addressing his "old friend" in the pilot episode of Blue's Clues & You will have a person immediately reply that they're crying.
- Both the Mailtime song and "We just got a letter!".
- Common parody jokes of the mailtime being junk mail or an eviction notice.
- Jokes about how Steve / Joe are just having an acid trip.
- "Look at you and look at all you have done and all you have accomplished" ^Explanation
- The "You" page on the Blue's Clues Wiki ^Explanation
Moe: Every character is absolutely adorable, especially the animal characters such as Blue, Magenta, and Periwinkle. Among the other residents in the Blue's Clues House, this tends to especially apply to Paprika and Sidetable Drawer.
Most Wonderful Sound:
- The noise that plays when a clue is found.
- "Let's put this into our Handy-Dandy..." (Audible Gleam) "...Notebook!" Ding!
- The music when heading to the Thinking Chair after finding the third clue. Especially if the last clue was in a location they skidooed to, since it includes an epic remix of the "Blue Skidoo, We Can Too" jingle.
Nightmare Retardant: The show is for young kids, so naturally there isn't really anything to be afraid of in "What Is Blue Afraid Of?". The shining example is when Mrs. Salt is terrified by photos that are just of zoomed in food.
No Problem with Licensed Games: The series had several CD-ROM games published by Humongous Entertainment, many of which are considered to be genuinely enjoyable.
Once Original, Now Common: With a lot of preschool shows that came afterwards (notably Dora the Explorer and the like) using Fake Interactivity to try to teach children lessons, Blues Clues doesn't seem like anything too original. But back in the 1990s, there was hardly anything like it with the way Steve (and later Joe) would interact with the audience.
Periphery Demographic:
- The show was surprisingly popular even with older kids and parents—possibly due to a combination of Parental Bonus and the fact that Steve's jokes, while simple enough for kids to understand, weren't so painfully lame as to be unfunny to everyone else. One example would be when Blue manages to put a paw print on a passing cloud, Steve excitedly draws the clue before an Aside Glance wondering how she did that.
- In fact, most college students will outright admit to watching it, or that was at least true when the show was still regularly airing new episodes, and particularly when Steve was still on.
- During the show's heyday, Nickelodeon did produce some merchandise specifically targeted at older fans. Mostly apparel in adult sizes, with some more "adult" designs, such as minimalist pawprint logos.
- In recent years, the show has gained a following of adult fans who loved the show as children. Nickelodeon has also started to make merchandise aimed at the older fans who watched it growing up, such as t-shirts, accessories, and functional Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper shakers.
Replacement Scrappy: Many fans of the show do NOT like Joe. Why? Because he replaced Steve. It didn't help that the show underwent some major retooling not long after he was cast. Naturally, the actor took the brunt of the backlash despite having nothing to do with, say, live-action puppet sequences. Steve did make a few later appearances, but Joe still took over his role as presenter, which viewers hated.
- Many of the actors who auditioned for the role tried to copy Steve's style, which was never going to work. A good part of the reason Donovan Patton landed the role was because he did not do this. After all, the character was supposed be Steve's little brother, not Steve himself.
Rewatch Bonus:
- Whenever Blue starts up a game of Blue's Clues, if you listen carefully as she proceeds to plant a pawprint on the screen, she is actually saying (or rather, barking) what the answer is.
- The episode where Paprika is born has a lot of this. When Steve and Blue find Mr. Salt (who is the first clue), he's pacing while muttering some spice names to himself, as if he's trying to decide on one. Later on, they find that the second clue is Mrs. Pepper, but instead of her being there in person, the clue was on a picture of her. Of course she wouldn't be there; she was busy giving birth!
Sacred Cow: Steve. No really, Steve is pretty much beloved on the internet and his time as the show's host due to his dorky, goofy, and genuine curiosity that is considered to what brought so much life and charm to the show, with many people going around for Steve Burns and what he does now (which is live a modest, calm life, with an occasional slide into music).
Seasonal Rot: While Joe's first season (season five) is polarizing due to it being the first season without Steve, season six (which happened to be the final season) tends to be considered where seasonal rot really started to set in for fans. The season introduced the Blue's Room segment before it was spun-off into its own show, and the idea of Blue being able to talk in her own special room with completely new puppet characters alienated a number of longtime viwers of the show. Due to the segment being added, this caused the main Blue's Clues theme song to be cut down to a shorter length and the "So Long Song" to be replaced with the shorter "The Goodbye Song". Another unpopular change in the season were the clues drawing themselves in Joe's notebook, along with being sentient and singing a song after being drawn (which started in mid-season five, but became permanent in season six).
Signature Scene: Steve's farewell from the show as he hops on a bus for college.
Special Effect Failure: The show is obviously made with the Green Screen - and it's somewhat of an invoked trope. However, in one episode where Steve was the first clue, the Clue is green screened on his back even as he pulls some of his shirt over his shoulder to look over it. And unfortunately it doesn't really match movement speeds.
Suspiciously Similar Song: The "Up a Mountain and Over a Bridge" song has often been compared to a certain recurring music cue on Arthur, which premiered the same year as Blue's Clues did, no less! The song also resembles "Properly" by The Toasters.
- "As Smart As You", sung by Steve on the soundtrack to Blue's Big Musical Movie (the movie itself uses a shorter song to the tune of "Sidetable's Lament") sounds similar to "The Girl From Ipanema".
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
- Though not nearly as discussed as the change from Steve to Joe or to Blue's Room, there was another change that really steamed many long time viewers. Beginning around the middle of Season 5, specifically in "Blue's Neighborhood Festival," the clues were no longer drawn in the Handy-Dandy Notebook by Joe but instead simply appeared to draw themselves, talked, and then sang a little song. Long-timers who stuck around to watch the "Meet Blue's Baby Brother" anniversary special were thrilled that in it, at least, they were actually drawn by Joe and remained silent.
- There's something deep and touching about the way everybody understood what Blue wanted to say despite her barking being difficult to understand, and giving her the ability to talk lowered all of that to the mundane, if only in "Blue's Room".
Tough Act to Follow: While Donovan Patton is a great actor, and Joe wasn't a bad host, at the time the show premiered, Steve was very popular with the series' audience, which impacted the general outlook on Joe character.
Viewer Gender Confusion:
- Most of the confusion stems from the lack of Tertiary Sexual Characteristics on Blue; she lacks eye lashes or a slim build as one might expect. She never speaks, just barks, and the pitch is deep enough that it can't be distinguished as explicitly feminine, unlike most cartoon dogs. Also, she is colored (and named) blue, often thought of as a boy's color by many children and parents alike. Although the fact that the kids start every episode by shouting, "There she is!" helps.
- Shovel is not easily distinguished as being boy. Same goes for Pail, who is not easily distinguished as being girl. For this reason in some dubs, their genders were switched by accident.
- Green Puppy is a girl, but many fans believe she's a boy. It doesn't help that she's voiced by a man, the head writer Adam Peltzman, and Steve mistakenly refers to her with masculine pronouns once.
- As Periwinkle is quite androgynous and has a Gender-Blender Name causing many children to mistakenly think of him as a girl.This is true for the UK dub in which Periwinkle actually is a girl. However, in the US version, he's a boy.
- Magenta is often mistaken for a boy from people who think the show is inverting gender roles. Like Blue and Green, she is also a girl.
- Some people initially think Baby Bear is a boy because of her lack of Tertiary Sexual Characteristics.
Vindicated by History: Although some details like the talking clues are still commonly hated, Joe's era is in fact much more popular after the series ended. It's no longer so uncommon to find people who actually preferred Joe's era to Steve's, even though he never became as popular as Steve.

YMMV / Blue's Clues

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