YMMV / Viz

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Big Vern! Although the humour of the comic strip involves Vern believing himself to be a 1970s-style blagger and frequently mistaking normal and innocent activities for criminal escapades, it's NEVER really clear if Vern really is a gangster, or simply a man with severe delusions. He never seems to associate with real criminals, only with his friend Ernie ... however, he does seem to know a lot about armed robberies, has no hesitation in killing people and has a seemingly endless supply of firearms.
  • Fru T. Bun is obviously sexually deprived and has somehow developed an extreme fetish for baked goods. But is he merely (very) delusional, or are the various gingerbread people he encounters actually real in some way? Not all of them (and in some stories there are quite a few of them) are mere sex dolls; some of them even appear to be sentient. His escapades once led to him featuring in the newspapers thanks to a tabloid-style sting operation in a brothel set up by some of them, while on another occasion he lost his job — even though he's self-employed — after one of them made a complaint about his lewd behaviour at a work Christmas party (at which everyone apart from him was made of gingerbread). And then there was that time when a gingerbread man returned home from work early and caught Fru shagging his gingerbread wife. Either way, it's heavily implied that in Fru's world, other bakers (and the occasional butcher) have the same mindset as he does. Heck, in one strip his wife has an affair with a gingerbread man (with a chocolate eclair for a penis) while Fru's cheating on her with a gingerbread woman.
• Audience-Alienating Premise: The 1990s Animated Adaptations generally met with a positive reception... except for Billy the Fish. Much like with his comic counterpart, a lot of people simply weren't interested to begin with, as it lacks the vulgar humour (outside of a few gags around Brown Fox's cleavage) that's the hallmark of most other Viz strips. However, the animated version also failed to win over the people who did like the comic version, as it went the Compressed Adaptation route and missed a lot of plot points and bits of humour. It was also released with a "U" certificate in an attempt to appeal to people too young to watch the other animated versions, but no responsible parent would have purchased anything with the Viz logo on it for younger children,^note Though there admittedly wasn't really anything unsuitable for kids, with the possible of the aforementioned jokes about Brown Fox's cleavage, and even those were only suggestive at worst. while older kids would have been more interested in illicitly getting hold of the 18-rated animations. As a result, the VHS sold so poorly that when the time came to release them on DVD a decade later, Viz didn't even bother giving Billy the Fish its own release, and instead made it an extra feature on the Roger Mellie DVD.
• Base-Breaking Character: Billy the Fish. Some of the comic's fans love the strip because it features little in the way of crude, profane stuff, and derives its humour more from parodies of classic football strips like Roy of the Rovers. And other fans hate it for exactly the same reason.
• Can't Un-Hear It: The Animated Adaptations had Peter Cook as Roger Mellie, Harry Enfield as Tom (and Billy the Fish), Kathy Burke and (later) Jenny Eclair as the Fat Slags.
• Catharsis Factor: One strip had one of Daily Male's friends grope Beryl; she promptly turns around and punches him in the face. Now if only she could do that to her husband...
• Harsher in Hindsight: The "Sir Jimmy Savile the Owl" strip◊ depicted Savile as an owl attempting to get publicity, only for it to backfire to the point where everyone hates him at the end. This strip, published when Savile was alive, essentially predicted his posthumous fall from grace.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • In a Christmas installment of Spoilt Bastard, Timmy's mother Sissy gingerly announces the arrival of her old friend Uncle Herbert. Timmy, as usual, rudely complains about the arrangement. On arrival, "Uncle Herbert" closely resembles Timmy, and mirrors his tendency for relentless irritable complaining. In elated fellowship, Timmy asks if Herbert can stay for New Year.
  • Major Misunderstanding usually mistakes innocent occurrences for yet more moral degradation of modern society, which he then witheringly bemoans. One day, he finds several passers by attending a fallen memorial statue of a soldier. While one might expect the Major to denounce public drunkenness, he gruffly tells them to "leave the lad alone," and defends the right of war veterans to have a wee dram in aid to the trauma of battle.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In a 2002 strip, Roger Mellie takes over as the host of Police, Camera, Action!, only to be quickly fired when it turns out that one clip features Mellie himself causing a serious accident by drink-driving. The following year, the show's real-life host, Alastair Stewart was suspended ... for drink-driving.
  • The name of the character Jack Black, who debuted before the American actor became an international household name.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Sid the Sexist. On the one hand, he's a sexist, leery, perverted jerkass. On the other, he's so hilariously pathetic that you can't help but feel sorry for him. Especially on the rare occasions when he drops the macho bravado act that hides his true Jerk with a Heart of Gold personality.
  • Biffa Bacon. A violent juvenile delinquent who's frequently physically abused by his parents for trivial reasons.
• Parody Displacement: Some strips are parodies of long-extinct British children's humour, sports, or adventure strips that now survive in public comprehension pretty much only through the Viz parodies.
• Shallow Parody: Sometimes the case, but always played for Rule of Funny.
• Spiritual Licensee:
  • Thunderpants is not the Johnny Fartpants movie. But it's close.
  • Steve Coogan's Alan Partridge character is very similar to Roger Mellie, although far less vulgar and less consciously amoral.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: The comic has a look similar to The Beano, but the front covers alone make it fairly obvious it isn't kiddie fare.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: Some critics praised The Bottom Inspectors for its supposed political satire. The creators said that the strip wasn't political, they just wanted to put as many euphemisms for "bottom" as they could in a single strip.
• The Woobie:
  • It's almost impossible not to feel bad for Beryl, wife of the titular Daily Male, who shares none of her husband's bigotry and as a result he treats her with nothing but derision. It helps that, unlike most characters in the comic, her victimization is hardly ever played for laughs.
  • Mr Logic is probably the nicest recurring character in the whole strip, but he nevertheless gets beaten up frequently due to the way he talks.
  • Cissy Timpson of Spoilt Bastard is treated horribly by her Spoiled Brat of an Enfant Terrible son.

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