History YMMV / KevinSpencer

* ValuesDissonance: The rampant politically incorrect humor would not fly in a television series nowadays, the most blatant example being the outright homophobia through the frequent use of "fruity", itself a homophobic slur. Scenes such as Percy telling Kevin "bible says homos is wrong" in the pilot as well as Percy fearing that Kevin will become fruity from reading a book in "Keep the Home Fires Burning" come off as a lot less funny nowadays, especially as Canada became more accepting of the LGBT community after the series ended. The show outright lampshaded this in "Beach Blanket Bloodbath" where a gay character refers to himself as an offensively gay stereotype.

* MemeticMutation: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-jacbXXSRU "My dad has pictures of your mother naked."]] [[labelnote:Explanation]] In "Dreamland", Kevin dreams he's in a parody of ''Oh That Lewis!'' titled ''Oh That Kevin''. When one kid calls Allen out for swearing, Kevin fires back with this line, causing him to cry. The audio from the scene became popular through [=TikTok=] and Gacha Life. [[/labelnote]]

** Shauna crosses it at the end of her debut episode ("Jacked In"), where she turns off the virtual reality machine while Kevin and Percy are still inside, which damages their brains.
* TheyCopiedItSoItSucks: Some have compared its writing and animation to ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''. Notably, Greg Lawrence stated in a 2003 news interview about about how proud he was of the show and how he thought it would be the next ''South Park''.
* TooBleakStoppedCaring: The show takes place in a borderline CrapsackWorld where our protagonist is a sociopath who regularly breaks the law just because, looks out only for himself most of the time, and is able to manipulate people into thinking he's on their side when he wants something from them, his parents frequently abuse each other or get into fights over minor inconveniences, and the supporting cast is either just as cold and/or idiotic as the main characters, and what few nice characters tend to get shrugged off.

** "Jacked In" depicts Kevin being addicted to an arcade game (therefore meeting Shauna in the process), and the opening sequence depicts Percy playing various machines, dating an episode to a time when arcade machines began to decline in popularity outside of Japan. Furthermore, Kevin and Shauna's virtual reality fight is clearly a reference to ''Film/TheMatrix''.

* ValuesDissonance: The rampant politically incorrect humor would not fly in a television series nowadays, the most blatant example being the outright homophobia through the frequent use of "fruity", itself a homophobic slur. Scenes such as Percy telling Kevin "bible says homos is wrong" in the pilot as well as Percy fearing that Kevin will become fruity from reading a book in "Keep the Home Fires Burning" come off as a lot less funny nowadays, especially as Canada became more accepting of the LGBT community after the series ended. The show outright lampshaded this in one episode where a gay character refers to himself as an offensively gay stereotype.

** The technology used shows its age: The Spencers are so poor that they own a CRT TV with an antenna connection, and most of the phones featured in the series are the rotary-dial type. "Good Will Spencer" deals with Kevin discovering a computer, having not seen one before due to his family being poor, and discovering the internet; nowadays, teenagers Kevin's age would have access to the internet.
** "The Stripper Strikes Back" features Percy attempting to put a stop to a liquor strike by calling every single person involved and explicitly saying his name to them, causing him to be attacked by every last one of his victims. Such a plot would be laughable today, as Percy (and by extension, his victims) are shown with rotary-dial phones; with modern smartphones having caller [=ID=], Percy would be caught and tracked down far more easily than at the end.
** "Jacked In" depicts Kevin being addicted to an arcade game (therefore meeting Shauna in the process), and the opening sequence depicts Percy playing various machines (and explicitly states the then current year is 2000). The episode aired during a time when arcade machines began to decline in popularity outside of Japan. Furthermore, Kevin and Shauna's virtual reality fight is clearly a reference to ''Film/TheMatrix''.
** The characters fashion also dates the series, with Timmy [=McNaughton=] in particular basically being a remnant of the "[=NuMetal=] kid" archetype of the 90s-00s era.
** The majority of the episodes, namely the "Bruno Gerussi Must Die" duology, feature tons of pop culture references that only would make sense for the era, namely "''Degrassi Jr.'' ''Franchise/PowerRangers''" and "''Degrassi'' ''[[Series/DawsonsCreek Creek]]''".
** The guest stars also date the series. "Buzz" features Daryn Jones and Morgan Smith, the hosts of ''Buzz'', a sketch series which aired on The Comedy Network, and the episodes "Spankdriven" and "Treble Charger" have appearances by the namesake bands voicing themselves, with Music/Sum41 also appearing as themselves in the Treble Charger episode. The episodes aired in 2001, 2002 and 2004, with ''Buzz'' ending in 2005, and the bands (with the exception of Sum 41) would fall to obscurity afterwards (Treble Charger would disband in 2006, a year after ''Kevin'' ended, and wouldn't reform until 2012, well after ''Kevin'' ended).

** The technology used shows its age, namely the fact that the Spencers have a CRT TV and a rotary-dial phone, though later seasons updated their phone to a cordless phone.
** The characters fashion also fits both time periods. Anastasia is only shown wearing a purple tank top, and Timmy [=McNaughton=] reeks of the "[=NuMetal=] kid" archetype of the 90s-00s era.
** The majority of the episodes, namely the "Bruno Gerussi Must Die" duology, feature tons of pop culture references that only would make sense for the era, namely "''Degrassi Jr.'' ''Franchise/PowerRangers''" and "''Degrassi'' ''[[Series/DawsonsCreek Creek]]''" (''Kevin'' aired during the early seasons of ''The Next Generation'').

** The technology used shows its age, namely the fact that the Spencers have a CRT TV and a rotary-dial phone (later seasons updated their phone to a cordless phone.

* ViewerNameConfusion: Some subtitles for the show on streaming services refer to Allen as "All'''a'''n". The season six intro also refers to him as such.

* ValuesDissonance: The rampant politically incorrect humor would not fly in a television series nowadays, the most blatant example being the outright homophobia through the frequent use of "fruity", itself a homophobic slur. Scenes such as Percy telling Kevin "bible says homos is wrong" in the pilot as well as Percy fearing that Kevin will become fruity from reading a book in "Keep the Home Fires Burning" come off as a lot less funny nowadays, especially as Canada became more accepting of the LGBT community after the series ended. The show outright lampshaded this in one episode where a gay character refers to himself as an offensively gay stereotype.

** The characters fashion also fits both time periods. Anastasia is only shown wearing a purple tank top, and Timmy [=McNaughton=] reeks of the "NuMetal kid" archetype of the 90s-00s era.