History YMMV / TheAddamsFamily

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: The "inverted nuclear family" has been done many, many times since the show aired and the 90s films revived it, and it's no longer a very novel concept. Similarly, while the Addams themselves (particularly from the remakes) are still popular, their famous "normal people scare me" type of personalities have been made fun of more in the late 2010s where it's seen more as edgy and cringy behavior of people trying to compensate for not fitting in well, as while the Addams family are odd, they still function as well as any conventional family while the people who claim to relate to them are often stereotyped as deadbeats.

** The original plot for the 1991 movie proposed that Gordon never really was Fester, but eventually fit in with the family so well that he essentially assumes the role fully; while him truly being Fester ties everything up neatly, the idea that someone fed up with their horrendous mother could find true family among a bunch of misfits and weirdoes like the Addams is quite compelling.

** Joel Glicker. Unlike Uncle Fester, Wednesday and Pugsley, he doesn't have anyone looking out for him or even a happy home to go to, as his parents are just as much insensitive jerks as everyone else at the camp are. Things start to look up for him once he befriends Wednesday, Pugsley and soon the rest of the Addams, but then there is [[JumpScare that ending…]]

** At one point did Gordon realize he was the real Fester? By the end of the movie when he gets his memory back, while he's snooping around and possibly realizing much of what he encounters is familiar to him or when the seance happens and he possibly hears the calling to him? That would mean he knows early on where he's truly from and struggles accepting that truth for quiet a bit of time--or at least at first.

** For those in America who don't exactly connect with Thanksgiving due to its questionably sanitized origins (or just because it's a fun scene), the camp riot scene in ''Family Values'' gets shared across social media around that time.

* ValuesResonance: Morticia and Gomez were among the first TV couples who openly and passionately showed their affection for each other, they ''always'' functioned as a team, with one never keeping secrets or vocally resenting the other in any way. It's also completely egalitarian; any important decisions about the children, they make together. They both show complete respect to each other at all times, and even when they disagree, they always try to hear the other one out and reach a solution they both can agree upon.

-->''"I would '''die''' for her. I would '''kill''' for her. ... Either way, what bliss."''

** Joel Glicker. Unlike Uncle Fester, Wednesday and Pugsley, he doesn't have anyone looking out for him or even a happy home to go to, as his parents are just as much insensitive jerks as everyone else at the camp are. Things start to look up for him once he befriends Wednesday, Pugsley and soon the rest of the Addams, but then there is [[JumpScare that ending...]]

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Mal in the Broadway version. Yes he’s an ass, but he also gets raped by a squid, which is PlayedForLaughs and treated as a solution for his {{Jerkass}} behavior.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: The 1991 movie and its sequel, Addams Family Values, pretty much exist to push the boundaries of this - The family are all about the occult, the grotesque and the horrific, but it's implied to be fine so long as nothing graphic happens on camera. Plus the plots are quite complicated, tending to revolve around financial fraud. IMDB still considers it a family movie.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Mal in the Broadway version. Yes he’s an ass, but he also gets raped by a squid, which is PlayedForLaughs and treated as a solution for his {{Jerkass}} behavior.

** Similar case in ''Addams Family Values'' when it's "revealed" that Lurch had killed a stripper by cooking her alive, which every one laughs off. Some people take it seriously as evidence that the Addams are bad people, whilst other believe that there was no stripper and it was just Gomez making a really morbid joke. A third possibility is that the family would never intentionally kill someone, but accidents happen, so you might as well have a sense of humor.

** Similar case in ''Addams Family Values'' when it's "revealed" that Lurch had killed a stripper by cooking her alive, which every one laughs off. Some people take it seriously as evidence that the Addams are bad people, whilst other believe that there was no stripper and it was just Gomez making a really morbid joke.

** ''Addams Family Values'' has become a cult favorite among queer audiences, thanks to Wednesday's enlarged role and Creator/JoanCusack's over-the-top performance as villainess Debbie. Additionally, Gomez and Morticia accepting "Normal" Pubert, and continuing to love him even though they didn't understand or like his change in looks and personality, resonated with queer viewers.

* SpecialEffectFailure: While most of the effects work holds up some of the compositing used to create Thing hasn't survived the transition to HD very well. A few shots, such as him searching the swamp for Wednesday after she goes missing, have visible artifacts that mean he doesn't quite blend with the background properly.

** Being produced by openly gay creators like Paul Rudnick and Scott Rudin certainly helps. In fact, Rudnick chose the title as a TakeThat to conservative pundits who used the term “family values” to swipe at non-traditional households (e.g., LGBT+, single mothers, unmarried couples cohabitating.)

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: The main theme of the pinball table bears more than a passing resemblance to the main theme of Creator/{{Pat Lawlor}}'s previous table, ''Pinball/FunHouse1990''.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Mal in the Broadway version. Yes he’s an ass, but he also gets raped by a squid, which is PlayedForLaughs and treated as a solution for his {{Jerkass}} behavior.
* WTHCastingAgency: Creator/NathanLane as Gomez. Many people said he didn’t have the look and feel of the character compared to Creator/JohnAstin and Creator/RaulJulia. The team behind the show defended the casting by noting that this version was inspired by the original comic, a claim that falls flat when its extremely clear that this version has essentially the same personality as those two, with the only differences being that Gomez is now more of a typical Lane-esque DeadpanSnarker.

** Creator/NathanLane as the police desk sergeant who's irritated and bewildered by Gomez's ranting.

* LoveToHate: Debbie is a ruthless gold digger who doesn't care about anyone but herself and has absolutely no redeeming or sympathetic traits but Creator/JoanCusack plays her with such pure vileness and enjoyment, clearly having a blast playing such an unabashedly horrible character, that she is an absolute delight every time she is on screen.

** At one point did Gordon realize he was the real Fester? By the end of the movie when he gets his memory back, while he's scopping around and possibly realizing much of what he encounters is familiar to him or when the seance happens and he possibly hears the calling to him? That would mean he knows early on where he's truly from and struggles accepting that truth for quiet a bit of time--or at least at first.

** Creator/CharlesBusch appears in ''Addams Family Value'' as Cousin Countess Aphasia du Barry, one of the relatives who tries to snag Debbie's bouquet. She has one line, exactly one word, after Wednesday catches it, and it's hilarious.

* AcceptableTargets:
** Politicians, even as far back as the 1964 series. "[[Recap/TheAddamsFamilyS1E4GomezThePolitician Gomez the Politician]]" has Gomez considering giving a campaign contribution to a politician promising, among other things, to drain the local swamps. Morticia doesn't understand why, since they both like the swamps, but Gomez explains that that's exactly why - ''politicians never do what they promise,'' so if this guy wins the swamps are safe! [[note]]Sure enough, after a series of misunderstandings that's caused the politician to think that the Addamses are threatening his life to make him confess his true plans, he admits that he intends to "make them even swampier," much to the family's delight.[[/note]]
** Famously, anyone who enjoys "normal" things, such as pastels, instead of the macabre or goth culture.

** Then comes [[Recap/TheAddamsFamilyS1E22AmnesiaInTheAddamsFamily Amnesia in the Addams Family]]" where we get to see the beloved patriarch losing his mind and becoming a stranger in his own home. From his point of view meanwhile everyone wants him dead.

** Being a baby, did Pubert simply take part in a bizarre chain reactions of events that led to Debbie being electrocuted, and had no idea what was happening? Or, being an ''Addams'', does he instinctively act to protect his family while exacting a gruesome revenge on their would-be killer? His giggle at the end supports either interpretation.

** In general, the fandom tends to be divided on the issue of whether the family should be genuinely evil or not. The original cartoons depicted them as a subversion of an idyllic modern family, with them being truly violent and cruel in their treatment of one another, albeit in their own weird BadIsGoodAndGoodIsBad way and never causing any significant harm. However, the TV series, which [[AdaptationDisplacement far outpaced those cartoons]], showed them as kind and loving to one other (though not free of the aforementioned bouts of bad treatment played for humor), and had the subversion be that they are that way in spite of their creepy personalities and love of the morbid and macabre--in fact, being far more loving to each other than their more upstanding peers. On the one end, there's the argument that a franchise built around a self-consciously malevolent family should have them actually doing bad things, lest they be made as toothlessly wholesome as the model families they were meant to mock. On the other, there's the argument that the aforementioned contrast between creepiness and heart is what gives the franchise its draw, and a series about a family just being relentlessly nasty to each other would come off as abusive rather than funny and fall into TooBleakStoppedCaring.

** Politicians, even as far back as the 1964 series. "[[Recap/TheAddamsFamilyS1E4GomezThePolitician Gomez the Politician]]" has Gomez considering giving a campaign contribution to a politician promising, among other things, to drain the local swamps. Morticia doesn't understand why, since they both like the swamps, but Gomez explains that that's exactly why - ''politicians never do what they promise,'' so if this guy wins the swamps are safe! [[note]]Sure enough, after a series of misunderstanding that's caused the politician to think that the Addamses are threatening his life to make him confess his true plans, he admits that he intends to "make them even swampier," much to the family's delight.[[/note]]

** In general, the fandom tends to be divided on the issue of whether the family should be genuinely evil or not. The original cartoons depicted them as a subversion of an idyllic modern family, with them being truly violent and cruel in their treatment of one another, albeit in their own weird BadIsGoodAndGoodIsBad way. However, the TV series, which [[AdaptationDisplacement far outpaced those cartoons]], showed them as kind and loving to one other (though not free of the aforementioned bouts of bad treatment played for humor), and had the subversion be that they are that way in spite of their creepy personalities and love of the morbid and macabre--in fact, being far more loving to each other than their more upstanding peers. On the one end, there's the argument that a franchise built around a self-consciously malevolent family should have them actually doing bad things, lest they be made as toothlessly wholesome as the model families they were meant to mock. On the other, there's the argument that the aforementioned contrast between creepiness and heart is what gives the franchise its draw, and a series about a family just being relentlessly nasty to each other would come off as abusive rather than funny and fall into TooBleakStoppedCaring.

* HeartwarmingInHindsight: In "Gomez, the Politician," one of the objectives of the Addams Family is to preserve the various swamps in the region. Since then, there has been a significant environmental movement to preserve wetlands with their essential role in preserving animal habitats and water quality being greater understood. With that in mind, there would be a great number of environmental activists who would welcome the Addams' support.