YMMV / Timon & Pumbaa

• Accidental Innuendo: In the "Timon entering Pumbaa's brain" part of "Beetle Romania", Timon Comically Missing the Point of Pumbaa's lecture about how much of a "pickle" he has gotten himself into and thinking that Pumbaa is talking about him literally being inside "one dilly of a pickle" rather than talking about him having gotten himself into a humiliatingly gigantic amount of trouble due to his reckless-ness and stubborn-ness. Timon then angrily looks around himself, seemingly to make sure that he actually is in Pumbaa's brain rather than his scrotum.
• Awesome Art: While any episode sent to Walt Disney Animation Australia is sure to be visually stellar, "Stand By Me" (which was actually colored digitally and released in theaters), "Forbidden Pumbaa", "Beethoven's Whiff/Bumble in the Jungle" and "Jamaica Mistake" are nearly film quality.
  • The title cards for the show are also beautiful, with "To Kilimanjaro Bird" being the best example.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In "Guatemala Malarkey", Timon wonders if they put any traps in the temple if people steal a treasure chest containing the "golden fruitfly". The ground starts to shake, and then some pretty random things happen, including knifes and axes being thrown at Timon and Pumbaa, ghosts, a dragon surrounded by fire, a clown throwing confetti, a girl water skiing on the water surrounding Timon and Pumbaa, and fireworks. Then, an announcer says "We hope you've enjoyed tonight's performance of 'The Destruction of the Lost, Forgotten, Abandoned Temple Shrine of the Sacred, Glorious Fruit Fly!' Please, exit through the doors to your left. Thank you!" After this, Timon and Pumbaa talk about the value of what's in the treasure chest.
• Bizarro Episode: "Amazon Quiver" becomes this. It involves Timon and Pumbaa getting trapped inside a hollow tree by a ravenous panther and after their previous plans to escape fail, the episode ends with them deciding to wait out the predator until the year 2090, where the three become elderly and the amazon becomes futuristic, although the panther's more humanoid appearance as an elder could indicate that this might be All Just a Dream.
• Broken Base: Fans of the original movie are divided when it comes to this series. There are some who consider it to be a good and worthy Spin-Off of the film, some who think it's a good show but prefer to think of it as its own canon, and then there are some who ignore it entirely. One of the reasons is for it being mainly just about Timon and Pumbaa, on top of the Denser and Wackier tone compared to the films.
• Can't Un-Hear It: After listening to Timon singing "Stand By Me", it may become impossible to hear an instrumental break from another version without imaging Pumbaa shout, "Uh, I don't think I like this song!"
• Catharsis Factor: At the end of "Amusement Bark", Timon and Pumbaa making Boss Beaver and his son Boy Beaver work for them as punishment for putting them through hell for the entire episode.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Any time a character from the films shows up, expect them to steal the show.
  • Some of its Canon Foreigner characters, such as Cheetata and Cheetato and Smolder the Bear, also seem to be gaining a fanbase.
  • The jeweler's wife in "Ocean Commotion".
• Fridge Horror: Quint gets eaten by Smolder at the end of "Ready, Aim, Fire". This was his last appearance in the franchise...
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: While the show was a modest success at best in the United States, it achieved more success overseas, especially in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East^note where it's more known than the original movie and Japan. In fact, the whole reason a third season was commisioned for this show was because of its popularity on various European television networks.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The episode "Oahu Wahoo" has a talking statue named Bahuka order Timon to bring him the airplane warning light from the Empire State Building, which he does. This is followed by a shot of the Empire State Building with several planes crashed into it. This scene was omitted in Disney Channel and Toon Disney airings, for obvious reasons.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • One episode ("Werehogs of London") featured Pumbaa apparently succumbing to "the curse of the Werehog."
  • The episode "Kahuna Potato" featured evil counterparts of the main duo named Pimon and Tumbaa. Two minibosses you fight in Borderlands 2, while references to the main duo, have the same names as their evil counterparts from this show.
  • There is such a moment connected with a Woolseyism in a foreign dub. The joke about Frenchmen loving Jerry Lewis (mentioned in Germans Love David Hasselhoff plus National Stereotypes tab below) would probably fly over Russian audience's heads, so the Russian dub mentions Gérard Depardieu instead. Cut to 2013, when Depardieu moves to Russia to escape from taxes...
  • Episodes like ("Congo On Like This") and ("Shake Your Djibouti") have Timon & Pumbaa being afraid of Simba for the possibility of him eating them or questioning how good of a lion he is because he isn't as violent as a "lion should be". In The Lion King (2019), Timon and Pumbaa have friends who imply he's not a "real lion" for having a laidback personality and are also afraid of him eating them because of his species.
  • "Ready, Aim, Fire" has Smolder the Bear opening up a hatch on his stomach with two live children inside, who he ate for playing with fire — something that Timon lampshades frequently. Flash-forward to 22 years later...
• Ho Yay: The "Stand by Me" parody music video sung by Timon about how he needs Pumbaa is a romantic song which replaces "darling" with "Pumbaa" in the lyrics. You won't see it the same way again.
  • In addition, Timon and Pumbaa also live together and travel together. They also bicker Like an Old Married Couple in some episodes.
  • Well, Nathan Lane did call them "Disney's first gay couple." It helps that Lane himself is gay.
• Improved Second Attempt:
  • Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed, considering the controversy of how the film portrays hyenas. While they are still as vicious and threatening as they are in the movie, they seem to be evolving into neutrality as the show progresses, with "TV Dinner", which is the last of their segments, giving them a happy ending. Other hyenas in the series, like the one in "Guru-Some", are also portrayed as good guys instead of threats.
  • Zazu is constantly abused and disrespected throughout the original film. The episode "Zazu's Off-by-One Day", however, implies that he does genuinely get taken seriously.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Timon has this going for him. He's manipulative, greedy, and short-tempered but he has his fair share of sympathetic moments and generally gets tortured worse than Pumbaa. Just look at his tearful reaction to being banished in "Once Upon A Timon".
  • Zazu is much meaner than he is in the movie (although still has a heart), but it's because he's under constant pressure to work and due to a mix-up he doesn't get a proper day off.
• Moral Event Horizon: Boy Beaver crossed it in Amusement Bark, by having the Log Flume operator Bound and Gagged, then messing with the controls to endanger Timon and Pumbaa while they were on the ride. His father was greatly appalled at this.
• Older Than They Think: Although this series is the first Lion King project in which humans make animated appearances and animals are shown interacting with them, it is technically not the first time humans are seen or mentioned in a Lion King-related medium. A short film titled Circle of Life: An Environmental Fable (which was released in January 1995 in the Harvest Theater at Epcot in Walt Disney World, and takes place after Simba became king of Pride Rock) had Simba teach Timon and Pumbaa about humans and how the creature was similarly forgetting about how everything in the world was connected and their impact on the environment as a result, with humans appearing in live-action footages (some of which were recycled footages from the previous short film Symbiosis).
• Periphery Demographic: The first two seasons qualify, as there was quite a bit of No Celebrities Were Harmed and Genius Bonus involved.
• Salvaged Story: The original film didn't give Simba a good reason on why he should be king, as he didn't seem to have any of the necessary skills to rule the Pride Lands. However, the episodes "Congo on Like This" and "Shake Your Djibouti", both of which presumably take place some time during Scar's reign, show that while Simba is living a Hakuna Matata life with Timon and Pumbaa, he is beginning to show the qualities needed to be King of Pride Rock, such as loyalty, bravery, and strength.
• Seasonal Rot: Fans of the show hate the final season due to numerous changes being made. These involve very different animation, the constant appearance of humans, the other characters of the movie rarely (if ever) appearing, and some downright bad writing. There is a strong rumor that the series, likely as a result of Executive Meddling, gained a different production team that gave it a more child-friendly tone, killing the show's ratings. This has never been confirmed, however, as the series never had any behind-the-scenes information released.
• Strawman Has a Point: Timon is depicted as a Lazy Bum for not wanting to exercise in "I Think I Canada", but considering that the scale he stood on to gauge his weight laughed at him because of his small size, he probably saw no need to do any exercise at all.
• Sweetness Aversion: Season three will never let us forget that Timon and Pumbaa are "bestest best friends". The season blatantly spells it out in nearly every episode and basically thrives on friendship moments between the two. While the first two seasons also possessed these qualities, it was balanced out with visual gags, slapstick, Nightmare Fuel, and Timon's witty snark and sarcasm, not to mention it being made less obvious at that point.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The other characters from the film only appear sparsely, despite getting a few enjoyable Days In The Limelight in the starting points of the series. Then there are the original characters of the series, who typically disappear after about one or two episodes.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: "Beetle Romania", judging from its title card, could have mined endless humor from the idea of Timon and Pumbaa being fortune tellers, but instead it's just another "Fantastic Voyage" Plot.
• Values Dissonance:
  • The episodes with the three natives have a warning about this on Disney Plus, although they are actually a subversion of the Hollywood Natives trope, being (black) university students on weekend breaks.
  • "Catch Me If You Kenya" features the antagonist dressed as a Chinese caricature towards the end, which was actually was removed in reruns. The scene was reinstated on Disney Plus, however.