The following is a list of Broken Base cases in the Happy Tree Friends fandom.
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General
- In general, the show's community is divided into several groups: Regular fans who enjoy the show for what it is, fans who consider everything related to the show and/or its fanbase as Serious Business, fans who are more interested in character relationships than the show's actual premise, fans who prefer grimdark fan works of the show instead of black comedy ones (this explains the difficulty in finding fan works of the latter kind), fans who are more interested in creating fan characters, fans who only prefer the bloodless side of the show, and the so-called "former fans" (may overlap with trolls). The last of these is in quotation marks because unlike the other former fans that simply moved on and occasionally remember a bit about the show but simply treat it as one of their old interests, the other "former fans" either: 1) Have a huge pride of not liking the show anymore and usually being a jerk to their friends who are still interested (the equivalent would be "avoiding the show like a plague"). 2) They take advantage from knowing the show to search for (mostly) clueless fans to be ridiculed, mock the show and its fanbase, and make parody fanart that are usually based on the first two objectives mentioned before, usually to garner as much backlash as possible.
- What's the actual premise/appeal of the show? Is it the violent blood/gore inflicted on cute animals as a hilarious contrast, or, going by what Kenn said in one of the DVD specials, a pure visual comedy that just so happens to involve blood and gore thus making the graphic violence optional? Fans who love the pure Sugar Bowl side of the show are more than happy to thank fellow HTF fan Nemao for bringing up the latter (does not help that HTF DVDs were not exactly commonplace until most of them got archived online), pretty much shutting down any thoughts on the former.
- The infamous hiatus period. During 2011, Mondo got a lot of flak from the HTF fans for the (formerly unseen on the website) HTF Break shorts which mostly end with "Happy Tree Friends is dead!". Former fans of the show thought the show needed to end to prevent further Seasonal Rot, while other fans would like the show to continue, especially to expand more of Lammy and Mr. Pickels' character, as they only appeared in one episode that time. It even hurts that the Break "Happy New Year" (also an old HTF Break never seen before on the website) promised more new content yet the same year only provides one new, proper episode (and it's a Christmas special).
- The BlurB! episodes. Some fans like the humor and references provided by the captions, especially when the caption goes into Lampshade Hanging regarding the show's/the "BlurB"-ed episode's nature. Others see them as pointless filler and are not worth watching at all.
- Many fans have gravitated towards the TV Series than any other season, with the rest being a borderline case of Stuck in Their Shadow. As a result, the internet series is usually put into a split between fans and detractors alike:
- Do the older episodes actually hold up, or were they boring episodes with little to no substance? Then again, Lumpy was less of a problem when it came to hoarding the spotlight and several oddities in earlier episodes are considered to be Season 1's charm.
- Did the series suffer Seasonal Rot after the TV Series? While a few episodes like "Without a Hitch" are popular with fans, some thought the series had significantly declined at this point, with many citing the gore as progressively stale. Lumpy becoming heavily used and many other characters having little to no episodes about them was especially the nail in the coffin.
- Given its signature comedy, the show's over-the-top violence and enjoyment of punishing the innocent can work against it in some viewers' eyes. In particular, the deaths of Flaky in "Ski Ya, Wouldn't Wanna Be Ya" and Flippy "By The Seat Of Your Pants" had sparked outrage among viewers. Several of Cub, Lumpy, Sniffles, and Petunia's deaths count as well, with "Tongue In Cheek" and "Wishy Washy" infamously being the straw that broke the camel's back. That being said, a few viewers don't seem to mind the occasionally messier episode, with some going on record to prefer them over most other episodes.
- Vote or Die, an event where fans got to vote for a new HTF character. While it seemed like an April Fools' joke at first (as shown in the "fake" results where Lumpy "won" instead), the team later revealed the vote wasn't a joke, with Lammy and Mr. Pickels winning. The decision to confine Truffles to cameos, as a result, has been controversial, to say the least.
- Truffles' Video Bomb Competition. Is this the sign that the creators have finally opened up to adding fan characters in an upcoming episode (albeit only one-time cameo like Truffles himself), allowing the fans to finally see them in the official HTF style, or does this actually mean that Mondo is running out of ideas yet again?
- For that matter, the fact that the voting is based on the number of Facebook "likes" pretty much stirred up the fanbase, as not everyone uses Facebook. The less "social" ones (hurts even more if the character is very well-made) end up very unlikely to reach more than single-digit likes.
- Really Good Unicornius joining the event. The character is an intentionally poorly-drawn unicorn made by Oliver Age 24, who also has a channel on Mondo focusing on "How to Draw" various characters from well-known franchises in the same ugly style. Oliver's ties with Mondo meant he could pretty much take advantage of the Facebook likes due to already gaining exposure from his videos; as a consequence it managed to stay in first place for a long time, leading to many fans feeling like it would be useless to join in. And while some people didn't mind Unicornious, and in fact were hoping to see him getting the "HTF style" treatment (while keeping his Non-Standard Character Design), he looked exactly the same as before in his cameo, causing more outburst.note
- Deadeye Derby being iOS-only. Not everyone has an iPhone/iPad, and the fact that there's no announcement for other smartphone platform ports pretty much screws the poor fans over. It doesn't help that it, like Slap Happy (also iOS-only), cannot be played on the web.
Specific episodes
- "Clause for Concern", which was the only proper episode to air 2011. Fans were glad to see the show finally coming back, but the Bait-and-Switch-y nature of the episode was generally seen as disappointing - the episode is mostly bloodless and the only death is seen as rather uninspired, which makes the episode pretty much "bloodless" except for The Stinger, managed to stir up the fanbase once again. It doesn't help that the only death happening there seems to be rather uninspired. On the other hand, most former fans weren't happy with the announcement of the episode, preferring the show to stay "dead".
- "Breaking Wind". Is the episode genuinely funny, or is it abysmal due to the use of a fart joke? Is the inclusion of a Twilight parody (the book that Splendid is reading) a good mockery of the book/film or massively implying that the creators are actually interested in Twilight? It doesn't help that it has similarity to Craig Moss's film that shares the same name as the episode, as both rely on Toilet Humor and gives a Take That! to Twilight, which are both criticized by viewers.
- "In Over Your Hedge". Some fans found it to be another good Fliqpy episode, one that involved him satisfyingly murder Base-Breaking Character Lumpy while also having a neat extended flashback sequence that showed more of his war days. Other fans however claim the episode felt like a repeat of "Random Acts of Silence", only without Nutty and Sniffles and with Mime being replaced with Lumpy, and see Flippy killing Lumpy as Pandering to the Base to Flippy fans angry that Lumpy is the only character to kill Fliqpy more than once. Other fans also complained how the episode feels significantly shallower than other Flippy episodes (since it only featured one death). In a more meta sense, this episode's divisive reputation is likely attributed to it being billed as the finale for the "Still Alive" package (and quite possibly the last episode in the series for now) despite its anticlimactic nature.
- "Tongue In Cheek" is among the most controversial examples, given it stars The Ants, the show's arguably most hated scrappies, and moves Sniffles closer to The Woobie territory as a result. It's telling when Sniffles' death in this episode is widely considered the worst death in the whole series. That being said, some have come around to liking this episode and defend the ants' actions in this episode.
- The Love Bites short "On My Mind", especially for the shippers. It got to the point when its storyboard was first revealed, one fan was disillusioned enough to think that Giggles is Flaky with a bow, and when the short was finally released, the same fan probably thought "Flippy killed Giggles because Flaky is still his one true love".
- "Wishy Washy" has a mixed response. Depending on who you ask, it's either funny or abysmal, due to its dark humor and suicide joke at the climax. Then there's Petunia's suicide, with fans split on whether the show using suicide as comedy was funny or offensive to people with suicidal thoughts.
- "A Change of Heart" quite firmly splits the fanbase with extreme opinions about it everywhere and surprisingly very little middle ground. Some fans love it for having Disco Bear showing Hidden Depths such as him being an unhealthy eater while others hate it for having little-to-no deaths at all (the only person who died in the episode was Handy.) as well as Lumpy taking a level in jerkass yet again.
- Despite it's massive popularity, there's a vocal amount of people who hate the episode "Out on a Limb", seeing the episode as tasteless, unfunny, and too mean-spirited towards Lumpy.
- A minor one: FatKat's appearance in the HTF Break short "Take Your Seat". Due to his appearance being nearly similar to a typical fan character (doesn't help that part of his head and a little bit of his shirt are the only parts visible), most fans (and former fans) call Mondo out for stealing the character and flame the creator of the supposedly-similar character for having the character featured, while other fans see him as an Ensemble Dark Horse. Others mostly don't care, because the arguing fans are in the wrong anyway (FatKat is the mascot of an animation studio).
Base-Breaking Characters
- Lumpy. Fans either love him for his stupidity providing some of the show's biggest laughs and tendency to get some of the more memorable episodes or hate him for him taking up screentime from the rest of the cast and blame his low intelligence for most of the deaths. The TV season is where he is most divisive, as he frequently took the role of a villain in many episodes, both intentionally and unintentionally.
- Lammy and Mr. Pickels, especially for fans who rooted for Truffles in Vote or Die. Some fans like the addition of two characters, feel their dynamic is interesting and consider Lammy herself as a nice female character additionnote . On the other hand, Lammy's design (apart from her being the only female to wear clothing) and her dynamic with Mr. Pickels is seen as less unique compared to Truffles as well as a poor substitute for Flippy's flipped-out state.
- Pop, his fans see him as a Kindhearted Simpleton and/or Only Sane Man who genuinely cares for his son in a Crapsaccharine World. On the other hand, his detractors deride him for being one of the most neglectful parents in fiction, having his appearances mostly rely on literal dead baby comedy, being so oblivious he comes across as an insufferable Idiot Houdini, and/or causing Spotlight-Stealing Squad whenever he appears.
- Despite his massive popularity, there is a vocal amount of people who dislike Flippy, seeing him as generic, unfunny, and offensive (offensive because the whole reason he turns evil is because he has PTSD) plus they dislike his sadism and the fact he's a Karma Houdini most of the time. Though in fairness, many simply do not like how much fans keep hyping and praising him.
- Toothy. Because of his status as The Everyman, he's often seen as bland, with some going so far to compare him with Cro-Marmot. That being said, plenty of fans have come around to liking Toothy, especially after his first chance in a spotlight in Season 3 since "Eye Candy".
- Petunia. She is loved thanks to her Neat Freak habits and/or cuteness. Petunia's obsessive-compulsive disorder and horrific deaths also makes her sympathetic in many fans' eyes. However, her detractors view her as a shallow copy of Giggles and dislike her behavior towards Disco Bear.
- Splendid is a rather odd case of this. In the show's earlier days he was a massive Ensemble Dark Horse (on the same level as Flippy and Flaky) and practically stole the show whenever he appeared onscreen. However as time went on, Splendid's reputation became divisive (mostly from fans who do not participate in the show's massive Fanon). Fans were fed up by how frequently he got away with his actions and how he can be a petty, selfish, Jerkass at times. Much of the contention stems from "Breaking Wind" where Splendid is at his worst and got away scot-free. In fact some fans found his only onscreen death in "Gems the Breaks" to genuinely satisfying to watch in spite of its Squick-y nature.
- Lifty and Shifty, while certainly not having hatedoms as big as The Ants', still have a mixed response. Some fans find them to be relatable, or otherwise funny and entertaining characters with lots of depth while others find them extremely obnoxious and annoying and just want them off the screen. Then there's Shifty's tendency to leave Lifty behind with fans split on wether or not it's funny or if it makes Shifty come across as a greedy Jerkass.
- Sniffles' popularity has skyrocketed over the years with each appearance, especially since his fans give him a lot of sympathy because of his cruel deaths and battles with the Ants, which eventually resulted in him becoming an Ensemble Dark Horse in an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain way. That being said, some fans also considered him a Spotlight-Stealing Squad alongside Lumpy because of his overexposure, especially as of the TV series.
- The Mole. Quite a few people see him to be repetitive, see his blindness as insensitive, and find him to be a generic but annoying character (given he's in most episodes, yet rarely dies). On the other hand, some fans enjoy his antics and see them as hilarious.
- Disco Bear. Because of the Hidden Depths he showed in the TV series, a good chunk of the fanbase loves him, but since he is sometimes a Jerkass, Disco Bear earned himself a lot of detractors as well. That being said, some fans don't care about him at all, which either lead to or was caused by him being Out of Focus.
- Despite Nutty's huge fanbase, some fans hate him for being a selfish Jerkass, find his obsession with candy to be creepy and think his Screwball Squirrel personality makes him come off as more annoying and unlikable than funny. Despite that, he still has his fair share of fans who enjoy him for his cute appearance, Cloudcuckoolander tendencies and his candy obsession leading to lots of funny moments.
