History YMMV / TheMaskedSinger

* SoBadItsGood: A staple of the show. At least one singer each season is ''not'' a good singer by any stretch of the word, but they're clearly having so much that it's hard to dislike them. These types of singers usually outlast singers that are just straight up bad, but usually don't make it that far into the show.

** Medusa would ultimately become another base breaking winner, even though she began her run as a fan favorite. Some people were fine with her victory, declaring that she earned her way back into the game and deserved to win because of it. Others claimed it was unfair that someone who had already been eliminated didn't deserve to claim the Golden Mask, especially over a singer who made it the finals fairly, leading to claims that the show rigged it to give her a victory to that they could have an underdog story. A third group thought that she shouldn't have even made it that far to begin with and claimed that she did more screaming than singing.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Is Ken ''really'' that much of a CluelessDetective? Or is he just playing up the image he's a horrible guesser on purpose? While some of his guesses may point to the former, the fact he nearly won the Golden Ear trophy ''twice'' (including nearly tying with Nicole in Season Six, with only a last minute correct guess putting the former ahead) and was able to get some of the harder guesses certainly implies that he is smarter than he lets on.

** While {{Downplayed}} in comparison to White Tiger, T-Rex from the same season got a similar reputation for her rather mediocre singing, and yet still managing to beat out [[spoiler:Bella Thorne]] for the second round. Despite this, she is rather liked for her eccentric dancing and surprising amount of energy in that costume, [[spoiler:or not, considering it's Jojo Siwa under there.]]

* EpilepticTrees: Par for the course for a series whose primary mystery is dragged out for several weeks. A popular one for the first season involved [[spoiler:Donny Osmond being hospitalised for a shoulder injury being a cover story to keep him under the radar for an extended period of time - because he's the Peacock.]] ''[[TheCuckoolanderWasRight They were right.]]''

* ItsTheSameSoItSucks: Season 9 caught heavy flak for reusing the extremely disliked elimination format of Season 8.

** While season 10 got off to a good start via ditching the reviled elimination format of seasons 8 and 9 while still keeping the themed rounds and the four person finale was fairly well liked, the way the teams were cut down was seen as strange, as the groups were cut down to their final three, but the finales for each group didn't happen until after three teams had been cut down. Not to mention, this, again, meant that Group C wasn't seen until over half way through the season.

** Season 10's Sea Queen has been shown to be a mediocre performer in her times singing, especially when compared to Group B's more colorful and lively singers like Hawk or Tiki, yet managed to get past ''both of them'', along with Husky, to go to the finale.

** Another Season 10 example was Candelabra, who many expected to make to the finals, if not win the whole competition. Then she got eliminated by Donut just one episode short of the finale.

** Another Season 10 example was Candelabra, who many expected to make to the finals, if not win the whole competition. Then see got eliminated by Donut just one episode short of the finale.

* EliminationHoudini: The White Tiger spent his performances doing more dancing than singing, yet still got through to the merge. Fortunately, that was as far as he got.

** Firefly from season 7 may have stolen Night Angel's spot as the most controversial winner. Some people love her for her underdog story throughout the season and the fact she had to fight her way to the top, while others felt that she unfairly robbed Ringmaster, Prince and/or Thingamabob, who, in the minds of several, had far better voices and performances with a sob story. Not helped by the fact her final song was one of Robin's, leading many to claim that she only beat extremely popular Ringmaster out of bias.

* FaceOfTheBand:
** Bands tend to be represented by the most recognizable members of them, such as Crocodile being [[spoiler:Nick Carter, the most recognizable member of Music/BackstreetBoys]]. The Russian Dolls and California Roll avert this, [[spoiler:since they’re an entire band instead of one member.]]
** Inverted and addressed directly by the Butterfly, who acknowledged her history of working with giants. [[spoiler:Michelle Williams is talented in her own right, but was easily overshadowed by [[Music/DestinysChild Kelly Rowland and especially]] Music/{{Beyonce}}.]]

** Firefly from season 7 may have stolen Night Angel's spot as the most controversial winner. Some people love her for her underdog story throughout the season and the fact she had to fight her way to the top, while others felt that she unfairly robbed Ringmaster, Prince and/or Thingamabob, who, in the minds of several, had far better voices and performances with a sob story. Not helped by the fact her final song was one of Robin's, leading many to claim that she only beat Ringmaster out of bias.

* IKnewIt: Considering the massive amount of speculation regarding the contestants' identities, this was bound to happen.
** [[spoiler:The Pineapple]] had enough people guessing [[spoiler:[[Creator/CheechAndChong Tommy Chong]] (because of his voice and the clues in his video)]] that his name started on trending on Website/{{Twitter}} before he was eliminated and unmasked.
** By the same token, [[spoiler:Creator/MargaretCho]] was a popular guess for [[spoiler:the Poodle (as seen [[https://www.newsweek.com/who-poodle-masked-singer-guesses-clues-margaret-cho-jillian-michaels-san-1286051 here]] and [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2019/01/10/foxs-masked-singer-gladys-knight-margaret-cho-joey-fatone-our-best-guesses-latest-celebrities-disguise here]])]].
** The Peacock's identity was put out of the bag pretty early. [[spoiler: A talk show flat-out asked Marie Osmond if that was her brother under all those feathers and she turned out to be a BadLiar.]]
** InUniverse, Music/RobinThicke had been guessing [[spoiler:[[Music/{{NSYNC}} Joey Fatone]] as the Rabbit]] for several weeks before he was ultimately confirmed right.
** Kenan Thompson heard the Bee and immediately knew who it was because [[spoiler: he grew up listening to all her Motown records]].
** [[spoiler:Michelle Williams]] was a popular guess for the Butterfly before her unmasking.
** Many viewers knew that [[spoiler:Music/{{Seal}}]] was the Leopard prior to his unmasking.
** A lot of people were guessing [[spoiler:Wayne Brady, Chris Daughtry, and Adrienne Bailon]] as the respective identities for Fox, Rottweiler, and Flamingo for weeks prior to the season 2 finale. This is especially impressive regarding the Rottweiler, since not a single panelist guessed him at any point during the entire season.
** Practically everyone knew that [[spoiler:White Tiger was Rob Gronkowski]] way before his unmasking.
** Many of the fanbase were immediately guessing [[spoiler: Music/JesseMcCartney]] was The Turtle before the unmasking.
** Much the same way, devoted members of the fanbase knew that [[spoiler: [=JoJo=] Siwa]] was T-Rex long before the unmasking.
** Jellyfish's identity was a bit hard to pin down at first... until [[https://www.reddit.com/r/TheMaskedSinger/comments/joargk/locking_this_one_in_after_tonight_the_jellyfish/ at least one Redditor]] managed to connect her clues to [[spoiler:Chloe Kim]] - and turned out to be correct.
** After Snail (a.k.a. [[spoiler:[[Franchise/TheMuppets Kermit the Frog]]]]) went home, he did an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giPIANKpZZ0&t=1s interview]] in which he [[spoiler:(or rather, his puppeteer Matt Vogel)]] stated that he and some friends theorized Raccoon was [[spoiler:Creator/DannyTrejo]]. They were right.
** At least one person on the ''Masked Singer'' Subreddit [[https://www.reddit.com/r/TheMaskedSinger/comments/mmgh0t/they_said_i_was_a_madman/ correctly guessed]] that [[spoiler:Nick Cannon would be one of the wildcards, be eliminated right away, and resume his hosting duties from that point after having had to sit out the first half of the season due to testing positive for COVID-19]].
** As early as their preview, the fans widely agreed that the Russian Dolls were [[spoiler:Music/{{Hanson}}]].
** Impressively, the audience correctly guessed Cluedle-Doo to be [[spoiler:Creator/DonnieWahlberg]] the moment he gave a clue to his identity.
** People managed to identify the finalists of Season 5 as [[spoiler:Music/WizKhalifa, [[Music/JoJo [=JoJo=]]] and Nick Lachey]] pretty easily.
** As early as their first performance being shown off in a trailer, many people had pegged Banana Split as [[spoiler:David Foster and Creator/KatharineMcPhee.]]
** Many fans correctly guessed that Skunk was [[spoiler: Music/FaithEvans]], and that the loved one she never got to say goodbye to was [[spoiler: Music/TheNotoriousBig, Faith's estranged ex-husband, who was tragically shot and killed in a drive-by shooting.]]
** Bull was correctly guessed to be [[spoiler:Todrick Hall]] as early as his previews.
** Most of the fanbase caught onto Armadillo being [[spoiler:Dog the Bounty Hunter]] extremely quickly.
** Pretty much as soon as his first preview, Space Bunny was quickly guessed to be [[spoiler:Shaggy]] by much of the fanbase.
** After his identity was leaked, fans deduced that [[spoiler:Rudy Giuliani]] was Jack In The Box via process of elimination.
** Hydra zigzags this, as while it was widely agreed to be [[spoiler:Penn and Teller]] under there, people thought that [[spoiler:there was a third person in the costume with them, with the most common guess being Martin Short.]]
** From the moment that her first song was previewed, everyone immediately agreed that the Harp was [[spoiler:Creator/AmberRiley]].
** California Roll was out of the bag as [[spoiler:Pentatonix]] almost as soon as they began singing.
** Very few people were surprised when Macaw was unmasked as [[spoiler: Music/DavidArchuleta]]
** Generally, nearly every singer is guessed correctly on the Internet. There are a few exceptions:
*** Fans thought Baby Alien was Sam Riegel ([[spoiler:he was Mark Sanchez]]).
*** They also popularly believed Serpent was Leslie Odom Jr., with only a few correctly guessing him to be [[spoiler:Dr. Elvis Francois]].
*** Octopus proved to be a hard one, too, as virtually no one guessed that he was [[spoiler:Dwight Howard]], with the most popular guesses being that he was Lou Bega or Terry Crews.
*** Similarly, Mother Nature/[[spoiler:Vivica A. Fox]] was popularly theorized to be Tiffany Haddish, but very few if any fans identified her correctly.
*** Fans also theorized Dalmatian was a football player, with Tom Brady being the most popular guess, but he ended up being [[spoiler:Tyga]].
*** Beach Ball was thought to be Miss Piggy for the most part, but ended up being [[spoiler:Honey Boo Boo and Mama June.]]
*** Cyclops had many guesses, with the most common being Creator/CoreyFeldman or Creator/MichaelRooker - only one person on the subreddit correctly connected the clues to [[spoiler:Creator/JorgeGarcia]].
*** Dandelion was commonly guessed as Vanessa Williams. She was actually [[spoiler:Alicia Witt]].

* QuirkyWork: It's often described as surreal, what with the fanciful costumes and all. What other show would have [[spoiler:Sarah Palin in a bear costume]] rapping to "Baby Got Back" or [[spoiler:Creator/LarryTheCableGuy in a baby costume]] singing ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' theme song with a British accent?

** The second Group A episode starts off with a performance by "the Robin", who turns out to be Joel [=McHale=] wearing a Robin Thicke mask and performing "Blurred Lines". Despite this wordplay, the panel is still caught by surprise at the end of the same episode by the reveal that [[spoiler:the robin in the Giraffe's clue package was also a direct reference to Robin Thicke]].

** Bands tend to be represented by the most recognizable members of them, such as Crocodile being [[spoiler:Nick Carter, the most recognizable member of Music/BackstreetBoys]]. The Russian Dolls avert this, [[spoiler:since they’re an entire band instead of one member.]]

** Medusa from Season 9 falls under this, as she was able to advance to the finale...by screaming in her singing. It doesn't help that she also got the California Roll eliminated, despite the fact that the sushi roll mask had a better performance than her.

** The second to last episode of Season 9 saw California Roll, who was agreed to be a front runner, be eliminated.

* Medusa from Season 9 falls under this, as she was able to advance to the finale...by screaming in her singing. It doesn't help that she also got the California Roll eliminated, despite the fact that the sushi roll mask had a better performance than her.

* BetterThanCanon: There are several people who prefer the covers sung here to their original versions.

*** To make matters even worse, Irene Cara, the original singer of "Fame", died just sixteen days after the episode aired.