History YMMV / JohnnyTest

* DesignatedVillain: Any character that gets in conflicts with Johnny and his sisters is this, primarly because they're often portrayed as the ones in the wrong despite [[StrawmanHasAPoint proving a point]].
** Hugh often falls in this role due to how strict he can be to his family. One such example occurs in "Johnny's Got a Brand New Dad" where his kids replace him with a robot because he won't let them do what they want to do. He did, however, have reasons to, as Johnny asked to perform a unicycle stunt on the roof, and Susan and Mary asked for plutonium, both of which are potentially dangerous, yet the episode treats him like the villain for keeping his kids safe from harm.
** Lila in "Johnny Goes Nuts". Basically, Johnny wants to attend the running with the squirrels race, which Lila shoots down out of fear for her son getting hurt. The episode instantly paints her as the villain, yet all she's doing is keeping her son safe. And when Lila allows Johnny to participate, he gets trampled by the squirrels and sent to the hospital, proving her right.
** The hotel manager from "Johnny Test in 3-D". He's meant to be this due to him repeatedly wanting to expose Dukey to Hugh and Lila, but he's only doing his job (as well as the fact Johnny disobeyed his parents when they told him to drop Dukey off at the neighbor's house). And while Hugh and Lila eventually find out that Johnny did take Dukey behind their backs, Johnny largely goes unpunished while the hotel manager is basically forced to apologize to him.

* ShallowParody:
** One notable example is "[[Literature/TheHungerGames The Hungry Games]]", which is one of the racing episodes. The government-orchestrated fight between minors is instead made a race for the last pizza in town, and the episode ends with Johnny giving a lecture about sharing. However it could simply be that the title was chosen for the sake of a pun, and not because it was meant to indicate anything about the episode itself.

** From the Smarty Pants' point of view, Johnny is a BastardBoyfriend who only uses them to impress another girl.

** One notable example is "[[Literature/TheHungerGames The Hungry Games]]", which is yet another racing episode, so the government-orchestrated fight between minors has been downgraded to... a race for ''a pizza''. Not just any pizza, but the last pizza in town. And the episode ends with Johnny giving a preachy lecture about sharing. Although it could simply be that the title was chosen for the sake of a pun, and not because it was meant to indicate anything about the episode itself.
** "Johnny Re-Animated" has Dawg & Bone, a parody of ''Johnny Test'' itself.

* EscapistCharacter: Johnny's clearly meant to be this for the show's target audience; "Got a head of fiery hair, and a turbo-charged backpack" indeed. It... doesn't really work.

* OlderThanTheyThink: This wasn't the first Cartoon Network show to use the whipcrack sound effect constantly. ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' used the whipcrack sound effect for its characters in almost every episode. Though in that show's defense, it usually used the sound effect for things like finger pointing while this show used it for literally every time a character moves a part of their body around.

* ShallowParody: Quite a few, considering how little originality the show has.

* CriticalBacklash: While the show still maintains a very large hatebase, it's slowly starting to fall under this trope as well. While it isn't a ''bad'' show, people who watched it after hearing about the immense amount of hate it gets tend to have this reaction. Some episodes are enjoyable, but the show itself just had the unfortunate timing of being a flawed-but-decent cartoon that became AdoredByTheNetwork while Creator/CartoonNetwork was starting to undo its years of NetworkDecay. The fact that [[WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo CN's next overplayed series]] is even MORE adored by the network than ''Johnny Test'' was even at its height has added to this.

* UncannyValley: Speed [=McCool=] and Monkey, although that's probably intentional, considering the two are based on old action cartoons.
** The animation after Season 1 falls into this.

* WhatAnIdiot: Johnny's idea to replace toy cereal prizes with real, lethal laser guns for kids in Johnny-O's isn't a good idea, as you could probably tell.

** Mr. Teacherman often ends up with this role due to him being strict to the students he teaches, Johnny in particular. Examples include him wanting Johnny to make a bench for woodshop class the right way ("Johnny Bench") and him taking his students to the museum, which is deemed boring by Johnny ("Johnny vs. The Mummy").

%%* CriticalResearchFailure: Mostly for the sake of RuleOfCool and RuleOfFunny.

** The title character can be a {{Jerkass}} from time to time, although it's mitigated by the fact that the rest of the cast [[EightDeadlyWords isn't any]] [[TooBleakStoppedCaring better to him, either]]. While he does partake in his sisters' inventions for the sole reason of getting something from them, remember that not only do said sisters often experiment on him ''against his will'' but they also start a "coupon" system where Johnny has to partake in their dangerous tests if he wants any help from them, making them just as guilty of this. [[LaserGuidedKarma He's also frequently punished for his Jerkass behavior]] [[KarmaHoudini while other characters have gotten away with theirs at some points.]] Johnny's DesignatedHero status seems like less of a case of him being a Jerkass and more of a case of the show focusing on one out of many characters in a CrapsackWorld.

* FoeYay: Bumper does this with Johnny a lot, whether or not Johnny is [[UnsettlingGenderReveal crossdressing]]; one such example was in "Who's Johnny?" where Johnny tries to change his personality in one of his sisters' machines and, when he's stuck a smooth-talking British personality, Bumper implies to like this version of him a lot.

* AmericansHateTingle: While the show wasn’t exactly huge in Canada, it has much more vocal detractors in the United States, especially since Canadian cartoons [[MadeInCountryX have a poor reputation in the USA]] (ironically, primarily due to the notoriety of this show). While the fact it’s actually an American-Canadian co-production frequently flies under the radar (or is outright ignored), the fact that it was {{Adored by the Network}} has been major fuel for the show’s near-universally-despised reputation in the US.

** The title character can be a {{Jerkass}} from time to time, although it's mitigated by the fact that the rest of the cast [[{{EightDeadlyWords}} isn't any]] [[{{TooBleakStoppedCaring}} better to him, either]]. While he does partake in his sisters' inventions for the sole reason of getting something from them, remember that not only do said sisters often experiment on him ''against his will'' but they also start a "coupon" system where Johnny has to partake in their dangerous tests if he wants any help from them, making them just as guilty of this. [[LaserGuidedKarma He's also frequently punished for his Jerkass behavior]] [[KarmaHoudini while other characters have gotten away with theirs at some points.]] Johnny's DesignatedHero status seems like less of a case of him being a Jerkass and more of a case of the show focusing on one out of many characters in a CrapsackWorld.

* EightDeadlyWords: With so many annoying or straight-up unlikable characters doing morally questionable things, it can be rather hard to care about what happens to any of them.

** If you think about it, Johnny is a huge one. His father is an [[{{AbusiveParents}} abusive]], strict JerkAss who often shows ParentalFavoritism towards his sisters and often punishes Johnny ''with'' his sisters [[{{GuiltByAssociation}} for things he had little to no part in]], he's frequently bullied and harassed at school, his mother is [[{{WhenYouComingHomeDad}} never around because of work]], his sisters rudely demand him to test things for them but get angry whenever he asks for something. Johnny's Jerkass behavior could seem like a strong case of TheDogBitesBack when you look at things from his perspective.

* DesignatedVillain: Any character that gets in conflicts with Johnny and his sisters.
** Hugh often ends up with this role due to his strict nature towards his family. One such example occurs in "Johnny's Got a Brand New Dad" where he spends the first half of the episode saying "no" to his kids, which leads to them replacing him with a robot. However, the episode shows that he did have good reasons to, as Johnny asked to perform a unicycle stunt on the roof, and Susan and Mary asked for plutonium, both of which are potentially dangerous stunts, yet the episode treats him like the villain for keeping his kids safe from harm. At the end of the episode, Hugh has to explain why he has to be strict.
** Lila in "Johnny Goes Nuts", where she wants to keep Johnny out of the running with the squirrels race. While she does have drastic measures to keep him from going, she's only keeping her son safe from being hurt (which ends up happening to Johnny when he ''does'' participate in the race).
** The hotel manager from "Johnny Test in 3-D" is meant to be this due to him repeatedly wanting to expose Dukey to Hugh and Lila, but he's only doing his job (and the fact Johnny disobeyed his parents when they told him to drop Dukey off at the neighbor's house). In the end, while Hugh and Lila do find out that Johnny did take Dukey, Johnny goes unpunished (while the hotel manager is called off by Lila).
** The truant officer from "Johnny Test's Day Off". Like the hotel manager, he's only chasing Johnny throughout the episode because its his job (not to mention Johnny was skipping school to begin with).
** Mr. Teacherman, similar to Hugh, often ends up with this role due to him being strict with the students he teaches. Examples include him wanting Johnny to make a bench for woodshop class the right way ("Johnny Bench") and him taking his students to the museum, which is deemed boring by Johnny ("Johnny vs. The Mummy").

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Believe it or not, Johnny himself. Some people see him as a ButtMonkey and/or even [[JerkassWoobie somewhat of a woobie]] due to his horrid father and slightly crapsack life, while others hate him since he can be very whiny or despicable on occasion. Bling Bling Boy also has a following due to his meme status.

** Season 5 & 6 also cause around this time, the series had been getting quite overaired, leading to many viewers' annoyance, not to mention this is when the aftermentioned whipcracks started to become more rampit, with it playing basically every single time someone moved a bodypart (mostly arms and hands), and it also reusing a-lot of plots from previous episodes or just having pretty ridiculous plots in general.

** People frequently use the show as proof that Creator/{{Teletoon}} uses the cheapest and laziest possible production values for all its original productions, despite the fact Teletoon isn't even an animation studio (and doesn't even have an in-house one like Creator/CartoonNetwork does) and is simply just a network that just orders episodes, funds them, and gives executive notes to the production crew. The real producers of 'Johnny Test'' are Canada's Creator/CookieJarEntertainment (now part of current owners, Creator/WildBrain) and America's Creator/WarnerBrosAnimation, having been commissioned to make episodes of the show for Teletoon ''and'' Creator/CartoonNetwork (or Creator/KidsWB, in the case of the first three seasons). In fact, nowadays the [=WildBrain=]-owned Creator/FamilyChannel airs the show in Canada.

** A meta-example. People sometimes use this show to prove that [[MadeInCountryX all Canadian animation]] [[HitlerAteSugar is terrible]][[note]]Although it should be noted that Canadian TV in general is seen by many as being entirely crap; it's not a stereotype exclusive to the animated shows[[/note]]. What many people don't know is that creator Scott Fellows and Creator/JamesArnoldTaylor (Johnny's voice actor), along with most of the show's writers, are Americans. Furthermore, the series was produced in association not just with Creator/{{Teletoon}}, but also the American networks it aired on, with Creator/KidsWB funding on the early seasons, Creator/CartoonNetwork funding Seasons 4-6 and Creator/{{Netflix}} for Seasons 7 and 8, meaning the show is actually part American.

** People frequently use the show as proof that Creator/{{Teletoon}} uses the cheapest and laziest possible production values for all its original productions, despite the fact Teletoon isn't even an animation studio (and doesn't even have an in-house one like Creator/CartoonNetwork does) and is simply just a network that just orders episodes, funds them, and gives executive notes to the production crew. The real producers of 'Johnny Test'' are Canada's Creator/CookieJarEntertainment (now part of current owners, Creator/WildBrain) and America's Creator/WarnerBrosAnimation, having been commissioned to make episodes of the show for Teletoon (in fact, nowadays the WildBrain-owned Creator/FamilyChannel airs the show in Canada).

** ...And in the same vain of Johnny Test spoofs, the episode Johnny'Mon featured a Pokémon parody called "Tiny'Mon", in which the weak Cuddlebuns is able to evolve into the legendary Screechereen (an {{Expy}} of Shadow Lugia from VideoGame/PokemonXDGaleOfDarkness). At the time, no Pokémon was able to evolve into a Legendary, (although the idea is similar to [[MagikarpPower Magikarp evovling Gyarados]])... but come VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon, we're introduced to Cosmog, which is [[LateArrivalSpoiler secretly]] capable of evolving into Solgaleo (in Sun) or Lunala (in Moon, along with Kufbu from VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield, a legendary Pokeon that evolves into Urshifu.

** The title character can be a {{Jerkass}} from time to time, although it's mitigated by the fact that the rest of the cast [[{{EightDeadlyWords}} isn't any]] [[{{DarknessInducedAudienceApathy}} better to him, either]]. While he does partake in his sisters' inventions for the sole reason of getting something from them, remember that not only do said sisters often experiment on him ''against his will'' but they also start a "coupon" system where Johnny has to partake in their dangerous tests if he wants any help from them, making them just as guilty of this. [[LaserGuidedKarma He's also frequently punished for his Jerkass behavior]] [[KarmaHoudini while other characters have gotten away with theirs at some points.]] Johnny's DesignatedHero status seems like less of a case of him being a Jerkass and more of a case of the show focusing on one out of many characters in a CrapsackWorld.

** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3uVwxAoUdo I blew up Malaysia.]]"[[labelnote: Explaination]]Mr. White gives this NonSequitur response to Johnny asking him why he and Mr. Black are police officers. The sheer absurdity of the answer is why many consider it to be one of the few [[ActuallyPrettyFunny jokes that stick the landing in the show]].[[/labelnote]]

** Hugh often ends up with this role due to his authoritarian behavior towards his family; one such example occurs in "Johnny's Got a Brand New Dad" where he spends the first half of the episode saying "no" to his kids, which leads to them replacing him with a robot dad. However, the episode shows that he did have good reasons to Johnny asked to perform a unicycle stunt on the roof, and Susan and Mary asked for plutonium, both of which are potentially dangerous stunts, yet the episode treats him like the villain for keeping his kids safe from harm, and in the end, its ''Hugh'' that ends up apologizing to his kids (and Dukey) for being mean.

** People frequently use the show as proof that Creator/{{Teletoon}} uses the cheapest and laziest possible production values for all its original productions, despite the fact Teletoon isn't even an animation studio (and doesn't even have an in-house one like Creator/CartoonNetwork does) and is simply just a network that just orders episodes, funds them, and gives executive notes to the production crew. The real producers of 'Johnny Test'' are Canada's Creator/CookieJarEntertainment (now part of current owners, Creator/WildBrain) and America's Creator/WarnerBrosAnimation, having been commissioned to make episodes of the show for Teletoon (in fact, nowadays Creator/FamilyChannel handles the show in Canada).

* FanonDiscontinuity: Most of the fandom considers it a "Season 1 only" show.

* DesignatedVillain: On a similar vein, some of the villains get this, primarily because they have better morals than the heroes.
** Hugh in "Johnny's Got a Brand New Dad" is meant to be a villain, since he spends the first half saying "no" to his kids. However, he does have a good reason, as Johnny asked to perform a unicycle stunt on the roof, and Susan and Mary asked for plutonium, both of which are potentially dangerous, and at the end, Hugh ends up apologizing to his kids (and Dukey).
** The hotel manager from "Johnny Test in 3-D" is meant to be this due to him repeatedly wanting to expose Dukey to Hugh and Lila, but considering that the hotel has a strict "no dogs" policy and the fact the Johnny disobeyed his parents, it's not hard to side with him.
** There's also the truant officer from "Johnny Test's Day Off", who, throughout the episode, only chases after Johnny because Johnny is skipping school.

** A meta-example. People sometimes use this show to prove that [[MadeInCountryX all Canadian animation]] [[HitlerAteSugar is terrible]]. What many people don't know is that creator Scott Fellows and Creator/JamesArnoldTaylor (Johnny's voice actor), along with most of the show's writers, are Americans. Furthermore, the series was produced in association not just with Creator/{{Teletoon}}, but also the American networks it aired on, with Creator/KidsWB funding on the early seasons, Creator/CartoonNetwork funding Seasons 4-6 and Creator/{{Netflix}} for Seasons 7 and 8, meaning the show is actually part American.
** [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_content Canadian content laws]] are often used by people to explain why this widely-reviled show ran for as long as it did, claiming that the laws mandated a constant churn-out of animation. In reality, Canadian Content laws only require channels to air a certain amount of natively produced content every day and grant funding for Canadian-produced shows rather than requiring a constant production of TV shows; in fact the overwhelming majority of Canadian cartoons and Teletoon shows are {{Short Runner}}s (and contrary to what is frequently claimed, these laws have been around since the inception of Canadian television '''and''' also apply to ''live-action'' shows like ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'' and ''Series/TrailerParkBoys''). While ''Johnny Test'' did fulfill said content laws, the real reason for its longevity was simply that its low budget and surprisingly good ratings allowed the networks to make profit very easily and thus motivated them to air it as much as possible and continue ordering new seasons.

** [[MostAnnoyingSound'''Whipcrack''']] and ''guitar riff'', because of how the show abuses these two sound effects every chance it gets. In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wT4UbxQiTg this compilation]] of whipcracks (190 in ''one episode''), half of the comment section is people joking that the whipcracks are actually recordings of the animators being forced to work on the show.

** '''Whipcrack''' and ''guitar riff'', because of how the show abuses these two sound effects every chance it gets. In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wT4UbxQiTg this compilation]] of whipcracks (190 in ''one episode''), half of the comment section is people joking that the whipcracks are actually recordings of the animators being forced to work on the show.

* DesignatedVillain: The hotel manager from "Johnny Test in 3-D". We're supposed to see him as a villain due to him repeatedly wanting to expose Dukey to Hugh and Lila, but considering that the hotel has a strict "no dogs" policy, it's not hard to side with him.

* SignatureScene: The librarian robbing Johnny of his voice ''and'' the whipcrack sound effects in "The Silence of the Johnny" is generally seen as one of the funniest scenes in the reboot due to its [[SelfDeprecation self deprecatory]] tone.

* WinBackTheCrowd: While the original series never had much of a strong fanbase to begin with, the revival series is considered a massive step up from the original series. The revival has received praise for its improved animation (it helps that the above-mentioned Stephen Silver designed the character models), more creative episode plots that help flesh it out more than the original's episode plots (they were given flak for lazily copying other shows such as ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory''), improved comedy (such as the episode ''Silence of the Johnny'', which featured a TakeThatUs towards the show's overuse of the whipcracking sound effect), and the characters being a lot better written (namely Johnny as he TookALevelInKindness, and his failed attempts at being edgy are downplayed).