For YMMV items that apply to the Video Game, see here.
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- Accidental Innuendo: During his Villain Song, The Devil says people call him "the Big D" (although the "D" is meant to stand for "Devil"). And he states he's "a real naughty boy" while his hand looks like… it's positioned conveniently, although he's actually playing a piano and discussing how evil he is.
- Adaptation Displacement: The original Cuphead game is far from obscure, but it's also known for its Nintendo Hard difficulty that deters casual players from trying it. This show, however, is actually quite simple to follow and very character driven, and as a result, there's a lot of people who enjoy the show who either have little to no interest in playing the game, or were already fans of the game to begin with.
- Adorkable: The Devil and Henchman have their moments of coming off as awkward and cute, especially when the former gets excited over the train he gets for Christmas and when the latter get excited in trying to cheer up his boss.
- Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Some fans have speculated that Sally Stageplay knew Ms. Chalice and the cups were scamming her, given how quickly she goes from being afraid to answering the door, but went along with it because she was impressed by their acting.
- The show being a Stealth Prequel to the original game gives many character interactions in the show, as well as the changes in character between both works (assuming that these events are to some extent canonical to the game) a lot more depth. Characters like Elder Kettle become nicer, while others like Brineybeard & Sally Stageplay become more antagonistic, and the Devil & King Dice become far more effective villains, all of which can be seen as each character's response to the game's greater stakes. And how did Mugman react to being forced to fight Cala Maria, who he has a crush on?
- Awesome Art: Just like the game, the cartoon goes out of its way to faithfully recreate the style of late 1920s to early 1940s animation, nailing the look and feel of those cartoons very well (complete with digitally-added film grain!). Given that the show is co-produced by the creators of the game, this isn't surprising. The only loss to the aesthetic is the lack of traditionally hand-drawn characters (any character of relevance is digitally drawn). But the style is seamless enough to replicate the look regardless. Plus, trying to hand-draw the whole show wouldn't be feasible in any way production-wise; it took ten years to make the game doing it traditionally with less to animate, even with the financial boost from Microsoft helping the production.
- Awesome Music: The score for the show, composed by Ego Plum, is a nostalgic throwback to cartoon music from the early 1930's mixed with modern jazz.
- The show's opening, "Welcome to The Cuphead Show"
is a real toe-tapping throwback to the Kansas City Jazz style. - "The Devil's Song" which is an excellent introduction to the show's Big Bad as he sings about how much he loves his life and stealing souls.
- "Ghosts Ain't Real" from the episode of the same name is a brief but catchy number song by a trio of ghosts trolling Cuphead and Mugman.
- "Turnin' Up the Charm" where Ms. Chalice teaches Cuphead and Mugman how to use charm to con free stuff out of people.
- Cala Maria's Villain Song "Number One Sea Beast" has her boasting how she's the terror of the seas and how she loves being evil.
- "Welcome To Sugar Land" which perfectly captures Sugar Land's whimsical and manic nature while also hinting at its underlying darkness.
- The scene in which the Devil demotes King Dice at the end of "Roll The Dice" features an ominous tune complete with eerie sound effects and organs. It returns at the end of "The Devil's Pitchfork", playing over the credits after the Devil kidnaps Mugman, in an unsettling breakaway from the usual slapstick jaunty tunes.
- The scene where the Devil unleashes the Four Horsemen is set to none other than the Dies Irae from Verdi's Requiem.
- King Dice's song in Season 3, "Roll the Dice" is mainly about what he's gone through and how he's taking a chance to get back on top. Wayne Brady puts his all into it.
- From the third season finale "The Devil & Ms. Chalice" there's "Dance Battle Finale" which plays during Chalice and the Devil's dance-off. Not only is it a jazzy but intense number fitting for the finale, but it also incorporates snippets of Ms. Chalice's theme and "The Devil's Song".
- The music for the final scene of "The Devil & Ms. Chalice" is a musical nod to the video game's opening scene when Cuphead, Mugman, and Ms. Chalice find the Devil's casino as a Bookend to where it all began and the show brings the connection full circle.
- The show's opening, "Welcome to The Cuphead Show"
- Cant Unhear It: Good luck reading most of the dialogue from the video game without using the voices of the characters in this show.
- Designated Monkey: Mugman has been thrown into hell in virtually every episode, but that doesn't stop people from feeling sorry for him due to his Nice Guy nature, and as such, most of the harm he gets is undeserved.
- Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Unsurprisingly enough, Cala Maria is once again popular just like in the game. And the show puts even more light on her, thanks to her sassy yet no-nonsense attitude among other things. Being voiced by Natasia Demetriou also helps.
- Baroness Von Bon Bon was widely regarded as one of the highlights of Season 2, due to her Cute and Psycho Ax-Crazy personality, easily memeable expressions, and amazing voice acting by Zoë Moss.
- Bowlboy immediately gained popularity upon his first appearance thanks his his design, voice, and how funny his gag was, to the point that some fans wish that he'd be the fourth playable character after Ms. Chalice in a potential Cuphead sequel. He later got his own episode in Season 2, which made fans love him even more... although, not for the same reasons.
- For someone who was originally a minor character in the game, Ludwig is quite popular, likely because of his classier redesign. Thanks to his popularity, even his game counterpart and his rival Wolfgang have started getting attention from the fandom as well.
- Of the Devil's third finest demons, Burpy is the most popular due to his round, adorable design and being surprisingly powerful. There are some fans who even want a marketable plushie of him.
- Fandom-Specific Plot:
- Following the reveal of Miss Chalice being an orphan, a slew of fanworks were created detailing the Cupbros convincing Elder Kettle to adopt her.
- Many fans will often introduce the bosses from the game that never made it into the show in fanfics or even right their own episodes staring said bosses.
- Friendly Fandoms:
- With the Disney-animated fantasy/horror series, The Owl House. Fans of both "The Owl House" and "Cuphead" created fan edits featuring Cuphead battling Porta Hooty (From "Echoes of the Past") as well as Cuphead and Mugman exploring the Boiling Isles. Some of the crew members of The Cuphead Show were also well known for working on The Owl House. The creator of The Owl House and Peabody Award winner, Dana Terrace, also shows her full support for The Cuphead Show, after seeing the trailer.Dana Terrace: That trailer looks so sick. Lookin forward to it!
- With the Disney-animated/fantasy series, Amphibia. Fans created fan comics of Marcy, who is an expert on video games, beating Anne at Cuphead, as she rages about how her character keeps dying, as well as AU comics of Cuphead and Mugman in Amphibia. There's even a fanmade video by LeisWaterTower on Twitter, showcasing Anne's battle with King Andrias in the style of a Cuphead boss battle! Some of the crew members of The Cuphead Show were also well known for working on Amphibia. Harsher in Hindsight because both Amphibia's season 2 finale and the first four episodes of The Cuphead Show were illegally leaked before their official release.
- With the Disney-animated fantasy/horror series, The Owl House. Fans of both "The Owl House" and "Cuphead" created fan edits featuring Cuphead battling Porta Hooty (From "Echoes of the Past")
- Genius Bonus:
- The first "Name That Tune" segment on King Dice's show is "Little Brown Jug". The song is about how drinking lots of alcohol is a good time - Dice's booze-based minions may have been bowdlerized away, but he's still promoting vices! Bonus points for actually being popular during the Prohibition years the cartoon takes inspiration from.
- Mixed with Fridge Brilliance, in "Dangerous Mugman", Cuphead and Mugman are suddenly obsessed with playing a pinball game at Porkrind's shop. Keep in mind, pinball machines were invented in the early 1930's, in which the show is implied to take place. So of course Cuphead and Mugman are so eager to play this brand new arcade game.
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- The HotDiggedyDemon short parody animation "A Cuphead Cartoon" portrays Cuphead accidentally breaking and then trying to glue Mugman's head back together. Not only is this animation somewhat accurate to the humor of the actual show but also predicted to an extent the plot of "Handle With Care".
- Another parody animation by Piemations called "The Cursed Thirst" which has Mugman speaking with a voice that sounds identical to his one in the actual show, as well as Elder Kettle's personality.
- A knock-off called Cup Hand Adventure was released just two months after Cuphead was released. One of the mascot characters for the copycat game had a bowl for a head instead of a cup. Come the episode "Handle With Care", a bowl shaped character by the name of Bowlboy would be introduced.
- The HotDiggedyDemon short parody animation "A Cuphead Cartoon
- I Knew It!: In the video for Netflix Geeked Week, even before Season 2 launched on August 19, many people correctly guessed in the YouTube comments section that Mugman would be kidnapped by the Devil in retaliation for Cuphead stealing his titular pitchfork in "The Devil's Pitchfork", and a few even guessed that said episode would be the Season 2 finale.
- Jerkass Woobie:
- Ms. Chalice might be a young con who tricks people on regular basis, but it's later revealed that she used to live in an abusive orphanage when she was little and ended up homeless after she decided to escape from it, which led to Chalice using her charms as her way to survive the harsh outside world alone. When she eventually gets used to her new lifestyle and gets a bit too carried with it, Chalice is abruptly killed in a car accident and foolishly deals with the Devil to get herself back to life, which bites her hard when she finally gets herself a couple of new friends that she cherishes and later is forced to betray said friends of hers by the Devil as a payment of her deal with him. She's even subjected to Cruel and Unusual Death via Rapid Aging by the Devil as a threat if she can't get the job done. With everything that she's been through, she at least deserves a hug.
- Mugman can sometimes be really harsh to Cuphead and some of the other characters. But considering the entire world puts him through hell, you can feel bad for him and it’s understandable.
- Magnificent Bitch: Ms. Chalice is a young con artist who uses her natural charm to manipulate others, introduced tricking multiple citizens into giving her free items with nothing but her charm. Encountering Cuphead and Mugman spying on her, she decides to teach them her tricks out of amusement, training them on charming others and how to escape when caught, sincerely growing fond of the boys in the process. Forced to reluctantly abandon them during a break-in gone awry, she later convinces Elder Kettle to hide her from an angry mob before having fun with the boys as a genuine apology for her actions, saving them from the mob when they find her. Revealing her ghost powers to them, she later helps them gain money by acting as a hostile ghost for them to catch for money, once again saving the boys when their scheme gets them attacked by real ghosts.
- Memetic Molester: The Devil's less than pure intentions in "Sweater Off Dead" where he discovers that Cuphead is wearing an impenetrable invisible sweater can be easily taken out of context once the Devil asks Cuphead to "take it off," including trying to sweeten the deal by offering him some money. It bears mentioning that Cuphead is supposed to be an adolescent.
- Memetic Mutation: Has its own page here.
- Moe: The younger versions of Cuphead and Mugman from "Release the Demons!" are both positively precious. So is the younger version of Chalice. Seeing her being raised in a hellhole of an orphanage makes you wanna adopt her on the spot!
- Older Than They Think: This isn't the first time that Mugman's popular fanon crush on Cala Maria has been integrated into a work's canon; the lesser-known novel Cuphead in Carnival Chaos also depicts Mugman becoming smitten with Cala Maria. It even has her deliberately seduce him so she could make him do her favors.
- Ship-to-Ship Combat: Like in the game, some fans tend to ship Ms. Chalice with either Cuphead or Mugman.
- She Really Can Act: While Zoë Moss is known primarily in animation circles for her behind-the-scenes roles in storyboarding and character design, her professional voice acting debut as Baroness von Bon Bon was met with wide acclaim, showing off how Bon Bon is Obviously Evil and on a permanent sugar high.
- Stuck in Their Shadow:
- While nobody considers Werner Werman a bad character, per se, out of all game characters introduced in Season 2 as antagonists, he gets by far the least attention from the fandom. It's kinda understandable though when one considers he has to compete with Cala Maria, Baroness Von Bon Bon and Ludwig.
- Poor Captain Brineybeard was already a victim of this in the original game, and it is no different here. Having to share his episode with Cala Maria only helped her overshadow him even more.
- Suspiciously Similar Song:
- "Turn on the Charm", Ms. Chalice's song that becomes her Leitmotif, and features in her dance routine in "In Charm's Way", is quite similar to the Stephen Weiss and Bernie Baum song "Music! Music! Music!" The same goes for Elder Kettle!Chalice's song "Dance Over a Rainbow".
- The early part of Cala Maria's song in "A High Seas Adventure!" ("Number One Seabeast") clearly took a bit of inspiration from "Habanera" from Carmen.
- In "A Very Devil Christmas", the Devil's Villain Song "Brings Out the Devil in Me" sounds kinda similar to "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" by Andy Williams.
- "Turn on the Charm", Ms. Chalice's song that becomes her Leitmotif, and features in her dance routine in "In Charm's Way", is quite similar to the Stephen Weiss and Bernie Baum song "Music! Music! Music!
- Tainted by the Preview: While the trailers and the style received largely positive feedback, there were some disappointed reactions from fans towards the show being digitally animated as opposed to being completely hand-drawn like the game was, and therefore not as faithful to the retro cartoon style as the game. However, this disappointment was met with Critical Backlash from animators and other fans, who were quick to point out that a show animated exactly like the game would've been far too expensive and time-consuming to be feasible for a cartoon series, and once the show released, such sentiments quickly died down since the animation resembles its inspiration very well, and the artists even added in imperfections to make it look more authentic.
- They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
- Despite the anti-gambling moral still being present, many fans of the game were not happy with the casino being replaced by a carnival and game show. After the final episode of Season 3 aired, the casino is featured, and essentially reveals the show is a Stealth Prequel to the game, and the complaint slowly died off.
- Some fans of the original game were also upset about changes made to the characters' designs and personalities.
- King Dice being voiced by Wayne Brady instead of Alana Bridgewater from the video game was initially met with a mixed reception. This sentiment eventually died down when Alana herself stated she was fine with this casting and Wayne proved himself to be fit for the role.
- Unpopular Popular Character: The Devil, who is The Dreaded in-universe, is beloved by the fandom thanks to his Laughably Evil personality. It also helps that his game counterpart was already popular far before the show's release.
