* {{Anvilicious}}: Subverted/parodied. In one episode, after Smart [[ItMakesSenseInContext blew up the bad guy with a cigarette]], 99 ponders whether or not Control's methods are [[NotSoDifferent any better than those of KAOS]]. Max's response?
--> "What are you talking about, 99? We have to shoot and kill and destroy. We represent everything that's wholesome and good in the world."
* EarWorm: [[InstrumentalThemeTune Da da daaa, DAA! Da da daaaaa, DA!...]]
* FairForItsDay: The episode "Washington 4, Indians 3" is rather cringeworthy by today's standards. However, it supports the Native Americans and shows understanding of their situation, if not their culture. [[spoiler: In the end, Max agrees that the White House should be attacked.]]
* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The series was and still is popular in Mexico, thanks to the excellent dubbing work of the almost all the Mexican voice cast, to the grade that Maxwell Smart's Mexican VA, Jorge "el Tata" Arvizu, reprised his role as Smart in the Mexican Spanish dub of the 2008 movie.
* HilariousInHindsight: In "The Impossible Mission," Max gets his assignment in the form of a tape recording from the Chief, which ends with the warning, "[[InspectorGadget This tape will self-destruct]]."
* MemeticMutation: Pretty much every CatchPhrase the show brought us.
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: 99 giving her kidnapper a black eye and effortlessly escaping from her cell undetected in "And Only Two 99."
* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: The Cold War was often about this insane and stupid.
* WeirdAlEffect: The TV series parodied other spy shows airing at the time, such as ''TheManFromUNCLE'', ''ISpy'' and ''Series/TheAvengers'', but has been in reruns so long that most people assume it to be a JamesBond parody.
* WhatAnIdiot: In TheMovie, just before the skydiving sequence, when 99 discovers that Max has dropped out of the plane without a chute, she suits up, and goes after him... Leaving behind the second parachute. TheDragon takes advantage of this lapse of judgment.
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