Line #9 YMMV/MortadeloYFilemon


1	!!Comic book:
2	* BrokenBase: The comics from TheNineties that came after Ibañez got the series' rights back from the 87-90s era. Some people believe that they continued [[SeasonalRot the decrease in quality]] that started on the 87-90s era and would continue on the 2000s forwards, thanks to introducing a lot of the series’ most common criticisms such as the {{Recycled Script}}s, the DemographicallyInappropriateHumor or the RippedFromTheHeadlines premises, but some others defend them as an improvement from the 87-90s comics, believing them to still have some creative plots and gags, and that the aforementioned criticisms were used carefully and [[FranchiseOriginalSin way better than they'd be from the 2000s forward]].
3	* DesignatedVillain: The biggest flaw in "Objetivo: Eliminar al Rana" ("Objective: Eliminate the Frog"). The titular characters are told by the Súper to become TheMole in Rana's organization and kill him before Rana kills the Súper first. However, Rana [[AffablyEvil always treats the titular characters with respect]], with even Filemón pointing out that he pays very well (in stark contrast with [[BadBoss the Súper]]), and he's never shown to be doing anything evil apart from trying to kill the Súper (and the exact reason for such harmful desire is never explained) until the very last chapter where he tries to kill Mortadelo and Filemón as well (and that's ''only'' after he's heard they're trying to kill ''him'', so it would count as self-defense). This was so egregious that, when "El Tirano" ("The Tyrant"), another story which could be considered a remake of the aforementioned story, was released much later, this time Ibañez made sure to clearly show the antagonist as a monster.
4	* EnsembleDarkHorse:
5	** Irma was only in the series for exactly three years (1987-1990), but that amount of time was enough for her to become one of the most memorable secondary characters in ''Mortadelo y Filemón'', to the point people who don't follow closely the series are often unaware that she is not a part of the cast anymore. She was also brought back for the 2014 CGI movie despite having been absent from both live action films.
6	** Despite being just a sporadic character from an ancient timeframe, Bestiájez is exceptionally well remembered in popular culture, probably because the 1994 animated series adapted several of the chapters where he appeared and made him an ever-present force in the TIA. In fact, considering this was the first, only and last time he appeared in an adaptation (and that he had disappeared from the comics much before), it is a feat that people still remember him so well.
7	* FranchiseZombie: The series has been accused of this since roughly the early 2000's.
8	* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff:
9	** Germany was the country where the series (known as ''Clever & Smart'') got its biggest sales, second only to Spain, and the margin is pretty narrow. One of their best stories is set in Germany, with Mortadelo and Filemón going all around the country in their mission (and successfully crossing the Berlin Wall twice, although those parts were replaced with something else in the German edition). The series had a period of NoExportForYou, but another publisher took up the slack to publish the series in Germany. The new publication actually is vastly superior to the first one, since that one suffered from a bad translation and sloppy work, and its sales right away proved the series is still highly popular in Germany.
10	** And in Denmark (as ''Flip & Flop''). Ibañez even made a story set in Copenhagen in honor of his Danish fans, featuring the Little Mermaid Statue as a main character.
11	* GrowingTheBeard: The comic was an entertaining weekly strip with the traditional few-panels-and-punchline formula, but it wasn't until their first full book, ''ComicBook/ElSulfatoAtomico'', that the now standard supporting cast appeared, allowing for deeper storylines and better interactions for the protagonist duo. Ibáñez's drawing style also evolved notably, imitating that of FrancoBelgianComics.
12	* HarsherInHindsight: The last panel of "El 35 Aniversario" ("The 35th Anniversary") released in 1992 infamously shows in the background a plane crashed into one of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.
13	* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: "Chernobil… ¡que cuchitril!" ("Chernobyl… what a hovel!") features a rare example of this in the series when Mortadelo and Filemón smell the reactor’s gas that turns people into killing beasts and try to [[WithFriendsLikeThese deliberately]] kill each other until they fall into a muddy puddle that reverses the effects, makes them realize that they were trying to murder their life partners, [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther and decide to hug each other]]… [[BaitTheDog only to realize that they just stole from each other]]. But they do return their things immediately, so the scene still comes off as sweet.
14	** The album also has a surprisingly happy ending where Mortadelo and Filemón manage to connect the muddy puddle to the reactor through tubes so that it now causes for everyone to become friendly and peaceful, including even Israelis with Palestinians and Barça fans with Real Madrid fans, and the newspapers have for the first time in the series' history nothing but good news about Chernobyl being now a "friendship paradise".
15	* MagnificentBastard:
16	** "ComicBook/ChapeauElEsmirriau" and "[[ComicBook/VenganzaCincuentona ¡Venganza cincuentona!]]": [[DastardlyDapperDerby Chapeau el "Esmirriau"]] is a criminal thief who stands out as one of Mortadelo and Filemón's most tenacious enemies thanks to his big bowler hat filled with [[HyperspaceArsenal mechanical gadgets of any kind]]. After stealing from them an ancient Egyptian coin by making a hole in their wall and safe, Chapeau evades capture throughout the story using the large amount of tools in his hat that range from explosives, to mechanical arms, to even living animals, with him being able to [[SuperReflexes activate the one he needs in the exact situation in an instant]]. Even when they managed to take his hat from him, [[CrazyPrepared he just donned another one]]. Many years after his defeat, he would [[VillainTeamUp work with many other previous villains]] in the series to claim revenge on Mortadelo and Filemón, while still using his hat's various devices to end them.
17	** "[[ComicBook/LaBandaDeLosGuiris La Banda de los Guiris]]": [[YellowPeril The unnamed Chinese criminal]] stands out as the most clever and scheming member of the titular band thanks to his [[TheTrickster large array of tricks]], as he fools several civilians with traps such as a camera [[ExtendoBoxingGlove that deploys a punching glove]] when used or a fake cockroach that when stomped makes a wall fall on the victim in order to mug them once they're KO. When Mortadelo and Filemón attempt to arrest him, he uses many techniques such as a fake arm connected to the inside of a streetlight or dressing a cactus like himself to avoid them, while once managing to make an attempt to tie him end with the duo tied together instead.
18	* SeasonalRot: [[BrokenBase Depending on who you ask]], this has been going on since either [[TheEighties the late '80s]] or [[TurnOfTheMillennium the early 2000s]], though very occasionally a well-liked album still appears (''La Sirenita'' is one notorious example).
19	* UnintentionalPeriodPiece:
20	** Most of the stories released in the 21st century could be considered this, as they tend to be themed after an important event happening at the time.
21	*** A notable example from TheNineties, before the aforementioned trend started, is "El quinto centenario" ("The fifth centenary"). It's themed, as its name suggests, after the fifth centenary of the Discovery of America, with the protagonists time-travelling to join Christopher Columbus' crew. ''Many'' jokes are lost to modern readers. To start with, most important characters in the past are drawn like important politicians from the year the comic was released. Some characters were drawn like politicians who would still be recognizable or relevant years later (such as future Prime Minister José María Aznar or Cuban leader Fidel Castro), others... not so much (even the then-Prime Minister Felipe González, still known nowadays, can be hard to recognize due to how he's drawn). The story ends with a parody of the 1992 Universal Exposición of Seville which, as a reference to a one-time event which only lasted 6 months and was located in a single city, is as accessible to modern readers as you would expect.
22	** Due to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic postponing 2020's Japanese UsefulNotes/OlympicGames to 2021, the ''Tokyo 2020'' album released in 2020 can be seen this way, which was lampshaded in some re-releases during the year it was released.
23	* ValuesDissonance:
24	** Most non-white characters are drawn and speak like in a 1930s cartoon or wartime caricatures (particularly blatant in Chinese people who eat [[YouNoTakeCandle flied lice]]).
25	** There are some light puns on characters of color, always PlayedForLaughs, which can be particularly ugly nowadays.
26	*** In some stories, black athletes' sweat is black. A particular joke on a group of cyclists said: "This one is red with anger, this one is green with envy, this one is yellow with liver problems, this one is black with... well, with his being from Tanzania, obviously..."
27	*** In an old short story, Mortadelo and Filemón are asked to escort a young African prince back to his country. When a stewardess in a plane asks Mortadelo, "Are you traveling with a boy of color?", Mortadelo calmly answers, "It depends. Which color?".
28	** In some occasions, the racism is actual in-universe, as in the album of the 1988 Olympics, where Mortadelo refers to their hotel's Korean receptionist by various racist nicknames, such as "Music/YellowSubmarine". Needlessly to say, you wouldn't see this again in 21st century albums... until ''Tokyo 2020'', which has received infamy from modern audiences.
29	** The aforementioned ''Tokyo 2020'' album shows the Congolese team being composed by black men resembling gorillas, seemingly leaving ambiguous whether they are men who happen to resemble apes, actual gorillas stuffed into their uniforms, or some kind of hybrids. The gag received infamy by many, with many speculating that Ibáñez might be now deliberately trying to offend people.
30	* ValuesResonance:
31	** In the comic ''El Racista'', Mortadelo and Filemón get a new supervisor who's so blatantly racist that he assigns all non-white agents to hopeless suicide missions which are guaranteed to fail, so he can fire them afterwards for being useless. Mortadelo and Filemón are sent to help them and prevent their missions from failing. In the end, they hype up the non-white agents so much that the supervisor's superior chooses to kick the racist supervisor out... and demotes all white personnel for being so clearly inferior. This could be considered prescient, given those views' relevance in the culture wars of TheNewTens.
32	** In an album taking place in New York City, attempts of Filemón and Mortadelo to investigate Harlem and locate a suspected terrorist constantly end with them beaten by various locals (often portrayed as big, muscular, easy-to-anger {{Scary Black M\|an}}en) who seem to have white guys as a [[BerserkButton target for their wrath]]. ''However'', when information the two agents finally get their suspect, it turns out that their information about about a bomb was wrong. His "bomb" was evidence about political corruption, and how money supposedly going into urban development ended up in the wrong hands.
33
34	!!Animated series:
35	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: In the animated series's episode "La venganza de Tengo-Pis", equivalent to the comic book "El premio No-Vel", Filemón accidentally squashes a policeman's nose between two bricks (ItMakesSenseInContext), so the cop starts hitting him with his nightstick. This happens just like the comic book, in which they would cut to another scene just after, but the series deviates from the source material [[https://www.facebook.com/groups/821506796140965/posts/938898671068443/ by adding a strange scene]]. Seeing Filemón being defenselessly beaten, Mortadelo turns into a dog and tries to disarm the cop, managing to free his partner; the two TIA agents then attack the policeman, getting the upper hand by pulling his ear and flattened nose, and they stretch and stretch them (with the poor guy screaming in pain in a truly ''creepy'' way) until an explosion fills the camera and it cuts to Mortadelo and Filemón laughing. The incident is never expanded or mentioned again, and the viewer only gets the gruesome implication, rather out of context for the series's level of violence, that they ripped out his ear and nose or something worse.
36	* CantUnHearIt: The voices from this series, which were personally selected by Ibáñez himself, are basically what most fans of the comics hear in their heads when they read the comics. Both Benito Pocino and Edu Soto, Mortadelo's actors from the live action films, were very noticeably trying to imitate Enric Cusí's animated performance as the character, and the introduction of an entirely new voice cast in the CGI film was something many, many lamented and complained about.
37	* CultClassic: Fondly remembered by fans, as well as often put as an example of an excellent adaptation by itself.
38
39	!!Movies:
40	* BrokenBase:
41	** The 2003 live-action film. Massively successful as it was, fans and critics alike were (and still are) divided about how good of an adaptation it was in reality, pitting the film's excellent casting and recreation of the series' universe against the frequent perception that the story lacked the spirit of the comics and had questionable choices all over it. The universal complaint was the over-abundance of [[GrossoutShow crude, obscene dramedy]], which is typical of Spanish comedy films but contrasts heavily with the comics' more surreal and quirky style of humor, as well as the controversial decision to make Filemón an [[AdaptationalJerkass unsympathetic quasi-villain]], which some saw as an unnecessary and mean-spirited copout on the original character.
42	** The 2008 sequel was produced with the above sentiment on mind, abandoning the crass comedy of the previous and adhering much more closely to the style of the comics, but although this was appreciated, it received in turn complaints that it was less flashy and unique than the first (it was also less successful, though this might have a lot to do with the novelty of the characters on the big screen having already passed, as well as the controversial replacement of Benito Pocino as Mortadelo). This is speculated to be one of the reasons why Guillermo Fesser, director of the first and third installments, chose to ditch the live action for the latter and produce it entirely on CGI.
43	* MemeticMutation:
44	** In April 2022, coinciding with a television broadcast of the 2014 CGI movie, memes of the villain Tronchamulas attempting to do "El aquello" to Filemón became viral in the Spanish community.
45	** The song "Mira esta cosita" sung by the villain Jimmy El Cachondo also became a meme in the Spanish-speaking meme community.
46	* ReplacementScrappy: Edu Soto replaced Benito Pocino as Mortadelo due to the sequel's TroubledProduction, but this choice proved divisive anyways. Unlike many examples of the trope, people conceded Soto actually did a pretty good job considering all the ToughActToFollow, but his take on the character was still judged as very inferior to the previous.
47	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: As mentioned above, the first live-action film suffered of this. Diehards felt that, while the movie showed a real effort to imitate the series' most famous elements, its story was actually a very cynical take on ''M&F'' spiced up with a ton of unfamiliar profanity and Spanish TV humor. There was also the impression that while the comics are known for being enjoyable by people of all ages, the film instead intended to be an exclusively adult product that aimed to appeal more to indy comedy lovers than the comics' own fans.
48	* WinBackTheCrowd: After the mixed reception of the live-action movies and the noted decrease in quality of the comics, the 2014 animated movie managed to be acclaimed by critics and fans alike as a return to form and the best thing to happen to the franchise in years.

Context YMMV / MortadeloYFilemon