History YMMV / BarneyAndFriends

* SweetnessAversion: One of the main criticisms of the show is how downright saccharine it is, even by children's show standards, and that Barney's always unfailing chipper and upbeat mood is a main contributing factor in making him coming across as genuinely disturbing and creepy to older viewers. People especially dislike his "Super-dee-dooper" cachphrase, as well as his song, seeing them as overly sweet and nauseatingly saccharine.
* TaintedByThePreview: Once the [[AllCGICartoon animated reboot]] was announced in 2023, many people - particularly those who grew up on the original show - took to social media in order to express intense backlash over [[YouDontLookLikeYou Barney's redesign]]. This quickly got to the stage where the hashtag ''#[=NotMyBarney=]'' blew up in popularity on Twitter, and the fact that Creator/{{Nelvana}} - who had previously collaborated with Mattel for the similarly-reviled WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriendsAllEnginesGo - most certainly didn't help matters.

* MemeticLoser: Barney was once a common victim of this trope thanks to the show's once-incredibly vocal hatedom.

* RonTheDeathEater: Many, ''many'' forms of media depict Barney as evil or a child murderer in some way.

* AccidentalAesop: In "Falling for Autumn", Shawn [[CheatersNeverProsper "wins"]] the peanut race at the Fall Festival [[KarmaHoudini by using peanut butter]]. This implies that it's okay to cheat, which is not something most parents want their children to learn.

** The Hebrew translation of If All The Raindrops talks about if raindrops were drops of cola and snowflakes were made of Krembo [[note]]A chocolate covered marshmallow treat popular in Israel[[/note]].

** The whole "Captain Pickles" AccidentalInnuendo becomes more hilarious when one considers how Barney is portrayed as a member of the MemeticMolester WebVideo/BarneyBunch group, whose leader is [[WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}} Drew]] ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}} Pickles]]'' as well as a captain called "[[Advertising/{{CapnCrunch}} Captain]]" [[Advertising/{{CapnCrunch}} Crunch]].

** The whole "Captain Pickles" AccidentalInnuendo becomes more hilarious when one considers how Barney is portrayed as a member of the MemeticMolester WebVideo/BarneyBunch group, whose leader is [[WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}} Drew]] ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}} Pickles]]''.

** Before becoming Disney Channel stars and music icons in their own right, Music/SelenaGomez and Music/DemiLovato both got their start in season 7 as Gianna and Angela, respectively. Barney later returned the favor and give them a shout-out for the show's MilestoneCelebration 25 Million Hugs Campaign.

* FandomRivalry: Many fans of other children's shows airing in the 90's usually tended to look down Barney. Though this disdain was admittedly a largely one-sided affair.

* FandomRivalry: Many fans of other children's show airing in the 90's usually tended to look down Barney. Though this disdain was admittedly a largely one-sided affair.

* VindicatedByHistory: Since the late 2010s, ''Barney'' has gotten way less hate than it has in the past, with many now looking back on the show fondly and calling it one of PBS' best shows (helped in part by ''WesternAnimation/{{Caillou}}'' becoming the network’s new punching bag). When the show aired on Universal Kids, it drew in surprisingly good ratings.

* CriticProof: Despite being despised by most over the age of 3 (most critics were divided on it, quite a few treated it on a scale from "good for the whole family" to SoOkayItsAverage), the series became one of the biggest merchandising successes of [[UsefulNotes/TheNineties the '90s]] and [[UsefulNotes/The2000s 2000s]]. Hell, one of the reasons why it survived for 17 years was because of its popularity with parents and educators (that and its hatedom slowly shrank into a VocalMinority as time went by).

* HeartwarmingInHindsight: Fans of Barney found out as adults that his original voice actor, Bob West, is a huge nerd with a keen interest in space. This makes re-watching ''Barney in Outer Space'' pretty heartwarming, especially considering the special has a real-life astronaut, NASA's Ken Reichler, as the guest star.

* MemeticPsychopath: Pink and cuddly or not, many people have pointed out that Barney is a dinosaur, and a [[TRexpy T-Rex]] at that. This of course leads to depictions of Barney are being a [[ImAHumanitarian literal predator]] who hunts down and devours the kids he sings and dances with, or even a satanic demon disguised as a pink friendly talking dinosaur. Sometimes he is just depicted as a more realistic-looking T. rex but recolored pink, though this can overlap with the aforementioned MemeticBadass.

* AccidentalAesop: In "Falling for Autumn", Shawn [[CheatersNeverProsper "wins"]] the peanut race at the Fall Festival [[KarmaHoudini by using peanut butter]].

* UnintentionalUncannyValley: Along with the aforementioned SweetnessAversion, another criticism from the show's hatedom is Barney's design (mainly his [[toothy grin ToothStrip]] and small but realistic looking eyes) combined with his always-happy mood came across as unnerving.

* AccidentalNightmareFuel:
** Barney, BJ, Baby Bop and Riff's mouths are completely black, they have no tongues, Baby Bop's mouth never moved in the first two seasons, and Barney has human-like eyes and teeth.
** The end of the Backyard Gang video "Waiting For Santa", with Santa looking at the camera and whispering almost menacingly "Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!"
** Many children were scared by the bear in "Barney's Campfire Singalong" due to the sheer UnintentionalUncannyValley factor of his appearance and because he appears out of the darkness of the woods.
** The donkey statue from ''Rock with Barney'' has only a small amount of screen time, but it has managed to traumatize a generation of children watching the video. As everyone exits the studio, the donkey can be heard braying offscreen, but when Adam's mother turns around to look for the source of the noise, she sees nothing but the inanimate donkey statue, so she merely shrugs it off and leaves. However, the scene cuts back to the donkey as the camera zooms up close to its face, after which it gives the audience a creepy-looking, almost lifelike wink.
*** And just when you think it couldn't get any worse, the donkey appears once more at the end of the credits and winks at us a second time!

** The donkey statue from ''Rock with Barney'' has only a small amount of screen time, but it has managed to traumatize a generation of children watching the video. As everyone exits the studio, the donkey can be heard braying offscreen, but when Adam's turns around to look for the source of the noise, she sees nothing but the inanimate donkey statue, so she merely shrugs it off and leaves. However, the scene cuts back to the donkey as the camera zooms up close to its face, after which it gives the audience a creepy-looking, almost lifelike wink.

* FandomRivalry: Any fan of any children's show made in the 90's usually tended to look down Barney.

* UnintentionalUncannyValley: Along with the aforementioned SweetnessAversion, another criticism from the show's hatedom is Barney's design (most notably his disproportionately small but realistic looking eyes) combined with his always-happy mood came across as unnerving.