History YMMV / BlackBooks

*** It's noticable for not being mentioned, but ebooks and Amazon had the least effect on small l, used book stores, as opposed to large chains that sell new books.

* FoeYay:
** Manny and Bernard. Parodied in a few early episodes.
** Also between Bernard and [[DepravedBisexual the hired cleaner]], who turns cleaning Bernard's dusty cups rather... ''[[UnusualEuphemism suggestive]]''.

* SeasonalRot: Possibly related to OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight above, and most evident in the way the character's personalities begin to degrade. Manny starts off as an optimistic but reasonably competent adult, but by the second season, he's a manchild who literally lives out an AfterSchoolSpecial by running away from home over a minor slight and immediately being exploited by a pornographer without realizing what was happening. Bernard is a bitter, angry slob who becomes outright abusive and filthy as his traits are increasingly exaggerated. Fran is the OnlySaneMan by comparison, but even she is a heavy drinker, a negligent friend, and man-hungry, but by the end of Season Two, her Only Sane Man position is all but vanished and her horniness is cranked UpToEleven.

* OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight: Graham Linehan left after the first series, which causes a divide between people who enjoyed the ''Series/FatherTed''-style rapid-fire insanity, crude misanthropy, and deeply-flawed {{UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist}}s he uses in his works, and those who enjoyed the later series' more absurdist elements, slightly more sympathetic characterization, and the absence of his apparently-obligatory CreatorCameo (he managed to appear ''three times'' in the first series).

* OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight: Graham Linehan left after the first season, and while the show was still funny, it didn't reach the rapid-fire insanity and crude misanthropy of season 1[[note]]This ''is'' the guy who co-created ''Series/FatherTed'' we're talking about[[/note]] nearly as often. Alternatively, averted in that the post-Linehan series tend to have an element of the absurd that’s missing in the first, and that the characters become a little more sympathetic (all Linehan’s shows are populated exclusively by deeply flawed, hard-to-like people). Plus the later series don’t feature the apparently obligatory Linehan cameos (while he manages to appear three times in the first)

** The show is obviously written before ebooks began to challenge book shops, particularly the type of chain store that threatens to swallow up Bernard's shop.

* SeasonalRot: Possibly related to OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRigt above, and most evident in the way the character's personalities begin to degrade. Manny starts off as an optimistic but reasonably competent adult, but by the second season, he's a manchild who literally lives out an AfterSchoolSpecial (running away from home over a minor slight and immediately being exploited by a pornographer without realizing what was happening). Bernard is a bitter, angry slob who becomes outright abusive and filthy as his traits are increasingly exaggerated. Fran is the OnlySaneMan by comparison, but even she is a heavy drinker, a negligent friend, and man-hungry, but by the end of Season Two, her Only Sane Man position is all but vanished and her horniness is cranked UpToEleven.

** The cast of ''Series/{{Spaced}}'' also make an appearance. The alarm technician is none other than a young Creator/NickFrost, Creator/SimonPegg shows up as Manny's jobsworth boss at Goliath Books and Creator/JessicaHynes is Fran's health-conscious and yoga obsessed friend.
** The shipping forecaster is played by Peter Serafinowicz, who voiced Darth Maul in ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', and the Tick in ''Series/TheTick2016''.

** The hen party in "Elephants and Hens" is made up of [[Film/ShaunOfTheDead Dianne]], [[Series/BroadChurch Ellie Miller]] and [[Film/RunFatboyRun Claire]].
** There's one heck of a retroactive recognition if you watch ''Shaun Of The Dead'' after watching this - Peter Serafinowicz, Tamsin Grieg, Creator/SimonPegg, Creator/NickFrost, Creator/LucyDavis and Creator/MartinFreeman all appear.

** Trebor, the creepy Middle Eastern man who attempts to take advantage of Manny in "He's Leaving Home" is played by Omid Djalili, who appeared in ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd'' as [[http://pirates.wikia.com/wiki/Askay the pirate Teague shoots after questioning the code]] (as well as his twin brother), and the prison warden from ''Film/TheMummy1999'' film (you know, the one who's [[spoiler:eaten alive from the inside by a scarab until he runs headfirst into a wall, killing himself]]). Creator/DavidWalliams also appears in this episode.

** Elizabeth Marmar [Toni from Series/PeepShow] in Series 1, Episode 4 ['The Blackout'].
** Trebor, the creepy Middle Eastern man who attempts to take advantage of Manny in "He's Leaving Home" is played by Omid Djalili, who appeared in the third ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' movie as [[http://pirates.wikia.com/wiki/Askay the pirate Teague shoots after questioning the code]] (as well as his twin brother), and the prison warden from the first ''Mummy'' film (you know, the one who's [[spoiler:eaten alive from the inside by a scarab until he runs headfirst into a wall, killing himself]]). Creator/DavidWalliams also appears in this episode.

** There's one heck of a retroactive recognition if you watch ''Shaun Of The Dead'' after watching this - [[http://images1.fanpop.com/images/quiz/21928_1214578975257_500_211.jpg Peter Serafinowicz]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukE7qnsLuwA Tamsin Grieg, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Lucy Davis and Martin Freeman all appear]].

* SeasonalRot: Graham Linehan left after the first season, and while the show was still funny, it didn't reach the rapid-fire insanity and crude misanthropy of season 1[[note]]This ''is'' the guy who co-created ''Series/FatherTed'' we're talking about[[/note]] nearly as often. Alternatively, averted in that the post-Linehan series tend to have an element of the absurd that’s missing in the first, and that the characters become a little more sympathetic (all Linehan’s shows are populated exclusively by deeply flawed, hard-to-like people). Plus the later series don’t feature the apparently obligatory Linehan cameos (while he manages to appear three times in the first)

* SeasonalRot: Graham Linehan left after the first season, and while the show was still funny, it didn't reach the rapid-fire insanity and crude misanthropy of season 1[[note]]This ''is'' the guy who co-created ''Series/FatherTed'' we're talking about[[/note]] nearly as often.

** The alarm technician is none other than a young Creator/NickFrost, and Creator/SimonPegg shows up in a later episode.