YMMV / Simple Plan

• Bizarro Episode: "Perfect", or "Untitled (How Could This Happen to Me)" are their Signature Songs, despite neither song being a typical example of Simple Plan's sound.
• Critical Dissonance: Simple Plan was one of the most criticized "pop punk" bands for either their wangsty lyrical writings or simplistic music playing. Their "allegedly" most successful album Still Not Getting Any... only managed to get B+ (Entertainment Weekly) or 4/5 (Alternative Press) score at most. Despite this, the band gained quite a popularity and managed to stand out firmly in early to mid 2000s.
• Even Better Sequel:
  • Pierre, Chuck and David originally came from the band Reset; Simple Plan is so much more well known and popular than Reset that you may be surprised to find out that Reset - despite various line-up changes - is still producing music in the 2020s.
  • Still Not Getting Any... & the Self-Titled Album are both considered to be more mature & better written (musically & lyrically) than their immediate predecessor - the Self-Titled Album especially.
• Growing the Beard: Their Self-Titled Album ironed out most of the wangst and narm that plagued them throughout their first two albums.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Songs like "I Don't Wanna Be Sad" & the accusations that half of their songs seem to be aimed at people with depression become this in light of bass player David taking a two year break from touring to battle depression & focus on his mental health.
  • David's character of Captain Rider getting slapped by a female beach goer in the video for "I Don't Wanna Go to Bed" isn't as funny following accusations against David over sexual misconduct.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: When Simple Plan made their debut on MTV's Total Request Live, they were introduced by Hilarie Burton, who would go on to play One Tree Hill’s resident emo kid, Peyton Sawyer.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • "This Song Saved My Life", showing that sometimes, a positive moment at the right time can be the beginning of a comeback. Also edges into Tear Jerker territory, but it's mostly happy and hopeful and uplifting.
  • "Where I Belong", a song about finding your place in the world. The lyrics describe the immense feeling of relief from having found a group to fit in with, and the upbeat tone of it all feels freeing.
  • David returning to the band after taking a two year break to battle depression.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Untitled (How Could This Happen to Me?)" is often used to describe Wangst, similar to "Crawling". It's often used to make fun of whining about things in an over the top manner online.
  • It's become fairly popular to play "Untitled" over clips of people getting hurt or suffering bad luck.
  • "I'm Just a Kid" became the soundtrack to a popular trend on TikTok where people got into a certain pose to recreate an old family photo of theirs by before smash cutting to the photo they're recreating on the downbeat of the first chorus.
• Narm: They often suffer from this, mainly due to wangst. Many people who do not listen to much Emo Music often judge the entire genre because of Simple Plan.
• Narm Charm: On the other hand, a lot of their songs are just adorable. Aww, pouty little Emo Teen... *giggle*. The most common target is "Welcome to My Life".
• Never Live It Down: "Untitled", "Welcome to My Life" and "I'm Just a Kid" will forever mean they're remembered as the most 'emo' band in history, even though they've got plenty of non-Wangst filled hits like "When I'm Gone".
• Signature Song: "I'd Do Anything", "Shut Up", and especially "Welcome To My Life" and "I'm Just a Kid" are some of the most iconic Simple Plan songs that sound like, well... Simple Plan songs. "Perfect" and "Untitled (How Could This Happen to Me)" are very well known songs — however, neither of them reflects the rest of Simple Plan's catalogue.
• Special Effect Failure: The music video for "When I'm Gone" features Pierre's ex seeing his face on various billboards and bystanders. During the bridge, the focus is placed on a magazine stand, where a tennis ball is launched from the cover of a tennis magazine and ricochets to various other magazine covers featuring the rest of the band, with the member in question reacting on their respective cover — however, when the shot cuts to Patrick and (more noticeably) Chuck, they wind up moving off their magazine instead of remaining confined to the frame.
• Tear Jerker:
  • "Save You" — a song about wanting to help someone but being powerless to do so. More so than on first appearance, as it was written after Pierre's brother had been diagnosed with cancer.
  • "Perfect", about a boy who failed to live up to his father's expectations, leading to a falling out between them. What's worse, the lyrics ("Now it's just too late and we can't go back...") make it very clear that the protagonist's relationship with his father has been irreparably destroyed — either because the father refuses to accept him or is absent/dead. Depressingly relatable for some people, too. There's a bit of Fridge Horror in it too; at one point, the singer declares to his father "Nothing's gonna change the things that you said/Nothing's gonna make this right again". What happened there?
    "I'm sorry I can't be perfect..."
  • The music video for "Untitled (How Could This Happen to Me?)" reveals what it's really about. It turns out it's not so much about angsting about how terrible your life is, but more about driving drunk, killing someone, getting a prison sentence, and ruining not just your own life and future, but the lives of the victim's family, who are depicted as being just as injured by the crash as the victim herself.
  • The self titled definitely had some more darker themes, such as "Your Love Is a Lie", a pretty blunt angry song about the narrator learning about his girlfriend's infedility, complete with a rare Precision F-Strike from the band and "What If", a somber lament about the narrator graduating (either from college or high school) and hoping to be reunited with a lover who never calls them back.

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