YMMV / Encyclopedia Brown

• Alternative Character Interpretation: In the later books, how many of the people who come to see Wilford Wiggins's latest scam are actually gullible enough to believe he has something, and how many are there just to see Encyclopedia pop the proverbial bubble?
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Book 11, chapter 3 ("The Case of the Skunk Ape") features the skunk ape, said In-Universe to be Idaville's abominable snowman, is an actual cryptid alleged to exist. Its alleged habitat — the Everglades — reinforces popular theories that Idaville is in Florida.
• Fair for Its Day: The books take some flak for making Sally Encyclopedia's junior partner, but at the time the series began, it was revolutionary to have a girl be the muscle for a Non-Action Guy, as opposed to having a more "girly" role.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Among the Idaville locations Encyclopedia and his pals frequent in the books is a place called "South Park."
  • Encyclopedia's rarely mentioned real first name is Leroy. That name is the only apparent thing Encyclopedia has in common with another fictional Leroy Brown, who is the focus of a song that came out about ten years after the first book in the series.
• Recycled Script: Many of the mysteries solutions also appear in Two-Minute Mysteries by the same author.
• Tear Jerker: The aftermath of book 15 1/2, chapter 9 ("The Case of the Missing Watchgoose"). His owner Candida Strong, who is also a kid, hires Encyclopedia to find her guard goose Christopher Columbus Day. They find out two men at a campsite already killed and ate the goose. In the epilogue, Candida is crushed. She's grateful to Encyclopedia for finding out the truth, as well as for comforting her; the men had to pay her father more than the cost of Columbus Day. Then Candida invites him and Sally to a memorial feast for Christopher Columbus Day but is obviously grieving.
  • Meta example: The death of Scott Bremner, who played Encyclopedia Brown in the 1989 series, on April 4, 1998, at age nineteen.
• Toy Ship: Encyclopedia and Sally in Fanon. It's encouraged by the fact that Encyclopedia sometimes gets irritated when she moons over other boys, like Percy Arbuthnot in book 2, and later recurring character Pablo Pizarro (introduced in book 7).
• Unintentional Period Piece:
  • The first few books came out in the 1960s, and it shows — book 1, chapter 8 ("The Case of the Knife in the Watermelon") and book 2, chapter 8 ("The Case of Excalibur") revolve around kids carrying pocketknives without any legal repercussions, something that has become increasingly rare as time goes by.
  • Book 11, chapter 1 ("The Case of the Runaway Elephant"), released in 1974, deals with a man who says he went to a bank on a Sunday, which is proof that he's lying — at the time of writing, banks were always closed on Sundays. This reference has become rather dated, as nowadays, though most banks are still closed on Sundays, the proliferation of ATMs means that one can still do business in a bank (make deposits, withdrawals, etc.) even when it's technically closed. Additionally, as banks have moved into supermarkets and malls, many banks are now open seven days a week, only closing on major holidays.
  • The 1989 TV series has this. An example is Encyclopedia wearing a blazer with the sleeves rolled up; that just practically screams 1980s.
  • The clue in Book 6, Chapter 5 ("The Case of the Wanted Man") is that Palestine is one of the places a jewelry-store robber plans to fence stolen loot, and Brown deduces that it must be referring to Palestine, Texas, because "nobody calls the real one Palestine anymore". Prior to the 1967 Six Day War, the political non-existence of Palestine was indeed a relatively non-controversial matter in the United States. After then, it certainly became one, to say the least.
  • Several stories in the earlier books show Encyclopedia and several other boys going camping without any adults, something that would never fly in recent years. Notably, later books have their fathers accompanying them. More generally, Idaville's kids being depicted as Free-Range Children is nigh-unheard of today, due to parental concerns among other factors.
  • "The Case of the Hidden Penny" depicts Bugs putting mustard on top of a hot dog and "nobody who likes hot dogs would do that", because at the time condiments were spread much like peanut butter or jam with a knife.
  • One case mentions a toy store selling BB rifles. Not only are toy stores harder to come by after The New '10s, they sure as heck wouldn't have sold BB guns after The '80s or The '90s.
• Values Dissonance:
  • One case has the perp identify himself because he says he's never heard of him (Dr. Vivian Wilson) and he had a sprain, not a toothache, thus knowing Dr. Vivian Wilson is a dentist. At the time this book was written (The '60s), assuming a doctor is male isn't unreasonable at all - even if they are named Vivian, since Vivian at the time was only just starting to become seen as a "Feminine" name.
  • As mentioned, the fact a toy store sells B.B. guns. At the time? This was perfectly acceptable.
  • One case mentions that when someone was referring to "Palestine", they were referring to an American city named "Palestine" since "Nobody calls it that anymore". At the time, Palestine not being recognised as a political entity was actually not as controversial - at least, not in the western hemisphere.
  • One case was "Solved" by Sally because she noticed two people (a man and a woman) were sitting in different place(s) at a restaurant table before someone in the ladies' room was assaulted. She thus deduced one of them as being a member of the opposite gender in disguise. Not only would this not fly in the twenty first century, this "etiquette rule" was at best something only "observed" in a few places period.

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