Adaptation Displacement: Many people in America is probably more familiar with the Stupid Invaders game than the actual cartoon, especially after a certain fugu fish in it became big on the internet.
Americans Hate Tingle: Despite being very well-regarded in its native France, the show never made much of an international impact. What little English-speaking audience it has are more familiar with the Stupid Invaders game over the cartoon. That said, there was merchandise of the show released in the United States, such as VHS tapes and kid's meal toys.
The theme song was written and performed by Iggy Pop specially for the show. Case closed.
There's the spy movie-esque music and backup singers whenever the aliens use the SMTV.
Common Knowledge: Many people think Disney now has the rights to this series when they acquired Saban Entertainment in 2001. Actually, Saban only distributed the series and its merchandise during its run on Fox Kids and Fox Family, the show was gone from both of those blocks by the time Disney acquired Saban. The rights to the series are owned by Xilam.
Friendly Fandoms: With Pet Alien, since both series are wacky comedy cartoons focusing on aliens living on Earth that aired in 2005.
Moral Event Horizon: The Stupid Invaders game features antagonists scarcely seen in the actual show, and of them all, Dr. Saccharin is the one that easily leaps over any sort of respectability; the first thing he does is trap the Space Goofs and plan to dissect them to steal their UFO technology, and then betrays his henchman Bolok by having his co-worker Igor shoot him. It somehow gets worse from there.
In "Once upon a time... Part 1", a lab full of jars of preserved alien parts is shown, which had the aliens conclude that Humans Are Bastards. Stereo saw his own mother among the specimens!
Although Played for Laughs, seeing a realistic version of Etno's face that replaces Halena at the end of "Remote Control Home" is pretty unsettling.
That Dog from the game Stupid Invaders. It's surprisingly vicious and the game over for going near it is actually censored since it's devouring Gorgious alive.
Also from the game: Nelson and his entire design. He's supposed to sort be a super creep, sure, but what on earth is going on with this guy's face?
Shallow Parody: The episode "Mangamania" is about an anime panda named Panda Manga, "the number one star of manga", who decides to hide in the aliens' house from crazed fans who want to sign his autograph. But besides being saccharine, doing things such as the Cross-Popping Veins, the Sweat Drop and knowing martial arts, Panda Manga doesn't feel very Animesque at all, in fact, if it wasn't for the episode telling you this, you wouldn't have a clue that Panda Manga is a parody of anime and manga (and in some parts, it feels like a Take That! since Panda Manga is a complete Jerkass towards the aliens, and his biggest fear are European comic characters). The closest thing the episode does about Anime and Manga is the climax, where Etno, Candy and Gorgious transform into Mons and start some sort of Phonýmon battle against him.
In the original French version, one of the main complaints in the second season was the abrupt change of the voice actors for Bud, Etno and Candy.
Stereo was written out of the 2005 season as well, which still causes confusion for those who remember the 1997 season. Even when he eventually appeared in Season 2, his English voice actor also changed as well.
Ugly Cute: The Space Goofs themselves. Go ahead and try to tell us that they aren't these.
Values Resonance: Of all things, Candy is revealed to be a transgender woman in the game; while mostly played for laughs in a surreal game, the other characters are surprisingly respectful of this, outside of the (already easily-detested) antagonist, Dr. Saccharin. Bear in mind, the game was released in 2001; the concept of having a transgender character at all was practically unheard of at the time, let alone as a protagonist that's generally treated with some degree of dignity. Gorgious will casually insult Candy at the drop of a hat for mistakes that affect their goals, but he does that with all the aliens and doesn't insult Candy for her identity and/or make transphobic remarks. Gorgious is actually extremely supportive of her identity and frequently compliments Candy on her feminine skills and traits, the same things that she takes major pride in. At the start of the game, he criticizes her choice of doctor for the planned sex change operation out of concern for Candy's health (he thinks the doctor in question is an incompetent quack), not that she's wanting to go through with it.
was written and performed by Iggy Pop specially for the show. Case closed.