YMMV / Moesha

• Alas, Poor Scrappy: Myles being kidnapped in the series finale. Even worse, we never learn his fate.
• Ass Pull: Many people (including fellow castmates) felt that the twist that Frank cheated on his late wife during their marriage and fathered Dorian as a result of this affair, then had his sister to raise him as her own was so out of character for him and had a hand in sinking the show altogether.
• Catharsis Factor: Hakeem calling out Moesha for her bad treatment of Kim in one scene is cathartic due to Moesha's annoying attitude.
• Designated Hero: Upon rewatching the series, Frank and even Moesha come off as this. Frank for his overprotective tendencies (even Slut-Shaming Moesha for a tattoo) and cheating on his late wife, along with enabling Moesha's bratty behavior towards Dee. Moesha for her behavior to Dee and how she looks down on her friends, especially Kim.
• Designated Villain: Dee on many occasions. Even as a stepmother and not even a Wicked Stepmother, at that, but a Reasonable Authority Figure who was at times unintentionally insensitive to her stepdaughter, she was hated by Moesha simply because she wasn't her mother (needless to say, it must have hurt for her father to remarry so soon after her mother's death, but Moesha still came off as too much of a brat.)
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Kim, Mo's funny best friend, who was so popular that she ended up with her own Spin-Off, The Parkers with her mother.
  • Hakeem as well, due to his sympathetic qualities and being another source of comedy to the point that he and Mo eventually got a Relationship Upgrade.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In the episode "Moesha Meets Brandy", Niecy tries to pretend to be a dancer and acquaintance of Brandy to get into the latter's concert. Later that same year in Sister, Sister, Shar Jackson guest stars as a bouncer called Desree who Tyreke tries to trick into thinking he's a friend of hers in order to get into a concert.
• Ho Yay: Kim jokes about Hakeem and Antonio being together: "I knew you were bilingual but..."
• Informed Wrongness: In "The Ditch Party," Moesha is competing with another girl, Gabrielle, for an internship and Dee, who is monitoring the contest, advises her to look for a story outside of school. Mo goes undercover at a ditch party and Dee, realizing she's too partial to judge, asks the principal to judge which story is the best. Unfortunately, he is livid over the ditch party and threatens to suspend Moesha unless she names the other kids who were there. Unfortunately, Gabrielle and Ohagi, Mo's cheating ex-boyfriend, were behind the party. Mo realizes that it would look like she's trying to get rid of the competition, so she decides the best thing to do is keep quiet, lose the internship, get suspended, and get stuck doing miserable chores at home as punishment. First of all, as Dee pointed out, the principal has a right to know who skipped school since someone got have gotten hurt and it would have been on his hands. Second, Gabrielle was the one stupid enough to risk her internship and scholastic career for the ditch party. There's also some Fridge Logic at play...the school could easily check their records to see who was absent during the party and call home to see who had a valid reason.
• Never Live It Down: Moesha turning down a car from Frank, that he would pay all expenses for (save for gas), just because it was a Saturn instead of a Jeep. Even on the Jump The Shark website, the users listed that as one of their top reasons for the show jumping the shark.
• One-Mario Limit: The name "Moesha" is just not seen anywhere else in popular culture, and if you come across it again, you'll probably think of this show.
• The Scrappy:
  • Dorian is widely hated by fans due to his Cousin Oliver tendencies and for causing Myles to be kidnapped by an associate of his. Plus, you have fans who also hate that his character was only created so Ray J could ride on his more famous sister's coattails.
  • Myles is pretty irritating, as well, with him throughout the start of the run having little characterization outside of annoying Moesha and her friends and usually getting away with it just for being the younger of the two children. Granted, he does slightly mature during the run, and is given some sympathetic qualities later on.
• Values Dissonance: Although the episodes featuring Moesha dating a White friend of hers, as well as Hakeem's cousin Omar revealing he is gay may have seemed avant-garde at the time, the bigoted and hysterical reactions that both caused leave quite a bad taste in the mouth now.
  • Their handling of Hispanic issues made Saved by the Bell: The College Years look profound by comparison. The episode where Moesha's (hitherto) friend Antonio paints a mural of Cesar Chavez, causing many of the African-American students to be angry about the "lack of representation", was ultimately very frivolous and almost certainly would be written more seriously and thoughtfully nowadays.
• The Woobie: Myles is this at the start of season 4. It’s revealed he feels like he isn’t apart of the family, due to all the drama going on with his sister, to the point that he starts smoking weed to deal with it.

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