* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3dB0qEcG20 intro theme]] to the original ''VideoGame/TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland'', which is so iconic that it has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BjpCc9Wcb8&t=38s been]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGKjgFBljqc remixed]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hsSHaX6RTQ for]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz4ZYNnHRlQ every game]].
*** The intro theme got ramped up for the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTx1iwf2sGo Special Edition]] combining the old and new, the result simply being amazing!
*** The title screen music sounds awesome [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a324ykKV-7Y no matter what sort of speaker or sound card your computer has]].
*** Of course, if you think ''that's'' cool, you should hear [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEHIwxGA17Y the metal remix.]] Including blending the song with the original [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl Pirates of the Caribbean]] theme song!
** The music for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P56FP-QD2vo the Mêlée Island map]].
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUA3PtkQPIw The SCUMM Bar theme.]]
** The theme for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fICp5FrEgLE Monkey Island itself]].
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnAghYUxLms LeChuck's theme]] is a fan favorite.
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment:
** During the Test of Thievery, Guybrush enters a door, and has a number of bizarre offscreen adventures, including encounters with a tremendous yak wearing wax lips, a rhinoceros, a horde of gophers, a funny little man, and a heavily armed clown. He also picks up items he could not normally pick up and performs actions that are not available to the player.
** The game has a RunningGag phrase "Look behind you, a three-headed monkey!", and at one point, while on Monkey Island, Guybrush encounters an ''actual'' three-headed monkey. It plays no role in the plot, and is never brought up again.
* BrokenBase: The Special Edition, specifically its art style. Many fans found the cartoony character designs too much of a departure from the realistic graphics employed in the original.
** Additionally, of the original releases, which one is the best? Is it the more cartoony pushed-to-its-limits 16-color EGA version? Is it the later 256-color VGA version? Is it the CD version that leaves behind the old MIDI music and simplifies the UI? Is it the Amiga version that makes use of its sound capabilities and looks similar to the VGA version? Nobody really seems to agree which one is the best, and even ''more'' debates stem out of which sound card the game is best played with, some even arguing for something as minimalist as the PC speaker!
* CommonKnowledge: An oft-misremembered fact is that Guybrush and [=LeChuck=] supposedly don't interact until the very end of the game. In fact, [=LeChuck=] interacts with Guybrush ''much'' earlier than that, namely during the sequence where Guybrush is trying to steal the idol from Elaine. However, [=LeChuck's=] disguised as Fester Shinetop during the sequence, which is likely the cause of this confusion.
* FirstInstallmentWins: While many fans will argue that ''[=LeChuck's=] Revenge'' or ''Curse'' is the actual best game in the series, this entry is easily the most iconic, well-remembered, and influential entry in the franchise, with most of its best-known memes being from this game, and nearly all of the subsequent ''Monkey Island'' games being based at least in part on its gameplay and story structure (the major exceptions being ''[=LeChuck's=] Revenge'', which had a more open-ended structure, and ''Tales'', which used an episodic model).
* GoodBadTranslation: The closest Spanish counterpart for the slang ''[[NoYou I am rubber, you are glue]]'' during the [[VolleyingInsults insult swordfighting]] sequence is ''Botellita de Jerez'' (''todo lo que digas será al revés'', everything you said will be reversed). However, it was literally translated as ''Yo soy cola, tú pegamento'', resulting in a very funny phrase that lacks any coherence. It got very popular, becoming an icon of the game and even being preserved in the remake.
* HilariousInHindsight: During the production of the special edition, the team planned to alter the "Buy ''VideoGame/{{Loom}}''" joke due it being dated by a good decade or so at the time of release and ''Loom'' having since gone out of print. They ultimately chose to keep it out of nostalgia...only for the joke to become current again as the special edition ended up being released at the same time ''Loom'' made its debut as a digital release on Steam.
** Creator/GeorgeLucas is a {{Troll}}. Could be this or HarsherInHindsight depending on your feelings towards the man.
* HoYay:
--> '''Guybrush''': Oh, come on, Meathook. You're a big, strong, good-looking guy with a talking tattoo. You can swab my decks any time!
* MemeticMutation: "Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game."[[labelnote:Explanation]]A line from Guybrush used to mock the game's initial high price point, costing up to $80 at MSRP for the CD-ROM version. The quote garnered renewed attention in TheNew10s as a result of escalating backlash towards the increasingly luxurious price points of triple-A video games, especially after Creator/{{Activision}} announced that the highly anticipated ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2'' would cost $60 on both consoles and PC, leading to many more computer games costing $60 as well. Consequently, it became a popular motto for people exhausted with the runaway costs of modern gaming, with some additionally adjusting it for inflation (given that $20 in 1990 is worth more than double that amount in the 2020s).[[/labelnote]]
* MisaimedFandom: The point of the aforementioned "Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game" line was to [[SelfDeprecation riff on the game itself]] for being at least twice as expensive as that when it first launched. There however are people who take Guybrush's advice to heart [[https://fineleatherjackets.net/monkeyinflation (sometimes taking inflation into consideration)]], not helped by the fact that the line lost its original context many years ago. (Even by 1992, the EGA and Platform/AtariST versions of the game [[https://www.mobygames.com/game/289/monkey-island-2-lechucks-revenge/promo/group-55283/image-470633/ were indeed $20]].)
* PortingDisaster: The Platform/SegaCD port of the game not only has the issue of requiring the player to navigate a PC-optimized point and click interface with a controller (which goes every bit as well as you might think), it suffers from annoying amounts of LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading as it constantly stops to get conversation and sound data in the middle of the game. The graphics are also watered down and the game runs annoyingly slow in many places (the SCUMM Bar being a particularly bad offender). They also completely left out the VisibleInvisibility on [=LeChuck's=] ship because the Genesis hardware can't properly handle transparency.
* StrangledByTheRedString: Guybrush and Elaine. They meet once (after he's just broken into and trashed her mansion no less), have a brief conversation, then suddenly the next time they run into each other they're acting like SickeningSweethearts and declaring undying love! Like the rest of the game, the whole thing is played very tongue-in-cheek, complete with a sappy score and the voice actors in the Special Edition giving a melodramatic performance, so most players don't mind.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSong:
** The circus music has a part which sounds like the music [[StandardSnippet typically]] used in circus settings, from ''Entrance of the Gladiators'' by Julius Fučík.
** The love theme resembles ''How Could I Be Such a Fool'' by [[Music/FrankZappa The Mothers of Invention]].