History YMMV / Rocky

* OnceOriginalNowOverdone: Back when the films were new, when Rocky trained to "Gonna Fly Now" and "Eye of the Tiger" it was electric and inspiring. A million parodies later, the music has become a cliche. Ditto for the oft-parodied stairs scene.

** The plot of the first movie concerns a club fighter who no one expected to put up a fight being matched against a champion way above his level, and managing to both hurt the champ (despite a near thirty pound weight disadvantage) and go the distance, partly due to said champ being a bit past his prime in his mid 30s, and partly due to the champ also not taking his opponent seriously and thus showing up somewhat out of shape. The underdog loses, but it's in a split decision much closer than anyone thought it was going to be. Two years later, Muhammad Ali (one of the main inspirations for Apollo Creed) would match himself against club fighter Leon Spinks, expecting an easy victory since the guy had only six professional fights to his name at that point. Instead, the past his prime Ali showed up somewhat out of shape while Spinks (like Rocky) trained like a demon for his big shot, and the result was that he not only hurt Ali (despite a near thirty pound weight disadvantage) and went the distance, but ''won'' the bout in a split decision.[[note]]The parallels aren't 100% exact. For one, Spinks had nowhere near Rocky's listed professional experience or pro knockout record, and had fought much of his amateur career at light heavyweight, while Rocky never fought below heavyweight. Spinks was also much younger than Rocky, had nowhere near as many losses, and had a great amateur career of 178-7 with 133 knockouts (he won a gold medal at light heavyweight at the Olympics), when there's no indication Rocky had such a distinguished career. Still, the number of similarities are amusing to note.[[/note]]

* JerkassWoobie: Paulie, Paulie, Paulie. Best summarised by Rocky in ''Creed.''

** Yer a BUM Rakkko.

** The steps. Just,...just the steps.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: Back when the films were new, when Rocky trained to "Gonna Fly Now" and "Eye of the Tiger" it was electric and inspiring. A million parodies later, the music has become a cliche. Ditto for the oft-parodied stairs scene.

* {{Sequelitis}}: The franchise was widely accused of this, becoming a frequent source of mockery as the series progressed. Averted by ''Film/RockyBalboa'' and even more averted by ''Film/{{Creed}}'', which has a Tomatometer score of 95%, the highest in the series.

* ''YMMV/{{Creed}}''

** Rocky explaining why he became a boxer with "Because I can't sing or dance" became pretty ironic when the story was made into a Broadway musical. And yes, that line was included.

* AccidentalInnuendo: Rocky's special training routine in the first film consists of him "[[ADateWithRosiePalms beating his meat]]."

* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/MichaelDorn, Worf from ''Series/{{StarTrekTheNextGeneration}}'', can be glimpsed in a few shots as Creeds' bodyguard.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Creed was in good hands with a [[Series/{{StarTrekTheNextGeneration}} Klingon]] as his bodyguard.

--> '''Rocky:''' "Paulie was my best friend, but he wasn't so friendly."

* HoYay: Apollo and Rocky. The third film's training montage includes them hugging while splashing through the ocean, and Apollo lends Rocky his old shorts.

* IronWoobie: The titular character, Rocky Balboa. He starts the first movie as a nobody with no apparent future until he gets a shot at the title, with no one believing he'll get past the first round, and each movie in the franchise has him taking a worse beating than the last, both literally and metaphorically. And yet, he always makes an effort to take care of the people that he loves, faces adversity with determination every time, and keeps moving forward; because that's how winning is done.

* SugarWiki/CrowningMusicOfAwesome: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btPJPFnesV4 THE EYE OF THE TIIIIIIIIIGERRRRRR!]]

* {{Adorkable}}: Talks to his pets, awkwardly courts his best friend's sister, tells his coach about her like a lovesick teenager, and starts dancing and posing after running up a flight of stairs. And that's just the first movie! Not to mention his proposal to Adrian. That goes down in history as one of the most sweet and awkward "Will you marry me"s in a movie.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Rocky can come across as quite a pushy jerk towards Adrian in the movie's first half. First of all, his complaints to Paulie about getting no response to his bad jokes. Then she only goes on a date with him because Paulie bullies her into it, which Rocky has no problem going along with. Finally, she ''repeatedly'' tries to beg off going into his apartment, only for Rocky to refuse to take no for an answer and keep badgering her until she gives in (and also, failing her entering, was apparently planning to let her walk home alone in a rough neighborhood). This is supposedly all justified by her being shy, and Rocky just wanting to bring her out of her shell for what she ''really'' wants, which he somehow knows.

* UnfortunateImplications: The franchise has [[http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/63755506/ sometimes also been criticized]] for appropriating the life story of real life Philadelphia heavyweight legend Smokin' Joe Frazier without paying him any financial compensation (The Rocky films broke box office record at the same speed Philadelphia's real life Rocky Joe Frazier struggled to keep his gym open in one of Philly's poorest districts), having the unfortunate side-effect of the public (and even Philadelphia itself) honoring more a fictional white champion than a real life black one, to the point of building a statue to Rocky a full decade before even considering building one for Joe Frazier. The result has been linked to cultural appropriation and erasure of a black sporting icon.

** In a similar vein, the films starring Rocky can be broadly characterised as being about a White guy beating up a succession of Black guys. Rocky IV and Rocky V are exceptions: but even then, Rocky IV still "others" Ivan Drago through his nationality and training background, and the Black boxing promoter George Washington Duke serves as the ''de facto'' antagonist of Rocky V.

* HoYay[=/=]FoeYay: Apollo and Rocky. The third film's training montage includes them hugging while splashing through the ocean, and Apollo lends Rocky his old shorts.