YMMV / Waiting for Godot

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Given how open the meanings of anything in the play are left, almost any interpretation of anything in the play can fall under this trope.
  • The boy in act two is the first boy's brother,
  • The messenger boy is Godot,
  • Pozzo is Godot,
  • Lucky is Godot, and
  • There never was a Godot.
• Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Despite many critics' interpretations, Beckett did not intend Godot to represent God. Probably. Others theorize that the play represents a kind of Hell or purgatory.
• It Was His Sled: Considering the play's defining place in the post-modern movement, it's well known now that Godot never comes.
• Memetic Mutation: "That's how it is on this bitch of an earth." ^Explanation A quote by Pozzo that became inexplicably popular when accompanied by a piece of fetish art depicting an extremely muscular version of Luigi. The fanart with the caption became a common subject for parody, often juxtaposing the quote with other images of buff characters.
• Nightmare Fuel: The infamous part where Didi and Gogo discuss the voices of spirits, displeased by both life and death.
• Older Than They Think: People waiting for the title character to show up, but he never does and probably never will, and the cast must decide whether or not they will take control of their own lives instead? Sounds a lot like 1935 play Waiting For Lefty by Clifford Odets. Of course Odets' play was otherwise completely different, an up-to-the-minute social drama with a large ensemble and many flashbacks.
• Spiritual Successor: Bottom, amazingly (particularly from their West End production of it). It features Rik Mayall, Ade Edmondson and Christopher Ryan, who played (respectively) Rick, Vyvyan and Mike in The Young Ones. Go figure! Further screwed around with by the early '90s production with Rick and Ade... and Christopher playing Lucky!
• Tear Jerker: The end of the second act, as Vladimir begins to realize that no one remembers the day before except him, or worse — that no one cares about anything that happens — that the same is going to happen tomorrow, with little relevant to give himself or anything else any real presence. He's left begging the messenger boy to acknowledge seeing him, just to have someone affirm that he in some small way matters.
  • The play itself counts as this. Beckett's theater work became even more abstract as he went on.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: The play is on some fifth-grade reading lists because the words aren't very complicated. Even though it makes no freaking sense even to adults. In a way, this is actually worse than showing kids something violent or sexual — how do you explain to a child that she got an F on her analysis of the play because she said it was about two people waiting for Godot? They also discuss hanging themselves so they can get an erection. The only reason they don't is because the rope breaks.
• The Woobie: Poor, poor Lucky...
  • Arguably, everybody in the play.
  • Out of the main two (Didi and Gogo), Estragon seems to be slightly more of a Woobie, mainly because he also routinely gets beaten by some unseen gang.

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