YMMV / Paul Bunyan

• Memetic Badass: A common aspect of Paul Bunyan stories, new and old, is the absurd feats Paul performed on a regular basis. From screaming at creatures with such ferocity they just die on the spot to toughing out snow so cold that it permanetly changed Babe's fur and skin to blue, perhaps Paul's most insane feat was the day he died...only to get bored of being death so came back alive.
  • This extends to Fabian "Saginaw Joe" Fournier, the man with the unique distinction of being the most likely inspiration of Paul Bunyan. Known for his love of drinking, headbutting people and allegedly biting through pillars of wood with his double-rowed teeth, Fournier had his own fair share of wild myths, usually him doing the three aforementioned activities.
• Newer Than They Think: Many aspects of Paul Bunyan mythology were invented by marketing agencies in the 20th century, with accounts of Paul Bunyan stories proper existing but not being as numerous as one may expect.
• Tear Jerker: In the Disney version, we have Paul finally deciding to leave his hometown behind after helping it grow to prosperity. One morning, the town wakes to find a giant letter in the town square explaining that he'd headed out west to find more room and heed his call as a lumberjack, which is read by Cale Mcnab, the person who first laid eyes on Paul, and was his surrogate father as much as anyone was.
  Cale: "PS: I'll write soon." *sighs* We're gonna miss that boy...
  • Even sadder if you realize that Paul never returned, after his work was finished and he realized he'd become outdated, he exiled himself in Alaska, and his adoptive town never saw him again.
• Ugly Cute: Many of the Fearsome Critters, most notably the Squonk.
• Values Dissonance: In these modern, environmentally friendly times, a man who commits mass deforestation (such as cutting down every single tree in North Dakota and Kansas, which were previously covered in old growth forest) and driving any animals who get in his way to extinction, Paul doesn't seem quite as heroic. And in some of the earlier stories the loggers seem pretty unconcerned when some black loggers go missing, reasoning that since it was the Year of the Black Snow, finding them would be impossible.
  • It's even brought up in the Rankin-Bass version, where Panhandle Pete is the giant who's obsessed with felling every damn tree in the country, and Paul points out that not only can you NOT cut down every tree, you have to actually replant the ones you do cut down or "you'll wind up in a whole heap of trouble".

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