History YMMV / WaysideSchool

* TastesLikeDiabetes: The end of the "Love and a Dead Rat" chapter in ''Wayside School is Falling Down''. The [[spoiler:dead rat]] actually lampshades this.

** Miss Nogard. Though she's evil, can you blame her? In her introduction story, the way her heart was utterly shattered was outright tragic. She's more a victim if anything.

** Allison definitely needed a hug when [[spoiler:everyone stopped noticing her, until she got to the nineteenth story.]]

* GeniusBonus: ''Wayside School is Falling Down'' states that Albert Einstein didn't wear socks with the implication that socks make you less smart. It seems like an example of the books nonsensical humor but Einstein did in fact say that he didn't like to wear socks.

* MoralEventHorizon: Mrs. Nogard uses her {{Telepathy}} to subtly manipulate everyone into feeling as miserable [[FreudianExcuse as herself]]. But as cruel as she is, she doesn't come that close to pure evil until [[spoiler:she decides to "accidentally" drop Mrs. Jewls' newborn baby out the 30th floor window. Luckily, Louis and the [[ChildrenAreInnocent baby herself]] save her from going through with it.]]

* CompleteMonster: Mrs. Gorf.
** Mr. Gorf also seems like one, especially since he stole [[spoiler: the voices of a married Scotsman, an old lady, and a dog]] for no explained reason.

* CompleteMonster: Mrs. Gorf and [[ManipulativeBastard Mrs. Nogard]] [[spoiler:until her HeelFaceTurn.]]

* CompleteMonster: Mrs. Gorf and Mrs. Nogard [[spoiler:until her HeelFaceTurn.]]

* AccidentalNightmareFuel: Miss Zarves's class.
** Louis ''eating'' the transformed Mrs. Gorf.

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: Mrs. Gorf returns twice during ''Wayside School is Falling Down''.
** Deedee finds Mrs. Gorf hanging upside-down in front of her on the monkey bars. When she tells her classmates and Louis, they decide to find out whether or not she imagined Mrs. Gorf reappearing by staying with her at the monkey bars. [[spoiler: She doesn't return. However, Deedee happens to pass a large set of footprints after getting off of the monkey bars...]]
** Later, Joe and John sculpted Mrs. Gorf's face out of potato salad. It suddenly came to life, and threatened to turn the two of them into apples again. Fortunately, Joe and John gobbled the potato salad up before she could do so.

* ToyShip: The books are full of them. Jason and Allison is probably the most prominent but others include: Paul and Leslie, Dana and John, Calvin and Bebe, DJ and Kathy, Terrence and Rondi, Ron and Deedee, and Todd and Joy. A possible canon example is Mac and Nancy, a girl from another class. She's his friend in the first book but is said to be his girlfriend in the second. It's unknown if that's meant in a romantic sense but he does carry her books.

* TheWoobie: Miss Zarves in ''Gets a Little Stranger''.

* TheWoobie: Miss Zarves in ''Gets a Little Stranger''.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: What some readers said after reprints of the books received illustrations that looked more abstract than those used in the 1980s and '90s.

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: Mrs. Gorf's ghost possessing a plate of potato salad.

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: ''Sideways Stories'' gives us four:
** In Todd's story, after he has his name written on the board and a check-mark put next to it (getting it circled after this means he'll get sent home early), two robbers enter the classroom, [[EpicFail thinking it's a bank]]. When the men realize their mistake and complain that they climbed up 30 flights of stairs for nothing, Todd says they ''do'' have something valuable: knowledge. He then picks up Joy's nearly-full workbook and gives it to the robbers, prompting them to have a HeelFaceTurn and leave (bonus points because [[JerkAss Joy]] [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin was responsible for getting Todd into trouble in the first place]]). [[StatusQuoIsGod Of course]], he still gets sent home early, but when he leaves, everybody stands and applauds him.
** In Sharie's story, she falls out of the classroom window while sleeping. Louis is all the way on the other side of the playground when he sees her falling - and he runs the entire length of the field, passing through the various playground instruments in a sort of obstacle course, and catches her right before she hits the ground. Appropriately enough, the other students cheer.
** Louis gets another one in Terrence's story. Terrence has been behaving like a major JerkAss, kicking all the balls over the fence and then insulting the other kids. So what does Louis do when they complain to him? [[spoiler:He kicks ''Terrence'' over the fence]].
** In Stephen's story, [[spoiler:he dispatches Mrs. Gorf's ghost by hugging her]].
* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: The most powerful was probably the end of ''Gets a Little Stranger''.

* AccidentalnightmareFuel: Miss Zarves's class.

* ToyShip: The books are full of them. Jason and Allison is probably the most prominent but others include: Paul and Leslie, Dana and John, and Calvin and Bebe. A possible canon example is Mac and Nancy, a girl from another class. She's his friend in the first book but is said to be his girlfriend in the second. It's unknown if that's meant in a romantic sense but he does carry her books.

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: The most powerful was probably the end of ''Gets a Little Stranger''.

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: The most powerful was probably the end of ''Gets a Little Stranger''.
* TastesLikeDiabetes: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in the Chapter "Love and a Dead Rat" where a conversation between Mrs. Jewls and Dameon is so sappy the titular dead rat says "This is getting disgusting!" and walks out of the room.

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: ''Sideways Stories'' gives us three: