YMMV / Dennis the Menace (UK)

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Malicious, evil bully or free-spirited child who's in his "rebelling against authority" phase, and merely takes his love of fun a bit too far, ending up in trouble for it? Somewhat simplified when you realise these two versions of the character are different people entirely.
• Awesome Music:
  • Say what you want about the 2009/2013 series but you have to admit the theme song is rather catchy.
  • As is the instrumental theme of the nineties show for that matter.
• Can't Un-Hear It: When it comes to Dennis' voice, it's either Susan Sheridan (Beano video releases), Richard Pearce (nineties series), Sophie Aldred (season one of Dennis and Gnasher), Chris Johnson (season two), Freddie Fox or Bryce Papenbrook (Dennis and Gnasher: Unleashed in the UK and US, respectively).
• Captain Obvious Reveal: In the episode "Constable Menace" it was obvious Angel Face was the culprit, as she was the only one with a motive.
  • Similarly with Walter in "Sausage Suspect", as he very obviously vows revenge over Gnasher stealing his sausages early in the episode.
• Epileptic Trees: Some fans, after comparing both Dennis in his original characterization and his modern characterization (both which are so different that they look and sound like completely different characters) and after noticing that Dennis’ father’s redesign looks a lot like Dennis’ original design and that his grandfather’s design ressembles his father’s original design, have come to the conclusion that the Dennis that we see in the modern strips isn’t the original Dennis, but rather the original Dennis’ son. This would certainly explain why his father’s redesign bears a striking ressemblance to the original Dennis...and why his grandfather looks so much like the original Dennis’ father. This has since been confirmed as canon. The Beano issue 4077 (the issue celebrating Dennis' 70th birthday) ALSO revealed that modern Dennis' grandpa is actually the original 1951 Dennis.
• Fandom Rivalry: Debates between this Dennis the Menace and the U.S. strip of the same name can get incredibly heated.
• Fridge Brilliance: Dennis’ Menace Decay makes sense when you consider that his father went through the exact same process.◊ In the Blood, perhaps...?
• Harsher in Hindsight: A strip dating back to 1986 featuring Dennis tricking Walter into going to school dressed up like Rolf Harris, which is met with a stunned reaction from the class. It takes on a chilling note almost 30 years later after Harris was sent down for allegations of child abuse.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • One episode of the nineties series had a dinnerlady-themed supervillain with a serum that could revert the world's leaders into children. The U.S. President looks an awful lot like Donald Trump.
  • BRIAN BLESSED guest stars as a pirate in the nineties series.
  • The current version of Dennis is the son of the 1980s Dennis. This makes a couple of episodes of the nineties series quite hilarious:
    • In "The Secret Diary", Dennis finds what he assumes is his dad's diary (actually Granny's) and everyone thinks he was the bigger menace.
    • In "Special Agent Dennis", Dennis assumes his dad is a secret agent after a mix-up sees him end up in a bizarre adventure, and the ending has Dennis telling his dad that he wants to be like him when he grows up.
    • "Dennis and the Grownups" has Dennis worrying about becoming a grownup.
    • Made even hilarious when current Dennis' grandpa is ALSO revealed to be the original 1951 Dennis in The Beano's Dennis' 70th birthday issue. Which means that their menacing tendencies probably DO RUN IN THE FAMILY!
  • The episode "Journey to the Centre of the Bed" revolves around a group of fairies being antagonised by a group of goblins. Did the creators of Rainbow Magic see this episode, and get inspired?
• Memetic Molester: "Ha Ha, I'm the naughtiest dad in the world!"
• My Real Daddy: He was created by artist David Law and chief sub Ian Chisholm, but it was David Sutherland's run that saw him get on the front cover. David Parkins' run, which introduced Bea, was also well received.
• Narm Charm: The entirety of the 90's animated series. The stories and voice acting are rather silly but it's very well-written and fun to watch throughout, which is why it's remembered so fondly. The special guest performers clearly had the time of their lives playing against type (who knew Bernard Cribbins could pull off an obnoxious American oil tycoon so well?)
• Replacement Scrappy:
  • In The Beano issue 3649 Walter fired his pet poodle Foo-Foo and replaced him with a cat named Claudius. Seemingly subverted as recent issues seem to imply that he continues to own them both.
  • In Dennis & Gnasher, Angel Face seems to have replaced Athena and Sugar, who were themselves Scrappies.
• Stock Footage Failure: The episode "Leg Cuffed" when Angel Face is in the sack race she can be seen still sitting in the stands.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The redesign of Dennis' parents, making them older versions of him and thus rendering Gran pointless.
  • That hasn't stopped her from reappearing in the 2013 cartoon.
  • What they in fact did - going by some of the strips themselves - is implied that time has moved on and the original Dennis the Menace has grown up and is now father to the current Dennis the Menace. The difference is easy to see - the original Dennis had a black and red striped jersey, while his son Dennis has a red and black striped jersey!
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: For a character that was hyped up so much, Angel Face is surprisingly underused in the 2013 series. Averted in The Beano though. Angel Face has her own comic strip.
• Toy Ship: With Minnie the Minx... right up until the Beano made them cousins.
• Values Dissonance:
  • The earlier strips had Dennis' Dad almost continuously spanking him with a slipper, usually to no effect; the only thing that could make an impression was Granny's legendary "Demon Whacker" slipper made from the hide of an African Elephant. This was phased out as corporal punishment of children fell out of favour.
  • In one old strip, Dennis' Dad spanks him for falling in luminous paint, even though it was an accident. In another, Dennis leaves home, and his parents repeatedly appeal for him to come home, but when he does, it turns out they wanted him back because he had accidentally taken the Darts Club funds with him — there's no indication that they were worried about their only child (then he gets spanked for running away).
    • Notably, it's implied, by The Reveal of who the modern Dennis's father is, the reason why he's more lenient than the original father is that he knew exactly how it felt...
  • Walter has had his feminine traits toned down over time to make it look less like Dennis is bullying the local gay kid.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: The gender of Foo Foo, Walter's pet poodle, seems inconsistent. It isn't just Gender Equals Breed expectations, Foo Foo also wears a pink ribbon, so many readers thought it was female, but the dog was usually referred to with male pronouns in the comics. However, in the animated TV series Foo Foo was referred to as female.
  • Walter's pet cat, Clawdius/Clawdia may also qualify, as there's no indication that they're separate characters, yet their name and pronouns seem to have switched back and forth over the years.

---