History YMMV / Animaniacs

** The Hip Hippos, for what they're worth, can be considered quite progressive. Despite being a married couple in a comedy show, they never play any of the [[AwfulWeddedLife obvious]] [[HenpeckedHusband comedy]] [[ParentingTheHusband marragie]] [[LazyHusband tropes]] and instead portray them both as being mutually loving and respectful towards each other. They are also both equally as flawed as each other as well. Special mention goes towards their first episode "La Behemoth" in which their housekeeper quits due to lack of respect from the Hippos. Whilst most shows at the time would either have the wife doing to work whilst her husband lazes around or have the wife nag the husband into doing the housework, instead it's Flavio (the husband) who volunteers to does the housework with no hint from his wife, whilst Marita (the wife) pitches in later, and they both fail due to their pampered lifestyle.

* TooGoodToLast: While the show itself lasted 99 episodes (which is longer than [[SixtyFiveEpisodeCartoon the average modern cartoon TV series for kids]]), two of its shorts (Minerva Mink and Rita & Runt) got retired. Minerva was [[TooHotForTv too overtly sexual]], and the voice actress playing Rita, Creator/BernadettePeters, was getting too expensive to hire. Though they both made the occasional appearances throughout the show and they came back for the [[WesternAnimation/WakkosWish show's finale]].

** [[WesternAnimation/Animaniacs2020 The 2020 revival]] has been accused of playing too heavily into topical humor, whether it be mocking current societal and political trends or spoofing extremely recent pop culture. This fault can be traced as far back as the Kids' WB era of this iteration, which relied a lot more on parodies of then-modern media like ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'', ''Series/{{Friends}}'', and ''WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}}''. There was also a sudden bump in political jokes that a younger viewer might be lost on, especially compared to the show's premiere season. While the first season certainly wasn't without these (the easiest example being Newt Gingrich becoming Runt's ditzy caretaker in one short). The fact it only began to set in during the show's later years, and the fact that it neither cranked up quite as high nor had as overt of a partisan lean as the reboot chose, means some tend to forget this tidbit. It does deserve mention that even the network executives complained about the show bringing in more adults than children for its audience, which may have been an unintended result of this.

** Im "Astro Buttons," after several shorts of Mindy's strict mom blaming Buttons and yelling at him for things he never did or were out of his control, seeing her be stuck with [[ItMakesSenseInContext countless Mindy clones]] and [[ScrewThisImOutOfHere Buttons leaving her forcing her to deal with them on her own]] is very satisfying.

** After several shorts of Mindy's strict mom blaming Buttons and yelling at him for things he never did or were out of his control, seeing her be stuck with [[ItMakesSenseInContext countless Mindy clones]] and [[ScrewThisImOutOfHere Buttons leaving her forcing her to deal with them on her own]] is very satisfying.

* AngstWhatAngst: Yakko, Wakko, and Dot don't seem to be angry, sad, bitter, or psychologically broken after being locked up in the water tower against their will for a long time.

** Also [[FemaleFelineMaleMutt Rita and Runt]]. Largely due to the fact that their sketch was discontinued after the first season. Rita is popular because many fans find her adorable, plus she has a beautiful singing voice and a cool personality. Then of course, there’s [[BigFriendlyDog Runt]] for being a dopey comic relief and an homage to Rainman. They're also appreciated in general for being a pair of wholesome PlatonicLifePartners.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny:
** In an age where memes have become such a staple of mainstream popular culture that even the least internet-savvy people could quote the popular ones, rather than just cassette tapes traded in standup comedy circles, an episode like "Yes, Always," which recreates a pre-internet meme verbatim, doesn't seem nearly as daring. If anything, it would come off as a BottomOfTheBarrelJoke if done today, when {{whole plot reference}}s and {{shot for shot remake}}s are so common in mainstream comedy that they're considered agonizingly lazy.
** To a lesser extent, the show's {{demographically inappropriate humour}} and {{parental bonus}}es were considered impressive in its day, especially for a children's cartoon. Today, sneaky adult humor is the norm for kids cartoons, and people who have watched shows like ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' and ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' before this one might find it difficult to see what was so cool about these antics.

** Hello Nurse's "No-no-no-no" is an InUniverse example for Yakko.

* AlternativeJokeInterpretation: Why does Yakko believe "conjugate" refers to a sex act in Ms. Flamiel's debut episode? Is it because of conjugal rights, which are the legal rights in relations to sex, or is he confusing it with "consummate" or "copulate"?