Clarissa Explains It All / YMMV

Hilarious in Hindsight:
- In this clip, Ferguson watches Cowboys & Aliens.
- Clarissa making Ferguson and then herself disappear in the intro can come off as this considering how much magic Melissa Joan Hart would practice in her following show.
- The series ended and Clarissa Now, its attempted CBS spinoff, would've begun with Clarissa becoming a journalist, a career path Sabrina would also take.
- There was one time when Ferguson told Clarissa that he played Mega Man 10 in this episode.
- One episode has Clarissa and Ferguson dueling with a twin brother and sister genius duo on a game show called “Brain drain” the name of the twin genius brother? ‘’Sheldon’’.
- One episode reveals that Janet's ex-boyfriend was called Joey Russo, like in Blossom. Many years later, Melissa Joan Hart and Joey Lawrence would star together in Melissa & Joey.
Memetic Mutation: Almost no one remembers much about the show anymore besides the title. Probably because to this day, TV shows still make shout outs like "Yeah, Clarissa, explain it all!" frequently.
- Mindless Self Indulgence has a song called "Clarissa," which includes the classic line "If you're so smart, explain this, Clarissa!"
- Another band called The Paramedic has a song called "Clarissa Didn't Explain This," which in all actuality has absolutely nothing to do with the show.
- Even Melissa Joan Hart herself makes a play on the show's title in the title of her autobiography, "Melissa Explains It All."
- Sam's Leitmotif. *brrrrriiiiiiing*
- "Hi, Sam!" Clarissa says this Once per Episode whenever Sam comes in through the window.
- "Clarissa did not mention this"^note
Out of the Ghetto: One of the first childrens' TV shows to break out of the Girls Show Ghetto.
Retroactive Recognition: Michelle Trachtenberg as the little girl Clarissa babysits in "Babysitting".
- The show's creator, Mitchell Kriegman, would go on to make Bear in the Big Blue House for Disney Channel.
- Wayne Brady, back when he was still a park performer for Universal Studios Florida, plays a pizza delivery man in the Season 5 episode "Editor in Chief."
Tear Jerker: The song "P.E.A.C.E." from the tie-in album Clarissa & The Straightjackets: This is What Na-Na Means, which in-universe Clarissa wrote for a friend of hers who had to deal with her parents constantly fighting.
Tonight her house is a battle zone
Of hearts and bones and sticks and stones
She calls me on the telephone,
"Hey you- you don't want to be alone, do you?
Unintentional Period Piece: Good God. The intro alone could easily date the series to the early-90s and that isn't even getting into the characters' clothes, the style of the house, Clarissa's very 90s-looking computer, and her taste in music. She's mentioned wanting to see Pearl Jam and Nirvana live, and has stated to having a slight crush on John Linnell.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
- While most of her problems with Ferguson were pretty valid, there were a couple instances where she seemed like a bully. For example, in one episode, Ferguson seeks her for advice on how to properly date a girl he has a crush on. She deliberately gives him the most outlandish suggestions she can think of to sabotage his relationship with her. Granted, this backfires, but it's still a pretty mean and bullish thing to do.
- There's also a dream sequence in one of the final episodes in which Clarissa kills Ferguson (really!), and he comes back as an angel and/or devil. They only hint at it ("the man upstairs" and "the great beyond"), but in the dream, he is dead, their parents fall apart (her father becomes a hippie who constantly mourns for his dead son and her mother takes up smoking) and Clarissa seems like she is barely concerned. This might be somewhat justified by it being All Just a Dream, but she acts nicer when she wakes up.

YMMV / Clarissa Explains It All

Edit Locked