History YMMV / Gintama

* EvilIsSexy: Takasugi, Bansai and Kamui for the female fans.

* TransAudienceInterpretation: For the longest time, Kyubei's gender identity was pretty hard to pin down, but their desire to "become a man" while having been born female and RaisedAsTheOppositeGender made it easy for some to headcanon them as female-to-male transgender. The "Dekkoboko" Arc ended up pushing it in a different direction, as it had Kyubei, following a brief GenderBender, conclude they saw themself as neither a man nor a woman, just as "Yagyu Kyubei", with many now seeing Kyubei as nonbinary even if the term is never explicitly used to describe them.

* HypeBacklash: With the show taking over the top-rated on shows on Website/MyAnimeList, some of the international audience come into the series with certain expectations and aren't always satisfied.

** Gintokigiving his balls names like [[Manga/SketDance Yuusuke and Sasuke]] becomes this when ''Sket Dance's'' Bossun gets his real backstory revealed.

** During a ''Ginpachi-sensei'''s segment, in episode 209, Ginpachi-sensei reports to his class that Kakashi from [[Manga/{{Naruto}} class N]] had his Sharingan stolen, [[spoiler:which eventually happens years later in ''Naruto'']].
** In one episode/chapter, Katsura desperately wants to enjoy the same TV shows as his subordinates. After the events presented in chapter 563, this stops being funny as it shows [[spoiler:that Katsura spent most of his childhood alone, not long after his parents and his grandmother died]]. Although he is still on friendly terms with Gintoki and Sakamoto in the present (and he often sees them), he doesn't want to feel like he is excluded from his own terrorist organization, even if it's the result of something as silly as not watching the same TV drama series as they do.
** Say, about the balls of Gintoki had a names like [[Manga/SketDance Yuusuke and Sasuke]], it becomes this when the story of Bossun came to light.

** Watch ''Gintama'', they said. It's comedy, they said. [[labelnote:explanation]]A snowclone of "{{Join the Army|They Said}}". Due to how dark some arcs can get like the Shogun Assassination Arc and ''especially'' Silver Soul, Fans (sarcastically) remark that the series is totally "comedy". [[/labelnote]]

*** The Stand arc parodying ''Franchise/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' becomes this since [[Creator/TomokazuSugita Gintoki]] shares a voice actor with [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency Joseph Joestar]] and later on wields a Stand himself. Every time Gintoki runs away is a dead-on ringer for how Joseph runs as well.

*** Remember that Gintoki [[Anime/OnePiece wants to become a Samurai King?]] Well, he becomes [[Creator/TomokazuSugita Charlotte Katakuri]] in this anime.

** In the Bentendo Owee arc, at one point, Hijikata berates Okita by telling him to go back to waiting for a sequel to ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}}'', with Okita answering that he's certain it will come back no matter what anybody else says. Several years later, he's proven right by ''Shenmue III'''s kickstarter campaign.

** It's basically ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'' on pot, salt, LSD's, reefer, and any other drug you can think of, mixed with pop culture references, parody and ''Franchise/LupinIII'' thinking it's in the future. Or they just snorted the fourth wall.

* IdiotPlot: Any stories that don't count as a serious arc has shades of this due to the characters' nature of overthinking simple problems or relying on people who are anything but sensible, and this is where a good chunk of the series's comedy and wackiness comes in.

-->'''Gintoki:''' Alcohol sure is nice, you can forget all your troubles, if only for a moment. You'll have to remember them tomorrow, though. And they'll be even more painful than they were the night before. You can’t run away from things like this. Especially from the things you want to forget.