YMMV / 31 Minutos

• Accidental Aesop:
  • While "Ríe" is supposed to be a parody of cheerful songs^note (in the vein of the homonymous theme song of the Chilean sketch show Jappening con Ja) by being as depressive as possible, its actual message is often interpreted in that since anything can go wrong (no matter what) one don't need to take life too seriously, which is seen by many as genuinely helpful.
  • In the episode where Mario Hugo attempts to make Patana fall in love with him, Huachimingo gives him a pep talk where he tells him that the Mario Hugo he knows "would humilliate himself" to get Patana's love. While this is Played for Laughs, some viewers took it as a covert lesson about learning to love themselves and to not humilliate themselves for somebody else.
• Adorkable: Mario Hugo's attempts at getting Patana to fall in love with him can sometimes fall under this trope. Not to mention he himself is rather earnest in his job, which earns him quite the admiration.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Policarpo. While he blatantly disregards the public opinion of the songs he selects fot his ranking, in the episode "Vacaciones", he is shown to also hate the song "Bailan Sin Cesar" and even claim he's starting to have a headache upon hearing it as Cindy Miraflores' ringtone. Does this mean he disregards even his opinion and just randomly picks the songs in his rating? Or that he just grew to hate the song over time?
  • Juan Carlos Bodoque's Green Reports often portray him as clueless and reckless in therms of knowing about taking care of the environment, just so he can learn the lesson of the week. While, Juan Carlos Bodoque being clueless about the thing he's suppose to be reporting wouldn't be out of character, it also exists the possibilty that these segments are fictional in-universe as well and that he enjoys making something more dynamic that simply reporting about an specific issue.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: The show's parody of soap operas being titled "Los Títeres" ("The Puppets") seems like just a pun on how the show is a Hand Puppet show, so people outside Chile probably don't know that Los Títeres was the name of an actual Chilean soap opera from the '80s, where the main theme was that fate controlled everyone's actions, like a puppet's strings. They even use the same theme song.
• Americans Hate Tingle: According to this trailer that's what happened when they attempted to bring 31 Minutos to the United States.
  The following preview is a trailer some guy with a production company did in an attempt to sell the 31 minutos format to the US American gringo people some years ago. It didn’t work. That market is just not ready for our arrival anytime soon.
  • A bit Heartwarming in Hindsight, given the series would end up gaining a English-speaking following years later thanks to certain YouTube's essays praising it, with the first episode even getting an english fan dub, With that said, it is still far from the cultural icon that it's in his origin country.
• Awesome Music:
  • The songs featured in Policarpo's Ranking Top were very well received. Records with them were released and live performances are a large part of the stage shows, there's even a cover album with covers by famous Latin American artists such as Belanova and Natalia Lafourcade.
  • The Song "Primavera" sung by La Corchetis, in which she tries to look cheer-up herself saying that the COVID-19 will end sometime, remembering that "tomorrow will be spring". In the song she tries to see the silver lining of the quarantine. For more awesome, the staff of 31 Minutos joins, yes including Guaripolo!
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Guaripolo, the fans are divided on whether he is a hilarious parody of semi-famous showbiz types, or a nuisance that contributes nothing to the humor of the show.
  • Patana Tufillo, depending on who you ask, balances out the cast's sausage fest and adds a more grounded perspective to the antics of the show, or is a bland and uninteresting addition with little development. Other factors added to this are that the character's addition to the show was the result of the show's network insisting that at least one female character be added to the show, and her voice actress becoming a subject of controversy outside of the show. It is important to notice that how much grounded Patana is depends entirely on Rule of Funny, as she can be as flawed as the rest of the cast at times, and in her introductory episode she was a Parody Sue.
• Broken Base: As stated below, the Darker and Edgier the series became it suffered a loss of viewership due to Too Bleak, Stopped Caring, but for a good fraction of it the show becomes all the more unique and funny due to it, even welcoming the flanderization of the characters.
• Common Knowledge: It is believed that part of the reason why the show began as a straightforward edutainment show and slowly became primarily a parody of Chilean television is because the writers needed funding through government grants to television; and therefore, the main reason why the show was eventually cancelled was both the lowered ratings and the same government grant being rescinded once the show couldn't be reasonably considered educational anymore. There is, however, no solid evidence of any of this, beyond the acknowledgment of government funding in the show's credits. Besides that, funding wasn't strictly monitored, as other shows for children with little to no educational content were also granted government funding. Once again, it is believed this was done in order to compete with the two growing cable providers in the country at the time, but there's no evidence to suggest this either. In the end, the show itself only acknowledged the idea during an awards show to make a joke about it, with Tulio and Bodoque having a laugh over how thanks to the latter's Green Notes, "people think this is an educational show!"
• Critical Dissonance: The Movie was critically acclaimed and has appeared in multiple lists calling it one of the best Chilean movies ever made (although, part of it can be attributed to 31 Minutos's Sacred Cow status in his origin country). The reception among the fanbase is more mixed, with some fans agreeing it's great and the other half seeing it as an poor take on the show with a Cliché Storm plot and poor characterizations.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Due to a mixture of the show's enormous success and the lowered standards of Chilean non-cable children's television in the mid-2000s, coupled with the writers' own surreal dark and sarcastic sense of humor, the show at times resembles less a kids' edutainment show and more an Adult Swim parody of one. ^note It's believed that this is also what led to its decline in quality, as later seasons with more cynical humor fared worse in ratings, leading to the cancellation in favor of a movie that was stuck in Development Hell for a few years, and a move to international markets where, while enjoying great critical success and a strong international following, the show struggled to fit in with the tighter editorial standards of larger networks, and so only the first few seasons saw widespread release. According to the writers, part of the reason the show was allowed to get away with as much as it did was because the writers and showrunners acknowledged that the audience of the show was growing older, but also partially that the show already had a strong foothold in the teen to young adult demographic.
  • Everything about Tio Horacio. Being a complete sell-out of a TV host with an actual criminal record and no idea what "Children's Rights" even are, a general parody of all the excesses of the "good" old days, will do that
  • The gag in Season 2 involving the show looking for a sponsor to stay on air was this for some of the younger audiences at the time. One of the sponsors shown in the episode is a brand of musical cups marketed as "perfectly safe children's toys", which Patana demonstrates. Cue her accidentally pressing too hard on them and getting a cut on her finger, which Tulio argues couldn't happen since they're "such a safe toy for kids!". Cut to Patana's finger shooting off blood like a garden hose. Cut back to Tulio smacking his desk and causing the precarious arrangement of cups to go flying all over the studio, injuring Juanin and some extras. And by injuring, we mean embedding two entire cups in his head, with visible blood on his fur, while a production assistant walks into frame in the same predicament, and Policarpo walks by, completely unbothered by the cup stuck in his head. Circles back around to funny once the firemen immediately show up, and declare the glass strewn on the floor to be "The most dangerous glass they've ever seen", while Tulio sobs in the background before the show cuts to another segment. Excessive? Certainly. Scary to little kids watching the show? Most likely. Hilarious? Absolutely.
  • Season 3, Episode 1. The Whole thing is designed cross as much lines as possibe, it begins shocking enough by the Channel owner Mister Manguera being found guilty of kidnapping, then he loses everything and everyone looses their jobs, in an attempt to get them back they try to make a telethon to try prove that Mr Manguera is a nice person with every sentence of his biography describing increasingly heinous acts then a song about how life is just shit, then they loose all the money they've gathered due to taxes, then Mr Manguera escapes any consequence, becomes richer than before and doesn't learn anything and no one gets their jobs back anyways, by some point the ridiculousness mixture of the situations is just to much to take seriously.
    • A specific segment in that episode, after everyone has reunited to get the channel back they're still missing Bodoque, until they find him as living in the trash, this promps a Big Damn Reunion which gets interrupted by Bodoque robbing them at gunpoint, but passing out on exhaustion and hunger almost inmediately.
  • Calcetin con Rombos Man visiting a Fractured Fairy Tale version of Pinocchio in which after becoming a real boy Gepetto show's enormous success and the Blue Fairy marry... and then they become neglectful parents who only watch tv and binge drink all day until the TV breaks? Disturbing. Calcetin's solution being putting Pinocchio inside the broken TV where his adoptive parents actually pay him attention if that's by laughing at his face and mocking his act. Fun as hell. The implication that this IS the sincere happy ending, YMMV if even funnier or more disturbing.
  • Coupled with Bait-and-Switch, the famous sketch of Mario Hugo and the noose: Mario Hugo, stating that he's tired of being rejected by Patana, tying a hangman's noose (to Tulio's horror)? Probably one of the darkest moments of this or any show. Mario Hugo revealing that he put on the noose to swing on it, "for months and years, until dying of boredom"? Hilarious.
  • One segment after Michael Jackson's death had MJ coming back to life (as a puppet, of course) just because he wanted to be interviewed by Tulio. But Tulio says he never liked him as a singer, and bluntly tells him to "go die again", after which MJ promptly keels over dead. Controversial? Possibly. But in a show like this? Absolutely hysterical.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Some audiences (and the writers themselves) consider the early episodes where the show plays the edutainment angle nearly completely straight as this. The show itself lampshades this by joking about how it only got started halfway through the first season, and that "no one saw the first few episodes anyways".
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: While the series enjoys somewhat of a Cult Classic status in large portions of Latin America due to some of its more crass content and heavy reliance on segments exploring Chilean cultures and locations, it's popularity in Mexico rivals that of its home country, partially because Chilean and Mexican humor are quite similar, which is why Mexican television is also surprisingly popular in Chile. Mexico is also one of the few places where the third season was relatively well-received (comparatively so to other countries) due to Mexican humor being a bit dark to begin with.
• Growing the Beard: As mentioned in Fanon Discontinuity, the show doesn't pick up until halfway through the first season, when the edutainment angle being played nearly completely straight is dropped and the show's humor finds its footing, along with introducing all the main characters.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Go to YouTube and watch any episode with "Zorro Buena Onda" ("Good Vibes Fox") on it and you'll find many people in support of this character.
  • For a relatively minor one-shot character, Dante "Maguito" Torobolino made enough of an impact on viewers to get another episode all to himself, and is generally fondly remembered for his presence, determination to do his show and uncontrolled explosiveness.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In the episode "Por el señor Manguera", after a year the show ended abruptly, Tulio and Juanin have to reunite everyone, who have gone their separate ways, and save the show by organizing a telethon that turned out to be unsuccesful. Six years later, another group of puppets would be in a very similar situation.
• Memetic Mutation: Too many to count in Chilean and general Latin American circles:
  • Most of them are lines from Juan Carlos Bodoque. These include:
    • "Nunca había visto tanta caca junta. Fue un espectáculo impresionante" (I had never seen so much crap together in one place. It was an impressive show)
    • "Que buena frase. Anótala, Mario Hugo" (What a good phrase! Write it down, Mario Hugo)
    • "Primero: No soy su amigo. Segundo: ¿Quién es usted? Tercero: ¿Qué le importa?" (First of all, I'm not your friend. Second of all, who are you? And third of all, why do you even care?)^note A much better translation would be "This is none of your business". Using "¿Que le/te importa?" is incredibly rude to use in many Latin American countries when talking to someone else (in fact, this is is one of the first thing taught to anyone when learning ethics or related subjects in Latin American schools, as well as being also taught in home), and in some cases, using that phrase could be a fighting word for many people.
    • "A ver, cactus, quédate quieto un momento... AAAH!" (Alright, cactus, stay still for a second... AAAH!)
  • Mario Hugo gets a few as well:
    • "Es hermoso...¡y desconocido!" (It's beautiful...and unknown!)
    • "Ahora, en exclusiva, el ruido del mar." (Now, an exclusive: The sound of the ocean. *proceeds to hold microphone towards the sea*)
    • "Que? Cómo que no? ...me colgó." (What? What do you mean, no? ...he hung up.)
• No Yay: One episode has Juanin reuniting Juan Carlos Bodoque with all of his girlfriends in a poor attempt to cheer him up. One of the puppets used to represent one of his girlfriends was used in a previous episode to represent his niece.
• Older Than They Think: The concept of newscast parody hosted by puppets has been done years ago in France, long before 31 Minutos.
• Paranoia Fuel: This is felt by Tulio in the first episode after having an argument with "Sr. Invisible mudo" (Mr. Invisible Mute), being unsure if he actually left after kicking him out of the program for his apparent hostility, although it's rather Played for Laughs
• Periphery Demographic: Ostensibly a children's show, it is very popular with teenagers and adults as well, even moreso with those who grew up with the series.
• Sacred Cow: Among Latin American, particularly Chilean audiences this is pretty much one of the best shows (if not the best) shows ever made in Chile, saying you dislike the series or find it overrated in a Spanish community is an easy way to draw ire from non insignificant portion of fans.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Oftentimes episodes will set up a moral and play it up as a Broken Aesop, which can be hit or miss. As seasons went on, characters would also find their flaws exaggerated more and more to drive the plot, which longtime viewers reacted negatively towards.
• Unintentional Period Piece:
  • The first three seasons are very much of a product of early 2000s Chile, and it shows. One early episode, "Benjamín Listillo", has Tulio saying at the end of a note that is calculated for 2015, more than 70% of gloves will be obese if nothing is done about it, which immediately dates this episode before the year 2015.
  • Season 3's "El video" is very notorious example. In this episode, Tulio and friends are watching funny videos about their daily lifes on VHS as part of their annual coexistence event. Then Tulio's video is shown (which is Tulio peeing at an archaeological site while exclaiming "recorcholis") and it turns out to be the best video of them all, leading to giving away individual VHS copies of his video to each of his friends, with the only condition that they must not tell or show anyone about the video or otherwise his reputation would be ruined, which is the first thing everyone (including Tulio) does. Considering that not only VHS have been largely phased out, but the rise of video websites like YouTube would make the first act of the episode much faster. Even by the time the episode was released (2005), VHS were already obsolete and the following year they would be discontinued.
• Values Dissonance: The show's brand of humor could sink to very crass lows at times. A good chunk of the cast are shown to be rather sexist early on, even when that's presented as the setup for the lesson of the day. However, as the show progressed and editorial oversight became more relaxed, a lot of humor started basing itself around homophobic depictions of characters, as well as shockingly racist depictions of black and Asian people; which was rather shocking for a show that, at the same time, spent time trying to educate audiences about other minority and indigenous groups in the country.^note And even then, there was a good deal of controversy relating to the choice of puppets used to represent said indigenous groups, namely their pig-looking snouts and broken teeth. After cancellation, the show's characters have shown up in advertising and PSAs for all sorts of noble causes, which makes it shocking for new audiences to go back to the show and see some of the aforementioned humor. Part of it is considered Fair for Its Day, as Chilean comedy in general was going through a period of intense Political Incorrectness following the 90s that led to the early 2000s taking strongly to shock humor in most spaces, as culture and society adjusted to a return to democracy after a particularly repressive dictatorship. While there was some backlash during its run, the show ran on a particularly conservative network run semi-privately by the then-strictly conservative government, so complaints of homophobia, racism and sexism fell on deaf ears.
• Values Resonance: The Calcetín Con Rombos Man segments, in which children's rights are discussed. The episode "La fabrica" ("The Factory") in particular is perhaps, the Darkest and Edgiest episode as Calcetín Con Rombos Man rescues children from a factory in which they were forced to work, leaving the Aesop of "children shouldn't work". Considering that in real life, child labor still exists in many countries (including Chile), it is a shame that a superhero like Calcetín Con Rombos Man doesn't exist in real life.
• The Woobie:
  • Juanín. Word of God acknowledges that most (if not all) the letters the kids sent to them ask for a better treatment for the character. He never got it.
  • Dinosaurio Anacleto in his song, being the last dinosaur alive.
  • Johnny Choapino from the song "Perro Chico", his own owner kicked him from his house and disowned him because he's too small.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The writers have admitted hat Monty Python is their greatest influence, and it shows.
  • Starting from the second season onwards, the show would exaggerate a lot of the negative traits of its main characters, leading at times to a kids show starring a self-absorbed newscaster who cares only about his own image, a manic-depressive rabbit who's also a womanizing gambling addict shown abusing alcohol at least once an episode and one intern trying to keep the show together and constantly getting the short end of the stick for his trouble. While the characters would normally act this way to set up some sort of lesson at the end, oftentimes the lesson itself would be a Broken Aesop as a punchline, or leading to incredibly bizarre "Aesops" played completely straight.
  • Season 3, Episode 1, the song "Rie!" ("Laugh!"), which plays after the crew fails to make enough money to save the show. The lyrics go back and forth between sheer absurdity and telling the audience how life is full of hardship and misery and no matter what, it will only get worse; so the only thing you can do is to laugh about it. Ironically, audiences now look back on it as a particularly profound lesson about meeting hardship with your best face forward, but to a younger audience, there's still a little puppet laughing at them and calling them ugly to a catchy tune. Try reading the lyrics and then listening to the song for the full effect.
    Today I saw a starving dog on the street
    Dying of cold and ticks
    Next to him an old and tired man
    And on the radio I saw wars between aliens and cavemen
    While on public transport
    A little boy asked me
    What can we do about such a cruel world?
    And I said to him...
    Laugh! Laugh! even if you're sad, just
    Laugh! Laugh! Laugh like a hyena, just
    Laugh! Laugh! Even if you can't, just
    Laugh! Laugh! full of problems, overwhelmed and homeless
    Because you will always fail at everything in life
    Because tomorrow will be cloudy
    Because you're not muscular and you're not talented
    You will always fail at everything in life.
    Laugh! Laugh! if you're getting beat, just
    Laugh! Laugh! Laugh like a monster, just
    Laugh! Laugh! even if you're dead, just
    Laugh! Laugh! Laugh with joyosity.

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