YMMV / 3-2-1 Penguins!

• Accidental Innuendo: Take these lyrics from "Fair and Square" out of context and try to see how it doesn't sound like it's referring to a different kind of cheating.
  Kevin: When you do that thing.
  Zidgel, Midgel, and Fidgel: Thingy, thingy, thingy, oh!
• Alternate Aesop Interpretation: The moral of Comedy of Errors is "Don't tell anybody your friends' embarrassing secrets." However, one alternate moral can be, "It's funny to hear somebody tell others' embarrassing secrets until one of those secrets is your own."
• Americans Hate Tingle: Unlike VeggieTales, this series never caught on in Germany and has been completely forgotten there.
• Anvilicious: The show can be as anvilicious as VeggieTales.
• Awesome Music: It's only fitting that a show made by the same people who did VeggieTales would have some catchy tunes.
  • The opening theme, while short and mostly just involving the penguins saying their names and then the show name, has a nice combination of stereotypical alien movie music and classic surfer rock, finished off by a cool guitar riff.
  • The musical numbers that the penguins performed from The Cheating Scales of Bullamanka to The Moon Menace on Planet Tell-A-Lie at the end of each episode are all catchy in their own right. The stand outs include "The Shinin' Star Swing" from The Amazing Carnival of Complaining, an energetic and fun carnival/rock/swing Genre Mashup and "The Legend of Galaxy Gus" from The Moon Menace on Planet Tell-A-Lie, a country ballad about the titular Galaxy Gus, a Fake Ultimate Hero cowboy potrayed by Zidgel who ultimately saves the day anyway after admitting to his lie.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The "ombudsmen" gag in The Cheating Scales of Bullamanka, involving a definition for the word being displayed on the screen after Fidgel uses it, after which Kevin "fixes" it to read "ombudspenguins" by drawing on the screen. It's a completely (yet hilariously) random gag that is never repeated again throughout the whole show, nor is it noticed or commented on by anybody else except Kevin (and maybe Zidgel).
• Canon Fodder:
  • What the Federation Academy consists of.
  • The Penguins' backstories.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: The reveal of Bert and Cavitus being one and the same in 12 Angry Hens surprised no one ever.
• Estrogen Brigade: Check deviantArt, YouTube, Fanpop, or other art sites for 3-2-1 Penguins! fans. The majority of them will be female. Or, uh... not. Chances are, some of those fans will Squee for either Zidgel or Midgel.
• Evil Is Cool: Many fans consider Uncle Blobb cool.
• Fanfic Fuel: What Uncle Blobb did after his escape has already been written in a fanfic.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Zidgel X Midgel seems to be the fan favorite. We would say "for the time being", but it's a two-decade-old cartoon.
• Genius Bonus: One of Fidgel's inventions (which was an important plot point in the episode "Lazy Daze") is the Harryhausen Ray, which is able to stop motion.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In ''Compassion Crashin", Michelle mentions her friend Claire. Claire Corlett does become friends with someone named Michelle.
  • The first episode came out five years before Madagascar, which would introduce us to another quartet of adventurous penguins.
  • Two brunette twins reside in a house located in the woods with their elderly relative for the summer and encounter bizarre things in every episode. Hmmm....
• Ho Yay:
  • Yup, not even a Christian children's series about the adventures of four anthropomorphic alien penguins is free from this, as this dialogue in Invasion of the Body Swappers shows.
    Zidgel: Midgel? I think you're beautiful!
    Midgel: No, Captain, you're beautiful!
  • Apparently, in In the Big House, Zidgel likes the smell of Fidgel's rump being burned.
  • In "Git Along Little Doggies", after Zidgel and Wild Bill apologize to each other, they do a Man Hug, which makes Midgel a bit uncomfortable. After Wild Bill pulls away from Zidgel to talk to Michelle, Zidgel is shown reaching out for Bill as if he was trying to kiss him
• Idiosyncratic Ship Naming:
  • Zidgel X Midgel has been named "Gay Space Penguins", as homosexuality is observed in penguins often.
  • Similarly, Zidgel X Fidgel is referred as "Space Husbands" do to the similarity to Spirk.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Most people watch the show just for the eponymous penguins.
• Memetic Mutation: Uncle Blobb from "The Amazing Carnival of Complaining" is the subject of quite a few YouTube Poops and other meme videos. His song about the carnival is especially ripe for meme potential.
• My Real Daddy: Despite being created by Jeff Parker, Nathan Carlson and Phil Lollar, the show itself is seen more of Mike Nawrocki and Ron Smith's creative input as they worked a lot on the jokes and stories. Not helping that Ron Smith is interviewed a lot on the features.
• Periphery Demographic: The older fans of VeggieTales are most likely fans of this show as well. In fact, like VeggieTales, this has some non-Christian fans.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: Due to the first three Penguins' names rhyming, fans took some liberties naming some of the pairings, e.g. ZidgMidge, ZidgFidge, and MidgFidge.
• Retroactive Recognition: Claire Corlett, Ellen Kennedy, Lee Tockar, Gary Chalk, Trevor Devall, and Andrea Libman are all voice actors in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic who appeared here.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: When the series came back, quite a few fans weren't really pleased with the changes.
  • Some of the voice changes such as Fidgel and Jason sound more annoying than how they were depicted in the original videos.
  • The lack of music videos.

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