YMMV / Good Omens

• Adorkable: Aziraphale, especially when he simply cannot help but do good, but tries (awkwardly) to hide it.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees:
  • Aziraphale's copy of the Bible that accidentally read "Thou Shalt Commit Adultery"? It exists. All the misprints do, except the "Bugger-Alle-This Bible" and the "Charing Cross Bible". "Standing Fishes" included.
  • People with names like "Thou-Shalt-Not-Commit-Adultery"? Actually happened among Puritans, with Praise-God Barebone being the most famous Real Life example.
  • The Japanese "whale research" ship. Real Japanese whaling ships do skirt around laws by falsely claiming to be research vessels.
  • There really was a skyscraper at 666 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, although subsequent renovations converted the Top of the Sixes restaurant into a cigar lounge and changed the street number to 660. Notably, it was where DC Comics was sited when they first hired Gaiman.
• Angel/Devil Shipping: Crowley and Aziraphale. Subverted though, since they're Mirror Characters.
• Cargo Ship: The Bentley is paired with Crowley and Aziraphale. No, really.
  • There is also a Bentley/Bookshop Fan Fic floating around somewhere.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Aziraphale and Crowley. While they are major characters in the book, they're not really the most central to the plot and often take a backseat to other characters — but they are by far the most beloved and popular characters, to the point where the fandom is pretty much all about them. It's reflected in the 2019 adaptation, where they are unquestionably the main characters and the show is arguably more about their relationship than it is about the Apocalypse.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • All of the Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse fall under this trope, as they're all extremely badass and the parts featuring one or all of them tend to be the coolest parts of the book.
  • Crowley can also qualify. It's lessened however in that's he only really evil by default of being a demon and is actually quite nice otherwise.
• Fan True Name: Crowley's 'angelic' name is never given, but Kireawel or Caphriel is popular in fanfiction.
  • Also Gadriel, as it is listed in some theology books as being the name of the fallen who tempted Eve with the apple.
  • And on a less serious note, it's widely accepted that the 'J' in Anthony J. Crowley stands for 'Janthony', purely for Rule of Funny.
• Friendly Fandoms: With Supernatural. Series creator Eric Kripke has freely admitted that the Season 4 and 5 storyline, in which the Winchester brothers get caught between angels and demons who want the apocalypse to start, was heavily inspired by the book Good Omens, and he even named a Demon character Crowley. Neil Gaiman has taken it as a loving homage, and most Supernatural fans love both the book and the series. There is copious crossover fanfic.
• Genius Bonus:
  • The etymology of "nice" (or "ni∫e" if you prefer) has changed drastically over the centuries. Roughly around the time Agnes would have written her book it could indeed have meant "precise". However its original meaning was "foolish" or "stupid." Then there is the modern meaning attached to the word. They all apply to some extent.
  • As Lucifer, in Latin, means "light-bearer" or "bringer of light", Pulsifer can be translated as "bringer of peas/ce". However, the authors have noted that this wasn't planned, but was merely a fortuitous coincidence.
  • "Dog" is a perfect name for a hellhound: "God" backwards. But again, the authors say that this wasn't intentional. They were just aiming for a "Boy's Own" style.
  • The names Device and Nutter sound like a piece of typical Pratchettian wordplay, but are in fact not only authentic Lancashire family names, but the names of two of the Pendle witches. "Nutter" is an Old English word for "cowherd" and Device is an alternate spelling of Davis.
  • The Buggre Alle This Bible calls Mr. Scraggs a "Southwarke knobbestick". This seemingly innocuous phrase takes on new layers of meaning when you know that Southwark was London's Red Light District at the time said bible was (supposedly) printed.
  • The nature of the Metatron in Christian mysticism and theology. And what it represents. Although Viewers Are Geniuses applies here as this is fairly obscure theology. But not accidental at all. Not here.
  • Pollution receives his package by the River Uck (which is actually a real river, a tributary of the River Ouse, which is pronounced "ooze".)
• Harsher in Hindsight: Pestilence retired following the invention of penicillin, because with the invention of antibiotics and other improvements in medicine, they just didn't have as much to work with anymore. Then there came the anti-vaccination movement, which lead to outbreaks of preventable diseases like measles, and the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic... Even worse, the passage stated "If only the old boy had known what opportunities the future had held..." which just becomes uncomfortably prophetic.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Owl City fans will get a kick out of the Antichrist being named Adam Young.
  • The casting of David Tennant (the Tenth Doctor) as Crowley turns the presence of beeping pepper pot-lookalike aliens in the books and Wensleydale's line about watching Doctor Who into this. Plus, Crowley occasionally exhibits snakelike behaviour, just like Barty Crouch Jr. (also played by Tennant) in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
• Ho Yay: Crowley and Aziraphale - not that they technically have sex. See also Heterosexual Life-Partners.
  • There is a particularly ship-worthy line towards the end of the book: "And perhaps the recent exertions had had some fallout on the nature of reality because, while they were eating, for the first time ever, a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square." The line comes rather out of nowhere and nothing is specified about the nature of said "exertions". One would assume it refers to Adam remaking reality, but "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" is an old and sappy romantic love song, whereas Adam is pretty clearly still at the cooties stage. The scene also takes place smack in between two scenes featuring canon couples that confirm the continuation/beginning of their own relationships.
  • "There were angels dining at the Ritz" - from the song in question. Aziraphale and Crowley dine at the Ritz regularly.
  • Aziraphale also refers to Crowley as "Dear" and "my dear", while Crowley calls him "Angel" (although Aziraphale is an actual angel).
  • It doesn't help that Aziraphale comes off, in the words of the text itself, as "gayer than a treeful of monkeys on nitrous oxide" (though it's also mentioned that angels are usually entirely sexless until they make a deliberate effort).
• Jerkass Woobie: Lampshaded in the case of minor character Greasy Johnson, who we don't see much of, but is known to be a bully. The narration notes he almost had to become a bully in self-defense, being a fat, clumsy kid who would otherwise be tormented at school, and secretly, he just wants to raise tropical fish. It's implied he grows up to be a perfectly well-adjusted adult who wins prizes for his fish, so he probably grows out of it when he matures.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • It seems to be widely accepted as Fanon that Aziraphale wears argyle sweater vests and/or tartan. This is never mentioned in canon, though a camelhair coat briefly is.
    • Actually, he does have the line, "Tartan is stylish." Where argyle comes into play though, is unknown.
    • In the TV adaptation he wears a tartan bow tie.
  • Another common wardrobe choice that doesn't exist in canon is to give him glasses. Fans seem split on this, and there is a growing number who leave them off.
  • Fans like to joke that any given adaptation will actually turn out to be about Queen.
  • 'Anthony Janthony Crowley', as explained above under Fan Nickname.
  • To differentiate from the TV series, many fans now specifically refer to the book as ‘Book Omens’.
• Moral Event Horizon: Played with, sort of. Crowley crosses it, at least in the eyes of the other demons, by daring to use Holy Water on another demon. This prompts the eyewitness to cuss Crowley out in human because there are occasions for which the demon language has not enough profanity.
  • Interestingly, it is also his Moment of Awesome. Well, one of them, anyway.
• Older Than They Think: The book, first published in 1990, has a bit with the Horseman of the Apocalypse, Pollution, saying his favorite disaster was an oil spill, causing mayhem, destruction of life, and disaster for years to come. While some readers might see this as Harsher in Hindsight because of the 2010 BP oil spill, the bit was more likely inspired by the then-recent Exxon Valdez oil spill, which occurred in 1989. It was, until 2010, the worst oil disaster the United States had ever seen, with "destruction of [wild]life" being constantly reported on in the news and "disaster for years to come" predicted by all the experts.
• Values Dissonance: Shadwell has rather racist^note and other -ist views for which his defense is "I'm a jerk to everybody and anybody, so that doesn't count as bigotry", two characters make homophobic comments, and Newt's Wasabi model car has a voice with an Asian Speekee Engrish accent. While the first two examples weren't really supposed to be positive and were more about demonstrating how ignorant said characters are, none of this would be considered very funny today. Neil Gaiman himself has acknowledged that those moments haven't aged well since the time the book was published, and as a result they were removed from the series.

---