YMMV / Home Movies

• Awesome Music:
  • Nearly every piece of music in the show, but particularly "Don't Kill Children" and "Taste The Fame".
  • "No Skin Off My Ass" from Improving Your Life With Improv.
  • "Don't Put Marbles In Your Nose", "Mr. Pants" and "The Wizard's Baker."
  Put them in there/Do not put them in there.
  'Dwayne: I'mAWizardWizardAWizardWizardAWizardMan!
  I'm Mr. Pants and I'm comin' to getcha/Better run for your life, better run or I'll getcha
  • "Taste The Fame" was performed by They Might Be Giants.
    • They also contributed work on the rest of the songs from the "Camp" episode.
  • "Watch It Again".
  • The Compliments Song.
  • "I'll Race"
  • He. Is. Franz. Kafka! Franz Kafka!
  • The entirety of the Franz Kafka rock opera.
  • FREAKY! OUTY! FREAKY! OUTY! WOO WOO! WOO WOO!
  • Dwayne's guitar solo at the end of Guitarmageddon.
  • The "Septopus" theme from The Heart Smashers.
  • "Brendon's Camera" is played in the final episode, and boy is it emotional.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Anytime McGuirk starts to yell at Melissa for asking questions at the soccer field.
  • When McGuirk was acting as a Big Brother for a Littlest Cancer Patient, he tells him he's going to kick the ball hard, and boy does he.
• Cult Classic: A small one, but still a cult classic.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Jason's addiction to candy seen throughout the show is similar to a recently sober person going through a drug or alcohol relapse.
• Growing the Beard: Not that it was bad even when it was cancelled on UPN (though some viewers were put off by the Squigglevision and the overlapping dialogue...and the fact that UPN basically let the show out to die), but it really came into its own on [adult swim]. In particular, "Director's Cut" was a big improvement over the first five episodes, and the series really hit its stride starting in seasons 2 and 3 when the animation switched to Flash.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The end riff of the "Starboy & The Captain of Outer Space" theme song was later re-used for the Metalocalypse theme song.
  • Another Metalocalypse one: In "Temporary Blindness", Tucoo Von Laserstein sounds a bit like a prototype of Skwisgaar Skwigelf.
  • The fairy princess mascot in "Shore Leave" is basically a prototype Facebones.
• Ho Yay:
  • Walter and Perry have tons of moments with each other. They even pretend to get married at Andrew and Linda's wedding.
  • In "Bad Influences" McGuirk asks Mr. Lynch if he wants to go out on a date. Lynch considers it for a minute before McGuirk explains he meant they'd go on a double date with two women.
• Squick: The rash Brendon develops right before Andrew and Linda's wedding.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Andrew and Linda's newborn kid (as well as Andrew and Linda for that matter), are never seen again after "Coffins and Cradles" and never appear in season 4.
• Values Dissonance:
  • In "Yoko", McGuirk has his soccer students kick soccer balls at Eugene for peeing in his canteen. It's treated as justified karma, but nowadays McGuirk could lose his job for what amounts to a teacher bullying a student.
  • In "Law and Border", McGuirk refers to Brendon as his "retarded nephew" in the courthouse— a term that no one batted an eye at in 2001, but now would get him in hot water if used at all.
• Vindicated by History: Critics were divided by the show when it first aired on UPN, namely towards its improv-based humor and odd artstyle. When the rest of the first season aired on Adult Swim, they began warming up to it, but it really wasn't until season 2 began that it would earn the acclaim it has today.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Zig-zagged, but also played straight. Due to the lack of an Adult Swim block in international channels, the show ended up airing during children's timeslots on Cartoon Network UK, as well as on Canadian youth station YTV with a PG rating. Despite its child cast, the show is very distinctively aimed at adults; both due to the occasional innuendo/salty language as well as the pop culture references only adults would get. At the same time, though, the show otherwise doesn't have much in terms of kid-unfriendly content, as compared to most adult animated series, it favors strong, witty, character-based writing over shock humor and sex jokes.
  • It is worth noting that later seasons (with more envelope-pushing episodes such as "Curses") didn't finish its run on Cartoon Network UK, and later moved to Teletoon in Canada, where it aired with an 18+ rating, which, to be fair, is a little too out of line. Home Movies also aired on Cartoon Network in Japan, but to be fair, it's not any worse than a lot of Japanese kids shows.
• The Woobie: Melissa is often this when she interacts with McGuirk (the Jerkass). Especially in the mall scene during "Shore Leave".