History YMMV / DennisTheMenace

* HilariousInHindsight: The ''All-New Dennis the Menace'' episode "Dennis the Genius" features [[WesternAnimation/{{Recess}} a teacher named Miss Finster who has the same voice actor as Miss Grotke]], Creator/AllyceBeasley.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLdAVXOeNHk The theme song for the 80's series]]. A very upbeat theme with some slight jazz, especially big ups to the saxophone playing.

* MemeticMutation:
** '''"HEY MR. WILSON!!"'''
** [[https://9gag.com/gag/a1eRyPR/that-moment-when-you-realize-mr-wilson-looks-like-saddam-hussein More]] [[https://cheezburger.com/2639649024/saddam-hussein-totally-looks-like-walter-matthau than]] a few people have noted the resemblance between Walter Matthau's Mr. Wilson and UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein. [[https://www.reddit.com/r/gamegrumps/comments/1jxjx6/dennis_the_menace_side_by_side_comparison_of_mr/ Doubly]] [[https://cheezburger.com/7749613312/mr-wilson-totally-looks-like-saddam-hussein so]] for [[VideoGame/DennisTheMenace the video game adaptation]].
* UnintentionallySympathetic: It's hard not to feel bad for Mr. Wilson, [[LifesWorkRuined especially just after the bloom scene]].

* ValuesDissonance:
** Dennis would get spanked as punishment, even well into the 1980s in the comic strip.
** An older daily panel had Alice with a cigar and telling someone on the phone that Dennis bought it for her. This was back when minors could buy tobacco products as it was not uncommon for parents to send children down the street to cigar shops, tobacconists, etc. to pick up cigars, cigarettes and so on. This practice has vanished today due to stricter laws and changing societal attitudes towards tobacco, especially with juvenile tobacco use.

* TheWoobie: It's easy to sympathize with Mr. Wilson for what he has to put up with from Dennis.

* WhatAnIdiot: In the movie, Mr. Wilson is growing a plant that he is fully aware will bloom for maybe fifteen seconds and then die, knowing that he won't have enough life left after it blooms to grow another one if something goes wrong.
** '''You'd Expect:''' He has a back-up plant that will bloom a few years later (unless they're too expensive to get a second one), and planned for someone to film this event.
** '''Instead:''' He spends all his time staring out his backyard to see when it blooms.
** '''As a Result:''' The flower that took 40 years to grow flowers for a few seconds... and no one sees the whole process because of Dennis yelling at just the right moment. It honestly would have been surprising if he ''hadn't'' missed the bloom.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The score by the unconquerable Music/JerryGoldsmith—particularly the main theme—still remains an unexceptional and undeniable gem to this day.

* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: Yep, there was [[VideoGame/DennisTheMenace a video game for the Super Nintendo]], based on the 1993 film. Everything about it was messed up, from the controls to the graphics (Mr. Wilson especially looks ''[[UncannyValley horrible]]'').

* WhatAnIdiot: In the movie, Mr. Wilson spends forty years growing a plant that he is fully aware will bloom for maybe fifteen seconds and then die, knowing that he won't have enough life left after it blooms to grow another one if something goes wrong. He doesn't decide to grow a back-up plant that will bloom a few years later (unless they're too expensive to get a second one), and he doesn't plan for anyone to film this event. It honestly would have been surprising if he ''hadn't'' missed the bloom.

* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: Yep, there was [[VideoGame/DennisTheMenace a video game for the Super Nintendo]], based on the 1993 film. Everything about it was messed up, from the controls to the graphics (Mr. Wilson especially looks ''[[UncannyValley horrible]]''). The WebVideo/GameGrumps had a ball with it.
* SocietyMarchesOn: Alice being a working mom and going back into the workplace would have been seen as a ''much'' bigger deal in 1993 [[note]]Even in the film itself, Alice states that "a lot of moms work."[[/note]], and while obstacles for working parents still exist in many U.S. companies and state labor/workplace laws (like her uncooperative co-worker), the worsening economy, as well as the passage of time, would now [[ValuesResonance make Alice's decision the norm rather than the exception.]]

* WhatAnIdiot: In the movie, Mr. Wilson spends forty years growing a plant that he is fully aware will bloom for maybe fifteen seconds and then die, knowing that he won't have enough life left after it blooms to grow another one if something goes wrong. He doesn't decide to grow a back-up plant that will bloom a few years later (unless the plant was too expensive to get another), and he doesn't plan for anyone to film this event. It honestly would have been surprising if he ''hadn't'' missed the bloom.

* ValuesDissonance: Early in the movie, Mr. Wilson implies to Dennis' father that since talking to Dennis isn't working, he should try hitting Dennis with his belt since that what his father used to do. Mitchell dismisses him with a simple "that's not how I deal with my son". Nowadays, advocating physical punishment against children would've gotten Mr. Wilson a verbal ass-kicking.

** The "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" scene. As Mrs. Wilson reads the titular poem to Dennis to help him fall asleep, Dennis, Henry, and Alice are all in separate places and missing each other due to the latter two having to attend separate business trips.
** Mr. Wilson's speech to Dennis is a particularly cruel KickTheDog moment. Yes, Dennis is something of TheScrappy, but he never meant any malice toward Mr. Wilson, and just before the speech was actually trying to warn him. It's pretty heartwrenching to watch this five-year-old boy being told how horrible he is by a man he looks up to. It's almost immediately followed by Mr. Wilson realizing [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone how cruel he was]], Dennis running away, and the entire neighborhood looking for him while Margaret cries.

* WhatAnIdiot: In the movie, Mr. Wilson spends forty years growing a plant that he is fully aware will bloom for maybe fifteen seconds and then die, knowing that he won't have enough life left after it blooms to grow another one if something goes wrong. He doesn't decide to grow a back-up plant that will bloom a few years later (unless the first plant was too expensive for him to get a second one), and he doesn't plan for anyone to film this event. It honestly would have been surprising if he ''hadn't'' missed the bloom.

** Switchblade Sam's creepy entrance to the movie, too.

** The "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" scene.

* ValuesDissonance: One episode of the 1986 series had Dennis and Joey delivering a package, mistaking the clock inside for a time bomb. Lighthearted fun at the time but unthinkable these days.

* TearJerker: Mr. Wilson's speech to Dennis is a particularly cruel KickTheDog moment. Yes, Dennis is something of TheScrappy, but he never meant any malice toward Mr. Wilson, and just before the speech was actually trying to warn him. It's pretty heartwrenching to watch this five-year-old boy being told how horrible he is by a man he looks up to. It's almost immediately followed by Mr. Wilson realizing [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone how cruel he was]], Dennis running away, and the entire neighborhood looking for him while Margaret cries.