History YMMV / TheBerenstainBears

* AlternateAesopInterpretation: ''Trouble at School'' delivers the moral "It's never too late to correct a mistake." It's supposed to mean "even though you've put off correcting your errors, a new attempt to apologize and atone for them can still be appreciated", but it could easily be misread as [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop "if you commit a crime, don't apologize for it until it's convenient, upon which all will be forgiven."]]

* FamilyUnfriendlyAesop:
** The Bully really has a FamilyUnfriendlyAesop if you think about it... Getting beaten up by a bully? Don't bother contacting the school authorities because AdultsAreUseless. Get beaten up, and finally fight back? Then and ''only'' then will they get involved. Also, Sister gets off scot-free, only being given a slap on the wrist. While this was [[SocietyMarchesOn written before Zero-Tolerance became the norm]], kids wouldn't be given just a slap on the wrist for punching someone, even if it was in self-defense.
*** Similarly, all bullies have bad home lives. Many people will tell you that this isn't the case.
** Bad Habit says that if you develop a bad habit, your parents will bribe you with money to end it. This may be the reason why the PBS kids adaption of this decided to avoid this.
** The Aesop of ''The Berenstain Bears Clean House'' seems to be "if you have a bunch of old junk sitting around your house, stuff it in the attic and put off the cleaning until another day."
** ''The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room'' ([[AccidentalAesop possibly on accident]]) gives the moral that not cleaning your room can cause your parents to throw out your toys, which seems to resonate more than the ''actual'' advantages Brother and Sister get from cleaning their room. Lampshaded by the opening poem: "When small bears forget to pick up, store and stash, some of their favorite things end up in the trash."
** The intended moral in ''The Berenstain Bears Get the Gimmies'' is that you can't always get what you want in life, and Brother and Sister spend the entire story selfishly screaming and fussing for treats and toys at every turn, much to the embarrassment of Mama and Papa. After they do this again to Gran and Gramps, they decide the best way to end the gimmies is to have the cubs decide ahead of time what treats they want before they go to the store. While they do suggest that bad behavior means going home without treats, Brother and Sister still get what they want after an entire day of embarrassing their parents. Once again, the 2003 series changed the Aesop to "it's much better to give to others than to receive".
** The intended moral for "The Berenstain Bears and the Dinosaurs" was that you shouldn't get way too obsessed over something you like up to the point it starts negatively affecting your family, yet the whole book treats Brother's interest in dinosaurs and prehistoric animals in a negative light and accidentally leaves the readers with the impression that one should just "stop liking things!". A later book, "The Berenstain Bears' Dinosaur Dig" seems to be an AuthorsSavingThrow for the previous book, as it seemingly retcons the aforementioned entry out of existence and has Brother and Sister sharing a healthy interest in dinosaurs which is encouraged by their parents and is portrayed more positively.

* AlternateAesopInterpretation: ''Trouble at School'' delivers the moral "It's never too late to correct a mistake." It's supposed to mean "even though you've put off correcting your errors, a new attempt to apologize and atone for them can still be appreciated", but it could easily be misread as [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop "if you commit a crime, don't apologize for it until it's convenient, upon which all will be forgiven."]] The story also has shades of "if you're briefly incapacitated for health reasons beyond your control, your passions and successes will be yanked out from underneath you and your life will spiral into depression."

* AuthorsSavingThrow: The 2003 series is this for the controversial aspects of the books. Particularly, Papa being less of a BumblingDad.

** The intended moral for "The Berenstain Bears and the Dinosaurs" was that you shouldn't get way too obssessed over something you like up to the point it starts negatively affecting your family, yet the whole book treats Brother's interest in dinosaurs and prehistoric animals in a negative light and accidentally leaves the readers with the impression that one should just "stop liking things!". A later book, "The Berenstain Bears' Dinosaur Dig" seems to be an AuthorsSavingThrow for the previous book, as it seemingly retcons the aforementioned entry out of existence and has Brother and Sister sharing a healthy interest in dinosaurs which is encouraged by their parents and is portrayed more positively.

* CriticalResearchFailure: In ''The Berenstain Bears and the Real Easter Eggs'', Sister Bear finds that there are no major holidays in March. Ever heard of St. Patrick's Day?

* BrokenAesop: In ''The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Birthday'', we're supposed to think Sister's [[BirthdayPartyGoesWrong birthday party goes wrong]] because Papa ignores Mama's advice and makes the party too big and crazy. But of all the things that go wrong, the only problem caused by the party being over-the-top is when Sister eats too many treats and then feels sick after riding the ponies and merry-go-round. The other problems (Sister losing a game, winning a game but not getting the prize because "it wouldn't be polite," getting nervous during SpinTheBottle, Cousin Freddy squirting water on her, and her friends teasing her when she fails to blow out the candles) could have happened even at a simple party. A more consistent Aesop would have been "Sometimes things go wrong at your birthday party and that's okay" than "There's such a thing as too much birthday."

** "Lost in Cyberspace" (1999) still has the bigger bulky computers, a contrast to the more sleek and thinner models used today.

* AccidentalAesop: In keeping with Mama and Papa's ParentsAsPeople portrayal, the stories contain quite a few parenting lessons spliced in with the ones meant for children. Examples include "Don't hit your children," "Don’t scold them for bad habits," "Don’t indulge their tantrums," and "You can inform your children about the dangers of the world without scaring the tar out of them."

* AlternateAesopInterpretation: ''Trouble at School'' delivers the moral "It's never too late to correct a mistake." It's supposed to mean "even though you've put off correcting your errors, a new attempt to apologize and atone for them can still be appreciated", but it could easily be misread as [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop "If you commit a crime, don't apologize for it until it's convenient, upon which all will be forgiven."]] The story also has shades of "If you're briefly incapacitated for health reasons beyond your control, your passions and successes will be yanked out from underneath you and your life will spiral into depression."

* AlternateAesopInterpretation: ''Trouble at School'' has the moral "It's never too late to correct a mistake." It's ''supposed'' to mean "even though you've put off correcting your errors, a new attempt to apologize and atone for them can still be appreciated", but it could instead be misread as [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop "If you screw up, don't apologize for it until it's convenient, upon which all will be forgiven."]] It ''also'' has shades of "If you're very briefly incapacitated for health reasons beyond your control, your passions and successes will be yanked out from underneath you and your life will spiral out of control."

* {{Mondegreen}}: [[https://youtu.be/jjdSrNYWvoY?t=34s "Horse T. Onion Fuck. I'm the mayor!"]] [[labelnote: actual lyrics]]"Horace T. Honeypot, I'm the mayor!"[[/labelnote]]

** Crosses over with MemeticMutation somewhat, but some have speculated that Papa Bear's [[FantasticRacism racism towards the panda bears]] in "New Neighbors" is due to him being a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjdAuLHxmVg Vietnam War veteran.]]

* SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames: ''BerenstainBearsCampingAdventure'' for the Sega Genesis stands out as a pretty solid and surprisingly well-designed and challenging PlatformGame starring Brother and Sister Bear.

* EarWorm:
** The 1980s animated series has one of the biggest ear worms period, being incredibly catchy and amazingly country.
** The PBS kids version's theme certainly counts, which was performed by country music superstar Music/LeeAnnWomack.

** ''The Berenstain Bears and the Bully'' (published in 1993) has [[BewareTheNiceOnes Sister punching the titular bully in the nose]] and only getting let off with a warning. The book was [[ViolenceIsReallyTheAnswer intended to teach kids self-defense]] but it was published before many American schools adopted a "zero-tolerance" policy. Under those circumstances, a kid would likely be punished along with their aggressor or possibly face suspension/expulsion.

* ValuesDissonance: One of their very first books was "The Bike Lesson", which was published in the 1960s and teaches bike safety but never says a word about helmets, allowing Papa to keep suffering AmusingInjuries. The much later book "Safe and Sound" made up for this.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Brother and his guy friends in the book version of ''No Girls Allowed'' are written as sexist jerks who kicked Sister out of their hangout at the swamp after she outdid them in many activities. However, it's inevitable to sympathize with them more than Sister when you learn that the whole reason they excluded her from their hangout in the first place was because [[UnsportsmanlikeGloating she kept on rubbing her victory in their faces.]] The fact that she even did the same exact thing to them when she discovers their hangout certainly lost even more sympathety points for Sister, and it isn't really easy to blame Brother and his friends when they decide they had enough of her. The TV adaptation does fix this by making Brother an unsympathetic jerk to Sister by mocking her on her inept ability to perform in the activities she participates in along with Brother and his friends though, thus giving Sister a more justifiable reason to rub her victories in the faces of Brother and his friends.

* AccidentalAesop: In keeping with Mama and Papa's ParentsAsPeople portrayal, the stories contain quite a few parenting lessons spliced in with the ones meant for children. Examples include "Don't hit your children,” “Don’t scold them for bad habits," "Don’t indulge their tantrums," and "You can inform your children about the dangers of the world without scaring the tar out of them."
* AlternateAesopInterpretation: ''Trouble at School'' has the moral "It's never too late to correct a mistake." It's ''supposed'' to mean "even though you've put off correcting your errors, a new attempt to apologize and atone for them can still be appreciated", but it could instead be misread as [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop "If you screw up, don't apologize for it until it's convenient, upon which all will be forgiven."]] It's ''also'' got shades of "If you're very briefly incapacitated for health reasons beyond your control, your passions and successes will be yanked out from underneath you and your life will spiral out of control."
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Is Mama Bear really an example of "mother knows best" or does she [[SmugSnake come off as an arrogant]] {{jerkass}} who enjoys insulting and humiliating her husband?
** Crosses over with [[MemeticMutation Memetic Mutation]] somewhat, but some have speculated that Papa Bear's [[FantasticRacism racism towards the panda bears]] in "New Neighbors" is due to him being a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjdAuLHxmVg Vietnam War veteran.]]
* AngstWhatAngst: In the TV version of ''The Trouble at School'', Mama and Papa show a near complete lack of concern when Brother confesses all of his misdeeds. These include ignoring all his homework when he was sick, facing the consequences when it turns out they have a test the day he goes back and subsequently getting a ''zero'' on it, hiding it from his parents when he was instructed to have them sign it, and then skipping school the next day. Yet, when he finally confesses, his parents barely even seem the least bit upset. They have maybe two sentences worth of "scolding" him if you could even call it that, and then pull an EasilyForgiven before switching into a more positive and upbeat tone. In fact, they show more concern in ''The Homework Hassle'' where Brother only does ''one'' of those things (letting his homework pile up).
* {{Anvilicious}}: The entire reason for the series' ''existence'' is to impart moral lessons. The PBS Kids version seems to be a ''lot'' better about this.
* AudienceAlienatingPremise: Many readers were turned off when ''The Berenstain Bears'' entered the ''Living Lights'' arc and introduced heavy Christian morals, especially that ''The Berenstain Bears'' started off as irreligious for a long time.
* CriticalResearchFailure: In ''The Berenstain Bears and the Real Easter Eggs'', Sister Bear finds that there are no major holidays in March, ignoring St. Patrick's Day.
** In the TV version of ''Trouble At School'', Brother is expected to take a test the day he goes back to school after being sick for around a week beforehand. Realistically, most North American schools would give Brother at least a day to make sure that he understood the lessons before making him take a test.
* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: Many people think that the "junk" food in ''...and Too Much Junk Food'' looks so colorful and delicious, despite the Aesop of junk food being bad for you.
** Quote from one RealLife child looking at the inside cover:

** The sleepover party that got Sister Bear in trouble in one of the books (a chaotic mess where the cubs destroyed the house and that ended with the police being contacted) looks pretty awesome.
** The Space Grizzlies [[MerchandiseDriven toy line and movie]] from ''The Bad Dream'' that gives the kids nightmares actually looked like a pretty cool franchise (sort of Toys/MonsterInMyPocket meets Franchise/StarWars).

** The 1980s animated series has one of the '''biggest ear worms period''', incredibly catchy and amazingly country.
** The PBS version certainly, which was performed by country music superstar Music/LeeAnnWomack.
* EpilepticTrees: There is a [[http://www.avclub.com/article/how-you-spell-berenstain-bears-could-be-proof-para-223615 bizarre theory]] that those out there who recall the name as being "the Berenst''e''in bears" are actually transplants from an alternate universe.

** The Bully really has a FamilyUnfriendlyAesop if you think about it... Getting beaten up by a bully? Don't bother contacting the school authorities because AdultsAreUseless. Get beaten up, and finally fight back? Then and ''only'' then will they get involved. Also, Sister gets off scot-free, only being given a slap on the wrist. While this was [[SocietyMarchesOn written in a different time]], before Zero-Tolerance became a norm, kids in real life won't be just given a slap on the wrist for punching someone, even if it was in self-defense.
*** Similarly, all bullies have bad home lives. Some people can tell you this isn't the case.
** Bad Habit - Develop a bad habit, and your parents will bribe you with money to end it. May be the reason why the 2003 series adaption of this decided to avoid this.

** ''The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room'', where the moral that not cleaning your room may cause your parents to throw out your toys seems to resonate more than the actual advantages Brother and Sister get from cleaning their room. Lampshaded by the opening poem: "When small bears forget to pick up, store and stash, some of their favorite things end up in the trash."
** ''The Berenstain Bears Get the Gimmies'' also: The intended moral is that you can't always get what you want in life, and Brother and Sister spend the entire story selfishly screaming and fussing for treats and toys at every turn to the embarrassment of Mama and Papa. After they do this again to Gran and Gramps, they decide the best way to end the gimmies is to have the cubs decide ahead of time what treats they want before they go to the store. While they do also suggest that bad behavior means going home without treats, Brother and Sister still get what they want after an entire day of having embarrassed their parents.
*** Once again, the 2003 series turns the tables on this by instead showing how it is much better to give than to receive, with a story of how Papa once fussed over a toy truck as a boy only to give it to the son of a poor family when he saw how hard they had it. This helps Brother and Sister to get over their selfishness entirely.
* HarsherInHindsight: One episode of the 1980s cartoon involved Weasel [=McGreed=] creating a flower that traps bees in order to cut off the town's honey supply. This was before Colony Collapse Disorder became a major contemporary problem and the consequences are more disastrous than low honey supply.

** The book version of ''The Slumber Party'' opens up with the story explaining that you never know who is on the phone until you answer it. Needless to say, [[TechnologyMarchesOn that's no longer true with the rise of caller IDs.]] Though, then again, there's no guarantee that it's who the caller ID says it is...

* IAmNotShazam: The bears' surname is Bear, not Berenstain. And, despite the common mispronunciation, it's not [[AmbiguouslyJewish "Bernstein"]], either. Or "Berenstein," for that matter.

** "The Berenstain Bears' Christmas Tree" could have lasted but a few minutes had Papa Bear gone to Gus instead of dragging Brother and Sister in search of the perfect tree.
** "The Slumber Party" relies on every single parent in Bear Country being completely clueless for the sake of having a responsibility moral. Essentially, Lizzie hosts a sleepover and invites Sister alongside two of her friends, and that's supposed to be the plan before it quickly spirals out of control when the word of it spreads to all the other girls (and [[TheBully Too-Tall's gang]]) at school, which leads to a giant party full of uninvited guests. Considering how many other girls get involved, it's a bit of a stretch to think that ''not one of their parents would have bothered checking in with the Bruins about it'' (Yes, Mama and Papa acknowledge their mistake on this end, but that still leaves the issues with every single other parent too). On top of that, Lizzie's parents aren't even home for when it takes place; they just leave Lizzie with a babysitter and apparently had enough faith on her ''first sleepover'' that she would be perfectly safe and responsible, and that a babysitter would be all they would need to keep her under control. How were they even shocked it turned out as it did?

** A ton of the episodes from the 80s cartoon hinge on the fact that nobody ever seems to learn that Raffish Ralph is distrustful. In fact, the ''cubs'' are the only ones to ever warn anyone that he may be up to something, where the grown-ups seem to just [[AdultsAreUseless blindly believe him or just leave him alone when he's showing blatantly suspicious tendencies.]]

** Tuffy when her FreudianExcuse for being a bully (she has AbusiveParents) is revealed.

** [[http://woodbetweenworlds.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-berenstein-bears-we-are-living-in.html The idea that they really ARE the [=BerenstEin=] Bears, and there is some kind of time-travelling conspiracy to blame for the fact that every official source ever is spelling it wrong.]]
* {{Mondegreen}}: [[https://youtu.be/jjdSrNYWvoY?t=34s "Horse T. Onion Fuck. I'm the mayor!"]] [[note]]The actual lyrics are "Horace T. Honeypot, I'm the mayor!"[[/note]]

* SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames: ''[[VideoGame/BerenstainBearsCampingAdventure The Berenstain Bears Camping Adventure]]'' for the Sega Genesis stands out as a pretty solid and surprisingly well-designed and challenging PlatformGame starring Brother and Sister Bear.

* SeasonalRot: Beginning in 2008, the books increasing focused on explicitly Christian morals and teachings, which had never been present at all in the earlier stories. Recent titles like "The Berenstain Bears Say Their Prayers" and "The Berenstain Bears Follow God's Word" have been met with much mockery and confusion.

** ''The Berenstain Bears Show Some Respect'' has the cubs acting bratty by contradicting their parents and grandparents when the family is looking for a picnic spot. However, a lot of their comments are quite valid. For instance, Mama suggests a spot by the pond because that's where she and Papa had their first date. Brother responds with "That's was ages ago. It's full of mosquitoes now." He could have said it in a more polite manner but having picnics where there are lots of mosquitoes is dangerous.
*** The entire family treat the grandparents as though their picnic spot suggestions are awful until they're called out on it, at which point they let them have the final say. Gramps proceeds to lead them...back to the house, to eat in the backyard. While it's accessible and not mosquito ridden, this defeats the entire purpose of going on a summer picnic.
** In the animated special ''The Berenstain Bears' Easter Surprise'', Boss Bunny retires from his role as the Easter Bunny. When he is confronted about it by his son Bill and Brother Bear, it's clear to see that he's too old and out of shape to continue the job. True all it takes to get him going is some fresh air but with everything he has to do to make Easter possible, it's still taxing.
* TakeThatScrappy: At least, how one writer for [[UsefulNotes/AmericanNewspapers The New York Times]] put it; in a review for the 1980s show, the author expressed disdain for the cast as a whole, but particularly paid attention to Mama Bear being overly stern and seemingly caring more about how her house looks than the well being of her children; thus, he saw the cubs demolishing the lamp in ''The Truth'' as one of these moments.

** In "Too Much Pressure", Mama becomes so overwhelmed with driving Brother and Sister to their activities that when the car stalls on their way to one, she breaks down and cries. Since [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness Mama is generally the most level-headed of the family]], this is very upsetting to see. To push it further, the 2003 TV series adaptation of said story has the cubs end up [[EverybodyCries crying along with her]].

* UnfortunateImplications: Where the new, overtly religious stories are concerned. [[https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-berenstain-bears-get-an-app-and-find-god As this article]] points out, this sours one of the consistent charms of the bears, namely that they were fallible characters who strove to better themselves not because religion told them to, but simply for decency's sake.
* UnintentionallySympathetic: Brother and his guy friends in the book version of ''No Girls Allowed'' are written as sexist jerks who kicked Sister out of their hangout at the swamp after she outdid them in many activities. However, it's inevitable to sympathize with them more than Sister when you learn that the whole reason they even excluded her from their hangout in the first place was because [[UnsportsmanlikeGloating she kept on rubbing her victory in their faces.]] The fact that she even did the same exact thing to them when she discovers their hangout certainly lost even more sympathetic points for Sister, and it isn't really too easy to blame Brother and his friends when they decide they had enough of her. The TV adaptation does fix this by making Brother an unsympathetic jerk to Sister by mocking her on her inept ability to perform in the activities she participates in along with Brother and his friends though, thus giving Sister a more justifiable reason to rub her victories in the faces of Brother and his friends.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Brother and his guy friends in the book version of ''No Girls Allowed'' are written as sexist jerks who kicked Sister out of their hangout at the swamp after she outdid them in many activities. However, it's inevitable to sympathize with them more than Sister when you learn that the whole reason they even excluded her from their hangout in the first place was because [[UnsportsmanlikeGloating she kept on rubbing her victory in their faces.]] The fact that she even did the same exact thing to them when she discovers their hangout certainly lost even more sympathetic points for Sister, and it isn't really too easy to blame Brother and his friends when they decide they had enough of her. The TV adaptation does fix this by making Brother an unsympathetic jerk to Sister by mocking her on her inept ability to perform in the activities she participates in along with Brother and his friends though, thus giving Sister a more justifiable reason to rub her victories in the faces of Brother and her friends.

* DubNameChange: In the Finnish dub of the 2003 animated series, the members of the Bear family have actual names. Brother Bear became Aaro, Sister Bear became Siiri and Father Bear became Kaarle, for example.

* CriticalResearchFailure: In ''The Berenstain Bears and the Real Easter Eggs'', Sister Bear finds that there are no major holidays in March. What about St. Patrick's Day?

** The Bully really has a FamilyUnfriendlyAesop if you think about it... Getting beaten up by a bully? Don't bother contacting the school authorities because AdultsAreUseless. Get beaten up, and finally fight back? Then and ''only'' then will they get involved. Also, Sister gets off scot-free, only being given a slap on the wrist. [[SarcasmMode How many kids in real life were just given a slap on the wrist for punching someone, even if it was in self-defense?]]
*** In all fairness, this was [[SocietyMarchesOn written in a different time]], before Zero-Tolerance became a norm.