YMMV / Wooden Overcoats

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Does Eric like Georgie in spite of the fact that she's the one woman who can't stand him, or because of it?
  • Is Eric really oblivious to Antigone's crush on him, or is he just being polite and ignoring it so as not to embarrass her?
  • At the end of "Antigone in the Spotlight," the day is saved when Marlene pulls the fire alarm, clearing the theater after the show begins to fall apart. She claims it's because Antigone's improvised monologue was so perfect, there was no point in continuing after that. Was she being honest, or did Marlene realize Antigone was floundering and decide to pull the alarm to give her an out?
  • At least a couple listeners have wondered if Eric's Dark and Troubled Past isn't exaggerated or entirely made up.
  • Does Rudyard hate people as much as he claims, or is it to cover up his loneliness? Or is it a little bit of both?
  • Some have wondered if Antigone's childhood adoration of her science teacher Miss Khatri was actually a Precocious Crush. (It's worth noting that when she rejected Marlene's advances in the previous season, her being a woman never came up as a reason she wasn't interested.)
• Awesome Music: The theme song, played by the "Pifling Philharmonic," which makes great use of strings and a loud, bombastic funeral organ.
• Catharsis Factor: Rudyard's interrogation of Mayor Desmond in "Tinker, Tailor, Undertaker" is really satisfying, since it's payback for the Kangaroo Court the mayor headed up back in the first season finale. Rudyard's being rather vindictive, but it's hard to argue it doesn't feel earned.
• Creepy Cute: Most of the fandom feels this way about Antigone. Her passion for her work as a mortician, extreme social awkwardness, habit of slinking out of the shadows, and tendency to say whatever morbid thought pops into her head causes many of the other characters to find her off-putting, but much of the audience just wants to give her a big hug and assure her they like her just the way she is.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Antigone having depression? Not funny. Antigone having been diagnosed with said depression twenty minutes after being born? Hilarious.
  • Rudyard's trial at the end of Season One is such a gross and blatant miscarriage of justice that in any realistic setting, it'd be utterly horrifying, but this being Piffling Vale and Rudyard being his usual self through the whole thing, it's impossible not to laugh at it.
  • A terrible car crash that claims multiple lives, including a woman Antigone has deep respect for? Horrible. Said car being a Clown Car that had forty clowns inside it at the time of the crash? Funny. Antigone being forced to store the corpses of said clowns all over her house, including the cupboard and the fridge, much to Rudyard's horror? Hysterical.
  • "We need to Hindenburg this Blimp."
  • Young Rudyard and Antigone saying they like playing Happy Families because they find it aspirational. It implies pretty bleak things about their home life, but they say it so matter-of-factly and cheerfully that it's hard not to laugh.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Dr. Edgware is well-loved for being a hilarious Jerkass Woobie. His brief stint of dating Antigone attracted even more love, as it showed a softer side to his character, and the two actually had good chemistry.
  • Marlene Magdelana. Sexy, Slovakian, domineering, hammy, and prompted the reveal that Georgie is bi? Of course the fans love her.
  • Calliope, the adorably Creepy Child who brings out Rudyard's kinder side.
  • The local village hoodlums, mostly for the hilarious contrast of their delinquent reputation against their actual personalities of being intelligent artists who are among the nicest people in the village. They're also well-loved for their role in Antigone deciding to stand up for herself at the end of Season One. Many expressed disappointment that they didn't turn up in Season Three.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Rudyard/Chapman is, by far, the largest ship in the fandom, despite (or maybe because of) the fact that Rudyard hates him.
• Fanon: Rudyard is nearly always drawn as looking like his actor Felix Trench, and Antigone as looking like her actress Beth Eyre, except with darker hair.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • In the first episode, Mayor Desmond mentions his deceased sister, and comments that she was often quite mean to him. This isn't acknowledged and doesn't come up again... until the end of Season Three, where we find out she was a Heteronormative Crusader who probably wouldn't have even come to her brother's wedding to Nigel. It's extremely likely that her behavior went far beyond standard sibling warfare.
  • Also in the first episode, Rudyard is downright gleeful when his old P.E. teacher Mr. Askey dies, which at the time is just a gag about Rudyard's status as an Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist and phys ed being widely disliked. Come the Season Four episode "Old School Funn," and we find out that Askey was genuinely abusive towards the Funns, especially Rudyard. While it's Played for Laughs, Rudyard looking forward to the man's death suddenly feels rather justified.
• He Really Can Act:
  • Felix Trench is constantly showing off his comedic chops as Ruydard, but whenever Rudyard slips into Jerkass Woobie mode, he gets an opportunity to prove he can do the emotional moments, too. His acting in the latter half of "Rudyard Makes a Friend" is particularly impressive.
  • Ciara Baxendale completely knocks it out of the park throughout "Putting the Funn in Funerals."
• Ho Yay: "She Stoops to Conquer" has Georgie teaching Antigone how to flirt, and having her practice on her. Georgie is canonically bisexual, so flirting with a woman is nothing new to her.
• Idiosyncratic Ship Naming:
  • "Blondmementos" has caught on as an alternate ship name for Eric and Antigone, named after the chocolates they designed in Season Two — Blond Supreme and Memento Mori, respectively.
  • "Helicopter FM" is sometimes used for Jennifer/Georgie, since Georgie loves helicopters and Jennifer works at the local radio station.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Rudyard is the classic "the universe hates him, so we don't have to" brand of Jerkass Woobie. He's an absolute ass to everyone, and most misfortunes that befall him are his own fault, but he's so pathetic and funny that you can't help but pity him a little.
  • Dr. Edgware is grouchy, short-tempered, and lacks any sense of bedside manner. But given that he's the only doctor for two hospitals, and most of his patients are idiots or otherwise unwilling to listen to him, it's hard to blame him.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The latter half of "Rudyard Makes a Friend" is really, really creepy. Jerry, who also hates Chapman, attempts to blow him up with a bomb, and threatens to frame Rudyard for it if he tries to stop it. The episode ends with the bomb going off, and the mine collapsing.
  • While "Old School Funn" is a hilarious episode, there is something really unsettling about Mr. Askey and his treatment of the Funns when they were children. While his antics are so over-the-top they're funny, a lot of his actions—singling one or two kids out for no apparent reason other than them being easy targets, encouraging other students to bully them, outright physical abuse—are not funny at all when done by abusive teachers in the real world.
• Portmanteau Couple Name:
  • Chapyard, for Eric Chapman and Rudyard Funn.
  • Marligone, for Marlene Magdalena and Antigone Funn.
  • Chapgone, for Eric Chapman and Antigone Funn.
  • Georgtigone, for Georgie Crusoe and Antigone Funn.
  • Delacrusoe, for Jennifer Delacroix and Georgie Crusoe.
  • Georgyard, for Rudyard Funn and Georgie Crusoe.
  • Antware, for Antigone Funn and Dr. Henry Edgware.
• Ship Mates:
  • Georgie/Antigone is often put on the side of Rudyard/Eric fics as a Beta Couple.
  • Many Eric/Antigone shippers also ship Georgie/Rudyard, though the latter is significantly less popular among fans than the former.
  • Antigone briefly dating Dr. Edgware creates a convenient side ship for Chapyard shippers.
  • Georgie/Jennifer is well-liked by most listeners who don't ship her with either of the Funns for this reason.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: There is some squabbling between fans of Chapyard and Chapgone. In addition to disagreement over which pairing is more entertaining/endearing, there's also the questions of whether Antigone ending up with Eric would roll back her Character Development, whether putting Rudyard with Eric is erasure since he's heavily implied to be aroace in canon, and whether Eric is honestly fit for a serious relationship. There's also some clashing between Chapgone and Antware shippers, regarding both the issue of Antigone seeming to get over Eric, and whether or not she and Edgware were really incompatible as they themselves concluded. (Other ships are so small that their supporters mostly stay out of the arguing, even when the ships involved contradict the ones they like.)
• Unpopular Popular Character:
  • Rudyard and Antigone (especially the former) are the least liked people in their village for being morose, cynical, sarcastic, grouchy, and creepy. The audience loves them for the exact same reasons.
  • Similarly, Calliope's peers bully her for being morbid and socially awkward, but the audience finds those same qualities adorable.
• The Woobie: Antigone. She's painfully socially awkward, viewed as a creepy weirdo, and frequently flat-out ignored by Rudyard. Throughout the series, absolutely nothing goes right for her. In one episode, she reveals that even her father didn't really care about her, barely being able to remember her name.