History YMMV / ChildishGambino

** "3005" features the lyrics "Girl why is you lying, girl why you [[{{Pun}} Mufasa]]". Gambino has recently been cast Simba in Creator/JonFavreau's LiveActionAdaptation of ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994''.
** His stand up show ''Weirdo'' had a joke about him seeing children as "Tiny Hitlers" and how he would [[CrossesTheLineTwice rather have AIDS than kids]]. As of 2022, he has *three kids*

** "Zombies" paints a picture of the society being full of, well zombies, representing social predators and industries. [[ParanoiaFuel They are everywhere]], [[HorrorHunger they will consume you]], [[KarmaHoudini and they will stay alive and well]]. This is all unsettling on its own, the [[LyricalDissonance lo-fi melody certainly not helping the matters]], but the true terror comes at the end, in the form of a single line: "[[TomatoInTheMirror Do you]] [[ObliviouslyEvil feel alive?]]"

** EH EH EH EH ONOMATOPOEIA[[labelnote:Explanation]]From the song "IV. sweatpants".[[/labelnote]]
*** People have had lots of fun making {{stupid statement dance mix}}es off of it, especially on Soundcloud. [[https://soundcloud.com/great-water/thomas-gambino-the-childish-tank-engine-onomatopoeiacore-submission The]] [[https://soundcloud.com/dtrain-gavin/feel-onomatopoeia-inc list]] [[https://soundcloud.com/justinterrible-mashups/childish-gambino-has-a-squeaky-bed just]] [[https://soundcloud.com/nmit/another-sweatpants-joke goes]] [[https://soundcloud.com/yungterra/the-ballad-of-gay-mbino on]] [[https://soundcloud.com/giascle/making-a-sound-with-your-mouth-isnt-actually-an-onomatopoeia and]] [[https://soundcloud.com/3lixar/another-stupid-onomatopoeia-thing on.]]

** While "Feels Like Summer" has a largely straightforward GreenAesop, a certain section of video has led to a lot of interpretations; namely, the brief section showing an unidentified man in a suit sitting on a bench eating vanilla and chocolate ice cream, which he puts down as it starts melting shortly after. Postulated identities for the man in the suit are usually Barack Obama, Martin Luther King Jr., OJ Simpson, or Andrew Gillum (the Democratic candidate during the 2018 Florida gubernatorial election), whereas the melting ice cream is usually seen as symbolizing either the deterioration or mending of race relations between blacks and whites, or the death of Music/XXXTentacion (the ice cream's coloration resembles his signature hairstyle). Typically, the Gillum/[=XXXTentacion=] theory is the interpretation most follow, though nothing is for sure (especially as Gillum only started receiving significant attention about a week before the video's release, which would make it tricky to dedicate a section to him due to AnimationLeadTime).

* CriticalResearchFailure: [[http://www.allmusic.com/album/because-the-internet-mw0002586630 The Allmusic review of]] ''because the internet,'' while largely positive, seems to have been written under the impression that "Sweatpants" (i.e. the song designed to demonstrate what a spoiled JerkAss The Boy is) is autobiographical.

* EightPointEight:
** The masters of this trope, Pitchfork, gave ''Camp'' probably its lowest professional review (1.6). Rather appropriate, since at least one song on the album makes fun of Pitchfork.
** ''WebVideo/TheNeedleDrop'' gave it a similarly oddly extreme rating of [=2/10=], lower than Chief Keef's album. The comments on the video are pretty entertaining.

** The amount of mashups that have been made with "Bonfire" is kind of scary.

** His stand up show ''Weirdo'' had a joke about him seeing children as "Tiny Hitlers" and how he wouldn't want to have kids. Years later after that stand up, ''he has a kid''.

%%
%% Before uncommenting, explain how it fits.
%% "This is important and more people need to agree with it" is not proper usage of SANTBD
%%* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: "Hold You Down."
%%%-->He said I wasn't black because I had a dad\\
...I think that's kinda sad
%%-->Mostly cause a lot of black kids think they should agree with that
%%-->If you're a father, you should stick around if you could
%%** "This Is America" isn't exactly subtle, but plenty of people do agree with its message.

** Jhene Aiko's singing on "Pink Toes", as well as her heavenly harmonization before her verse.

** "3005" features the lyrics "Girl why is you lying, girl why you [[{{Pun}} Mufasa]]". Gambino has recently been cast Simba in Creator/JonFavreau's LiveActionAdaptation of ''Disney/TheLionKing''.

** Making memes of the "This Is America" music video just for the sake of it.[[labelnote:Explanation]]Vice (alongside various Twitter users) attempted to shame internetgoers into not memeing the video, claiming that doing so only proves its point, and that it's ''too important and serious'' to be memed. Cue scores of This Is America memes made purely to spite Vice, and counterarguments about how trying to shame internet users into not doing something will ensure that they'll do it anyway. [[FountainOfMemes It didn't help that damn near every single frame of the music video was a meme goldmine already]].[[/labelnote]]

* CrazyAwesome:
** Bino's dancing in the "Sober" video. Also his dancing in the "This is America" video.
** Some of Bino's choices of remixing under the [=mcDJ=] name are testaments to his unorthodox taste in music, namely his projects in which he remixes a multitude of songs from ''Franchise/{{Peanuts}}'', Music/FionaApple, and Music/SufjanStevens.
* CreatorBreakdown: A lot of people think he's had one while working on ''Because the Internet'', due to his demeanor in interviews, quitting ''{{Series/Community}}'', and posting a rather disturbing open letter on Instagram containing his biggest fears. And that's not mentioning how he's "blacked out" his social media accounts, except his Facebook and Soundcloud. Even his websites ("childishgambino.com", "iamdonald.com", and even "becausetheinter.net") have been "blacked out". Whether this is because of the implied breakdown leading to his ReclusiveArtist aspect or is a part of the idea of ''because the internet'''s theme, is unknown.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: "Hold You Down."
-->He said I wasn't black because I had a dad\\

-->Mostly cause a lot of black kids think they should agree with that
-->If you're a father, you should stick around if you could
** "This Is America" isn't exactly subtle, but plenty of people do agree with its message.

** On the acting side of things, his performance as Simba in ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing2019''. While his performance as Lando in ''Film/SoloAStarWarsStory'' was [[ToughActToFollow unanimously well received, even to people who otherwise had mixed feelings about the movie]], his performance as Simba got mixed reviews from critics and even his ''fans''. Some of his fans thought he did a good job and was one of the better parts of an otherwise pointless remake. Others felt like he was surprisingly wooden in the role, especially compared to anything else he's done, and had little vocal chemistry with ''Creator/{{Beyonce}}'', whether singing or acting. Despite this, most people don't blame him for the quality (or lack thereof) of the movie and continue to be his fans.

** On the acting side of things, his performance as Simba in ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing2019''. While his performance as Lando in ''Film/SoloAStarWarsStory'' was [[ToughActToFollow unanimously well received, even to people who otherwise had mixed feelings about the movie]], his performance as Simba got mixed reviews from critics and even his ''fans''. Some felt he did a good job and was one of the better parts of an otherwise pointless remake. Others felt like he was surprisingly wooden in the role, especially compared to anything else he's done, and had little vocal chemistry with ''Creator/{{Beyonce}}'', whether singing or acting. Despite this, most people don't blame him for the quality (or lack thereof) of the movie and continue to be his fans.

* EarWorm:
** "Redbone".
** "Music/ThisIsAmerica, don't catch you slippin' up..."

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: [[AwesomeMusic/ChildishGambino See here.]]

--> [[spoiler: Do I know you?]]

** Almost everyone has their own interpretation about the video for "This is America". There are those who think its about the gun violence epidemic. That its about racism and how its ignored. That its about how great tragedies are common and easily forgotten. How Americans ignore the world around them. Some see it as a TakeThat to the black artists singing about their money and their stuff while ignoring, or even causing, the suffering of black communities, basically accusing them of UncleTomfoolery. There are also a lot of people who say its all the above and more. Thats just for the overall message.