* CreatorWorship: Is a huge fan of BobClampett, although he strongly insists that it's important for any artist to have a far wider range of influences than any one director.
* NeverLiveItDown: He has deeply regretted some of the decisions he made in his works, such as his use of ) shaped eyes (which he only meant for the storyboards and never actually wanted them in the final cartoons) as well as many of the mistakes he made in his cartoons, such as one scene of Stimpy's eyes defying proper perspective (which was a sloppy mistake, but "everyone thought it was on purpose") and claiming that many TV cartoons had made "whole styles out of his mistakes."
* ScapegoatCreator: He is largely blamed for the failure of ''RenAndStimpy: [[DarkerAndEdgier Adult]] [[HotterAndSexier Party]] [[RatedMForMoney Cartoon]]'', with fans claiming that he got too much creative freedom on the latter which "ruined" the show--even though John has pointed out that the show still went through ExecutiveMeddling and censorship, forcing him to put in excessive adult humor ala WesternAnimation/SouthPark.