YMMV / Bugsnax

• Accidental Innuendo: Wiggle's first attempt at asking Gramble out on a date. "Just you, me, and your delectable Strabbies", huh?
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Cheddorbs are not ball-shaped cheese puffs similar to Cheepoofs, like what a player might assume based on the name. They're actually based on the less well-known cheese balls, which are balls of cheese coated in toppings (which the mottled brown pattern represents) and typically served with crackers. With the Cheddaboardle Rex being a giant cheese board, this makes sense contextually.
• Base-Breaking Character. Filbo Fiddlepie has a fair share of fans and detractors alike. Those who are fond view Filbo as a flawed yet Adorkable deputy who tries his best to have everyone to stick together while others accuse him for unknowingly causing Snaxburg's inhabitants to conflict with each other, only to make it worse thanks to his incompetence (to rub more salt to the wound, he's the only inhabitant to have Plot Armor) and having no proper purpose other than providing chores to the Journalist.
• Creepy Cute: Some of the Bugsnax are a bit on the creepy side, such as the Fryder and the Sub Sandopede, but they still have a degree of cuteness to them. Turns out this is intentional to keep the player off guard until they learn what the Bugsnax really are.
• Demographically Inappropriate Humour: There are two sex jokes in this game:
  • The first is during Video Diary #1, when Eggabell is trying to treat an injury Liz sustained while out hunting. Since the treatment stings, Liz is squirming around a bit, causing Eggabell to cheekily comment that Liz will have to be restrained if she doesn't keep still. Liz then laughs and says, "Not while the camera's on".
  • The second is during Snorpy's confession to Chandlo. Once Chandlo reveals that he and Snorpy have been dating for years ever since they made out on a ferris wheel and then moved in together afterwards, Snorpy comments that he thought that they were just "roommates with benefits".
• Diagnosed by the Audience: Both of the Fizzlebean siblings, Snorpy and Floofty, are often speculated as being on the spectrum somewhere. Snorpy is paranoid, anxious and lacks social skills except to those he trusts, who is more often than not Chandlo. He also hyperfixates on various interests of his, such as engineering and the Grumpinati, a secret society he's convinced is out to get him. Then there's Floofty, who is arrogant and rude with bad social skills as well, would rather keep to themselves, is almost obsessive about the possibilities of what the bugsnax are capable of - to the point that it's beyond rational^note They very nearly cut off their own head just to see if bugsnax would help it to regenerate, after all - and yet, they're incredibly intelligent - and are not afraid to let people know it.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Many long-time fans show little thought of the fact that the Bugsnax are parasites (though Sprout and two of Gramble's Kweebles remain on the Grumpuses' side during the endgame.)
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Bunger, an early-game Bugsnak designed after a hamburger and a rhinoceros beetle, quickly garnered a large amount of popularity among fans despite not being a major focus of either the game or its promotional material (both of which instead hyped up Strabby as the Bugsnax mascot), thanks to a combination of Bunger's cute design, amusing name, and Simpleton Voice Pokémon Speak. It helps that Vinesauce Vinny was instantly smitten with the "stupid little burger" and Bunger memes and fanart spread like wildfire within the Vinesauce community.
  • The Big Bopsicle is also pretty popular due to how aggressive its voice is, making it sound like it's giving a Cluster F-Bomb.
  • Scoopy Banoopy gained a wave of fans based on the name alone, as well as its Eeyore-like appearance and the fact that it's based on a banana split, a very popular type of ice cream sundae.
  • Though they are one of the last to be invited back to Snaxburg, Floofty is easily one of the most popular grumpuses of the main cast for their memorability as an ethically-questionable Insufferable Genius. Being a canonically nonbinary character (with a non-binary voice actor on top) in a medium where respectful portrayals of such identities are fairly uncommon doesn't hurt either. There's even "Floofty Friday" on the official Young Horses Discord channel!
• Fan Nickname: The journalist has no canon name due to them being a Featureless Protagonist, though the most common fanon name for them seems to be Buddy, since that's what Filbo calls them.
• Fountain of Memes:
  • The Expository Theme Tune singlehandedly spawned several memes as soon as the original trailer dropped.
  • "Bunger? Bunger bunger bunger bunger bunger!" …For added hilarity, this is from the same voice that brought you Zenkichi Hasegawa and the titular character of Octodad. Make of that what you will.
• Harsher in Hindsight: After the game's ending, it can be hard to go back and replay the game while knowing that pretty much all of the quests consist of feeding your friends parasites that are slowly destroying their mind and body.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Bugsnax takes a number of cues from the Pokémon series, such as how the titular creatures talk exclusively in Pokémon Speak. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet ended up including an element similar to something in Bugsnax — namely, a boss battle with a sushi-based dragon (the Dragon/Water-type Tatsugiri) in a water-filled area.
• Last Lousy Point: Out of the many Bugsnax needed to catch to fully complete the game, two are subject to prominent disdain due to being excruciatingly difficult to find or capture:
  • The Caramel Poptick is the only snak that requires an alternate weather condition to appear. Even then, they're only found in one cave room in the raining Flavor Falls.
  • Catching a Flaming Cheepoof requires lots of Trial-and-Error Gameplay as well attempting to lure Big Bopsicle or Sodie towards it. It's made worse by the fact that one of the mail quests involves catching the said Cheepoof and feed a mysterious grumpus to complete it.
• LGBT Fanbase: The game is popular with LGBT audiences due to the large number of explicitly queer characters with their own distinct personalities and relationships, all given no less focus than the rest of the cast. Nonbinary players in particular took a shine to the game thanks to Floofty, a canonically nonbinary character voiced by an openly nonbinary actor and treated just as respectfully as the game's cisgender characters. Meanwhile many would die for Chandlo and Snorpy and get very invested in the resolution to their Will They or Won't They? subplot.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "It's Bugsnax", the game's theme tune by indie pop group Kero Kero Bonito, quickly became one upon the game's reveal due to its simple, catchy nature; the memes surrounding the song instantly defined public perception of the game and helped give it a huge amount of publicity in the leadup to its release.
  • The sheer enthusiasm with which the Bunger says its name has led to it being frequently quoted under social media posts for the game and inevitably appearing in fanart related to the title.
    • This dumb little Bunger is actually the Final Boss^{Explanation (Spoilers!)} The last defense task in the Bugsnax's siege of Snaxburg has Bungers as one of the two kinds of attacking snax, which some fans joked about.
  • "LIFTIN' YOUR CRIB, DAWG!", and the scene it comes from. It becomes Hilarious in Hindsight in The Isle of BIGsnax DLC where Chandlo actually does lift your crib by building an additional floor for your decorating needs if you progress through the game long enough.
  • Wambus's line of "I'm gonna do violence to ya" has also become somewhat popular as a reaction image.
  • Quite a few fans like to jokingly claim that Bugsnax is a "Psychological Horror game", usually by exaggerating its darker elements to make it sound like it's nothing but constant Nightmare Fuel.
• Narm: During the confrontation with Lizbert, their features constantly change between different Bugsnax. Most of the time, this is not particularly remarkable (as you're likely already used to these mutations), but the issue is that it's completely random. You can wind up with something that you find particularly absurd, and it can ruin the seriousness of the dialogue.
• Portmanteau Couple Name:
  • Lizegg - Lizbert/Eggabell
  • Snorplo - Snorpy/Chandlo
  • Wigglefunny - Wiggle/Gramble
  • Filbuddy - Filbo/the journalist (from the journalist's Fan Nickname)
• The Scrappy:
  • Beffica is a Valley Girl who uses a lot of slang which many find to be obnoxious. She's also overtly rude, with her very first appearance having her rain insults on Filbo for so much as trying to say hello. She's also incredibly nosy, with most of her quests involving spying on other Grumpuses to find out their secrets, all of which she mocks and marks against the grumpuses she targets. And when it fails on Chandlo, she tricks Snorpy into thinking she's Chandlo in a last-ditch effort to find it out. While she later backs down on her vices and promises to better herself at the end of the game, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who forgives her for what she's done.
  • Cromdo somehow manages to be even ruder than Beffica, and much more actively malicious than any other grumpus, even Floofty. He states many times he has absolutely no respect for any of his fellow grumpuses on the expedition, including the Journalist themself, whom he tricks into helping him out for the Lunchpad, which he earlier stated was "good as free". You learn from his interview and sidequests that he has a knack for stealing; the very first thing he did when Lizbert and Eggabell disappeared was attempt to pilfer their house, and later forces the Journalist to steal Triffany's map when she refuses to trade it to him for a Buffalocust. Needless to say, it is gratifying for most people to call him "a blight on society" when given the chance. It's also worth noting that he and Beffica share the most frustrating and finicky section in the game's final challenge (even if you have completed all of their side-quests to prevent them from dying at the hands of the Bugsnax).
• Spiritual Successor: With its focus on Body Horror and the psychological issues present in many of the characters, this can essentially be considered the kid's game David Cronenberg never made.
• Tear Dryer: Lizbert and Eggabell, despite being left to what seems to be certain doom after the "Escape from Snaktooth" sequence at the ending, are revealed during the end credits to have indeed survived and even returned to their normal selves.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Out of all the Grumpuses you have to get back to Snaxburg, Shelda is definitely the one with the least development. She's tied with Floofty for having the least sidequests (only three total), though unlike Floofty she's barely mentioned by the others and also doesn't physically show up until late in the game (Floofty, like Shelda, is one of the last Grumpuses to be invited back, but they are also one of the first ones you'll actually meet). Even after Shelda is invited back to the village, you only get a glimpse of her deeper nature and insecurities through her sidequests, so her character isn't explored much until the DLC elaborates her and others' relationships with Mother Naturae.
• Trans Audience Interpretation: One theory states that Grumpus physiology might have sexual dimorphism in their dentition: most characters with an overbite are female, while most of those with an underbite are male. There are only two known exceptions to this: the first is Floofty, who is canonically non-binary and has an underbite, which can be explained by them being assigned male at birth. The second is Chandlo, who is male, but has an overbite. Unlike Floofty, Chandlo is not confirmed to be transgender, but some fans use this as evidence that he is a trans man.
• Ugly Cute:
  • The Grumpuses have capsule-shaped bodies with skinny limbs, bulbous eyes, and large, round teeth or blunt fangs that would make them look right at home on Sesame Street. They even move their mouths like Muppets.
  • Many of the Bugsnax themselves tread this ground as well as being Creepy Cute as seen above. Even those based on more repulsive and dangerous critters such as centipedes or giant water bugs are adorable in some regard.
• Watch It for the Meme: A big reason for the game's popularity is because of the many memes spawned by it leading up to its release.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The game has a lot of cartoony charm and fun Mon-style collection gameplay that clearly establishes that it's meant for a young audience, but a recurring talking point among players and critics alike is that for better and for worse, there is a bizarre, horror-like undercurrent to the whole thing with its quasi-Body Horror and the uncanny nature of capturing googly-eyed Bugsnax knowing that they'll be eaten. It also features pretty sophisticated interpersonal conflicts among the cast, which — while it never becomes "inappropriate" — can come off as very unexpectedly mature and complex given the presentation of the rest of the game.
• The Woobie:
  • Filbo spends pretty much all of the game being one. The anxious deputy who constantly got pushed around very easily by the other Grumpuses is now the semi-self-appointed leader of the town once the person keeping everyone together is gone. He bends easily due to his low-self esteem, which is heightened by his fear of not living up to the missing Lizbert. He cannot help but wonder why she even bothered appointing him when she was out hunting. It's... really hard not to feel sorry for the guy, especially because we can see how hard he's trying.
  • Wambus and Triffany. Despite being married for a seemingly long time, it seems that their priorities clash, enough for them to temporarily split up. They both suffer from their own types of self-esteem issues, and it's hard not to feel bad even if their problems don't seem as clear as the other Grumpuses. If one dies and the other lives, they'll promise to honor and respect their lost love's wishes and commemorate them somehow (Triffany vows to grow Wambus' favorite plants and Wambus will vow to keep their old home and pass it on).
  • Gramble, unlike nearly everyone else, lacks (or resists) the urge to voraciously gobble up Bugsnax, instead seeing them as family/pets. This results in most of other Grumpuses trying to sneak into his barn and devour his pets, leading him to become Properly Paranoid by the time you meet him. His familial attitude towards the Bugsnax stems from unexplained events in his past leaving him without a real family. Since they're still just wild insects, most of the Bugsnax fail to reciprocate his affection for them and often break out, much to Gramble's disheartenment. This gets even worse in the finale, when the Bugsnax he loves so much try to kill him and the rest of the islanders, causing either his death or him to be disillusioned with keeping Bugsnax once and for all.
• Woolseyism: Like with Pokémon, many of the Bugsnax go through a Dub Name Change for the game subtitles/text in other languages, often taking care to preserve or introduce wordplay in the new language.

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