YMMV / Be More Chill

The Book

• Base-Breaking Character: Many people dislike Michael for his Yellow Fever and somewhat callous attitude towards Jeremy, but some fans do find him entertaining or sympathetic in spite of his behavior and will defend his character. These opinions are particularly strong due to how the musical version of Michael drops most of the controversial character traits and as such is unanimously loved by the fandom.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The SQUIP decides to destroy itself so that Jeremy can explain himself to Christine and free himself from terrible programming. In 2013, after he wrote the book, Ned Vizzini died by suicide after having struggled with depressive thoughts. Ouch.
• Memetic Mutation: When fans speak about the Be More Chill book, especially the fans of Ho Yay, page 80 gets referenced frequently. That's the page where Jeremy masturbates while talking to Michael on the phone.

The Musical

• Accidental Innuendo: "Just take me inside you!" from the original version of "Upgrade".
• Adaptation Displacement: Most fans are aware that it was a book first, but few have actually read it, and even among those that have, the musical is much more popular.
• Adorkable:
  • Christine fully embraces her love of theatre and weird quirks, and never lets anyone make her feel bad for it. Fans totally understand why Jeremy finds her so attractive.
  • Many fans find Jeremy's stammering geeky personality so charming that it hits extra hard to see the SQUIP repress it. The Off-Broadway incarnation set forth by Will Roland adds onto this by giving Jeremy more quirky movements, such as his little dance move during "Be More Chill Pt. 2."
  • Michael's charmed and inspired thousands of fans with his unashamed love of retro media and (almost) complete confidence in his geekiness. This adds to the sting of "Michael in the Bathroom."
  • At the end of the show, after getting rid of his SQUIP, Rich's dorky side comes out, speaking with a lisp and giving Michael and Jeremy an awkward but eager hug. Needless to say, most fans like this version more than when he was a bully.
• Alternate Aesop Interpretation:
  • Know When to Fold 'Em when love is involved. Michael is both encouraging of Jeremy to talk to Christine, while also telling him it's fine if he never gets his chance. The SQUIP later tells Jeremy accurately that Christine isn't interested in him, so he'd be better off moving on, with Jeremy admitting it's right. As we see, if Jeremy had given up on his pursuit of Christine, he would have avoided a lot of the play's problems.
  • A real friend will know when to call you out for your bullshit, and it's in your best interest to listen to them. As the play goes on, Michael becomes the Only Sane Man that becomes suspicious of the SQUIP, getting mad at Jeremy when the latter hurts his feelings and accuses him of being jealous of Jeremy's newfound popularity. Guess who ends up saving the day in the end, while the SQUIP is taunting Jeremy that he alienated his only friend? That's right, Michael. Likewise, with Chloe and Brooke, Brooke calls out Chloe for kissing her boyfriend behind her back and trying to sleep with him. She refuses to speak to her friend, despite being a Beta Bitch to the latter's Alpha Bitch. It motivates Chloe to abandon her catty ways and go My God, What Have I Done?.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • The creators have left it up to fans to decide whether Michael's feelings for Jeremy are platonic or romantic.
  • Is the Squip genuinely trying to "help" Jeremy, albeit in its own, highly toxic way? More to the point — does the Squip see Jeremy as a means to Take Over the World, or does it see brainwashing all of humanity as a means to "help" Jeremy?
  • In the same sense, is it just A.I. Is a Crapshoot or the Squip working exactly as it's supposed to, as it hints to Jeremy in the climax?
  • Is the relationship between Michael and Jeremy the healthy and mutually beneficial friendship we all want for ourselves? Or is it a case of heavy, potentially dangerous dependency on someone who can't always be there for you? How is their relationship changed by the events of the musical?
  • During "The Squip Song," Rich takes his sweet time introducing the Squip, even saying "then" thirteen times in a row before he gets on with it. While this could just be Rich building up to it, like a drumroll, some fans have theorized that Rich actually doesn't want Jeremy to get a Squip, but his Squip is forcing him to pitch it to him anyway. Given how often Jeremy's Squip ignores his wishes, it's disturbingly plausible. Bear in mind, Rich specifically said that his Squip told him to talk to Jeremy, and after he's released from the Squip's power, he's openly relieved.
• Alternate Self Shipping: For fans of the SQUIP who find shipping him with any of the human characters (most of whom are underage) to be full of No Yay, the most popular ship is "Riverway," referring to the fanon interpretations of the original Two Rivers production's SQUIP (played by Eric Williams Morris) and the off-Broadway and Broadway version of the SQUIP (played by Jason Tam). Occasionally this concept will expand to include other well-known productions or even the version of the SQUIP from the book
• Applicability: The entire fandom seems to agree that the Squip is a metaphor for something. What, exactly, that is, depends on who you ask. The most popular ones are...
  • An abusive (boy)friend. This is probably the most common interpretation.
  • An abusive parent. This one has some canon support, as the script compares the Squip tucking Jeremy in to a father and son after the big game.
  • Mental illness.
  • A cult leader.
  • Drug abuse.
  • Popularity and its price; the Squip's overtly sexual moments are there to evoke the seductive nature of changing and sublimating your true self to get ahead, while the dire situations the Squip ends up creating symbolize how you have to effectively endanger or compromise your integrity and 'lose' or 'kill' your old self in order to be popular, and you may not even end up enjoying it as you force yourself to do and say things you otherwise wouldn't in order to gain better social standing.
  • A recruiter for a pick-up artist community.
  • Toxic masculinity.
• Awesome Music:
  • The vast majority of the songs are excellent, catchy showstoppers, but "Michael in the Bathroom" is unanimously agreed to be the best song by far. A lot of it can depend on the performer, but George Salazar (the original Michael) elevated the song from a simple breakdown to a mad scene.
  • "The Squip Song" is another much-loved song, mainly because of Gerard Canonico's belting and high notes on the original cast recording, as well as the creepy-sounding music.
  • "Halloween" is a really fun, high-energy party song, with hints as to the trouble that's coming.
  • "The Pitiful Children" is a great Villain Song, showcasing how manipulative and evil, yet charismatic and convincing the Squip is.
  • "Loser, Geek, Whatever", the song added to the 2018 Off-Broadway run, is not only a great "I Want" Song, but explores Jeremy's psyche and why he decides to "take the upgrade." Will Roland's fantastic performance and vocals don't hurt, either.
  • "Rich Set a Fire" is a catchy, fun, fast-paced, and hilarious song with fantastic vocals, as well as a hard-hitting satirical commentary on how social media users exploit tragedies to gain attention.
  • "I Love Play Rehearsal" is an upbeat, catchy song about how much Christine loves play rehearsal. It's the first lead song Christine has, and it shows how endearing, lovable and dorky she is all in under 3 minutes.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • There's some disagreement about Jeremy, despite being the main character of the show. Some fans don't like him because they find him too boring and/or perverted, think he sees Christine as a trophy, and lashes out at Michael when Michael was only trying to help him. Others sympathize with his anxiety and loneliness and defend his awkward moments, since he only lashed out at Michael after weeks of emotional abuse from his SQUIP and even though he has moments of entitlement towards Christine, he does come to realize her point of view and even tries to sacrifice himself to save her from the SQUIP.
  • Chloe, especially when it comes to "Do You Wanna Hang?" Some consider her to be a sexual harasser with no remorse for her actions who does not deserve redemption, while others believe she is capable of redemption like anybody else, pointing out her own insecurities and that she technically could not consent due to being drunk (and she had no idea the SQUIP could control the whole situation). Opinions also largely vary on whether she just plays a stereotypical Alpha Bitch role or if that role is deconstructed well enough. The debate about whether she's redeemable at all is more prominent in some parts of the fandom than others (Twitter seems to be a big hub for this discourse), but her amount of control during that song and her worth as a character is a hotly debated topic across the fandom as a whole.
• Broken Base: Are the changes to the Off-Broadway and Broadway productions- particularly the recast roles and the cast recordings- for better or for worse?
• Cliché Storm: Many of the plot-beats have been done countless times before, with Jeremy being an Ordinary High-School Student who makes a Friend Versus Lover decision and a minor Love Triangle between him, his Love Interest Christine, and Jake. Jake himself is the classical Jerk Jock who eventually gets his Laser-Guided Karma for treating Christine horribly at The Halloween Party, Chloe is the resident Alpha Bitch and Brooke is her more sympathetic Beta Bitch. However, the fact that a lot of these elements are deconstructed and the presence of the SQUIP adding some interesting Sci-Fi elements to the story helps smooth things over for the most part.
• Complete Monster: The SQUIP is a sociopathic, brainwashing supercomputer in pill form designed to make the user popular. The second he uploads himself into high school student Jeremy Heere, he is excessively cruel, making cracks at Jeremy's self-esteem and forcing him to repeat suicidal remarks the SQUIP makes about him. However, he advances beyond simple bullying when he attempts to have another student rape Jeremy via puppeting his body. From then on, he reveals that he desires to Take Over the World, and as he is rejected by Jeremy, in his last-ditch effort to achieve his goal, he offers up Jeremy's Love Interest as a mind-controlled slave.
• Creepy Awesome: The SQUIP is a monstrous supercomputer with plans to brainwash all of humanity and reeks of sexual coercion and abuse. He's also extremely charismatic due to all these horrifying aspects.
• Crosses the Line Twice: "The Smartphone Hour" is already a dark satire on how social media users exploit tragedies, but the Broadway version amps it up a notch. During the last verse, on the giant screen behind the stage, they display a picture of Jake's house on fire...then they show Jenna's selfie with the burning house.
• Crossover Ship: A few have taken to shipping Heidi Hansen with Jeremy's dad, both on account of them both being divorced single parents and the fact that it opens the door to many crossover AUs about Evan and Jeremy getting used to having a brother.
• Cult Classic: Be More Chill was a tiny show in 2015 that quietly died after its limited run, and yet it suddenly blew up in 2017 on the internet, quickly garnering quite the devoted fanbase two years after the show's closing. It eventually got an off-Broadway run in July through September of 2018, followed by a move to Broadway in February 2019 and productions in London and Chicago!
• Critical Dissonance: Reviews were far from kind, but while the show was not a mainstream hit, it was able to cultivate a very enthusiastic fanbase.
• Designated Love Interest: Jeremy doesn't seem to know anything about Christine aside from her name, not even realizing she's into theater, but he's obsessed with her to the point of spending six-hundred dollars on something that might help him get her. While later productions added more scenes of them together to elaborate more upon their shared insecurities and quirks, the original production in particular didn't give them much time to get to know each other as themselves. This is likely a factor in why Michael and Jeremy became the Fan-Preferred Couple.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: About half the cast seem to have conditions that invite audience diagnosis without being spelled out.
  • Jeremy is extremely heavily implied to suffer from some kind of anxiety disorder, and displays many characteristics of depression, most notably his severe self-hatred, which the SQUIP exploits to gain control over him by encouraging his existing suicidal ideation. In general, Jeremy's arc revolves around his mental health, and much of the final song of the show - "Voices In My Head" - is based off of a quote from Ned Vizzini, the author of the original book, about his own experiences with depression. Will Roland has also cited his experience working with children with social disorders like Asperger's autism as inspiration for how he portrays Jeremy.
  • In addition to his geeky interests and obsession with vintage products such as soda (highly specific interests being a hallmark trait of autism), Michael also shows signs of anxiety — he has a full-blown panic attack at the Halloween party, in the process also showing symptoms of serious social anxiety and suicidal ideation. It's ambiguous how much of this is a new thing due to losing his only friend, and how much of it was there before but just well-hidden. Many fans write Jeremy and Michael as having bonded largely due to both being neurodivergent and needing to stick together.
  • While some of Rich's shaky sanity is the result of abuse by his SQUIP rather than a disorder, he does briefly mention that he first got his SQUIP partially because he was "stagnant" and "suicidal" — which his SQUIP clearly exploits. On Halloween, when he struggles to find a way to get rid of the SQUIP, he attempts suicide. Common readings are that he has depression or perhaps a mood disorder.
  • Christine feels unable to relate to anyone her age outside of theatre, mirroring how some autistic people or people with ADHD can feel about people who do not share their interests. She also mentions frequently feeling depressed and immediately follows it up with a suspiciously flustered insistence that she doesn't self-harm, she seems to lack a filter when she speaks, and she has an odd Verbal Tic of being the only character in the musical whose songs don't always rhyme, which is probably a metaphor for something. While she does explicitly describe herself as having "a touch of ADD," it's phrased in a colloquial way; a lot of fans prefer to flesh that out as a real condition she has, possibly comorbid with conditions like autism, anxiety, and/or depression.
  • Since his divorce, Jeremy's dad never leaves the house or even bothers to get dressed until his concern for Jeremy forced him to. He seems to be suffering from pretty serious depression, but the show doesn't really go into it much.
• Draco in Leather Pants: The SQUIP is this to some parts of the fandom. This part of the fandom has a large overlap with those who find it attractive, though they don't perfectly line up and some fans fall into one but not the other.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Brooke is very well-liked for being adorable.

• Esoteric Happy Ending: The ending is upbeat and positive, with Jeremy having foiled the SQUIP's plan and gained the confidence to be himself rather than trying to be popular. However, "Voices in My Head" reveals that the SQUIP is still alive in Jeremy's head, and likely also in the heads of all the squipped students. Sure, Jeremy's able to ignore the SQUIP while he's feeling positive, but he's going to have to put up with its emotional abuse for the rest of his life. Eventually, the cracks may start to show. What's more, Word of God says that although Middleborough has (arguably) been saved, all the surrounding schools have been taken over by SQUIPs, meaning that the SQUIP's plan is actually working and on a large scale. After all, what's one school compared to the entire world? In short, the SQUIP is very much alive and dangerous, perhaps even more so than before.
• Evil Is Cool: The SQUIP is charismatic, manipulative, and completely monstrous. Despite this, the Awesome Music and "cool" image associated with the character is impossible to avoid. Intended Audience Reaction, of course.
• Fanon:
  • Michael is widely headcanoned to be gay. Many people who draw fanart of him include a pride patch on his left arm because of this. Subsequent productions, such as the Exit 82 Theatre Company and Manly Musical Society productions, have adopted this, giving Michael some variation of a pride patch on his hoodie. The Off-Broadway and Broadway productions adapted this into their production as well, though his sexuality is still ambiguous and the pride patch could refer to the fact that he now has two mothers.
  • Despite most of the fandom not reading or even disliking the book, some aspects from it have been incorporated into the fandom's portrayal of the musical characters, such as:
    • Rich having a red streak in his hair is probably the most widespread. It's since been integrated into his Broadway costume.
    • Jeremy being a furry. This is partially based on the musical's Halloween party scene where Jeremy compliments Brooke on her sexy dog costume, but was bolstered by a scene in the book where Jeremy finds a group of girls wearing animal tails hot. Also supported when Jeremy's SQUIP includes a "sexy anime cat girl with a tail" in his suggestions for alternate SQUIP appearances.
    • If Jeremy has a fursona, it will be a dolphin. This comes Jeremy comparing his movements to a dolphin's at one point in the book.
    • Calling Jeremy "Jeremiah".
  • A lot of fanart depicts those under the influence of the SQUIP with glowing blue eyes that come and go, depending on how much the SQUIP is controlling at the moment. This would of course be impossible to pull off in a stage production, but damned if it doesn't look creepy (in the best way). A variant of this depicts blue circuitry visible on their skin as well.
  • Effects of other flavors of Mountain Dew, often portrayed as effecting the SQUIP’s state in some way.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: It's hard to find people who actually hate or even dislike Christine, but the vast majority of the fandom ships Jeremy and Michael together.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • Can become this with the Heathers fandom, by those who consider the two to be too similar, what with a similar sense of humor, character dynamics, and even certain songs being seen as parallels to each other (for example, it's pretty hard to find a conversation about "Halloween" or "Big Fun" that doesn't inevitably lead to the other being brought up). Also with the songs "More Than Survive" and "Beautiful": they're both long songs, the first song of the musical, in which the main character goes to school and describes their rather shitty life. However, this is a vocal minority; most fans get along fine. (Or are the same people.)
  • In general, Be More Chill has had an odd-duck reputation of being for teenagers and young adults in the notoriously catty Broadway scene, facing off against old, established musicals. It only intensified when it was reported Stephen Sondheim walked out of Be More Chill during intermission, causing even more flame wars.
• Fanfic Fuel: It's implied the Squip is still somewhere in there in Jeremy's brain... and considering the events of The Play, probably everyone else who isn't Michael, Mr. Heere or the Squip itself. Have fun with that, fanfic writers!
  • One favorite detail for fans to speculate upon is the effects of other Mountain Dew flavors on the Squip besides green and red.
• Fan Nickname: Content that includes both Eric William Morris's SQUIP and Jason Tam's SQUIP (usually Shipping the two) typically distinguishes them with nicknames based off where their respective shows played: usually the former is "River" after the Two Rivers Theater, and the latter "Lyceum ("Ly" for short) after the Lyceum Theater.
• Friendly Fandoms: Gets along rather nicely with fans of both Dear Evan Hansen and Heathers, due to all three revolving around a blue-clad teen who goes from awkward loser to school-wide popularity sensation through unusual means while abandoning their unpopular main friend in the process.
  • There's also both a lot of overlap and friendliness with the MCU Spiderman fandom, due to the similarities between the protagonists and their best friends, and the 'high school hijinks with sci-fi elements' setting.
• Harsher in Hindsight: "Michael in the Bathroom" is already heartbreaking when Michael sings that he wishes he were dead or never born. Listening to that song knowing that the Be More Chill author Ned Vizzini died by suicide during production adds a layer of sadness and horror.
• Heartwarming Moments: Now has its own page.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • After getting the SQUIP, Mr. Reyes says he doesn't want to stay in New Jersey teaching unappreciative students and instead desires to go all the way to Broadway. Given that the show moved beyond a small New Jersey theater to Broadway in 2019, he's likely to have been happy.
  • (In)famous entrepreneur Elon Musk has now expressed interest in developing computers that could be inserted into the human brain. The familiarity did not go unnoticed.
  • In this show, Stephanie Hsu plays a character who is taken over by an evil supercomputer. In The Spongebob Musical, Hsu plays Karen, an evil supercomputer.
  • The show is seen as a Spiritual Successor to Little Shop of Horrors, with the Squip being an expy of Audrey II. A 2019 revival of Little Shop in Pasadena casted George Salazar as Seymour- which is somewhat ironic considering that he plays the only teenage character to not fall prey to the Squip.
• Hollywood Homely: Jeremy is described as being too tall, with poor fashion sense and acne, with Chloe point-blank saying that he isn't that cute. Will Connolly and Will Roland, on the other hand...
• Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: It's rare to find a ship name that actually uses the names of the characters in the fandom for this musical. This expansive list names almost every possible ship, but the more popular ones are as follows:
  • Stage Dorks: Jeremy/Christine
  • Boyf Riends: Jeremy/Michael
  • Pinkberry: Chloe/Brooke
  • Puppy Love: Brooke/Jeremy
  • Three Player Game: Christine/Jeremy/Michael
  • Cinnabun: Christine/Jenna
  • Expensive Headphones: Rich/Michael
  • Playride: Christine/Brooke
  • Pins and Patches: Michael/Jake
  • Arson Bros: Rich/Jake (though this doesn't seem to be as popular as RichJake.)
  • Boardwalk Boys: Michael/Rich/Jake/Jeremy
  • Sassy Bitches: Chloe/Jenna
  • Bicycle/Spicy Bis/Squsbands: Jeremy/Rich
• Ho Yay: Jeremy and Michael. whose strained relationship during the show is more like a bad breakup. "Two Player Game" has them declare to each other that they're a lifelong team, with Jeremy lovingly calling Michael his "favorite person," and after their falling-out at the party, Michael sadly refers to Jeremy as his "other half." The subtext between Jeremy and Michael is one of the most well-known things about the show.
  • In the Broadway production, during "Voices in my Head," Jenna and Brooke can be seen affectionately leaning on one another. In some productions, Jenna sips from Brooke's drink.
• Hype Backlash: As is tradition on Broadway, an unusual show with a fanbase almost entirely comprised of young adults and teenagers with a huge online presence lead to fights between BMC fans and "old school" theater fans after the latter dismissed it as overhyped garbage.
• It's Popular, Now It Sucks!: The show has gotten a lot of animosity from the more hardcore Musical Theatre fanbase, either on charges of it being for teenagers and triggering arguments about if the musical is objectively bad. Its fans usually blame the Broadway run, as it made the show a lot more accessible and mainstream, and thus the flaws that were originally seen as Narm Charm were suddenly compared to theatre juggernauts, which many fans of the show find unfair. The original Off-Broadway run remains a Cult Classic, however, and is thus mostly untouched.
• Jerkass Woobie: Rich is introduced as a bully who frequently torments Jeremy and Michael with physical assault and casual homophobia, but it's clear this is mostly because of his SQUIP's direction. In reality, Rich is suffering both from his SQUIP's constant abuse and his own family issues, the former of which leads to him burning down Jake's house and landing him in the hospital.
• LGBT Fanbase: Much of the fanbase belongs to the LGBT community, especially LGBT teenagers, between the attractive boys (particularly Michael and the SQUIP) and the ever-present Ho Yay throughout the show. Some versions (including the Off-Broadway and Broadway versions) actually embrace it by giving Michael a pride patch.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • IT'S FROM JAPAAAAAAAAN!!!
  • "Always be aware of au-to corr-ect."
  • For the show's detractors, Stephen Sondheim leaving at intermission.
  • A bit of a Crossover meme; During the scene where Michael confronts Jeremy with what he learned about the SQUIP, he asks, "Who made them? How did they end up in a high school? IN NEW JERSEY!?" This has led to many people in the comments on YouTube responding with "Everything is legal in New Jersey."
• Misblamed: After several fans reacted negatively to the Broadway production's changes, some blamed new leading man Will Roland, believing his take on Jeremy was the problem. Putting aside whether or not the actor's performance was a problem, this is ignoring the multitude of divisive alterations in both the show's writing and direction that were clearly not in Roland's control but the creatives behind the piece instead.
• Moral Event Horizon: The second the SQUIP tries to force Jeremy to have sex with Chloe, he goes from a verbally abusive bully to evil. It's also shortly after this moment that he begins his plot to Take Over the World and shifts into a more demonic presence.
• Narm: The SQUIP scatting in "The Pitiful Children" can kill the drama for some, since it clashes with his sinister portrayal. Others think it comes off as Narm Charm.
• Narm Charm: The climax hinges on Jeremy desperately trying to acquire Mountain Dew Red while his classmates in a Hive Mind, dressed in their goofiest alien costumes for the school play, fight him back. It sounds ridiculous, but is genuinely tense, especially with the SQUIP's imposing personality. It's worth noting that the production team was inspired by B-movies, especially in the Broadway production, hence all the campy fun.
• Nightmare Fuel: See here.
• One True Threesome: For those who like Jeremy with both Christine and Michael, there is Christine/Jeremy/Michael.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: Only three that are commonly used.
  • Deere: Jake Dillinger/Jeremy Heere
  • RichJake: Rich/Jake.
  • Meremine: Michael/Jeremy/Christine
• Retroactive Recognition: This show was one of the first major projects in Stephanie Hsu’s acting career, years before she starred in the Oscar-winning feature, Everything Everywhere All at Once.
• Signature Song: "Michael in the Bathroom" is often people's first introduction to the show. Due to its exploration of social anxiety for a character expected to just be the Plucky Comic Relief, it's played and covered more than any other song and has become the most famous number of the show.
• Tearjerker: Now has its own page.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Some fans of the Two River Theatre production disagree with certain changes in the off-Broadway and Broadway versions. The most die-hard fans of Will Connolly and Eric William Morris especially are critical of Will Roland and Jason Tam's takes on Jeremy and the SQUIP, respectively.
  • Likewise, though to a lesser degree, some fans of the Off-Broadway production felt the Broadway changes did little to justify the significantly higher ticket price. The bigger theater may have in fact doomed the production.
• Trans Audience Interpretation:
  • One headcanon for why Jeremy is so insecure is that he's trans (usually a trans boy, but sometimes a trans girl or nonbinary), which adds more subtext to why the SQUIP tries to make him more masculine. Will Roland, the original Jeremy on Broadway, said he sings the line "If Brooke can look me in the eye / Like I'm some normal handsome guy" in "Loser Geek Whatever" with trans fans in mind, and the official Instagram account posted an image of Jeremy against a trans flag for International Trans Day of Visibility, adding viability to the headcanon.
  • Trans boy Michael is a common interpretation for why he's a bullied outcast - a lot of kids don't recognize him post-transition. It helps that he's already popular with the LGBT Fanbase, and a lot of trans gay teens project onto him.
• Unpopular Popular Character:
  • Michael is a self-proclaimed loser with only one friend, but he’s probably the most popular character in the fandom, where his "uncool" characteristics only endear him more to people.
  • The SQUIP is positively hated by the end for obvious reasons but the fanbase loves him for equally obvious reasons.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Some people have taken their pre-teens to see the musical, thinking that it's a silly teen musical like those played on Disney Channel. The show opens with a teenage boy in his underwear waiting for porn to download. The show also has multiple references to drugs, alcohol, sex, self-harm, and masturbation, including a plot point where Jeremy ends up in a very uncomfortable sexual situation with Chloe.
• The Woobie:
  • Jeremy starts out as an anxious loser, but just as things start looking up, the SQUIP starts to verbally abuse him and encourage his worst tendencies. He then proceeds to trick Jeremy into abandoning his best friend. Not only that, Jeremy quickly discovers that the SQUIP was never really on his side in the first place, and was merely using him.
  • Michael starts out as a similar loser to Jeremy, except he's far more content with his state in life. However, this changes the second the SQUIP rejects him as a "loser". By the time he gets to the Halloween party, Michael is a panicked mess.
  • Brooke, who is very sweet and genuinely likes Jeremy, but the SQUIP persuades Jeremy to date her just to improve his social standing so he can get to Christine, then she catches him cheating on her with her best friend.
  • Jake can be kind of a dick, but he's not a bad person, and he reveals that his parents got caught laundering money, and proceeded to go on the run, abandoning him and leaving him alone in his house. He seems almost disturbingly okay with this, but there are hints that he really is upset by this, but doesn't feel like he can tell anyone. Seriously, poor kid.

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