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YMMV / Drake & Josh

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  • Accidental Innuendo: When two cops bring the boys home in "Steered Straight" and want to talk to their parents alone, Walter tells the boys, "Both of you, in the closet!" It Makes Just As Much Sense In Context.
  • Adorkable: Josh is very awkward compared to Drake. He becomes cute and charming in later seasons, but never loses his geeky nature.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • Do Walter and Audrey show signs of being responsible parents by grounding Drake and Josh when they do something terrible? Or are they just stupid based on how they never see Megan for what she is or care about what the boys get put through?
    • Is Drake's stupidity merely a mask so he can focus on his music? Or is he genuinely that stupid? Sometimes episodes provide cases for both.
  • Aluminum Christmas Trees: In "The Bet," Drake quits junk food cold turkey and, as a result, breaks out in a nasty rash. There's a ring of truth to this — making an abrupt change in your diet, even for the better, can initially have unpleasant side effects.
  • Award Snub: Drake Bell fared better at the Kid's Choice Awards than Josh Peck, even though the latter is seen as the favorite of the two after the series' end.
  • Base-Breaking Character:
  • Broken Base:
    • "Josh Is Done" is one of the most well-known episodes due to the mature subject matter involving Drake and Josh becoming estranged from one another. With that said, some people feel that the show tackled the issue very well in one episode, while others believe a multi-episode arc would have been more poignant. Additionally, Drake's Humiliation Conga within the episode has been the subject of debate. Many fans side with Josh's decisions in the episode and feel that they were Laser-Guided Karma towards Drake for how often he would take Josh for granted, while some do feel that Drake's treatment veered towards Karmic Overkill.
    • "The Affair" is another controversial episode. Many fans vilify the ending of the boys being blamed for costing their dad a massive promotion when they had every reason to believe their dad was having an affair. Another group thinks that as bad as the ending was, it also contained some of the funniest scenes in the show's history (namely "I do not control the speed at which lobsters die" and the universally-beloved cumin waffle scene), and that gives it enough merit to not be among the most despised episodes.
  • Catharsis Factor:
  • Creator's Pet: Megan is a massive jerkass who makes her brothers miserable for no reason, yet gets away with everything, infuriating the fandom to the point they legitimately wanted her killed off. For some reason, Dan Schneider was completely unaware of this.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • Crazy Steve was meant as a one-time gag, with the seemingly stoned (and mulleted) Gavin being the recurring weird buddy. Jerry Trainor hit that role so well that he was kept on and was brought on to iCarly as a main character.
    • Mindy also appears to be a textbook example, as she returned some time after her initial appearance and took on a much larger recurring role dating Josh.
    • Trevor, Drake's dim-witted friend, who appeared in one early episode before becoming The Ghost for the rest of the series.
    • Rina, Paul, and Scotty from the first season. Unlike most of Drake's later band members, they had established personalities and had roles in the plots.
      • Gary, Drake's strange drummer in the last season is also well-liked.
  • Fan-Preferred Cut Content: The Stinger of "Pilot" contains a What If? scenario where the Jerk Jock asks what his girlfriend saw in Josh, prompting her to correct him that he had the wrong guy and Drake was the one she dated. This earns Drake a black eye similarly to Josh. Many fans wish this had been left in the episode as it provided Drake Laser-Guided Karma for cowardly letting Josh take the fall for him and being a humorous subversion of Sustained Misunderstanding usually associated with the Dumb Jock.
  • Fanon: Regarding Drake and Josh's father and mother respectively. Consensus is that Josh's mother passed away at some point, hence his discomfort with hospitals. Drake's father is believed to have left his family, and his bitterness over it is why he and Megan refuse to call Walter "Dad."
  • Fanfic Fuel: The whereabouts of Drake's biological father and Josh's biological mother's whereabouts are unknown. Who were they and how did Drake and Josh's respective parents wind up single?
  • Franchise Original Sin: This show was the start of the Dan Schneider trend of using the nerd as the Butt-Monkey. Here, it was better received, as Josh Peck was such a good pratfall with excellent comedic timing, that it was more about not wanting such talent to go to waste. The general narrative of the show gave Josh due credit when he deserved it and condemned characters if they actually inflicted serious damage, such as "Dune Buggy", "Josh Runs Over Oprah", and "Josh Is Done". Later works like iCarly, Victorious, and Sam & Cat were considered less successful as the harsher treatment of the more nerdy characters wasn't regarded as funny and was more so punishing them for existing.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • In 2021, Drake Bell was charged with and pleaded guilty to attempted child endangerment and disseminating material harmful to children following an incident with a 15-year-old girl in Cleveland, Ohio. This has made a few episodes a bit uncomfortable to rewatch.
      • The cold opening of "Number 1 Fan" has Drake and Josh talking about what they love about little kids.
      • There's also the plot of "Number 1 Fan": Wendy, a girl scout of Megan's age, falls in love with Drake and becomes obsessed with him. In the end, to apologize for yelling at Wendy when her obsession went too far, Drake makes a serenade to her. Yeah...
      • "The Gary Grill" has Drake and Josh getting arrested for purchasing stolen Gary Coleman grills. This scene was commonly circulated around the time of Bell's arrest ("Drake? I've read about prison. It ain't fun!").
      • "Megan's New Teacher" has a single line from Josh to Drake; "Do you get pleasure from poisoning the minds of children?"
      • "Paging Dr. Drake" has Drake, a high school student, pretending to be a doctor so that he can flirt with nurses that Josh himself says are in their twenties. Later in the episode, one of the nurses even states that she made out with Drake. The cherry on top is Drake saying, "I would not do well in jail."
      • "Josh Is Done," in which Josh gets sick of Drake's behavior and stops being his friend, leading to a string of misfortune for Drake, spiritually reflects how Josh Peck had been doing quite well after the show finished, while Drake Bell has gotten in multiple controversies, and the two were rather distant toward each other in later years.
    • Likewise, episodes where Drake attracted the attention of women older than him like "Paging Dr. Drake" or "Driver's License" can be this too after the revelation he himself was sexually abused by Brian Peck.
    • Speaking of Brian Peck, Kimmy Robertson, one of Peck's closed friends who worked with him on The Last American Virgin, had a guest-starring in Season 1, Episode 4, "Two Idiots and a Baby", as the woman who said, "Say Mama!". In 2024, it was later revealed that she was one of Peck's supporters when he was arrested, and falsely-accusing Bell of coming on to him and tempting him.
    • The Dune Buggy episode, where most of the humor comes from Drake injuring himself in a bad wreck, becomes this after Drake Bell was severely injured in a car accident during production of the series.
    • In the episode "The Demonator," Josh's crazy WWII vet of a grandpa mistakes Craig and Eric for Germans and repeatedly attacks them. The gag becomes considerably less funny, or funnier a few episodes later when a one-off line by Drake informs us that Craig and Eric are Jewish.
  • He Really Can Act:
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    Josh: I hope you go bald!
    Drake: I hope they cancel Oprah!
    Josh: TAKE THAT BACK!
    • Wendy, the little girl with a crush on Drake from the episode "Number One Fan", is played by a young Alyson Stoner. She would go on to play another member of a scout troop with a crush on the protagonist. Said protagonist also has a sister and a stepbrother!
    • The episode "Two Idiots and a Baby" had Josh babysit a baby named Max. In 2018, Josh Peck had a baby and he was named Max, and he didn't realize it until it was pointed out by fans!
    • In " Mean Teacher", one of the brothers' classmates, played by a young Ben Diskin, tells them that he's joining a cult and will have to eventually shave his head. Eight years later, Diskin would play a character whose future self would both go bald and start a cult, and seven years after that, his childhood friend would be played by Drake Bell, bringing it full circle.
    • During a blooper reel in "Little Diva" Megan asks Josh "Why are you so obsessed with buckets?" when Josh asks why a bucket was on top of his door. Henry Danger would have a character obsessed with bucket.
    • Mrs. Hayfer having Drake suspended over circumstantial evidence in "Honor Council" for putting her car into her classroom becomes this in "The Wedding" when Drake reveals he knows how to unlock a car with a coat hanger because he used one once to fill Mrs. Hayfer's car with squirrels. Depending on when he did that, maybe she did have reason to accuse him.
  • Hollywood Homely: Throughout the show, Josh is constantly being compared to Drake in the looks department. Problem is that, over several years and losing baby fat, Josh looks like a perfectly fine young man, which can make the jokes either confusing or even funnier.
  • Informed Wrongness:
    • In "Two Idiots and a Baby", Drake is painted as being in the wrong for abandoning Josh to babysit Walter's boss's infant son so he can play a gig with his band. The thing is, Drake never actually volunteered for the job in the first place. Josh told Walter he and Drake would do it without even asking Drake first and Drake's band had the gig booked for a long time beforehand. If anything, Josh was wrong for volunteering Drake for the task without his consent.
    • Both Drake and Josh are portrayed as in the wrong for accidentally ruining Walter's chance at a new weatherman job by Walter due to how they treated Walter's new boss, Peggy Sherman, by pouring spaghetti on her. Thing is, they only did that because they assumed she was trying to commit adultery with him, which was made to seem even more likely given how Walter, in an attempt to surprise his family with the new job, did so in ways that made it seem like he was up to no good. Such examples included: Sneaking into the house quietly late at night, ending a phone call when Drake entered the room, making up contradictory excuses for arriving home late, and secretly meeting Peggy in a park. To top it off, Peggy spoke in an ambiguous way that sounded like she was happy to steal away a married man with no concern for his family. If anything, it's Walter who should be held responsible for giving suspicious signals.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Drake. While he might be neglectful, he's hated by his English teacher for no reason, his sister is terrible, and he's been through other crap as well.
  • Memetic Molester: Drake has become one in 2021 as a result of the actor pleading guilty to inappropriate conduct with a minor.
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • "Hello, PAIN!" explanation
    • Drake's "I love this album more than I love myself"◊ statement about Abbey Road has gained cult status as of late, with people Photoshopping in different albums.
    • Editing Drake and Josh into various unlikely scenarios from other series, and somehow Megan is at fault.
    • Getting trapped in the treehouse. It has been transplanted into other situations, such as Minecraft, Kirby, Star Wars, Castlevania, and other franchises. Screenshots of the boys from this episode are also the ones most often used for the meme directly above.
      Josh: ...Drake.
      Drake: What?
      Josh: Where's the doorhole?
      Drake: It goes right there, see? I drew it with the Magic Marker!
      Josh: .....You were supposed to cut it out with the power saw.
      Drake: Dude, I'm gonna!
      Josh: Oh, really?
      Drake: Yes!
      Josh: So go get the power saw!
      Drake: Okay, I will! (walks into the wall where the door's supposed to be, and realizes that they're trapped.) ...I see the problem.
      Josh: OH, DO YA?!
    • "I do not control the speed at which lobsters die", a very strange sentence from Josh that started as an anti-meme, and then spurred its own meme genre (r/SpeedOfLobsters was named from this) where people edit and splice a line to make their punchline.
      • In this Tumblr post, several Tumblr repeatedly spliced the sentence to explain what the gods of Greek mythology do:
        Hades: I do not control the die.
        Thanatos: I do control the die.
        Thanatos again: I control the speed at which lobsters die.
        Poseidon: I control the lobsters.
        Zeus: I do not control the D.
        Hermes: I do the speed.
        Dionysus: I do speed.
        Hermes: I control the post.
        Eris: No control.
    • Crossing over with Ultraman R/B: Slapping the former show's logo on a picture of Drake & Josh, complete with a comment saying "You'll understand if you watched the show" with the show in question varying depending on which group is making the joke.
    • Blaming Megan for anything and everything. Including Josh taking a level in badass in Red Dawn (2012) because he was getting tired of Megan's pranks.
    • "Interesting" explanation
    • "You calling me a liar?"/"I ain't calling you a truther!" If you believe the Internet, people LOVE getting to use this line in real life, always including how badly I Always Wanted to Say That when telling the story online.
  • Nightmare Fuel:
    • Megan can be this on a bad day. Not only is she, as Josh puts it, a "demon", but Miranda Cosgrove can pull off an excellent Slasher Smile.
      Megan: You guys have about 5 seconds to get out of here or else you're both gonna wake up tomorrow morning underwater.
    • Josh's foot in "Paging Dr. Drake"◊ is uncomfortably and realistically bruised and broken.
    • If you're cynophobic, Vicious Tiberius (Season 4, Episode 2) is not for you. Even though it is largely Played for Laughs, Tiberius is quite, like the title suggests, vicious, often shown snarling at the duo.
    • In "Mindy's Back", Josh has a hard time telling Drake that he and Mindy are a couple. And when he does, Drake's head explodes. Luckily, it was only a dream, it had Bloodless Carnage and it was played for laughs.
  • Retroactive Recognition:
  • Second Verse Curse: The theme I Found A Way has a full version. The one in the opening credits is only the minute-long version.
  • Signature Scene:
    • From the episode "Tree House", Drake and Josh getting stuck in a treehouse because Drake forgot to cut out a door hole. The ensuing conversation ("Drake, where's the door hole?") is perhaps the most famous meme from the show.
      Drake: I see the problem.
      Josh: OH DO YA?!
    • The ending of the episode "The Storm". When the whole cast is left with nothing to do at Drake and Josh's house because of the storm, Helen encourages everyone to sing "We Will Rock You" by Queen, which replaces the ending theme song. This used to be the most iconic scene of the series at the time, but other memetic episodes like "Tree House" have since taken its place (though it is still voted as one of the best episodes).
    • A scene from "Josh Runs Into Oprah", in which Josh runs over Oprah with his car.
    • Josh's, and later Drake's, breakdown in "Josh Is Done". Particularly, when Drake Bell was convicted of attempted child endangerment in 2021, permanently souring the relationship between them. This made the whole episode Harsher in Hindsight.
    • The cumin waffle scene which is often listed as the funniest moment of the show.
  • Special Effects Failure:
    • The fire in "We're Married" during Drake and Yooka's wedding is quite clearly CGI. And not very convincing.
    • At the end of "The Bet", everyone is a victim of having to dye their hair pink. Except they're all wearing wigs (Drake is wearing one in-universe, so he's off the hook).
  • Squick:
    • Somewhat In-Universe in the episode "Helicopter". Josh asks Audrey what she's doing in the kitchen and she says she's boiling underwear that Walter bought second-hand because she thinks buying second-hand underwear is gross. A few minutes later turns into full-squick when they both leave and Walter comes in, thinking it's something Audrey's cooking, and tastes it.
    • In the episode “Movie Theater” a plumber takes out what appears to be a pork chop out of the kitchen drain pipe and nibbles on it, much to the boys' disgust.
  • Take That, Scrappy!: A couple of examples with Megan:
    • In "Movie Job", she gets traumatized by a horror movie she blackmails Drake into letting her see.
      Megan: No! Don't touch the drain. There are monsters in there! Ahhh!
      Josh: Yeah, good call to let her see that movie.
    • In "Treehouse", she gets blamed for the duo accidentally blowing the treehouse up and is forced to miss her friend's birthday party because of it. Walter and Audrey take the duo's side over hers for once.
      Megan: But I'll miss Janie's birthday party. (to the duo) Tell them it wasn't my fault.
      Drake: Ooh-hoo. Sorry.
      Josh: Too bad, little girl.
    • Another small win: Megan finds that one of Drake's friends was wearing one of her shirts since the friend insisted on wearing one that had a panda. Megan was so grossed out at this that she did not bother going through revenge. Instead, she just lets him have the shirt, but tells him to burn the shirt after they are done.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Walter and Audrey in "Steered Straight". We're supposed to side with them when Drake and Josh get caught using fake IDs to get into a club, but the way they go about this is rather questionable. They sign the two up for "The Steered Straight Program", which shows children and teenagers what it's like to get arrested. While punishing them for the false ID cards is understandable, the parents also mention the Gary Grill incident, burning down their neighbor's kid's treehouse, and Josh's speeding ticket. In the former incident the duo was blameless (they didn't know that the grills were stolen (they also ended up being arrested and having to have their innocence proven, which makes the whole "Steered Straight" program seem unnecessary since they already know what it's like to be arrested)) while duo already served their punishment for the latter two incidents (burning down the treehouse was an accident and they tried to rebuild it, while Josh's speeding ticket had already been paid off). But the parents' plan backfires when, on the way to the program, the cop stops at a nearby gas station and a real criminal hijacks the car, taking the two boys with him. In reality, Blaze would've hurt the boys or, worse, had them both killed. At the end, only Walter ends up getting Laser-Guided Karma when he's forced to miss his date, handcuffed by his own sons, and shoved into a closet, while Audrey ends up being a Karma Houdini. When the boys explain their situation, she remarks, "Well, how were we supposed to know you were going to get tangled up with real criminals?", indicating she shows little to no remorse and only displays concern for Walter when the duo realize that they forgot that they shoved him in a closet.
  • Unpopular Popular Character: While Josh is regularly mistreated by almost everyone, he is nevertheless the funniest and most sympathetic character in the show. His dad Walter also counts for the same reason; Walter is an even bigger Butt-Monkey than Josh is.
  • The Woobie:
    • Josh. Drake takes advantage of him, Megan abuses him for her amusement, and he generally has bad luck. Later seasons did not help at all.
    • Walter. You can't help but feel sorry for everything that happens to him: Megan constantly disrespects him, his own son and step-son treat him as inferior, and the world seems to just hate him. The only one who seems to like him is Audrey, but even she treats him like crap at times. He's constantly compared to Bruce Winchell, who's considered a better weatherman than he is (and is made fun of repeatedly by his children because of his vain attempts to be better than Bruce) and even Audrey shows more interest in Bruce as well.

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