YMMV / LazyTown

• Accidental Innuendo:
  • The scene during "Master of Disguise" where Robbie sneaks up on Stingy, an 7 year old boy, while singing "You walk right by me, not knowing that I'm slimy!" complete with a creepy predator-esque expression on his face.
  • Ms. Busybody gets a face full of sunscreen in "Sportacus Saves the Toys" when the Mayor angrily slams his fist on the bottle.
  • MMM MMMM Creamy!
  • "What's wrong, kids?! Never seen a giant banana before?!"
  • This scene with Stingy was creepy enough as is without the line "I'll watch you for a long time."
  • In "New Kid in Town", Ziggy tells Robbie about a rock ^note as in stone, not music festival where he'll get to lift heavy rocks, and asks if he's coming too. Robbie responds that he already lifted some — Ziggy takes at look at him and wonders how he'd be capable of such strength. However, the angle makes it look like Ziggy is staring at Robbie's crotch, which is not helped by his shocked expression, Robbie's embarassed expression nor the "boing" sound audible on the background.
• Adaptation Displacement: While some people know that LazyTown was based on a play and its sequel, very few people have heard of the original children's book the first play was based on, released in 1991.
• Adorkable: While Sportacus is conventionally attractive, well-muscled and very fitness-oriented, many fans consider him adorkable due to his constant optimism, boyish over-excitement, hopeless naiveté and awkward English. His baby-blue eyes and cheesy grin only help the matter.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • An insane amount of these center around Robbie Rotten.
    • A popular trope in fanfiction is that Robbie is Obfuscating Stupidity to some degree and is much more dangerous than the show usually implies, usually involving his implied magic talents and how it wouldn't be fun to get rid of Sportacus too easily, or is just too lazy to properly finish things.
    • According to this thread, Robbie Rotten is a Tragic Hero, as the series actually takes place After the End and his goal to keep the kids inside is actually to protect them from radiation. Sort of Jossed in "Sportacus Saves The Toys" when Sportacus visits France and China. Both countries seem to be fine.
    • The fandom is known for its interpretations of character backstories. Fanfiction writers often give Robbie Rotten a tragic past. A few diehards have created interpretations of the mythical "Number Nine", mentioned only in one episode. A lot of fan theories revolve around Nine being Sportacus' father, or being evil and glamouring the whole town.
    • This article argues that Robbie Rotten is the Only Sane Man and that trying to let children play and eat sweets is actually preferable to Sportacus' enforcement of brutal physical torture and diet of seeds.
    • Another fan theory suggests that Robbie Rotten was one of the former superheroes of LazyTown, who gave up because he was frustrated with the kids reverting back to their old ways every time (that is, until Sportacus came along), so he just gave up and encouraged them to be lazy out of spite whilst being the town's villain for his own amusement. A theory similar to this one poses that Robbie was one of the original heroes, before Sportacus (ten) and the mysterious Number Nine; after all, the first of the heroes would be Number One. A third theory suggests that Robbie successfully defeated all the previous Sportacuses given how LazyTown used to be a good place to live, but in the first episode it's barely hanging on. The show's head writer commented on the theories and liked them, suggesting joke theories that the series was all just a dream of Stingy's and the Mayor was on drugs.
    • Stefan Karl did a Reddit AMA in 2016. One question was "Way deep down inside, what does Robbie really think about the residents of LazyTown?" Stefan's response? "I wish I could be their friend." He later clarified that Robbie thought about it in a selfish manner, but the implication deepens his character significantly. Stefán had previously stated in an Icelandic-language interview seven years earlier that he didn't see Robbie as a villain, believing Sportacus would be long dead if this was the case.
  • Why does Sportacus become lethargic when he eats sugar? Is it because he's not human (whether an elf like in the plays or something else entirely) and his species always reacts that way to sugar? Is it because his body doesn't recognise sugar due to how infrequently he eats it? Or is he diabetic?
• Angst? What Angst?:
  • The citizens of LazyTown are pretty unconcerned by the closed businesses, parental neglect, and bumbling mayor manning the helm.
  • Sportacus seems awfully cheerful for someone who protects an entire town alone, and various episodes establish that he deals with everything from cats stuck in trees to natural disasters. Robbie Rotten's constant schemes don't help. Possibly justified if his implied elven nature gives him enhanced physical and psychological capabilities.
• Anvilicious: The show is very in-your-face about its message on health, with the villain portrayed as lazy and the hero portrayed as active (and sugar making him lethargic) and fruit and vegetables being referred to as "sports candy" and Robbie Rotten having an irrational hatred for them.
• Delusion Conclusion: As a way to explain why Stephanie, Sportacus and Robbie Rotten were the only characters to be played by live actors while the rest were puppets, some people theorized that the show was just the invention of a bed-ridden Stephanie's head who was suffering from Anemia, with Robbie and Sportacus actually being her older brothers acting out both their roles and the puppets as a way to cheer her up and distract her from her pain.
• Do Not Do This Cool Thing:
  • Obviously, we shouldn't overindulge on junk food, but the junk food that Robbie (and Ziggy) eats looks so darn appetizing.
  • Pixel's love for technology is portrayed as a vice. However, not only do his games look fun to play and his inventions look fun and/or useful, his technology actually saves the day in "Sportacus Who?" (where Sportacus only gets his memories back due to Pixel's digital files).
• Draco in Leather Pants: While Robbie Rotten is a fairly harmless villain who's a Friendly Enemy at times and sometimes can feel guilty for his actions, many fanfics play up his softer side, discount his more malicious moments, have him be Not Evil, Just Misunderstood, or Trapped in Villainy to some degree, when by all accounts he's a Card-Carrying Villain in canon who can be nice in one episode and nasty the next.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • The mysterious Number Nine who protected the town before Sportacus came along. The only time his existence is even acknowledged is in three lines of dialogue in the pilot, but as seen below in Fan Fic Fuel, the character has exploded in popularity among fans of the series who are fascinated by the entire implied mythology that the reference seems to represent. Many fans love crafting their own theories and explanations for who Number Nine was and why he left.
  • Rottenella was a ballerina toy brought to life in one episode and didn't get any speaking lines, but she's a popular character in fan art and fanfiction, sometimes acting as Robbie or Glanni's daughter.
  • Chef Pablo Fantastico was another one-shot character who gained a large following, helped by his Large Ham performance and the inherent subtext of his passion and love-filled cooking style and vowing to cook for Sportacus when he helps save the day.
• Even Better Sequel: While both of the original Latibær plays are well-received, the latter, Glanni Glæpur Í Latabæ, is generally seen as an improvement over Áfram Latibær, due to it having more of a plot, having more stylized sets and costumes, and being the introduction of fan-favorite character Glanni Glæpur/Robbie Rotten.
• Evil Is Cool: Well, "evil" is maybe too strong a word, but Robbie Rotten is far and away the most popular of the main cast.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • Character backstories are popular candidates, as mentioned above.
  • The mysterious Number Nine that's mentioned in the first episode, along with the implied One through Eight. It's a common theory among many writers that Robbie was Number One.
  • The island in the North Sea (customs, technology, inhabitants, etc.) that Number Nine - and possibly Sportacus - is said to come from.
  • Who are Stephanie’s parents and why hasn’t she returned to them?
• Fandom-Specific Plot: Many, many fics give Robbie Rotten a bad history with a villainous Number Nine. Other common plots revolve around the implied magic Robbie and Sportacus have, deriving from their original play selves. Stories set after the show ends usually have Stephanie or Ziggy as Sportacus 11, with Trixie or Stingy as the town villain.
• Fanon:
  • It's popular in fanfiction to give Robbie some sort of magical heritage to go with Sportacus's (implied) elven heritage. Making Robbie at least part fae is usually the go-to suggestion.
  • It's also fairly common to make the original incarnations of Sportacus and Robbie—Íþróttaálfurinn and Glanni Glæpur respectively—some sort of relative to the more well known incarnations-father, brother, cousin, what have you.
    • Others see them as living in an Alternate Universe a la Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension, especially considering the similarities between Robbie and Dr. Doofenshmirtz.
  • Fanartists, meanwhile, have collectively decided that Sportacus has blond, curly/wavy hair (not too unlike Scheving's natural hair) under that hat of his-despite the fact that what little hair that's seen and the fact that his second actor is a natural brunette.
  • The existence of Number Nine and potential backstory for the show is often explored. Four common plots that turn up are him being Sportacus's father, that Number Nine went too far in making sure kids stayed active, that he was downright evil and dangerous, or that he was nice but Robbie successfully drove him out of town before the series began.
  • Since Stephanie has no spoken last name, some have decided that she shares her uncle's last name, "Meanswell", since he is her only known relative. Word of God claims that they were trying to give her the surname, "Sparkles" during the development of the show.
  • Fanfics where Sportacus, Robbie or another character (usually Trixie or Stingy) is transgender have become increasingly popular, with many citing it as a personal headcanon.
• Fanon Discontinuity:
  • Some fans like to ignore the third and fourth seasons, which had a huge gap in between LazyTown Extra and the second season and saw some drastic changes in the show; “Robbie’s Dream Team”^note the episode with “We Are Number One” and "The First Day of Summer"^note Robbie's A Day in the Limelight episode and the one with the ice cream meme being exceptions.
  • Many fans have brushed the episode "The Baby Troll" under the rug due to its bizarre (even by LazyTown standards) plot, and the unintentionally creepy design of the troll.
• Fountain of Memes: Everything that Robbie touches spreads like wildfire across the internet. Stingy too, to a lesser extent.
• Foe Yay Shipping: Sportacus/Robbie as a pairing is the most popular type of fanfic out there. And doesn't really count as a Crack Pairing, either. Given that Robbie canonically is actually a pretty nice guy who just wants to be friends with the other townspeople, with Sportacus being rarely, if ever mean to him, it does make the idea of them dating a possibility.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Its home country of Iceland saw the show as entertaining enough, but LazyTown's sheer zaniness and positive reinforcement helped it to become a worldwide hit amongst kids; especially in America. The love from American audiences furthered following the show's Memetic Mutation around 2016, and even more so following Stefan Karl's passing.
  • It also became very popular in Latin America, especially in Mexico, so much so that Magnus Scheving and Julianna Rose Mauriell appeared as their respective characters, along with Stingy and Ziggy, in the 2008 Mexican Teletón. In fact, most of the videos talking about the show are from people in the region.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The LazyTown Forever passion project samples a line from Robbie Rotten in "The First Day of Summer", where despite initially being chipper about being in solitary, he laments on how much he misses the LazyTown gang. An already bittersweet line takes a more poignant and retrospective meaning following the death of his actor, Stefan Karl.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Stefan Karl Stefansson claimed that part of the reason his cancer went into remission is due to taking time to exercise. Considering that Robbie's whole schtick is trying to convince kids to be lazy...
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • "Cooking by the Book" is hilariously similar to the later "Cupcakes" song from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Even funnier is that Pinkie Pie is piling on the candy!
  • And then, in a season 6 episode of MLP, this happened.
  • Near the beginning of "We Are Number One", Robbie Rotten says "this is going down in history". Yes, it is, Robbie.
  • In "Little Sportacus", Robbie ages Sportacus back into a boy to raise him to be lazy. In 2023, One Operation Joker started publication, and it has a similar yet opposite premise: Batman falls into a vat that ages him back into a baby, and the Joker tries to raise him to become a superhero again so they can go back to being enemies.
• Ho Yay: Sportacus and Robbie are more this than foes, as the latter is really just a Friendly Enemy and Harmless Villain. These kind of moments usually involve Robbie touching Sportacus and jumping into his arms. It doesn’t help that Robbie has a few Ambiguously Gay traits to go on with. No wonder the Sportacus/Robbie Rotten pairing consists of so many shippers.
  • One episode had Robbie falling asleep and happily murmur "Hello, Sportacus."
• Jerkass Woobie: Robbie is a pretty big jerk, but still a very lovable one that displays occasional hints of loneliness. In an AMA, his actor revealed what he really thinks of the other characters, underneath it all: "I wish I could be their friend." In "The First Day Of Summer", everyone but Robbie goes to the beach and Robbie says "I never thought I'd say it, but I really, really miss those guys" when he thinks he made them disappear forever.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • A lot of people watch the show just for Robbie Rotten and his schemes.
  • A good portion of the older Periphery Demographic watches it just for Stingy out of the belief that he gets some of the funniest lines.
  • It’s not uncommon to hear people who hate LazyTown Extra admit to watching it only for the segments with Robbie or Stingy and Mayor Meanswell.
• Memetic Badass: Robbie Rotten has developed this reputation online, with many people declaring that he is the World's Strongest Man and one of the greatest TV villains of all time (most of the time incorporating variations of the phrase "He is Number One"). It helps that his feats in the show are very impressive, ranging from superhuman durability and strength to implied magic, inventiveness and picking up on others' technology quickly. His original incarnation, Glanni Glaepur, also gets this treatment, with his sillier and Toilet Humour moments from the plays downplayed or ignored completely.
• Memetic Mutation: This show absolutely reeks of this trope.
• Memetic Psychopath: Stingy is starting to develop this reputation online, after the infamous line "All your feelings are mine" from the "Mine" song and him running over Sportacus with his car, twice. Of special note is the scene where he asks the mayor some questions about sports and the conversation takes a rather unexpected turn.
• Moe: Stephanie. Pink clothes, pink hair and perky as hell? Yep.
• Narm Charm: This trope is a lot of why the series is fondly remembered by both the people who grew up with it, and the adults who had to watch it with them. It's cheesy and silly and over-the-top, the puppets are pretty hokey (when they're not downright creepy), the songs are goofy, the lessons are Anvilicious, the hero is too good to be true... and that's exactly how everyone likes it. Rather than being a drawback, the silliness is part of the show's charm, and the human actors (especially Stefán Karl Stefánsson) give it their all and are so darned likable, it's nigh impossible not to enjoy it.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The original plays have Glanni Glaepur effortlessly manipulating the townsfolk into doing as he says by acting charming and flaunting his supposed power. While he has silly moments here and there, the things he does range from standard villainy to more malicious fare like poisoning the whole town, cutting off everyone's food supply, and forcing the children to work for him. What really makes him an effectively scary villain is how he gets everybody to love him through careful wordplay, charisma, and persuasiveness, switching personas at the drop of a hat.
    • Even the way Stefán Karl Stefánsson portrayed Glanni Glaepur compared to his later Robbie Rotten was unsettling, particularly his slinking movements and evil grins during his first appearance, making his Villain Song that much creepier.
  • "Records Day" is not a good episode to watch if you're afraid of heights, as Robbie Rotten attempts to murder Sportacus with a catapult to the point where he's dangling off the airship platform by one hand, miles in the air. The episode cuts to his predicament several times before he's rescued, and then the out-of-control airship almost crashes into Town Hall. "Friends Forever" and "Little Pink Riding Hood" have similar scenes, with Robbie and Sportacus both being stuck on the crashing ship, helpless to stop it until the kids help out.
  • The climax of "Dancing Dreams" involves Sportacus being locked in a small trunk tied off with helium balloons, unable to escape or even see what's going on, while Robbie is stuck on the outside of the trunk hanging on for dear life when it hits airplane level.
  • A 2014 stage play called Ævintýri í Latabæ hearkens back to the original plays in terms of dark content, as Robbie takes over LazyTown by force with an army of robots and has a giant robot dog◊ at his command.
• Periphery Demographic:
  • A lot of moms and teen siblings are as fond of the show as the kids it's aimed at.
  • Also, stoners.
  • Several years ago, a portion of the Starlight Express fan community became a bit of a periphery demographic for the original Latibær stage shows.
  • In late 2016, a new periphery demographic of teens and 20-somethings emerged, being split by people who watched the show as children and were brought back by nostalgia, and those who just Watch It for the Meme (and there are several). It's hard to tell which is which.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: The fandom has come up with portmanteau names for the show's two most popular pairings: SportaSteph for Sportacus/Stephanie, and SportaRobbie for Sportacus/Robbie.
• Quirky Work: Between this and Björk, many in the US are convinced that Iceland is an absolute cradle of lunacy.
• Ron the Death Eater: Several fanfics have the kids acting cruel to Robbie and sometimes even Sportacus, usually to push the two into a pairing or giving a reason as to why their relationship needs to be secret.
• Rooting for the Empire: Who doesn't want to see Robbie win for once? And guess what? We got our wish in "The First Day of Summer."
• Sacred Cow: Robbie Rotten is not only considered a hilarious villain but also has some of the show's best songs, so it should come as no surprise that his actor, Stefán Karl Stefánsson, would eventually gain a certain level of sanctity on the internet after embracing the show's memes, not to mention became known as a generally nice person. When he was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, every single meme video of "We Are Number One" was updated to include a link to a charity page to pay for his treatment... and it worked, and Stefánsson was vocally grateful to his fans for allowing him to live cancer-free for another year. Needless to say, there was a wide outpouring of grief when the illness eventually claimed his life in 2018.
• Seasonal Rot: Seasons 3 and 4 were made years after the second one, so this was inevitable to happen. Interactive dance sequences were added to the musical numbers in season 3, Stephanie got flanderized and her flaws were removed, Robbie and the kids were dumbed down, and overall people felt that while they had their moments, they didn’t have the same charm as the first two. However, everyone agrees that without these seasons, we wouldn’t have had the series' Signature Scene, "We Are Number One," or Robbie's A Day in the Limelight episode "The First Day of Summer."
• Self-Fanservice: Oh, the things the fandom does to Sportacus and Robbie Rotten, as well as Stephanie.
• Signature Scene: We Are Number One.
• Special Effect Failure: In many shots, the thick, black sticks used to hold the puppets' arms up can be seen.
• Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • "Bing Bang" sounds like a mashup of the Spice Girls' "Wannabe" and The Human League's "Don't You Want Me".
  • "No One's Lazy in LazyTown" sounds like an awful lot like Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca".
  • The main riff to "Cooking By The Book" sounds similar to the opening riff for TLC's "No Scrubs".
  • "The Lazy Rockets" sounds quite a bit like "Greased Lightning" from Grease. Stephanie even does one of the same dance moves!
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: There were several characters from the plays that didn’t make it into the show. It would’ve been nice to see what they would bring to the table.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: "Dancing Dreams" focuses on Stephanie leaving LazyTown to pursue her dreams of becoming a famous dancer and the kids struggling to accept the fact that she may leave. The epilogue also briefly features Robbie trying to see the error of his ways. It could’ve been a good way to end the show, but nope! Status Quo Is God.
• Toy Ship
  • An almost literal case with Pixel/Stephanie, because of Love at First Sight.
  • Ziggy/Stingy is also not unheard of.
  • Stephanie gets a lot of Ship Tease moments with the younger Sportacus.
• Ugly Cute: While the puppet characters fall into the Unintentional Uncanny Valley most of the time, their personalities are charming and likeable, making them seem adorable rather than creepy.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley:
  • Robbie's makeup, with his latex chin and eyebrows, makes it look as though he entire face is made of plastic. Robbie seems to have been specifically designed to make viewers unable to tell whether he's one of the human characters or one of the puppets!
  • The puppets, for some viewers, especially whenever they switch to people in costumes for wide shots, making them suddenly the size of Stephanie.
  • Robbie's Mayor Meanswell disguise in "Double Trouble," mainly due to the head being too small and realistic for the body, but the hair is plastic since he's imitating one of the puppet characters.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Robbie is a Harmless Villain who wants kids to be lazy and quiet so he can get some sleep, and as such many LazyTown fans found Robbie easy to relate to as they got older, especially parents. A great amount of fanfiction and comments on official LazyTown videos are sympathetic to Robbie, especially in instances where everyone was really being noisy or he really needed sleep.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The show is one of the most expensive children's shows ever created, so there's no doubt that the green screen, puppetry, makeup and CGI would be especially impressive.
• Watch It for the Meme: People who didn't grow up with the series have taken a shine to "We Are Number One" and view Robbie Rotten (and Stefan Karl Stefansson in general even after his death) as a Memetic Badass rather than a kids' show character.

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