YMMV / Sum 41

• And You Thought It Would Fail: Deryck admitted that Island/Def Jam had more faith in them releasing "Still Waiting" as the first single off of Does This Look Infected? despite it being so radically different from their previous one, which had only been release a few months prior. Not only was a it a hit for the band, but is near-universally considered a Growing the Beard moment by fans.
• Audience-Alienating Era: The two albums without Dave are generally considered their weakest, mostly because he was the one responsible for the awesome heavy metal influences. 13 Voices, his first album back, also sees the return of the thrash metal riffs and licks.
• Broken Base: Several:
  • What is their first album, Half Hour of Power or All Killer, No Filler? The band calls the latter their debut, which makes sense, as it's their first full-length release (Half Hour of Power is more of an EP).
  • Which is better: All Killer, No Filler, Does This Look Infected or Chuck? The argument is mostly split between the latter two.
  • Is Underclass Hero any good? Is Screaming Bloody Murder their best or worst album yet?
  • Is 13 Voices too generic and a letdown after a long hiatus, or is it their best yet, with Dave being back and being from the point of view of Deryck and his struggles with alcoholism?
• Catharsis Factor: "A.N.I.C.", 40 seconds of undiluted profanity and rage. A really good song to put on when you're mad at someone.
• Crosses the Line Twice: "A.N.I.C." (aka, "Anna Nicole Is A Fucking Stupid Cunt"). The fact that the band wrote the angriest, most profane song they ever recorded about a d-list celebrity is just too absurd to find offensive. It's practically a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment, as it's just 40 straight seconds of Deryck screaming obscenities.
• Estrogen Brigade: A surprising amount of the current fanbase consists of girls... girls who have the hots for Deryck and Cone, unsurprisingly.
• Friendly Fandoms: With fellow angsty 2000s band Linkin Park. It doesn't hurt that both bands seems to be good friends in real life, to the point that Deryck has performed with the surviving members of LP a few times following Chester Bennington's death (and is generally agreed among fans to be the best choice should LP decide to continue with a new vocalist).
• Growing the Beard: While All Killer, No Filler is considered a classic 2000s Pop Punk album, Does This Look Infected? is generally agreed to be where Sum 41 settled more into their own sound distinct from other bands of their genre, one more thematically mature while still having the same fun energy of their first album and determined the sound of all their future albums. It's to the point where Deryck Whibley said to Loudwire that he felt All Killer, No Filler was their weakest album overall, and almost no fan disagreed.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Their cover of Nickelback's "How You Remind Me" became this after Avril Lavigne married Chad Kroeger following her split from Deryck.
  • Songs like "Slipping Away", "Pieces", and especially "Angels With Dirty Faces" become much darker and tragic when you remember that Deryck's life was falling apart due to his alcoholism, and that it came dangerously close to killing him.
  • The entirety of the documentary "Don't Try This at Home," because of its theme of drinking.
  • Going back and listening to "Pull The Curtain" now makes the song seem like a cry for help from Deryck.
  • The band probably couldn't have known at the time, but around the time of the "Still Waiting" video, the only other real named "numbers band" blink-182 started going through the internal tensions that would break them up around 2 years later.
  • The line "I was drinking underage/I belong onstage" in "What We're All About" sounds a lot less cool knowing that Deryck was an alcoholic for many years (although he didn't sing that line).
  • Whatever good reputation the already controversial "Anna Nicole Is A Fucking Stupid Cunt" had died with its subject matter.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In the "Still Waiting" music video, Will Sasso mentions that "number bands are over." That same year, a certain band with a number in their name released an album that would soon be their most popular and well-regarded yet, with more success to come.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: Most of the reviews for Underclass Hero criticized it for retreading not only many of their own songs, especially the title track, which is an obvious rewrite of "Fat Lip," but several of the punk pop cliches that had popped up in the years since their breakthrough. Screaming Bloody Murder made an effort to return to the darker material from Chuck, but nobody bit.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • If you go onto YouTube and look up "We're All to Blame," click on any video and there will be tons of comments referencing Godzilla: Final Wars. Do the same for "Noots," and you'll see comments referencing Fantastic Four (2005) instead.
  • "I WAS LISTENING TO MY FAVORITE BAND ONCE AGAIN, SUM 41! NO REASON! LIVE IN ONTARIO 2005!"
  • "THERE IT IS!" ^note A boy was listening to "No Reason" when he suddenly caught a Shiny Ponyta after dozens of tries. His reactions to this were what caught on.
• Moment of Awesome: In October 2017, Deryck Whibley and Frank Zummo showed up at Linkin Park's tribute show for Chester Bennington. Deryck sang on LP's "The Catalyst" and nailed it, in one of the best performances of the night. (Also a Heartwarming Moment; according to Mike Shioda, Deryck flew in for the show with only 24 hours notice!)
• Most Wonderful Sound: Deryck's joyous shout of "ZUMMO!" whenever he signals Frank Zummo to play a fill.
• Narm:
  • Take a shot every time Deryck screams "SO!"
  • His screaming in "Pull the Curtain" sounds like he's saying "DIEEEE!" and not "SLEEEEP!", which is apparently what he's saying.
  • The weird sounds at the end of "March of the Dogs" certainly counts, especially when it sounds like Deryck's voice is cracking as he's laughing.
  • The censored version of "A.N.I.C." As one can imagine, it's practically an instrumental.
  • "The doctor said my mom should've had an abortion!"
• Never Live It Down: Much like their contemporaries blink-182, their early material earned them reputation of being a cheeky joke band, to the point that purist punk fans aren't willing to give the rest of their significantly darker discography a chance.
• Nightmare Fuel" "88" starts out as an upbeat track, but halfway through things change for the weird as the soundtrack starts becoming more tense until the first half's music tones are no longer recognizable. Eventually, it caps off with an extremely tense section that wouldn't look out of place in a slasher flick, complete with the final lines being screamed out like the singer is in agony.
• Replacement Scrappy:
  • While Tom "Brown Tom" Thacker (from Gob) was by no means disliked, most agreed that he couldn't hope to fill Dave Baksh's shoes, as Dave was the one responsible for all of the intricate guitar solos and riffs while Thacker's playing was too similar to Deryck's. It didn't help that a white guitarist replacing the Indian-Canadian Baksh made the whole thing seem like an unintentional Race Lift. He'd eventually be Rescued from the Scrappy Heap once Dave returned, where they became Those Two Guys when it came to lead guitar.
  • Averted with drummer Frank Zummo who, while not as colorful a personality as Steve Jocz, is a skilled enough musician that longtime fans have readily embraced him. He even won an APMA award for Best Drummer!
• Signature Song: "Fat Lip," "In Too Deep", and "Makes No Difference" are all candidates.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: Perhaps moreso than any of their Pop Punk contemporaries, which is saying something considering that the genre is known for this kind of thing:
  • "Pain for Pleasure" sounds a lot like Iron Maiden's "Killers" and "Ride the Chariot to the Devil" is slightly similar to "The Trooper". Granted, that's the point.
  • "The Hell Song" vs. "How You Remind Me" by Nickelback.
  • "Hooch" vs. "Boom" by P.O.D.
  • "Welcome To Hell" vs. "All I Want" by The Offspring.
  • "No Reason" vs. "Infest" by Papa Roach and "One Step Closer" by Linkin Park.
  • "We're All to Blame" vs. "Chop Suey!" by System of a Down. (Or, alternatively, "Forest")
  • "The Bitter End" vs. "Battery" by Metallica.
  • "I'm Not the One" vs. "A Place for My Head" by Linkin Park.
  • "Pieces" vs. "The Scientist" by Coldplay.
  • "88" vs. "One" by Metallica.
  • "The Jester" vs. "House of Wolves" by My Chemical Romance.
  • "Pull the Curtain" vs. "Shut Up" by blink-182
  • "This Is Goodbye" vs. "Everytime I Look for You" by Blink-182.
  • "Underclass Hero" vs. "Feeling This" by Blink-182.
  • "War" vs. "Centuries" by Fall Out Boy
  • "Best of Me" vs. "Hate Me" by Blue October and "The Reason" by Hoobastank
  • "Take a Look at Yourself" vs. "Man Overboard" by Blink-182, "Welcome to the Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance, and 'Letterbomb' by Green Day. Yes, they copied THREE pre-existing songs for one.
  • "Welcome to Hell" vs "Join the Ranks" by Rise Against
  • The guitar at the very beginning of "King of Contradiction" sounds eerily enough like the guitar sound effect on Guitar Hero before you play your song.
• Tear Jerker:
  • "Slipping Away." As the title suggests, it just sounds hopeless.
  • "Pieces." The backing vocals are just so mournful.
  • "The Hell Song," which is about the band discovering that their close friend was diagnosed with HIV.
  • "War," especially considering that writing it changed Deryck's life.
  • "Crash", which is a about a car crash.
  • "Pull the Curtain." All the vocals that are going on at the same really gets to your tearducts.
    My last words, I'm choking...
  • "So Long Goodbye," a perfect choice for a closer to Underclass Hero.
  • "Never There," which is about Deryck's Disappeared Dad and the complicated feeling he has about what little of a relationship they had to begin with, as well as an ode to his loving singer mother.
  • "Catching Fire." Deryck apparently started writing it about how much he missed his wife while she was away, but it gradually evolved into a song about the number of public figures (especially his fellow musicians like Chester Bennington and Chris Cornell) who had committed suicide. In the end, he turned in an extremely emotional song about wanting to tell the people who you love how you feel about them before it's too late.
    "And if I failed you, well I swear I tried my best
    But now you're gone, so all your tears can lay to rest
    Just so you know
    You meant the world to us, I know that it's too late"
    And all I want's another chance, I can't accept that you have left
• Values Dissonance:
  • The first video for "Makes No Difference" includes candid footage of the band committing very real acts of petty violence with Super Soakers, including robbing a pizza place. While morally questionable in 2000, two decades worth of gun violence becoming more controversial and minimum wage workers receiving more sympathy on social media makes their crimes seem less like harmless fun and more like just crimes. The ubiquity of cell phones also means that those random innocent pedestrians getting sprayed with water would be less mildly annoyed about their clothes getting wet and more alarmed about their expensive phones getting damaged.
  • In an era where the long-term trauma of underage people being exposed to things like drugs and sex is taken a lot more seriously, the line about drinking underage in "What We're All About" doesn't feel like something to brag about.

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