YMMV / Caillou

• Adaptation Displacement: This was originally based off a popular children's book series from Quebec which originally focused on a nine-month-old baby. This explains why Caillou is bald, as adding hair to him made him unrecognizable.
• Americans Hate Tingle: The show isn't exactly huge in Canada (except in its origin province of Quebec), but it has a strong hatedom among adults in the United States, particularly among parents who they believe it teaches children that bad behavior is tolerated. It's gotten to the point where parents in the country even extend this to banning the episodes where he has better behavior. This is certainly not helped by the fact that Canadian cartoons in general have gained a poor reputation in the USA starting in the mid-to-late 2000s for a variety of complex reasons.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Caillou is quite polarizing, disregarding the massive hatedom he and the show have on the internet. To the fanbase, his gentle, Mr. Imagination era from season 3 or 4 makes him either charming or wimpy and flat at the eyes of the audience. Meanwhile, his bratty demeanor from the first two seasons either makes them see him either as a realistic child, or a terrible influence on children. It doesn't help in the latter case that Caillou rarely is scolded after being mean.
  • While not as hated as Caillou, Rosie also has a mixed reputation, with people either thinking she's cute and better compared to Caillou, or thinking she's annoying and Prone to Tears.
  • Caillou's parents are also rather divisive among parents and fans. They are either Good Parents who are very patient and caring to Caillou or considered terrible parents for constantly giving into Caillou's bratty behavior without any kind of discipline and spoiling him.
• Common Knowledge:
  • It’s widely believed that Caillou is a spoiled brat that never gets punished. While he does occasionally lapse into Bratty Half-Pint territory, he is by no means spoiled and many episodes are about him learning to deal with not getting his way. Which ties into the "never gets punished" thing, as that's also untrue — his more bratty moments regularly result in him getting punished in several episodes, such as getting rebuked by his parents or being told to Go to Your Room!.
  • A lot of people believe Caillou's shirt in season one was colored grey. However, the shirt is actually white in color, as shown◊ in a few early promo images. Many other white objects and clothes in season one were also colored grey (most likely to not blend in with the white backgrounds).
  • Many people who bring up "Caillou is Getting Older" claim that Gilbert the cat killed the bird. There's no proof of that in the episode — the bird was just found dead.
  • Contrary to what social media will tell you, the show was not actually "cancelled". The show ended in 2010, and PBS dropped its reruns in January 2021. Later that year, Cartoon Network would put the show on their Creator/Cartoonito block.
• Critical Backlash: While many adults have bashed the show for sending awful messages and encouraging children to act bratty, there are a number of people who have argued that the show and its titular character aren't as bad as most people make it out to be.
• Crossover Ship: Likely thanks to a certain video making site, the titular character tends to get this with Dora the Explorer.
• Designated Hero: You can definitely count on Caillou for being this, considering how much of a brat he is during the first three seasons.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Andy and Alan are not only praised for being likable characters, but also good representations of people with Autism and Down Syndrome, respectively.
  • Despite both characters rarely having any major roles in episodes and mostly being background characters, Xavier and Emma both have plenty of fans.
  • Julie is a well-liked character among the fandom, mostly because of her fun-loving attitude.
  • Teddy, Rexy and Gilbert are not only popular because of the puppet segments, but also for being likable and multilayered.
• Fountain of Memes: "Caillou Joins the Circus" has sprouted many memes. Here are some memorable quotes from that episode:
  • "Look, I got dressed all by myself!"
  • "Silly old car! Silly, silly, silly! WAAAAH!"
  • "Caillou was in a very bad mood, because he wasn't going to the circus."
  • "Even Caillou's daddy was starting to get angry!"
  • "Let's make toast! We can cut it into duckies like Grandma does."
  • "NO! I don't wanna make duckies, that's for babies!"
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • Many Caillou fans also happen to be Arthur fans. Both shows being worked on by Cinar/Cookie Jar and airing on PBS Kids also help.^note Although many Caillou haters are also Arthur fans.
  • There are plenty of Dora and Barney fans who are also Caillou fans.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: For reasons unknown, Caillou is extremely popular in Turkey. Yumurcak TV, the Turkish children's TV channel that carries the show, airs a one-hour two-episode back-to-back slot at 7:00 AM and three additional half-hour slots through the day, seven days a week. To drive the message home, Caillou toys are abundant in Turkey.
  • The show was also really popular in Portugal (where it's/was called Ruca), with the show airing for many years on Canal Panda and Caillou appearing in the many Panda Festivals ran by the channel.
• Growing the Beard: Many fans like the later seasons the most. Mainly due to the change in Caillou's personality, with many thinking he's more likeable than in earlier seasons.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Caillou states in "Caillou is Getting Older" that he doesn't want to get older because he's afraid of dying. His second voice actress, Jaclyn Linetsky, actually died in a car accident 2003 at the tender age of 17.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Many people who hate/don't care for the show watch it for the puppet segments.
• Mandela Effect: The episode "Caillou is Getting Older" is often misremembered as that Caillou and his dad find a dead bird and the dad lies that the bird died of old age when actually Gilbert the cat killed it. In the actual episode, the bird was just found dead with no explanation.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • There are Caillou YouTube Poops out there. Many of which are ones of Caillou's tantrum from the circus episode. A notable series of poops come from MrPoopMeister, whose poops often include rampant F-bombs, child abuse, and in one poop, stating that Caillou was responsible for 9/11.
    • CS188's Caillou YTPs are especially well-liked.
  • YA BOY CAILLOU, a Twitter about gangsta Caillou, and the Caillou rap (explicit).
  • Of course, there's Evil Twin Caillou on Twitter.
  • And last but not least, let us not forget the fact that Caillou (or rather, "Kaylew") has become more or less the unofficial Series Mascot of grounded videos.
  • Then a scratcher named CaillouFanatic created some projects featuring Caillou, for example. His voice is Voiceforge David like GoAnimate.
    • Boris and Doris share the same thing, Their voices are Eric (for Boris) and Julie (for Doris)
    • In fact, CaillouFanatic made a project of Caillou playing piano, which he, well you know, plays his piano
      Caillou (from CaillouFanatic's Caillou playing piano project): Time for me to play my very own piano
  • The series One-Punch Man has a protagonist that looks remarkably like a grown-up Caillou, so people are calling it Caillou Shippuden.
  • Generally hating the show—especially if you're a parent—has become popular on the Internet, despite the fact that Caillou's Spoiled Brat behavior subsided over the show's run. Moms and dads have written lengthy pieces about how annoying/irritating Caillou is, and how moronic his parents are.
  • "WAAAAAAAHAHHHH!"
  • The fan theory that Caillou is bald because he has cancer is very popular.
  • A less serious theory is that Caillou is a skinhead.
  • "Caillou, Ni-hao." "...What?" ^Explanation A line from the end of "Caillou Misses Sarah." It was first shown in this video and later found its way on the app TikTok.
  • "Throwing up is not so tough, 'cept when I've had enough!" ^ExplanationThe theme song has Caillou say "Growing up is not so tough, 'cept when I've had enough!" but people would often mishear it as "Throwing up" since the context seems to fit that too.
• Memetic Personality Change:
  • So many on the Internet love to reinterpret Caillou's baldness as being from chemotherapy.
  • Others like to interpret Caillou as a weed-smoking, rapping gangster.
  • And then there's GoAnimate, which either interprets Caillou as a flanderized version of himself who constantly has tantrums (or commits increasingly over-the-top crimes or acts of violence up to and including murder) or interprets his parents as Abusive Parents who secretly (or not-so-secretly) hate Caillou's guts and constantly want him dead. Usually both.
    • Caillou the Grown Up by AOK similarly interprets him growing up to be a Psychopathic Manchild.
• Memetic Psychopath: The eponymous character and his dad, thanks to GoAnimate and Caillou the Grown Up.
• Never Live It Down:
  • In "Caillou Joins the Circus", Caillou throwing a temper tantrum over the fact that he isn't going to the circus until the very next day.
  • Good luck finding anyone who forgives him for pinching Rosie, who, mind you, was a baby at the time and thus had delicate skin. The cartoon actually tones it down from the original book, where Caillou bites Rosie instead of pinching her.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • In "Caillou is Getting Older", we get a shot of a dead bird, onscreen.^note Unsurprisingly, that episode's banned in the USA, and the only way to view it nowadays is on YouTube, or in other countries that still show banned episodes. It doesn't help that the rest of the episode features Caillou being afraid of getting old and dying.
  • In the second episode of the series no less (in which Caillou overcomes his fear of his neighbour, Mr. Hinkle), we have this brief but alarming moment. "Mr. Hinkle is scary!" indeed, Caillou.
  • In "Big Brother Caillou", Caillou in a fit of rage and jealously over her getting more attention than him pinches newborn Rosie's cheek which the latter made a very realistic crying. Also pinching a baby (especially a newborn) in real life is very dangerous as they suffer from bleeding and bruises.
    • And worst of all, in the book adaptation, he bites Rosie's ear which could seriously injure or even kill her since she's a newborn baby.
  • In "Caillou Falls Off Of His Bike", Caillou falls off of his bike and his knee drops a very tiny drip of blood which can be scary for children.
• Periphery Demographic:
  • Mostly parents who monitor their children's TV viewing, as well as people who are nostalgic for the show. But others came naturally.
  • The puppet segments have many fans, mostly consisting people who hate the show who like them because they don't have Caillou in them, but there are also people who like them because they think they are charming and reminiscent of Jim Henson works.
  • Many fans of the show like the later seasons (four and five, sometimes three) the most, manly due to the change in Caillou's personality, but there are a few people who felt like the stories were better (especially in season four/five).
• The Problem with Licensed Games: The iPhone apps. The audiobook app pretty much ripped the audio from the TV series and shoehorned it into some mediocre animated storybook, while the new edutainment app is cited to be repetitive and limited in interaction. One of them is even an Allegedly Free Game.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • This show was the first voice role of Bryn McAuley, ^note As the first voice of Caillou. who would later appear in many, many, many, many more Canadian-made cartoons. ^note  And the roles listed only just scratch the surface.
  • Rexy's puppeteer in the puppet segments, Kevin Yamada, went on to work for PBS Kids Sprout, first on The Sunny Side Up Show block as himself from 2007 to 2009, then on the Sprout Sharing Show block as Ricky the Rabbit from 2009 until the block's cancellation in 2014.
  • The voice actress for Layla from season five's "The New Girl", Addison Holley, would later appear in other preschool shows recorded in Canada, such as PJ Masks, ^note As Owlette/Amaya Peg + Cat, PAW Patrol, and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. ^note As the first voice of Miss Elaina before being replaced by Markeda McKay in season five.
  • Graeme Jokic, who voiced Leo in the fifth season, would later be known as the voice of Chris Kirkman in the fourth season of Bravest Warriors (replacing Alex Walsh).
• Ron the Death Eater:
  • Caillou is often portrayed in "grounded videos" made using GoAnimate or Plotagon as a psychopathic Enfant Terrible, rather than a nice kid who can be a Bratty Half-Pint at times.
  • Boris could also fall under this trope. He is a very sweet and caring father, yet in the grounded videos he is portrayed as a child abuser aggressively obsessed with grounding and making his son's life as miserable as possible.
  • Doris also goes from a caring mom to an apathetic bitch who enables Boris.
  • Miss Martin is a friendly teacher in canon; in grounded videos, she's a Sadist Teacher who literally punishes Caillou for everything and anything.
  • Leo, Clementine and Sarah are all nice and friendly children in canon, in Grounded videos, they are all bullies who treat Caillou with contempt. In Leo's case, it's lessened due to the fact that he's a reformed bully.
  • Even Rosie is not immune to this trope, as there are users who make grounded videos out of her, where she is portrayed to be just as troublesome as, if not worse than, Caillou.
  • Putting aside the interpretation of him being a pedophile, Paul Hinkle goes from being a nice old man to being a Cranky Neighbor who is extremely annoyed by Caillou's bad behavior.
• Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • "Happy Day", a song from season 4, sounds awfully similar to Wham!'s "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go".
  • The show's intro song sounds shockingly similar to Mega Man 6's theme song for Flame Man, released 5 years before the show first aired — specifically this part, at about 45 seconds in — just in a different key and instrumentation.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Caillou getting increasingly worried about death in "Caillou Is Getting Older". The scene where he tearfully admits to his parents that he does not want to die is very sad as well.
  • If you aren't put off by her constant crying, whenever Rosie cries can be rather distressing.
  • Caillou being depressed because of the death of a class hamster named Gerald in "Caillou Loses a Friend" from New Adventures. Just seeing Caillou look so sad because of the death of the hamster is enough to make you feel bad for him (especially if you've also lost a pet).
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Seasons 4-5, despite Caillou not throwing tantrums, when the puppet segments were dropped. We also never know what happened to Julie, Caillou's babysitter, and why she vanished from the show.
  • Most of the reactions to New Adventures are this, mostly due to the change in the animation, the different voices for the characters, and nostalgia for the original show.
  • The CGI specials and upcoming reboot have also gotten this reaction, with many saying the animation and designs look cheap and border on being creepy.
• Toy Ship: Many fans like to ship Caillou and Sarah together. Thanks to GoAnimate, others like to put him in a Crossover Ship with Dora. There are also a few who ship Leo and Clementine.
• Unexpected Character: Andy ^note A character who only made one major appearance in a season five episode returning in the New Adventures episode, "Caillou and the Fire Alarm".
• Unintentional Period Piece:
  • The first season episode "Caillou Rides an Airplane" features Caillou and Boris being invited to the flight deck of the plane. In the wake of 9/11, this is no longer allowed, because it could give terrorists the perfect opportunity to hijack the plane and use it as a missile. To date, though, the scene has not been edited, meaning kids who see it today and have never flown before are likely to have misconceptions about airline etiquette and security, and will likely be very disappointed when told they can't go to the cockpit. For that matter, the book release based on it is faithful to the television story, despite being published in 2011. "Caillou Rides an Airplane" also features Caillou and his family getting off the plane on a passenger boarding ramp, which have since been superceded by jetways or built-in airstairs at almost all airports.
  • The second season episode "Caillou Computes" involves Caillou's family getting a computer back when said technology was first introduced, with common misconceptions kids had at the time about them, such as confusing the computer mouse for an actual mouse and thinking the off button breaks the computer. Many children are exposed to computers at younger ages, making some of these issues less common (and in many cases, kids can figure them out easier than their parents), though the mouse issue sometimes still happens.
  • Another season two episode, "Caillou Goes to School", had Caillou spend the day with Sarah at school, and they switch lunches; and in "Caillou's Playschool Party" from season four, the kids at school share lunch and dessert during a holiday party. Nowadays, kids are likely to be forbidden from sharing snacks and especially lunch, and adults would have to make a point of taking measures to prevent triggering food allergies, including only allowing store-bought treats and not allowing some treats at all.
  • "Caillou's Train Trip" (also known as "Next Stop, Fun!") has EMD F-units at the front of the train Caillou and his family travel on. Given that the train they presumably travel on can be either one of VIA Rail Canada's overnight intercity trains, this is a bit outdated, as VIA was retiring the last of its F-units in favor of the GE P42DC when this episode originally aired.
• Viewer Name Confusion:
  • Some people have mistaken Caillou's name as either "Cailou," "Calliou," "Cayllou," or something similar.
  • Some people believe DeeDee's name is spelled like "DieDe" or "DeDe".

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