History YMMV / OnlyFoolsAndHorses

** When Slater is first introduced in "[[Recap/OnlyFoolsAndHorsesS3E05MayTheForceBeWithYou May the Force Be With You]]", it becomes clear that he is incredibly [[EvilIsPetty petty]] and a bully even to his fellow police officers. When Del, Rodney and Granddad refuse to grass on whoever gave them a stolen microwave, he threatens Del, with planting drugs on Rodney, and promises that while they do their time in prison, Granddad will be left alone on the estate. This is when you realise just how loathsomely corrupt this man is.

** In "[[Recap/OnlyFoolsAndHorsesS5E09Dates Dates]]", Raquel mentions that until that point her career highlight had been a small role in an episode of ''Series/DoctorWho'' -- which was intended to show how spectacularly ''un''successful she had been as an actress, since the show's ratings and reputation were a complete joke by that point, and it would be cancelled just under a year later. Exactly 25 years later the actress who played Raquel, Tessa-Peake Jones appeared in "[[Recap/DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor The Time of the Doctor]]", with the show's reputation pretty much the opposite of what it was when Raquel first appeared.

** In "[[Recap/OnlyFoolsAndHorsesS2E06ItNeverRains It Never Rains]]", Granddad mentions a friend called Nobby Clarke. Kenneth [=MacDonald=], who played Mike from "Who's a Pretty Boy?" to "Time On Our Hands", played a character by that name in ''Series/ItAintHalfHotMum''.

* Del supplying the Church with white wine in the ''Miami Twice'' 2-parter. Some Churches do use white wine for communion these days.

** Many fans ignore the [[PostScriptSeason 2001-03 Christmas trilogy]] because it completely undid the 'perfect' ending of the original finale; the 1996 Christmas trilogy, where the Trotters at last achieve their dream of becoming millionaires and walk off into a glowing sunset... apparently only for Del to lose it all on the stock markets. The fact they eventually get a lot of it back [via Uncle Albert's will] makes if feel even more pointless.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Rodney's nightmare at the beginning of the first chapter of the 1996 Christmas trilogy, "[[Recap/OnlyFoolsAndHorsesS8E01HeroesAndVillains Heroes and Villains]]", in which a grown-up Damien not only runs Trotters Independent Traders, but also rules the western world in the year 2026, declaring war on other countries. While Del Boy, Lord of Peckham, and Raquel live a luxurious life in Trotter Towers, Rodney himself is reduced to being an old messenger, Cassandra is a maid after Damien took over her bank and fired her, and Uncle Albert's body has been preserved, repeating his trademark phrase on a constant loop. As Rodney berates Damien for ruining everything, Del wakes him up.

** In a few episodes, Albert and Del casually makes references to "Pakis" and "the Paki shop" [[note]]As of the time period it was written and filmed in, 'Paki' wasn't considered a racist term and the term 'Paki shop' was common slang for a small (and often independently-run) local convenience store, as they were (and still are) commonly owned by people of Southern Asian descent in the UK. Over a remarkably short amount of time in the late 2000s, it became an extremely racist term, which means that younger viewers could accidentally mistake Del as being incredibly racist.[[/note]], and on several occasions various characters refer to restaurants serving Chinese takeaways/takeout as a "Chinky". [[note]]Similarly, 'Chinky' was a non-racist piece of common slang that exclusively referred to a restaurant serving Chinese takeaway/takeout, while referring to an Asian person as a 'Chink' or 'Chinky' even back then was considered to be very racist. While 'Chinky' is still retained OopNorth and among older generations as a word for a Chinese takeaway, it's largely unheard of by younger generations and in media past the 1990s, presumably due to how similar 'Chinky' is to the very racist term 'Chink'. [[/note]]

** Rodney is not immune to this either. "[[Recap/OnlyFoolsAndHorsesS6E08RodneyComeHome Rodney Come Home]]" sees him complain repeatedly about Cassandra trying to have a career rather than being a good little housewife with his tea ready on the table when he gets home, etc. He does try to insist that he doesn't hold it against her, but his actions say otherwise.

** In "A Hole in One", Albert casually makes reference to "the Paki shop". Del makes a similar comment in "The Russians are Coming".

** A key part of the plot of "[[Recap/OnlyFoolsAndHorsesS9E02StrangersOnTheShore Strangers on the Shore]]" involves Del getting Denzil to drive over to France, buy a vast amount of cheap booze, and then sell it to Sid to stock up the Nag's Head. Following the UK's departure from the European Union, Del's scheme wouldn't even come close to being viable, as Denzil would only be able to buy a fraction of the amount of alcohol he did in the episode before the paperwork and fees involved would cause them to lose money on their scheme. In addition, the end of free movement between the UK and EU would mean that Rodney's drug conviction may have denied him admission to France, depending on how generous the immigration officers at Calais were feeling.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** Attempted with the re-edited version of "[[Recap/OnlyFoolsAndHorsesS5E07ARoyalFlush A Royal Flush]]", which heavily cut down Del's more obnoxious behaviour, and made enough trims to the dialogue here and there to allow for the implication that Del was being truthful in the final scene when he claims that he was trying to break up Rodney and Victoria because he knew her father would never approve of their relationship, and would arrange some "accident" to happen to Rodney (in the broadcast version it's clearer that he's trying to cover his backside after the fact).
** The revelation that Del and Rodney are actually half-brothers (Rodney being the result of their mother's affair with career-criminal Freddie the Frog) was likely added to answer criticisms that Creator/DavidJason and Creator/NicholasLyndhurst didn't look like brothers.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment:
** The ending of "[[Recap/OnlyFoolsAndHorsesS7E01TheSkysTheLimit The Sky's the Limit]]", which shows a large aeroplane seemingly about to crash into Nelson Mandela House, has become this since [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror 9/11]].
** In the 1983 Christmas special "[[Recap/OnlyFoolsAndHorsesS3E08ThickerThanWater Thicker Than Water]]", Reg Trotter returns, and comes close to convincing his sons that he isn't really Del's father. Much later, the 1987 Christmas special "[[Recap/OnlyFoolsAndHorsesS5E08TheFrogsLegacy The Frog's Legacy]]" suggested that ''Rodney'' was not Reg's son and the 2003 episode "Sleepless in Peckham" finally confirmed it (although "Thicker Than Water" showed that both Del and Grandad already had some doubts about Rodney's paternity).
** The show's first Christmas special, "[[Recap/OnlyFoolsAndHorsesS1E07ChristmasCrackers Christmas Crackers]]" has Del telling a friend whose father is dying of cancer to demand antibiotics, claiming that they're like a miracle cure. Rodney later tells him how stupid that suggestion is, but Del admits that he knows perfectly well that it won't achieve anything, beyond giving said friend some small amount of hope. Today, with frivolous prescriptions for antibiotics having given rise to extremely deadly drug-resistant forms of bacteria, the scene takes on a somewhat darker feel.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: A major criticism of the 2001--2003 trilogy was its falling back on StatusQuoIsGod and putting the Trotters back in their usual situation by having them lose their fortune in a stock market crash. In fact, something similar had happened to Rodney during the show's original run, with Season 6 showing him getting into a relationship with and eventually marrying Cassandra, moving into an apartment with her, and getting a much better job with Cassandra's father. By the middle of Season 7, however, Rodney's marriage had seemingly collapsed, he had thrown away his new job in a botched power gambit, and he was living with Del once again. In that case, however, Rodney's falling back into his old status quo was balanced out somewhat by Raquel's pregnancy, and he did eventually mend fences with Cassandra, albeit he never regained his job with her father and remained Del's sidekick for the rest of the show's run.

* SophomoreSlump: Inverted with the second entry in the 2001-2003 trilogy, "Strangers on the Shore," which is widely considered the highlight of that trilogy due to essentially being a traditional ''Only Fools and Horses'' story, as compared to the more exposition-heavy nature of the other two episodes. The jokes also tend to come across more as well-executed satire instead of WereStillRelevantDammit.

* WhatAnIdiot: In "[[Recap/OnlyFoolsAndHorsesS3E05MayTheForceBeWithYou May the Force Be With You]]", the Trotters get arrested by Del Boy's former childhood friend and long-standing rival, Roy Slater, for possession of a stolen microwave. While at the police station, Del tries offering Slater £50 to let them go. Slater, probably not wanting this long-awaited arrest to be even easier than Del is already making it, says "I didn't hear that," in a manner clearly hinting to Del that he should shut up.\\
'''You'd Expect''': That Del would take the hint and not hand over even more reason for this notoriously CorruptCop to toss him in jail.\\
'''Instead''': He takes Slater literally and loudly repeats his offer for all -- including Slater's sergeant, Hoskins -- to hear, resulting in him ending up with "attempting to bribe a police officer" added to his already-lengthy rap sheet.
** Later on, Del strikes a deal with Slater to be given immunity from prosecution in exchange for giving up the identity of who he purchased the stolen microwave from.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Slater to keep Hoskins around as a witness in case Del attempts anything shifty. Part of the reason why Slater views Del as a WorthyRival is that Del's as slippery as Slater is corrupt, after all.\\
'''Instead''': He sends Hoskins out to have a tea break -- [[KickTheDog five minutes after the canteen closes]] -- then gets Del to sign the immunity form, only for Del to falsely incriminate ''himself'' as the microwave's thief. Had Hoskins been around then he could have testified that Del had a conversation with Rodney immediately beforehand that indicated Del was clearly not the true thief, which would have voided the immunity agreement, but with Slater himself as the only witness, no court would ever believe he wasn't just reneging on the deal ForTheEvulz.

** A key part of the plot of "Strangers on the Shore" involves Del getting Denzil to drive over to France, buy a vast amount of cheap booze, and then sell it to Sid to stock up the Nag's Head. Following the UK's departure from the European Union, Del's scheme wouldn't even come close to being viable, as Denzil would only be able to buy a fraction of the amount of alcohol he did in the episode before the paperwork and fees involved would cause them to lose money on their scheme. In addition, the end of free movement between the UK and EU would mean that Rodney's drug conviction may have denied him admission to France, depending on how generous the immigration officers at Calais were feeling.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Rodney's nightmare at the beginning of the first chapter of the 1996 Christmas trilogy, "Heroes and Villains", in which a grown-up Damien not only runs Trotters Independent Traders, but also rules the western world in the year 2026, declaring war on other countries. While Del Boy, Lord of Peckham, and Raquel live a luxurious life in Trotter Towers, Rodney himself is reduced to being an old messenger, Cassandra is a maid after Damien took over her bank and fired her, and Uncle Albert's body has been preserved, repeating his trademark phrase on a constant loop. As Rodney berates Damien for ruining everything, Del wakes him up.

* TheScrappy: Damien in the 2001-2003 trilogy. An extremely obnoxious SpoiledBrat who speaks almost exclusively in [[Series/DaAliGShow Ali G]]-style gangster phrases. At one point he freely admits that he wants his own father ''to go to prison'' just so he could fit in with the fatherless yobs on the council estate. As James Buckley (Young Del in the prequel ''Rock and Chips'') later proved, you ''can'' pull off a rebellious teenager and make him endearing if you try.
* SophomoreSlump:Inverted with the second entry in the 2001-2003 trilogy, "Strangers on the Shore," which is widely considered the highlight of that trilogy due to essentially being a traditional ''Only Fools and Horses'' story, as compared to the more exposition-heavy nature of the other two episodes. The jokes also tend to come across more as well-executed satire instead of WereStillRelevantDammit.

** In "[[Recap/OnlyFoolsAndHorsesS5E09Dates Dates]]", Raquel mentions that until that point her career highlight had been a small role in an episode of ''Series/DoctorWho'' -- which was intended to show how spectacularly ''un''successful she had been as an actress, since the show's ratings and reputation were a complete joke by that point, and it would be cancelled just under a year later. Exactly 25 years later the actress who played Raquel, Tessa-Peake Jones appeared in Creator/MattSmith's final episode as the Doctor, with the show's reputation pretty much the opposite of what it was when Raquel first appeared.

** The show is firmly rooted in the 1980s. "[[Recap/OnlyFoolsAndHorsesS1E06TheRussiansAreComing The Russians Are Coming]]" has the Trotters preparing for a nuclear war by testing a bomb shelter and there was a period where Del became a yuppie having seen ''Film/WallStreet''. Not to mention the clothes, the music, the references to British culture of the time...

** In the 1992 Christmas special "Mother Nature's Son", the Trotters attempt to pass off tap water as "Peckham Spring Water" -- it [[TechnicolorScience glows in the dark]] due to dangerous contaminants. Coca-Cola would proceed to do this when it launched Dasani in the UK. That and the discovery of carcinogens led the product being pulled. When Dasani was found to be just filtered mains water, it got nicknamed "Sidcup Spring" after this episode and the location of the Dasani bottling plant. Which just adds to the parallels with the episode, since Del managed to pollute the 'Peckham Spring' water with some chemical dumped in the reservoir (that caused the water to literally glow in the dark).

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Del's indirectly warning Rodney and Mickey about the broken lawnmower engines in "Healthy Competition" -- was he genuinely trying to make sure Rodney didn't screw the pooch on his first day in business, and just couldn't be specific about the lot he was selling because he'd have clued all the other potential buyers into his scam? Or was it SchmuckBait designed to trick Rodney and Mickey into buying the engines, and thus allowing Del to immediately recoup the money Rodney took out of Trotter's Independent Traders?

** Attempted with the re-edited version of "A Royal Flush", which heavily cut down Del's more obnoxious behaviour, and made enough trims to the dialogue here and there to allow for the implication that Del was being truthful in the final scene when he claims that he was trying to break up Rodney and Victoria because he knew her father would never approve of their relationship, and would arrange some "accident" to happen to Rodney (in the broadcast version it's clearer that he's trying to cover his backside after the fact).

** The ending of "The Sky's the Limit", where an aircraft is heading for Trotter Towers.
** In the 1983 Christmas special "Thicker Than Water", Reg Trotter returns, and comes close to convincing his sons that he isn't really Del's father. Much later, the 1987 Christmas special "The Frog's Legacy" suggested that ''Rodney'' was not Reg's son and the 2003 episode "Sleepless in Peckham" finally confirmed it (although "Thicker Than Water" showed that both Del and Grandad already had some doubts about Rodney's paternity).
** The show's first Christmas special, "Christmas Crackers" has Del telling a friend whose father is dying of cancer to demand antibiotics, claiming that they're like a miracle cure. Rodney later tells him how stupid that suggestion is, but Del admits that he knows perfectly well that it won't achieve anything, beyond giving said friend some small amount of hope. Today, with frivolous prescriptions for antibiotics having given rise to extremely deadly drug-resistant forms of bacteria, the scene takes on a somewhat darker feel.
* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: OFAH is hugely popular in the former UsefulNotes/{{Yugoslavia}}, to the point where David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst get mobbed whenever they visit. They even have even pubs and bars named The Nag's Head.

** In the episode with the seance, Trigger says that the figure being described by the spirit medium "sounds like Creator/JimmySavile", when it was in fact Del and Rodney's mum. They were not impressed by the comparison even then, and this was long before the truth about Savile became known.
*** Even worse, the Trotters made a cameo on ''The Russel Harty Show'' in 1983 where Rodney asks Del what to say if anybody asks who he is, Del replies with 'I don't know, say that you're a Creator/JimmySavile love child!'
*** In "A Hole in One", Del serves as Albert's character witness and claims that he runs marathons for charity, to the extent that he's called the Jimmy Savile of Peckham.
** In a 1980s episode, Del jokes with Albert about how thinking about his ex-girlfriends makes him feel old. Creator/DavidJason's long-term partner Myfanwy Talog died in 1995, and the dialogue is sometimes excised from repeats, possibly for reasons of sensitivity.

** The episode "Wanted", in which as a joke Del convinces Rodney that a woman has accused him of sexual assault (she actually uses the word "rape") doesn't sit well in today's climate and the serious consequences that such an accusation can have for a man. There's also the fact that the woman is clearly vulnerable and would have an elevated risk of being raped for real, and would stand almost no chance of being taken seriously. As in "A Royal Flush" later on, Del veers from JerkWithAHeartOfGold into plain {{Jerkass}} territory, continuing to taunt Rodney about it when Rodney is clearly upset by the whole affair.

** In "It Never Rains...", Granddad mentions a friend called Nobby Clarke. Kenneth [=MacDonald=], who played Mike from "Who's a Pretty Boy?" to "Time On Our Hands", played a character by that name in ''Series/ItAintHalfHotMum''.

** In her initial appearance, Raquel mentions that until that point her career highlight had been a small role in an episode of ''Series/DoctorWho'' -- which was intended to show how spectacularly ''un''successful she had been as an actress, since the show's ratings and reputation were a complete joke by that point, and it would be cancelled just under a year later. Exactly 25 years later the actress who played Raquel, Tessa-Peake Jones appeared in Creator/MattSmith's final episode as the Doctor, with the show's reputation pretty much the opposite of what it was when Raquel first appeared.

* MisattributedSong: Many people mistakenly believe that the show's opening theme is sung by Nicholas Lyndhurst. It's actually performed by John Sullivan.

** When Slater is first introduced, it becomes clear that he is incredibly [[EvilIsPetty petty]] and a bully even to his fellow police officers. When Del, Rodney and Granddad refuse to grass on whoever gave them a stolen microwave, he threatens Del, with planting drugs on Rodney, and promises that while they do their time in prison, Granddad will be left alone on the estate. This is when you realise just how loathsomely corrupt this man is.

** When Rodney joins an aspiring rock band in an early episode, one of the band members is played by Creator/DavidThewlis.

** Vas Blackwood, who plays Lennox (the one who unsuccessfully tries to rob the supermarket), later appeared in ''Film/LockStockAndTwoSmokingBarrels'' as Rory.

** The show is firmly rooted in the 1980s. "The Russians are Coming" has the Trotters preparing for a nuclear war by testing a bomb shelter and there was a period where Del became a yuppie having seen ''Film/WallStreet''. Not to mention the clothes, the music, the references to British culture of the time...

** Rodney is not immune to this either. "Rodney Come Home" sees him complain repeatedly about Cassandra trying to have a career rather than being a good little housewife with his tea ready on the table when he gets home, etc. He does try to insist that he doesn't hold it against her, but his actions say otherwise.

* WhatAnIdiot: Trigger, [[TooDumbToLive obviously]], but he's not the only one.
** At the end of "To Hull and Back", Del throws £15,000 out of the window, thinking it is counterfeit. It isn't.
** Despite having a double headed coin, Del keeps losing coin tosses against Boycie (as Boycie gets to call first and keeps opting for heads). The next time Del makes sure Rodney calls first. Rodney calls tails.
** Rodney foolishly [[IdiotBall brings his policewoman girlfriend back to their flat]] (which is full of stolen goods). As if that wasn't bad enough, when Del mentions that they have run out of gin, Rodney then reveals another crate of gin marked 'export only' that Del had hidden behind a curtain.
** At Christmas Uncle Albert mixes up the coffee and the gravy, meaning the others end up pouring coffee over their dinner.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Attempted with the re-edited version of "A Royal Flush", which heavily cut down Del's more obnoxious behaviour, and made enough trims to the dialogue here and there to allow for the implication that Del was being truthful in the final scene when he claims that he was trying to break up Rodney and Victoria because he knew her father would never approve of their relationship, and would arrange some "accident" to happen to Rodney (in the broadcast version it's clearer that he's trying to cover his backside after the fact).