YMMV / The Key of Awesome

• Awesome Music: While most of the songs are parodies and not meant to be taken seriously, the crew do manage to make some genuinely entertaining and decent tracks.
• Broken Base:
  • Their unplugged parodies can get a bit divisive. Either they are they are a cheap and lazy way to get more money for their videos or they are just fine as their usual parodies stating they don't need a high fancy set to make things entertaining.
  • Mocking Taylor Swift for being sexually assaulted has proven to be extremely controversial. Supporters insist it's in the name of fun and harmless, while detractors point out how misogynistic and inappropriate it is to mock and belittle Taylor for taking legal action against someone who not only sexually assaulted her, but who also tried to sue her when she reported the assault. Essentially arguing that it's no different than victim blaming (and adding a dose of hypocrisy as well given that they've called out other controversial figures for sexism and misogyny)
• Fandom Rivalry: Bart Baker's fanbase do not go well with the Key of Awesome fanbase. Just look at their respective parodies of the same song and you'll see at least two comments comparing the two. Ironic, since Mark and Todd of Barely Political/Key of Awesome and Bart have collaborated and have no rivalry.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Several of the Katy Perry parodies are slightly awkward to watch now that she and Russell Brand have gotten a divorce.
  • Also the group's repeated swipes at Ke$ha/Kesha can be slightly uncomfortable due to the reveal that she was forced into the "drunken party girl" persona by her record label, and developed an eating disorder before suffering a nervous breakdown due to this and the resulting media scorn.
    • Although KOA's first Ke$ha parody (of Tik Tok) does end with the reveal that Ke$ha's recording contract requires her to "act like a drunken whore at all times" and that she isn't really like that.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • One Lady Gaga parody has her sing "I like to wear bathing suits made out of raw meat". Guess what she wore for the cover of Vogue Japan?
  • In their Glee parody, Michael Jackson was pissed when Glee did a tribute episode about him. Glee would actually make a Michael Jackson tribute episode about a year later, featuring two of the songs that were featured in the parody, but in much different contexts ("Wanna Be Startin' Something" is portrayed in the parody as a Will/Emma duet, but in the actual show as the episode's showstopping opening number, while "Human Nature" goes from a Kurt angst number in the parody to a Samcedes duet in the show proper).
  • "It's Trick-Or-Treat or Die!"
• Hollywood Homely: Lampshaded in the "Havana" unplugged parody. Camila's version of unattractive homebody is still better looking than the average person, and that's before The Glasses Gotta Go.
• Memetic Badass:
  • Don't f**k with the Gaga [1]
  • The Gaga was snorted by Charlie Sheen but reemerged just a few hours later... chestburster-style. And now she is on a killing spree.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Their "Tik Tok" parody spawned the most imitators of all their videos.
  • Could also count for their end titles ("Da Key of Awesooome!"), "sung" by a different character at the end of each episode. They eventually built a whole song around that riff.
• Seasonal Rot: Key of Awesome has become more divisive starting around 2014, where their parody has started to gone more mean spirited or obvious. With some viewers being exceedingly put off while others love them (in particular, "Problem" is cited as a major highlight). However, the channel's popularity and reputation have begun to rapidly decay around 2016, with the jokes becoming stale, dull, and uninspired. While not miserable, the viewership of each KOA video continues decaying at a fairly regular pace and the reviews are going with it. It finally led to the channel's demise in 2018.
• Special Effect Failure: Even for a low budget comedic parody music video channel, the point in the "California Gurlz" video when the camera accidentally pans too far left and shows where the backdrop has been pinned to the wall with clips is a particular low point. The "lid" of the coffin in "Twilight Sucks" also ripples when the vampire closes it on himself showing it's made of cloth rather than a more realistic material.
• The Woobie: Frankenstein's monster in the "Modern Monster Mash" video. If his disgusted and shocked reactions to the ways of modern movie monsters doesn't get to you, then you'll surely feel sorry for him when he laments the loss of his friend the Wolfman after Michael Meyers decapitates him.

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