Awesome Music: The Dark Reprise version of the theme song from Pibby's show gives a chilling horror vibe as its monotone vocals and lyrics help set the mood of the series, par with its premise.
A popular fan theory claims that the Darkness only targets characters from cartoons that have ended or were canceled. This isn't true: while said characters do comprise most of the cast seen in the trailer, some characters from series that were airing at the time, such as Craig of the Creek, have also been shown as victims to the Darkness.
The Darkness only targets animated shows. While this is an understandable assumption to make since the vast majority of the trailer is, well, animated, the Darkness is shown encroaching on a live-action commercial in the short, and the Adult Swims April Fool's Day event shows the corruption of The Eric Andre Show (barely), several live-action bumpers, and (presumably) Joe Pera.
The series' concept alone is as twistedly hilarious as it is terrifying. Just the mere thought of an adorable Cartoon Creature having to fight, bloodily at that, against a bunch of cartoon characters from different shows who have been corrupted by some unknown entity should tell you how insane this show is.
For Adult Swim's April Fools broadcast in 2022, Pibby and BunBun showed up in several shows on the program alongside the Darkness to promote this show, with various parts of each show getting affected by the glitchy, eldritch monstrosity. The fact that the "Who Killed Hannibal" scene from The Eric Andre Show plays out pretty much the same way (aside from the static and visual corruption) as it originally did despite the Darkness corrupting Eric is really funny. Made even better with Pibby and a corrupted BunBun's reactions, as Pibby looks on in sheer terror, while BunBunis gleefully enjoying it.
Also from that broadcast is a bumper that talks about blockchains... and how much they'd rather not talk about it and never want to hear it again. A giant "STOP" appears as the glitchy BunBun slides onto the screen and says "maybe we should let the Darkness consume us", implying that as bad or as evil as the glitch is, even it alsohates NFTs.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Somehow, despite seemingly being one Mook amongst many for a show that never made it past the pilot stage, the corrupted Finn has gotten significant popularity due to his design, and him showing some remnants of personality by him noticeably lighting up when Pibby accidentally exposes her hiding spot.
The pilot is seen by some analysts as an allegory of the decline of traditional linear television as a whole in favor of streaming services.
Some have interpreted the pilot as being an anti-capitalist satire (more specifically, one of the business decisions made by Warner Bros. Discovery head David Zaslav, even though the WBD merger hadn't happened yet when Pibby was in the planning stages), with The Darkness being an allegory for network executives cancelling, or even downright writing off, fan-favorite cartoons due to low ratings, poor merchandise sales or perceivingly being a roadblock to endless profit.
Fan-Disliked Explanation: When pitch documents were shown in Late 2023 describing the Glitch as being a manifestation of internet meme culture of all things, to say people were divided is to put it gently, with some people going as far as to say they were glad the show didn't get greenlit if that was the intended explanation for the Glitch. While it's unclear if that remained true by the time of the Pilot or even the Adult Swim bumpers, most fan projects generally choose to disregard the internet meme edge entirely in favor of protraying the Glitch as something more along the lines of a more standard assimilator.
Fandom Rivalry: Don't mention this project in any circles involving FusionFall. The notion of the Halloween short being developed into a full series has not sat well with the community whose game originated the Cartoon Crisis Crossover, with many disliking the darker tone and the use of shock value.
Fan Nickname: The Eldritch AbominationBig Bad of the story hasn't been named yet, with it only being referred to as "the Darkness", which is a pretty vague and non-specific title. Fans instead refer to it with more descriptive terms like "The Glitch", "The Static", or "The Void" instead.
While it's only indicated that The Powerpuff Girls universe will be held in a single show with the 2016 series' designs, some viewers have interpreted the 1998 and 2016 series to be separate worlds, as the uncorrupted Buttercup in the trailer lacks her 2016 design's cowlick, while the corrupted Buttercup in the poster has it.note It's worth noting that due to some (of many) bloopers, Buttercup misses her cowlick at times in the 2016 series, so it might be the case here too, considering that Buttercup is otherwise still depicted like in her 2016 incarnation in the trailer.
If the (extremely lengthy) WMG page is to be believed, many people think that Xavier from Xavier: Renegade Angel can be a sort of counterweapon against the Darkness, due to his extreme weirdness.
Apart from the aforementioned Xavier, it's widely agreed, both by the WMG page and the greater Internet, that no character, regardless of power level, medium, genre, survivability, or company ownership, is safe from being assimilated into the Darkness and can only run away.
Shortly after the trailer released, the Friday Night Funkin' community jumped on the series due to the immense modding potential the concept had, from the disturbing designs of the corrupted characters to songs that could go wild with the glitch aesthetic. These being fan creations and thus exempt from copyright also opened the door to characters that weren't owned by Warner Bros., drawing people in further.
With Animaniacs (2020). After the trailer for the series dropped with massive critical acclaim, fans began creating Pibby-themed edits of the monstrous glitchy blob invading the Warners' world, infecting the Warners and other characters. Fans have also created fan art of the Warners taking part in the battle with Pibby to stop the glitch from taking over.
With LISA. Fans of Lisa have compared Pibby's character and design to Buddy's and have made fan art drawing Pibby with Buddy's clothes, or drawing fanart of Buddy and Pibby interacting.
Given that the 2022 Warner Bros.-Discovery merger revealed there would be a cut back on children's content, following which several Cartoon Network and Adult Swim shows began disappearing not only from the HBO Max app, but being erased from history through any means possible (revoking access to DVDs, removing any mentions of certain cartoons from YouTube, Twitter, along with the Cartoon Network and Adult Swim websites, and so on), the Darkness corrupting various Warner cartoons beyond recognition feels like a warning.
The show itself has not been greenlit as of October 2023, and it doesn't seem like it'll get off the ground any time soon. In a way, the Darkness took Pibby down before she even got a chance to fight.
Despite priding herself on being a villain, Melira cares enough about Pibby that she covers a tearful sleeping Pibby with her coat to keep her warm.
Just seeing Pibby, Melira, and Alloy Boy working together as a team really shows how much they care for each other, especially with Pibby and Melira, where the latter acts as a surrogate mother to the former.
Right after Pibby has her Eye Scream, Alloy Boy just holds onto her making sure she's OK, like a big brother protecting his little sister.
Hype Backlash: The short began to cop quite a bit of criticism after it went viral, with some deriding it on the opinion of it being a rather uncreative take on the Subverted Kids' Show premise. The vast amount of attention this show's exposure got in several fandoms over the short certainly didn't help matters.
It didn't take long (read: literal hours) for people to start editing screenshots of other cartoons (that weren't featured in the short), or even other media, being consumed by the glitch blob.
Fred Flintstone dies Explanation The scene of Fred Flintstone sliding down the Brontosaurus, only to futilely try to scramble back up after seeing the Static waiting at the bottom, quickly spread around online due to the sheer Mood Whiplash of seeing a beloved character from western animation get swallowed by an Eldritch Abomination. It is often used for jokes about seeing something you didn't want to see and trying to get away from it, or replacing the glitch with something else such as certain online communities, among other things; tying it in with the earlier "you're going to Brazil" meme is a popular choice. It has also led to jokes about 7 Grand Dad and, thus, SiIvaGunner, due to the character's memetic inclusion in the game and SiIva's rips.
A number of The Binding of Isaac fans have taken notice of◊ how Pibby looks like the characters from that game, in particular Tainted Cain thanks to the eyepatch and scar on her left eye. A few of them have even made customsprites of her in the style of the game. In turn, the Static is often compared to TheVoid.
This is seriously some of the coolest shit. It's so terrifying. What makes it all the more unsettling is it's characters you know too.ExplanationA tweet by Twitter user @RiseFallNickBck showcasing the concept of the show, later applied to other large crossovers or things that would elicit similar What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?/What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?-type reactions in jest.
Moe: Pibby is huggably and lovably adorable. Perhaps deliberately so, considering she's intended to be based off of preschool cartoons.
Obvious Crossover Method: The short's status as already being a crossover, with the potential for anything connecting to it, alongside the crossover-friendly premise of "the Corruption follows Pibby to a new world and she has to team up with surviving natives to fight it", has resulted in numerous fanart depicting Pibby traveling to almost every piece of fiction people can think of, mainly of the animated kind (whether western cartoon, anime, web animation, etc.).
Popular with Furries: Melira is a wealthy, heavy-set, and mature feline villainess that has quickly enamored the Furry Fandom because of said qualities.
With the idea of a cartoon character realizing their normally upbeat world is in danger, said danger being a static void that erases/goes after/corrupts things it deems mistakes, and weaponizing its meta idea to turn what should be a normal kid-friendly looking cartoon on its head for surreal Fridge Horror purposes, Pibby is possibly the closest thing to a Darker and EdgierAmazing World of Gumball reboot.
The concept of fighting twisted versions of beloved characters has led to some people calling Pibby Adult Swim's version of Epic Mickey.
Pibby can also be seen as a return to Adult Swim creating new shows by editing/parodying Hanna-Barbera cartoons, except exaggerated to include far more stuff from Warner Bros..
Many have also pointed out that Pibby is essentially a creepypasta-flavored FusionFall adaptation.
What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Despite the presence of well-known and kid-friendly characters and having an adorable main character, Pibby and the series concept it presents are... very decidedly not for kids, between the violent situations, Zombie Apocalypse-esque plot, and the bucket-loads of Nightmare Fuel. The original YouTube upload of the short was pointedly given an age restriction not long after its popularity blew up (being the first video on Adult Swim's channel to receive such), though the restriction was removed a few weeks later.
From the trailer alone, poor Pibby goes through losing her friends, her home, and eventually her left eye as she's constantly chased by the Static and the horrifying glitch zombies it produces.
BunBun as well; he becomes one of many cartoon characters consumed by the Static and is later forced to fight his best friend. Hearing him cry out for Pibby as the Static swallows him is heartbreaking.
and team up with her, Melira, and Alloy Boy to save the world. There's even a fan-animation on YouTube
