History YMMV / DrHorriblesSingAlongBlog

** There's a large camp of people who believe Dr. Horrible and Billy are two separate people in one body, as evidenced by some of the trope comments below, even though [[{{Fanon}} this was never revealed in the show]].

** Penny, on one hand, she dates a guy who's not very subtle about what a giant {{Jerkass}} he is because he's famous and can help her with her personal goals, she's possibly emotionally cheating on said {{Jerkass}} with Billy, and she quite possibly uses [[spoiler: her last words]] just to twist the knife in someone's gut. The view of her as being full of IncorruptiblePurePureness is more Billy's projection, and looking at what she actually does shows her as flawed and shallow like everyone else in the story.
** Then on the other hand, should she really be able to see Hammer's jerkiness? He's fairly low-key around her, until the press conference, where she sees it and doesn't like it a bit. Is she just using Hammer to achieve her own personal goal? Since her goal is a to help the homeless, is the manipulation unjustified?

* DesignatedVillain: Weirdly, Captain Hammer ends up being this, despite being treated as an in-universe DesignatedHero. He's a jerk, yes, but he actually listens to Penny, cares about her interests, and tries to do things for her, which Billy rather clearly ''doesn't'' do. He's pointedly mean to Billy, but Billy is... you know, a supervillain, who has rather evil motives even if he is {{Adorkable}}. He delivers a rather condescending song at the opening of a homeless shelter, but he's the one who opened the homeless shelter in the first place, and he does seem to be sincere in his understanding that it's a good thing to do, if nothing else. The bad that he does in the story is generally outweighed heavily by the good. His biggest failure as a hero is, oddly, probably that he's more interested in using excessive force against a villain he could easily restrain than in, ya know, actually arresting him.

* WhatAnIdiot: Captain Hammer managed to damage the device which allows Dr. Horrible to control the truck with Wonderflonium.\\
'''You'd Expect''': That Captain Hammer would stop the truck immediately.\\
'''Instead''': He jumps off the truck to flirt with a woman on the street. The truck goes out of control which could have injured or killed someone which nearly happened to Penny. On top of that Horrible managed to steal the Wonderflonium.\\
'''To Be Fair''': He at least tried to save Penny by pushing her into the trash, but there is no denying that his actions were very reckless.

* FoeYay: Between Captain Hammer and Dr. Horrible, who seem to take their relationship very seriously:
** Dr. Horrible mentions at the very beginning of his blog that Captain Hammer is his nemesis, not some poser in a parka. Captain Hammer apparently returns the feeling as he admits in his song that everyone's villains aren't as cool as his.
** "These... Are not the hammer. The hammer is my penis." One act later, Dr. Horrible taunts him with "Hammer, meet nail!" If that's not a {{Metaphorgotten}}, it's a very revealing FreudianSlip.

'''To be fair''': He at least tried to save Penny by pushing her into the trash, but there is no denying that his actions were very reckless.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: One of the Evil League of Evil leaders being named [[Music/DavidBowie "Dead Bowie"]]. Yeah.

** As noted in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUxtQX9XSJs this video]] by WebVideo/SarahZ, Billy/Dr. Horrible's character arc can easily be interpreted in hindsight as metaphorical for the radicalization of young men into various anti-feminist/toxic masculinist ideologies, particularly the incel movement, at a time when they were barely a blip on the cultural radar. Billy starts out as [[GiveGeeksAChance a dweebish, nerdy man]] who [[DoggedNiceGuy pines after Penny]], yet she winds up instead attracted to Captain Hammer, a paragon of traditional masculinity who earns Billy's resentment for it -- not unlike many self-proclaimed incels who blame "Chads", their generalized term for men (particularly handsome, athletic, and successful men, the term meant to evoke high school {{Jerk Jock}}s) who are more successful with women than they are, for their perpetual datelessness. [[spoiler:His journey to win Penny's affection winds up getting her killed, the moment at which his slide into supervillainy and transformation into Dr. Horrible is complete, reflective of various self-proclaimed incels who have gone on killing sprees.]]

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: One of the Evil League of Evil leaders being named "Dead Bowie", yeah.

** As noted in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUxtQX9XSJs this video]] by Sarah Z, Billy/Dr. Horrible's character arc can easily be interpreted in hindsight as metaphorical for the radicalization of young men into various anti-feminist/toxic masculinist ideologies, particularly the incel movement, at a time when they were barely a blip on the cultural radar. Billy starts out as a dweebish, nerdy man who pines after Penny, yet she winds up instead attracted to Captain Hammer, a paragon of traditional masculinity who earns Billy's resentment for it -- not unlike many self-proclaimed incels who blame "Chads", their generalized term for men (particularly handsome, athletic, and successful men, the term meant to evoke high school {{Jerk Jock}}s) who are more successful with women than they are, for their perpetual datelessness. [[spoiler:His journey to win Penny's affection winds up getting her killed, the moment at which his slide into supervillainy and transformation into Dr. Horrible is complete, reflective of various self-proclaimed incels who have gone on killing sprees.]]

* DesignatedVillain: Weirdly, Captain Hammer ends up being this, despite being treated as an in-universe DesignatedHero. He's a jerk, yes, but he actually listens to Penny, cares about her interests, and tries to do things for her, which Billy rather clearly ''doesn't'' do. He's pointedly mean to Billy, but Billy is... you know, a supervillain, who has rather evil motives even if he is {{Adorkable}}. He delivers a rather condescending song at the opening of a homeless shelter, but he's the one who opened the homeless shelter in the first place, and he does seem to be sincere in his understanding that it's a good thing to do, if nothing else. The bad that he does in the story is generally outweighed heavily by the good.

** Some people, as highlighted in [[http://karjack.livejournal.com/656327.html?format=light this essay]], are arguing that a large part of the audience seems to have missed the point especially in the way it tackled the idea of Website/WomenInRefrigerators and of Billy as a [[DoggedNiceGuy Nice Guy]]. Billy's complete transformation into the Dr. Horrible persona is clearly and unambiguously portrayed as a tragedy; not only because of the loss of Penny, but because it costs him the very humanity that his friend associates with. Some people are still going to prefer the WellIntentionedExtremist Dr. Horrible over the nebbish StalkerWithACrush Billy.

* MagnificentBastard: Doctor Horrible evolves into this as the story progresses.

** As noted in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUxtQX9XSJs this video]] by Sarah Z, Billy/Dr. Horrible's character arc can easily be interpreted in hindsight as metaphorical for the radicalization of young men into various "red pill" ideologies, particularly the incel movement, at a time when they were barely a blip on the cultural radar. Billy starts out as a dweebish, nerdy man who pines after Penny, yet she winds up instead attracted to Captain Hammer, a paragon of traditional masculinity who earns Billy's resentment for it -- not unlike many self-proclaimed incels who blame "Chad", their generalized term for men (particularly handsome, athletic, and successful men, the term meant to evoke high school {{Jerk Jock}}s) who are more successful with women than they are, for their perpetual datelessness. [[spoiler:His journey to win Penny's affection winds up getting her killed, the moment at which his slide into supervillainy and transformation into Dr. Horrible is complete, reflective of various self-proclaimed incels who have gone on killing sprees.]]

** There's at least one camp that argues that Captain Hammer is a much better boyfriend than Billy: neither of them are ''good'', to be sure, but Captain Hammer at least gives her a level of respect and attention which Billy doesn't. This is largely derived from the fact that, when Penny suggests the homeless shelter to Billy, he dismisses the idea and says that she's not focusing on the ''real'' problems, suggesting a lack of interest in what Penny actually wants.

** Despite only appearing in a contest entry video, Tur-Mohel quickly became a standout.

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: Of the "good movie, terrible title" variety. Early on a lot of potential fans refused to watch it solely because the title "Sing-Along Blog" sounded bad. Fortunately, positive word of mouth eventually overcame the audience-alienating nature of the title.

* NightmareFuel: The comic ''Best Friends Forever'' has a vision of Penny ask Billy why he killed her while gorily melting into a skeleton, with no in-between panel to soften it, and it's implied this has happened many times before.

** Also, whether it's a multiple personality or not, is Billy a genuine shy nice guy, or [[DoggedNiceGuy a passive-aggressive Nice Guy]] (TM) who, while less openly selfish in his pursuits of relationships than Captain Hammer, is not really any more interested in Penny as a person? It's a good story either way, but a very different story.

* DesignatedVillain: Weirdly, Captain Hammer ends up being this, despite being treated as an in-universe DesignatedHero. He's a jerk, yes, but he actually listens to Penny, cares about her interests, and tries to do things for her, which Billy rather clearly ''doesn't'' do. He's pointedly mean to Billy, but Billy is... you know, a supervillain, who has rather evil motives even if he is {{Adorkable}}. Billy blames him for almost getting Penny killed by the van in the opening, but it was Billy who caused that situation in the first place, and Captain Hammer was set to stop it from hitting her regardless of what Billy did. (Although it should be noted that Captain Hammer is still partly responsible since he damaged Billy's control mechanism which caused the van to go out of control in the first place.) He delivers a rather condescending song at the opening of a homeless shelter, but he's the one who opened the homeless shelter in the first place, and he does seem to be sincere in his understanding that it's a good thing to do, if nothing else. The bad that he does in the story is generally outweighed heavily by the good.

** Also, whether it's a multiple personality or not, is Billy a genuine shy nice guy, or a passive-aggressive Nice Guy (TM) who, while less openly selfish in his pursuits of relationships than Captain Hammer, is not really any more interested in Penny as a person? It's a good story either way, but a very different story.

* EarWorm: The songs are -- dare we say -- ''horribly'' catchy.

* DesignatedVillain: Weirdly, Captain Hammer ends up being this, despite being treated as an in-universe DesignatedHero. He's a jerk, yes, but he actually listens to Penny, cares about her interests, and tries to do things for her, which Billy rather clearly ''doesn't'' do. He's pointedly mean to Billy, but Billy is... you know, a supervillain, who has rather evil motives even if he is {{Adorkable}}. Billy blames him for almost getting Penny killed by the van in the opening, but it was Billy who caused that situation in the first place, and Captain Hammer was set to stop it from hitting her regardless of what Billy did. He delivers a rather condescending song at the opening of a homeless shelter, but he's the one who opened the homeless shelter in the first place, and he does seem to be sincere in his understanding that it's a good thing to do, if nothing else. The bad that he does in the story is generally outweighed heavily by the good.

* InternetBackdraft: Whatever you do, don't start a discussion on whether Penny's fate was a standard-issue [[spoiler:StuffedIntoTheFridge death]], or a deconstruction of said concept.

* HarsherInHindsight: The fan reaction to Loki in Whedon's film of ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' is eerily similar to how the public react to Dr Horrible in the ending, especially considering that they had the same motives (taking over the world in an effort to make it a better place) - Loki kills hundreds of people, but he's still worshipped as a villain, just like Dr Horrible was, complete with obsessed fangirls.

* HypeBacklash: There are some that feel that the short- which is low-budget and only 45-minutes long- doesn't really live up to the massive praise heaped upon it by its fans.

** Also, whether it's a multiple personality or not, is Billy a genuine shy nice guy, or a passive-aggressive Nice Guy (TM) who, while less openly selfish in his pursuits of relationships than Captain Hammer, is not really any more interested in her as a person? It's a good story either way, but a very different story.

* DesignatedVillain: Weirdly, Captain Hammer ends up being this, despite being treated as an in-universe DesignatedHero. He's a jerk, yes, but he actually listens to Penny, cares about her interests, and tries to do things for her, which Billy rather clearly ''doesn't'' do. He's pointedly mean to Billy, but Billy is... you know, a supervillain, who has rather evil motives even if he is {{Adorkable}}. He delivers a rather condescending song at the opening of a homeless shelter, but he's the one who opened the homeless shelter in the first place, and he does seem to be sincere in his understanding that it's a good thing to do, if nothing else. The bad that he does in the story is generally outweighed heavily by the good.

** While Horrible views it as... horrible, having sex with a fellow consenting adult and your girlfriend isn't really bad any reasonable moral standard, even if Hammer is a jerk. His ''reall'' MEH moment came near the end, when he outright tried to execute a downed and defenseless Dr. Horrible with his own death ray while the latter was begging for mercy. Supervillain or no, that's outright murder by legal definition. He's only prevented from doing so by the death ray's malfunction... but that just means he (accidentally) kills ''Penny'' instead.