YMMV / The Penguins of Madagascar

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A-G

• Adorkable: Kowalski, being the somewhat awkward, yet endearing brains of the group. Especially pronounced when he is excited about science.
• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • One of the implications of how the other penguins behave around Rico is reminiscent of that of an adult with a learning or developmental disorder - when he loses control, they seem just as concerned that he might hurt himself as others. Significantly, in "Kaboom And Kabust", Skipper's lines describe serious concern for Rico's safety, with the penguins all implying that he's not fully responsible for his own actions, while Julien's behavior in this episode is highly manipulative, taking advantage of Rico for his own personal amusement. Julien even describes himself as Rico's enabler at one point. An enabler is a person who encourages or enables negative or self-destructive behavior in another.
  • It can be argued that a lot of Skipper's paranoia, tendency to demand perfectionism from the other Penguins, obsession over having control over the whole zoo, and need for multiple emergency plans and escape tunnels, could be seen as response to losing Manfredy & Johnson, being betrayed by Hans or both, out of feeling he wasn't ready for what happened in either case.
  • The male falcon in "The Falcon and the Snow Job" has being speculated to be Kitka's ex-boyfriend. Given he has his nest in the same building that Kitka and happened to kidnap an animal in the same place where Kitka was (which based on this interpretation, could have been out of revenge rather than to eat), not to mention Kitka was aware where King Julien has being taken without even knowing the situation. All of this seems to fit too perfectly, for it to be a coincidence.
  • Savio's first victim was Mort after he was sent to steal pineapples at the Reptile House, after that Savio started hunting mammals on his own. This could imply that he wasn't originally planning to hunt his neighbors, until he got the chance to eat Mort and got his first taste of mammals in captivity.
  • Did King Julien abandoned the group to protect the others from Savio in "All Tied Up with a Boa" because he was a Jerkass Dirty Coward or because upon realizing who Savio actually was, he got his Trauma Button pressed of the memories of having being Eaten Alive?
  • Polish dub only: after Julien gets eaten by Savio and comments that his stomach stinks, Mort says that he ate peas (which may suggest he farted) which is followed by Maurice pounding his fist against the inside of Savio's stomach and screaming "GET US OUTTA HERE!!!". Did he did that because he didn't wanted to smell Mort's fart, or did he do it because he was afraid of being in the snake's stomach and thought he was about to be digested?
  • How much is Hans's antagonist against Skipper For the Evulz and how much is him simply wanting to have his attention. In "Best Foes", he seems legitimate delighted to have him as a friend and never considers double crossing him (in fact he gets jealous when he believes he was replacing him with King Julien), implying he actually would like to be friends with Skipper. Also many episodes seem to imply Hans, for all of his flaws doesn't wanna kill the penguins, just cause them pain, which supports the latter interpretation.
  • As mentioned on the show's WMG page, is Joey really is ill-tempered and a violent jerk or does is he cranky because of pent-up sexual aggression?
  • Is Jiggles really is a monster by his nature, or is he a Non-Malicious Monster that has no knowledge of morality?
• Alternative Joke Interpretation: Kowalski questions how Marlene could talk to Skipper through the radio in "Best Laid Plantains". The most obvious interpretation is that Kowalski is simply lampshading how is this possible. However, if one pulls Shipping Goggles, the fact that Marlene is the only animal besides the penguins that Skipper has contact through the radio, that Skipper isn't weirded out by this and dodges the question immediately when Kowalski asks it and it was planned to be the last message Marlene would leave before skipping town and never coming back, the joke could be hinting at something else.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Dr. Blowhole becomes this in "The Penguin Who Loved Me", especially in comparison to his previous appearances. After he recovers his memory, he tries to kickstart one of his old unfinished plans, only for Kowalski to pull a mind game with him, pointing out potential flaws he didn't consider until he's close enough to knock him out and release the team, after this, the Penguins and Doris easily take care of the situation.
• Anvilicious: "Operation: Big Blue Marble" is a very unsubtle special dedicated to how the careless toxic waste disposal can cause major problems in the environment and how some people would quickly deny the evidence of this as long as it keeps benefiting them. Fans still enjoyed the episode, however.
• Applicability: The episode "Miss Understanding" has been interpreted as an anti-sexism episode, a commentary on gender stereotypes or internalized misogyny, an Rainbow Lens metaphor on what is like to be an trans person being typecast on a gender they don't identify with, or a simply an episode of Skipper acting like a woman that doesn't have any deeper meaning beyond Rule of Fun and being Played for Laughs.
• Ass Pull: Bing and Roy are revealed to be Private's "fellow Lunacorn fans". Not a single time before this episode either character was shown to be on friendly therms with Private (given in their previous appearences they are more often that not, Hot-Blooded bullies) nor having any interest in the Lunacorns. Also neither of two own a TV, leading into question how they were even able to know the show's existence.
• Awesome Music: Though there aren't that many musical numbers in this show compared to some other cartoons, the songs that do appear are generally pretty good, especially when the more musically-inclined cast members get to show off their talents. Some of the best ones are gathered in the Unofficial Soundtrack, including the penguins' main theme. Other notables songs:
  • The intro music for "The Penguin Who Loved Me".
  • "The Bus Called Graveyard 8", a ballad sung by Kowalski (and Rico).
  • The catchy, upbeat "Land of Hoboken" actually won an Emmy award.
  • All of the songs from the musical portion of "The Return of the Revenge of Dr. Blowhole" are fantastic, but particularly Julien's Thump Thump Thump song and Dr. Blowhole's two villain numbers.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Doris. Deliberate heartbreaker, or a flawed character whose fickle nature has her making the same mistakes over and over, but still likeable enough?
  • The show's take on King Julien. Plenty of people find his Large Ham antics entertaining and think he's close enough to the movie's portrayal, others are somewhat annoyed by his presence and attitude. Fans who loved him in the original movies can find his more jerkish personality in the series to be jarring. It doesn't help that his involvement in the series doesn't make any chronological sense.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Subverted in "Eclipsed." King Julien gets a big, long musical number about his "congaga." Although this musical number has all the trappings of a BLAM in its over-the-top, out-of-nowhere-ness (keep in mind the show almost never does musical numbers), it sets up the plot.
  • In "All Tied Up With a Boa," King Julien randomly mentions riding a sandwich like a horse, and then is shown doing so a little while later. This is never noticed by anyone else.
    King Julien: Whoaaa there, little tuna melt!
• Broken Base: "The Penguin Who Loved Me". An exciting Grand Finale that introduces new fan favorites, gives Kowalski a win and finally allows us to see Doris, Manfredi & Johnson? Or a disappointing ending that wastes Dr. Blowhole's return and the usual recurring cast in favour of Doris?
• Can't Un-Hear It: Jeff Bennett and James Patrick Stuart's performances as Kowalski and Private were so well received that many people thought they should've been brought back for Penguins of Madagascar instead of Chris Miller and Christopher Knights.
• Cargo Ship: Julien has repeatedly flirted with Rico's Miss Perky doll and has had some slight narcissistic Ho Yay with @Lemmy', the robotic Lemur. Kowalski had a thing for Officer X's animal control van, and the sentient gel-o that is Jiggles.
• Catharsis Factor: After Rat King brutally massacred Penguins in both "Crown Fools" and "Miracle on Ice" and bullied Roger in "Roger Dodger", it's so satisfying to see this brutish rat getting his ass kicked by Rico in Roger's body and Roy in "Roger Dodger" and "Rat Fink" respectively.
• Cliché Storm: After a while, the plots become very generic and predictable, not that it really keeps the show from being enjoyable. The fact that the series seems to be well aware of this and lampshades it to hell and back helps a lot.
• Common Knowledge: Ms. Perky is often drawn as light-skinned in fanarts, whereas in the actual show she has a brown skin.
• Crazy Is Cool: Rico, obviously. But rest of the penguins, except for maybe Private, count as well. How else do you call a badass military officer who is extremely paranoid about everything and a Mad Scientist who is also a Badass Bookworm?
• Death of the Author: Word of God says that the show happens in an Alternate Continuity and that audiences shouldn't try too hard to fit it with the canon events of the movies, of course that hasn't stopped fans from trying, even if it's in an Broad Strokes-kind of way, you will have a hard finding any fan wiki that doesn't consider the show canonical.
• Designated Villain:
  • Frankie the pigeon in "In the Line of Doody" wanted to poop on the parks and recs manager... for trying to get rid of all the pigeons around all the parks. Pigeons are being treated as Always Chaotic Evil while the Penguins support this man just because he's providing them with extra fishes.
  • Blue Hen, at least in her first appearence. Her plan involves fooling everyone into believing she is a psychic chicken, and use those influences to become the president. The only issue is that she never planned to do anything bad once she got to that position of power. The only reason why they decide to stop her is because Skipper believes a chicken would accidentally press the doomsday buttom, which Privates lampshades is unlikely to happen.
• Diagnosed by the Audience:
  • It's been observed that Rico rarely talks and when he does, it's short, simple words, he is less intelligent than any of his teammates, he has a poor self control and has a fondness for dangerous things. It doesn't help that there's an episode where the other three penguins develop something called "pisces dementia" and act just as crazy (well, somehow crazier) than Rico. The way his co-workers treat him implies he may have some sort of intellectual and/or learning disabillity.
  • Some fans see Kowalski as autistic, thanks to his social awkwardness, borderline obsessive interest in science and Literal-Minded behavior. His occasional neurotic behavior when he's under stress (such as losing the abillity to talk properly or screaming) also struck a cord with some fans.
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • Officer X. Being one of the most popular villains and having a rather reasonable reason to want to go against the Penguins. Claims of him being a Designated Villain and Unintentionally Sympathetic are common among fans, arguing he's simply a man who is doing his job while the Penguins are constantly screwing him for their own agenda and getting fired of his newest job. His fans often forget his blatant sadism at the time of hunting Max or the Penguins and his history of commiting property damage or using unjustified force against the animals he's suppose to control. Many fans also often forget, he was fired because of a vandalism spree out of frustration for not capturing the Penguins again, which is hardly a reasonable thing to do.
  • King Julien. While certainly one of the funniest characters in the show who does have redeeming qualities, he's also a Jerkass who constantly abuses Maurice and Mort while ruining everyone else's lives at the drop of a hat for his own selfish gain or momentary satisfaction. Despite this see Launcher of a Thousand Ships below...
  • All the penguins are insane, but Rico is especially popular among Shippers, despite being the lowest intellectually, by far the most violent, and psychotic even by Skipper's standards.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Buck Rockgut only appears in three episodes but is largely regarded as one of the most memorable characters of the series, thanks to his paranoic personality, solid voice acting from Clancy Brown, providing one of the show's most memorable gags ("THE RED SQUIRREL") and actually being kinda right about the Red Squirell being a thing.
  • Kuchikukan was the villain of only one special, but being an Affably Evil Eldritch Abomination in the form of a lunacorn toy with the voice of Conan O'Brien was enough to make him just as popular as the more recurring antagonists.
• Esoteric Happy Ending:
  • All the Savio episodes end with the boa being sent to Hoboken. While this does stop the boa from being a problem for the main characters, he's still free to continue his rampage elsewhere, with the main difference is that in Hoboken, there's no one trying directly to stop him like the Penguins.
  • "Endangerous Species": One of Dode's clones is saved, but the main problem is still present, once he dies, Dodos would be gone for good, so the Penguins didn't achieve their objective of saving a extinct species. Also a eternal staring contest isn't a practical way of living, without eating or sleeping is highly unlikely he's gonna last very long.
  • "Night of the Vesuviuses": Besides the In-Universe Esoteric Happy Ending (The Vesuvius twins have learned to stop being cruel to the animals but that doesn't stop them from being cruel with people), the fact that the Penguins are still sworn enemies with the rest of the Zoo for protecting the Vesuvius twins, including their close ones like Marlene and the Lemurs is never acknowledged. Not helped by this being the last aired episode. Hopefully, Negative Continuity takes care of that.
• Fandom Rivalry: When "In the Happy Little Land of Hoboken Surprise" took the Emmy Award for Best Original Song, the Brony community wasn't pleased as it won against two of FIM's songs.
• Fanon:
  • Even though the show is confirmed to take place in an Alternate Continuity from the Madagascar movies, many argue that the events of the first and second movie are still canon, especially considering Alex's involvement in "The Revenge of Dr. Blowhole".
  • The penguins are brothers. This is never really made clear in the series, but is usually accepted in the fandom, even some fan wikias outright state it as a fact. Their movie officially goes with the idea of them being adopted brothers.
    • Even then, many agree that Skipper and Rico are blood-related, given that the penguins themselves wonder how Rico passed the test to join them.
  • Popular fanon is that Rico was dropped as an egg and this is why he is the least intelligent of the four penguins.
  • Julien being transgender has caught on due to him being a male lemur leader. The fanfic Princess (Laburnum Steelfang), where Julien being trans is a major plot point, also helped popularize the fanon.
• Fanon Discontinuity:
  • Most fans brushed "Otter Woman" under the rug for Marlene somehow being mistaken for her own murderer and getting punished for it, even though she did nothing to deserve it.
  • Dr. Blowhole surviving the events of "The Penguin Who Loved Me" for those who wanted a more closed ending for the series. There's also those who prefer to disregard Dr. Blowhole's participation in the special completely, for those who thought his previous appearance was a more satisfying send-off.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • In this show, Rico is animated with a large scar that crosses his beak. It has never been explained in canon, nor do the other characters draw any attention to it, as if they don't even notice it any more. For Rico's past specifically it is a common question of exactly what happened to give him the scar, and how to make it fit in with canon.
  • How the Penguins (especially Skipper) are gonna react when they learn that Manfredi & Johnson are still alive?
  • Both Uncle Nigel and Buck Rockgut mention the existence of a general Penguin HQ besides the one seen in the series, which means that there are other penguin squadrons out there. How they would look like, and does Uncle Nigel and Rockgut are members of one of them?
  • What would the Penguins do to Julien, if they learn that he's the reason of Rico's actions in "Hello Dollface"?
• First Installment Wins: Easily the most popular and well-liked of the three shows Dreamworks Animation made in association with Nickelodeon (partly because Legends of Awesomeness is very divisive among the Kung Fu Panda fanbase and Monsters vs. Aliens (2013) is universally regarded as a weak effort). Some fans would go further and argue that this show is still the best show based on a Dreamworks movie, although Dragons: Riders of Berk and All Hail King Julien have solid fanbases who disagree.
• Franchise Original Sin: Some of the later DreamWorks Animation's shows like Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, Monsters vs. Aliens (2013), The Adventures of Puss in Boots and Megamind Rules! would often receive criticisms for downgraded animation quality and flanderization of the characters, leading to many older fans considering them to be cash grabs that lacked the spirit of the movies. Despite having a much better reception, this show ended up kickstarting these trends.
  • The show flanderized aspects of the personalities of the Penguins and the Lemurs but those were relatively minor characters in the movies, who mostly served as comic relief. The Penguins were very close to be Satellite Characters to each other. In the views of many fans, not only the exagerated characterizations didn't downplay more complex and sympathetic characters, they actually managed to flesh them out. Kowalski's The Smart Guy status and Rico's Stomach of Holding actually became more impressive in the series. Skipper, Private, Maurice and Mort were given more characterization. And while fans are split over King Julien's handling, his role was still not that far of a strech from the movie's version to become jarring. Also, Heroic Comedic Sociopath aside, the penguins remained sympathetic and heroic characters, even more that the movies arguably, so fans didn't see an issue with the changes. Fans however did take an issue when later shows turned heroic three-dimensional characters in one note-jerkasses and took away the elements that make them badasses in the movies or made them more incompetent for the sake of Rule of Funny.
  • The show is a clear victim of No Flow in CGI but it managed to play with it's limitations, it averted the more complicated scenarios from the movies to focus on the relatively minor Central Park Zoo and the New York City and deliberately Adapted Out the main characters in favour of focusing on the less complicated to animate Penguins. Compare this with later shows that tried to recreate the more complicated character designs and scenarios from the movies they were based on, and you get Unintentional Uncanny Valley.
• Genius Bonus: In Cute-astrophe Skipper says he can "smell an anecdote from 1.6 klicks away". One klick equals one kilometer. One mile is 1.6 kilometers. Even in klicks Skipper hates the metric system. He also points that out in Command Crisis.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • The show is very popular in Poland, partly due to Superlative Dubbing, to the point the dub is constantly being rerun for 10 years straight - the audience doesn't seem to care as long as the penguins are on their telly screens. The fact that one of the main characters has a Polish surname likely helps.
  • In Serbia the show is extremely popular (again due to a case of Superlative Dubbing that's peppered with many a Woolseyism and heaps of local humor), to the point that just like in Poland, the dub is constantly being rerun for 10 years straight - the audience doesn't seem to care as long as the penguins are on their telly screens.

H-W

• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • All the jokes in "The Hoboken Surprise" about Hoboken being a terrible place are a lot less amusing after Hurricane Sandy. Or Hurricane Irene, for that matter (the episode literally aired a week before the latter storm hit).
  • In "Antics on Ice" Skipper laughs at the notion of a show focused on the exploits of Penguins, arguing it will be too awesome for viewers to handle it. This was part of the last bunch of episodes produced for the show before it was Screwed by the Network and cancelled.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Remember all those times Marlene was shown to be outside without turning back to her feral form? "Snowmageddon" reveals it took her a while but she doesn't become feral anymore. While it's probably just a Hand Wave to have the plot of the episode going, it's still nice that she no longer has to deal with the fear and angst of going outside that she suffered in previous appearances.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In "Hello Dollface", Skipper berates Private for his love of Lunacorn toys, voiced by Tara Strong, and finds them "too soft" for his tastes. The episode aired on October 9, 2010 — just one day before the premiere of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, which not only has Strong voicing the main character, but gained a major Periphery Demographic that was ridiculed for similar reasons.
  • In "Huffin and Puffin", Hans mentioned that he kissed Skipper's sister but Skipper claimed that he doesn't have a sister. Given the similarities Skipper has with Clover, one would wonder what would Skipper say if he met her◊.
  • At one point in "The Return of the Revenge of Dr. Blowhole" Alex and Skipper sing a song called "We Are the Penguins", which was later used in 2017 as the title of a song for Club Penguin Island.
  • In "Right hand man" Rico makes wager that the new resident of the zoo is platypus. In "The Penguin Who Loved Me", the Penguins meet a platypus.
  • Whatever it was intentional or not is uncertain but Dr. Blowhole's original plan in "The Return of the Revenge of Dr. Blowhole" was to turn Kowalski, Rico and Private in horrible mutant monsters with his weapon, Three years later, the Penguins would face that same issue with a different villain in the main continuity.
  • "Cat's Cradle": X saying that his mom never told him his name, saying it was "Classified" becomes even funnier when the Penguins meet a character named "Classified" in the movie. Or at least, they think his name is "Classified".
  • The theatrical movie having a "looks don't matter" aesop becomes this, when you realize is a bit of a recurring storyline to have Private trying to invoke this idea, only for the scary looking creature to be just as bad as it looked like.
  • The Penguins-and especially Skipper's-low opinion of mammals in general and humans in particular very much becomes this when you realize who and what eventually took over as DreamWorks' top agents.
  • At the end of "The Hidden" the main threat turns out to be group of friendly chameleons. A few years later, the main villain of Kung Fu Panda 4 is a evil chameleon.
• Ho Yay Shipping: The show has its own Ho Yay page as it is, but the level of subtext between Kowalski and Rico is the highest thanks to how often they are paired.
• Informed Wrongness: Skipper pulls one towards himself in "Launchtime". He has a Jerkass Realization while being at the mercy of the Moon Cat's "hospitality" and believes he should have been a better neighbor to the Lemurs, but given how invasive and disrespectful the lemurs have been so far of the Penguins's stuff and that they have spent the whole episode taking advantage of their absence to steal their TV, it is hard to blame Skipper for putting limits on their behavior. It is worth mentioning that it becomes an Ignored Aesop at the end, but it is more because of Insane Troll Logic ^note  The moon cat wasn't from the moon, so the "moon cat hospitality" doesn't exist. that Skipper realizing he was right all along.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: Some fans felt that "The Penguin Who Loved Me" would have benefitted from being an hour-long special like "The Return of the Revenge of Dr. Blowhole", given most of the special is dedicated to buildup Dr. Blowhole's return, which causes the last minutes to rush through Dr. Blowhole's kickstarting a new plan, the Penguins quickly defeating him, Parker giving up on his own after being shown to be a formidable fighter and Kowalski and Doris's Relationship Upgrade.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • The episode "Untouchable" features a poison dart frog named Barry with such potent venom that the slightest touch renders one temporarily paralytic and with a comical rash; he uses this power to keep all the other animals at his pettiest whim. Private eventually knocks up a protective suit that will allow him to give the slimy little chap a nice big hug. Barry contemplates if he's really a jerk, but decides that yes, he likes hugs more.
  • Officer X. His antagonism toward the penguins is because they thwarted him in the process of doing his job (In their defense, they WERE protecting someone they considered a friend). While you can't blame the penguins for trying to keep themselves safe, anytime he's not opposing the penguins, he's really just doing his job, and his "reward" for this is constant public humiliation and scorn.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships:
  • King Julien, hands down. Not only do fans pair him up with Mort and Maurice, but every single penguin too. The show provides plenty of chances. It's only a matter of time before they pair him with himself.
  • As the closest thing the show has to a female lead, Marlene has been paired with every character, though pairing her off with Skipper is by far and away the most popular.
• Like You Would Really Do It: There was no way Skipper was gonna die halfway through "Snakehead!", no matter how much the episode wanted to make you believe that.
• Memetic Badass: A recurring joke in VS discussions involving the Penguins is that Rico can easily win any fight by simply vomiting dynamite or whatever is his opponent's weakness.
• Memetic Mutation: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.
• Moe: Private, being the youngest and nicest member of the main team, is often seen as this by the fans. He is even seen as very cute in-universe, to the point his cuteness can be literally weaponized.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Dr. Blowhole letting Skipper fall into the ocean (after erasing his memories, no less), relishing the fact he won't remember how to swim and likely drown.
  • Kuchikukan crossed it by destroying several planets For the Evulz, and trying to destroy Earth as well.
  • Blue Hen started as a manipulative but still mostly harmless Con Man. By her second appearance, she crosses it by separating Skipper from the Penguins, so she can freeze the entire zoo and become the center of attention.
  • The Amarillo Kid crosses this in his debut episode where he first blackmails Private into playing mini-golf with him by threatening to kill Maurice and Mort by taxiderming them, and later he helds the entire zoo hostage under a threat of self-destructing the Penguin's thermonuclear reactor unless Private complies.
• More Popular Spin-Off: While the Madagascar movies were somewhat of a success, they each have their own Broken Base about which one is the best/least bad one, with the series as a whole being seen as So Okay, It's Average. You won't find anyone badmouthing this series, with many praising it for its witty humor, excellent use of pre-established characters, and cohesive storytelling.
• Narm Charm: "Operation: Big Blue Marble" has a very Anvilicious Green Aesop in a show that's prone to pull Spoof Aesops but the message is delivered well and it manages to be a very fun special regardless.
• Older Than They Think: While some might think Rico's Flanderization for coughing up weapons originates in this series, it was used twice. First in the Christmas special where he pulls out a stick of dynamite (though even then he's struggling) and a Game Boy Advance video game called Operation Penguin, where he would casually burp out each new weapon for Private.
• Periphery Demographic: Many teens and young adults like the show.
• Popular with Furries: This series has a furry fanbase due to Julien, Marlene and the penguins themselves.
• Ron the Death Eater: While the Penguins are far from saints, the fandom (and the character's in-universe as well) has a tendency of blaming them for things they didn't actually do, particulary getting Officer X fired from his job and traumatizing Leonard the koala. In the former side, they didn't actually had nothing to do with that, as he was fired after he downloaded his frustration over his failure on capturing the Penguins going on a rampage over the city and on the latter side, it was more related to Leonard panicking and not following their instructions that the Penguins attempting anything to do his situation worst.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: "Skilene" for Skipper/Marlene, by far the most common shipping.
• Self-Fanservice: Humanized fanart turns the penguins into attractive black-haired men of various ages. Rico is hit with it the most, while his dopey facial features, feather streaks and scar make him look somewhat Ugly Cute, humanized Rico is a case of Cute and Psycho. Or even Sexy and Psycho.
• Shipping:
  • Despite the fact that Marlene is the only regular female character, and despite them having nothing in common, Skipper and Marlene is still far and away the most common fanfic pairing for them...
  • ... when the penguins aren't being paired with each other.
• Ship Tease: Despite how much Ho Yay Rico has with Kowalski, he still gets some tease with Marlene, with the suggestion that Marlene actually likes how excitable he can be, such as in "Jungle Law" when he uses her as a boomerang and she finds it fun, and "The Otter Woman" when he thinks 'Arlene' is attractive. Since Rico is the only Penguin who doesn't have a canon living girlfriend, this has resulted in a small fandom for those who want to try something new.
• Squick:
  • In "Friend-in-a-Box", Julien happily tells Kowalski that he never learned the Potty Dance, because as king he's entitled to go wherever he happens to be at the time. Kowalski backs away from him with a disturbed look.
  • In "Cat's Cradle" Max coughs up a hair ball. The Polish dub makes it more disturbing by making him coughing up his kidney.
    Max: I just coughed up my kidney.
• Strawman Has a Point:
  • Officer X. It's hard to argue with his grudge against the penguins given the constant scorn and public humiliation he goes through because of the penguins while he's doing his job. On the other hand, he has overstepped boundaries numerous times on duty, including committing property damage, so getting arrested and fired from his job aren’t unwarranted.
  • Mixed with Hilarious in Hindsight, Skipper in "Truth Ache" is suppose to be his usual paranoid himself and way too distrustful of his close neighbors for gathering secret information from the other animals in case any of them try to attack them and they need some blackmail material. One later episode "Night of the Vesuviuses" shows that the rest of the Zoo were perfectly capable of attacking who are usually their Big Good once they challenge their plans, showing Skipper wasn't completely in the wrong for believing it could happen.
  • Alice is meant to be a jerk in "Gut Instinct" because she refuses to let Gladys feed the animals in the Central Park Zoo, but considering changes in diet in animals can lead to diseases spread, this is very much justified and is arguably one of the few times Alice is doing her job. However, given Alice's unpleasant personality, it's not surprising that the audience could most likely side with Gladys in this episode.
  • Similarly, an earlier episode "Popcorn Panic" frames Alice badly because she refuses to let visitors feed the animals, the only reason why she's meant to be in the wrong is because, once again she's very unpleasant and that the animals like popcorn.
  • At the end of "Operation: Big Blue Marble", Skipper blames himself for the whole Furro incident but mentions he would blame Kowalski in the official report. This is treated as a comical case of The Scapegoat by the episode, except that Kowalski is actually the most guilty part in the whole operation, given he invented the machine in the first place, dismissed the side effects of the toxic waste disposal until it started happening, refused to hear Private's observation that adding more chemicals to the bubble could make the situation worse and didn't gave any of the rockets parachutes which is why they needed a rescue in the first place. While Skipper didn't help by forcing the machine to keep going and refusing to accept the evidence that the Furros are causing damage in the environment, is hard to deny Kowalski doesn't have an equal or bigger amount of fault in the entire incident.
  • "Best Laid Plantains" is about King Julien and Marlene eating Bada and Bing's plantains and skipping town to not deal with the angry gorillas. When the situation was solved, Marlene asked King Julien if he had learned a lesson about not messing with other people's stuff, which he answered by saying that she shouldn't do it. While this is another example of King Julien refusing to take responsibility for his actions, he isn't wrong that she has no right to take the moral high ground, given she also ate her portion of the plantains, and her only point in favor would be a very poor attempt to stop Julien.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: "Paternal Egg-Stinct" uses one of "Brahms's Lullaby."
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Rhonda is revealed to be an spy of Dr. Blowhole at the end of her episode, but that's never mentioned again and even when she comes back in "The Hoboken Surprise", this is not mentioned nor does she have any major role.
  • Hans's role in Skipper's Dark and Troubled Past is never touched upon again after his first appearance, because of this he becomes just another villain in the Penguin's Rogues Gallery from that point onwards, despite the fact he's meant to be Skipper's Arch-Nemesis and therefore could have bringed more personal stakes when they faced him. One later episode alludes to the backstory, but his present self is strangely absent of that episode.
  • Blue Hen is another villain with wasted potential; she's basically an Evil Counterpart to Kowalski, being a bird so insanely intelligent that she was able to predict the movements and actions of all the animals in the zoo and participants in sports teams, with enough ingenuity to create a plan that would turn her into the president. With this amount of intelligence and skill, she could have easily been one of the Penguins most dangerous enemies. Sadly, she's not much of a threat in neither of the episodes she appears in, and her rivalry with Kowalski could have been developed more.
  • The Danish security chief could have being a great recurring antagonist, being both an hypercompetent human aware of the Penguins activities and being tied up to Skipper's past in the same way Hans was. But alas, the episode where he made his first appearence happened to be one of the last episodes produced before the show was cancelled.
  • Executive Meddling caused the special "The Penguin Who Loved Me" to unintentionally become the ending of the series. Because of this, the handling of certain characters is a bit of a letdown for a Grand Finale.
    • Despite being main characters as well, the Lemurs only appear in the intro and in a small gag, while Marlene is nowhere to be seen. They do, however, play a role of importance in the previous special, "Operation: Lunacorn Apocalypse"
    • As noted in Anti-Climax Boss, Dr. Blowhole's final outing doesn't amount to much, despite being a Knight of Cerebus in his previous appearances. He basically recovers his memory, then Kowalski annoys him enough time to distract him and kick him, and that's pretty much it. Given the special ends with a And the Adventure Continues note, chances are this wasn't meant to be the end of the character, which leaves the final fight of the Penguins against their biggest rival end in a rather unsatisfying note.
    • The Reveal that Manfredi & Johnson are still alive is reserved for a quick joke. Despite this opening a whole new can of potential stories.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The existence of Buck Rockgut and Uncle Nigel implies that Penguins as a whole (or at least a considerable part of their population) are a Proud Soldier Race and both characters mention the existence of a general HQ besides the one seen in the series. The show, however, never addresses the implications that there may be more penguin squadrons out there, and we never see the general HQ.
  • In "Wishful Thinking", the penguins operations are discovered by humans and they are imprisoned to be studied and dissected by the government as a consequences of one of the wishes of the fountain. This situation is basically the penguins's worst case scenario and a potential Darkest Hour, so you would think that it would be the focus of his own episode or even a full blown special. However, it only happens at the last minutes of the episode before Private presses the Reset Button and everything is back to normal.
  • Kowalski and King Julien forming an Odd Friendship in "Time Out" is reserved to one musical number before Kowalski finds a way to unfreeze time.
  • Dr. Blowhole and Hans's alliance is only the set up in "The Return of the Revenge of Dr. Blowhole" you would think that Skipper's two major nemesis having a Big Bad Duumvirate would be a huge deal but then Dr. Blowhole gets annoyed by Hans and gets rid of him very early on the special. He doesn't even participates in the main plan.
  • The environmental disaster caused in "Operation: Big Blue Marble" is easily solved by the Penguins, considering the nature of global warming in real life, it could have being more poignant if the conclusion wasn't as clean, and some chances of the blue bubble forming again were still out there.
  • An Brainwashed and Crazy Skipper allying with the Rogues Gallery of the Penguins, while making his objective to attack and capture all the animals of the zoo in "Best Foes". Sounds like a potential idea for a Grand Finale episode (it was in fact the second-to-last episode to air), considering Skipper is commonly stated to be much stronger that the rest of the Penguins and the other penguins being unable to work without Skipper is a recurring storyline. Sadly, the premise ends up becoming the background for another episode of King Julien being a Incidental Villain, while Skipper is easily defeated after Julien and Hans throw him to the Penguin's cage and left him unconscious. The overall idea of the whole Rogues Gallery appearing is only mentioned as Skipper's next move but he only allies with Hans before the situation is controlled.
  • Chuck Charles becomes a Secret-Keeper for the Penguins at the end of "Goodnight and Good Chuck". The idea of the Penguins having a human ally opens the door to a lot of stories, but given that it was the last episode produced, this event is not revisited again.
• Tough Act to Follow: "The Penguin Who Loved Me" isn't disliked, but because it's the closest thing the show has to a Grand Finale, some fans found it anticlimatic in comparison to the previous special "Operation: Lunacorn Apocalypse" or Dr. Blowhole's previous special "The Return of the Revenge of Dr. Blowhole"
• Ugly Cute: Rico. While he isn't that ugly, he is designed in a slightly more cartoony manner than his already cartoony comrades and he has a flatter face, a scar, bigger beak and double chin... and yet he is absolutely adorable, mostly because of how expressive he is.
• Unexpected Character:
  • Everyone assumed Manfredi & Johnson were dead, so imagine the fandom's collective surprise when they appeared alive in "The Penguin Who Loved Me."
  • Nobody expected Alex to appear as Skipper's spirit advisor in "The Return Of The Revenge Of Blowhole".
• Unintentionally Sympathetic:
  • Is hard to blame Roger for spending too much time in the Penguin habitat in "Operation: Neighbor Swap", considering the Penguins putted him without asking in a habitat that's not accommodated to his needs. It comes across less like a pesky new neighbor and more like someone making the best out of a complicated situation.
  • Yes, the rats still go too far with the Villain Ball in "Rock-A-Bye Birdie" by throwing a brick into a baby and trying to sunk the penguins into acid, but is very hard to blame them for wanting to keep Kowalski's ray that freshes rotten food considering they live in the sewers.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • The penguins see absolutely no issue with stealing food from humans, which isn't a big issue, except that sometimes they go overboard and steal full food carts with no consideration that this would mean those persons would lose their jobs or chances on making money.
  • The Penguins at the end of "Operation: Neighbor Swap" where they ditch Roger for spending too much time in their habitat... because they were the ones that put him without asking in a habitat that's not accommodated to his needs.
• Unpopular Popular Character:
  • King Julien is far from the Universally Beloved Leader from the movies and his own show; he's seen as a nuisance by the whole zoo (especially the Penguins) for constantly messing up things for the sake of getting what he wants. Even Maurice, his loyal right hand, tends to be as annoyed by his antics as everyone else is, while Mort, his Yes-Man, has admitted to only liking him for his feet. Fans, on the other hand, find him amusing, thanks to Jerkass Dissonance and his occasional Hidden Depths.
  • Officer X. Among humans, he's a nutjob who has being fired from every job he had for proclaiming crazy stories about combating penguins. Among animals, he's a dangerous and unstable man who will go to extreme measures to capture his targets, so it's better to stay away from him. Among fans, he's a very entertaining villain that manages to be both very competent and hilarious at the same time.
• Villain Decay:
  • Savio was legitimately threatening in his first apperance, being able to go on a mammal rampage freely and the Penguins being unable to stop him, until they brought Burt into the picture. In "All Tied Up with a Boa", he starts promising by getting rid of Burt and quickly outsmarting the Penguins, but once he finally gets to them, he falls into Bond Villain Stupidity and is then humiliatingly defeated by being covered on popcorn butter and getting slippy. Then in "The Terror of Madagascar", he doesn't display any of his usual intelligence and is defeated by a Fossa...a baby Fossa.
  • Invoked and then played straight with Dr. Blowhole in "The Penguin Who Loved Me". He's for most of the special fairly incompetent which is justified given he had his memory wiped the last time we saw him. Sadly, once he recovers his memory he doesn't achieve much neither and is quickly stopped by Kowalski, a huge contrast to how his previous fights with the penguins went.
• The Woobie: Poor, poor Leonard the koala.

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