History YMMV / ThePiratesOfPenzance

* MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales: Because of both this play, and ''Film/{{Treasure Island|1950}}''[='=]s use of the Cornish accent as ''the'' pirate accent, the Cornish as a whole happily and willingly engage in antics that turn them into pirates. This carries to such an extent that there is even [[http://www.cornish-pirates.com/ a Rugby team]] called the Cornish Pirates.

** The PatterSong "My Eyes Are Fully Open" was added to the show by a production in the 1970s, lampshaded by Ruth's actress mentioning the song's from {{Ruddigore}}. The production was so popular it's now expected.
* MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales: Because of both this play, and ''Film/{{Treasure Island|1950}}''[='=]s use of the Cornish accent as ''the'' pirate accent, the Cornish as a whole happily and willingly engage in antics that turn them into pirates. This carries to such an extent that there is even [[http://www.cornish-pirates.com/ A Rugby team]] called the Cornish Pirates.

* HilariousInHindsight: Because, with all our faults, we love our Music/{{Queen}}.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: After [[TalkLikeAPirate Robert Newton's portrayal of Long John Silver]] in ''Film/{{Treasure Island|1950}}'', Cornish has become the default accent for pirates. At the time, Penzance in Cornwall was a sleepy fishing town, and the idea of bloodthirsty pirates appearing there was absurd and part of the comedy.

** The song also contains a ShoutOut to Theatre/HMSPinafore ... which as Creator/IsaacAsimov pointed out, definitively sets when the play takes place. Due to Frederic's odd birthday, the show has to be set in ether 1873 (if Gilbert knew 1900 would not be a leap year) or 1877 (if he didn't). Pinafore was produced in early ''1878'', making it the latter, since it's just possible that a well-connected Major General could hear the tunes during production in the prior year.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Ruth's played as a dotty old woman, but she's the only one who knows what's going on at all times. Indeed, she nearly marries young Frederick, knowing he's a lord while he's ignorant of it. Despite being only a nurse, she's there with the pirates every step of the way after Frederick rejects her, and takes a personal hand in both returning him to their fold and in TheReveal that the entire ship is crewed with orphaned lords. Given that the pirates themselves had no idea of this, it's plausible Ruth's the true mastermind behind the film's events.

* {{Society Marches On}}: Frederick's "[[HonorBeforeReason slave of duty]]" mindset will tend to strike modern audiences as merely silly. Englishmen of [[Creator/WSGilbert Gilbert's]] day, though, would have recognized it as a parody of their own code of conduct.

* ValuesDissonance: Frederick's "[[HonorBeforeReason slave of duty]]" mindset will tend to strike modern audiences as merely silly. Englishmen of [[Creator/WSGilbert Gilbert's]] day, though, would have recognized it as a parody of their own code of conduct.

* AluminiumChristmasTrees: Some audiences (and [[CriticalResearchFailure even some productions]]) seem to think that Frederick's intended apprenticeship as a "pilot" means "one who flies an aeroplane", despite there being no such thing at the time of writing. Ruth mentions "some career ''seafaring''", meaning "one who steers a ship", particularly in challenging waters like harbours or rivers.

*** "I can quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus" is well and good, but elegiacs (couplets consisting of one line of poetry in dactylic hexameter followed by a line in dactylic pentameter) celebrating the story of one of the most notoriously depraved Roman emperors, besides not having any military application, could probably not even have been published in the Victorian age.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
** "WithCatlikeTread". Really, when your song involves being as bombastically loud as possible, with the singers [[LargeHam hamming it up ludicrously]], awesomeness is generally a side effect.
** There's also "The Pirate King", one of the most infectious songs about Pirates!
** Ten words; "I am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General". Just being able to sing it is a greater achievement than anything he boasts about.
** From a purely-musical standpoint, this opera contains two brilliant examples of counterpoint writing--creating separate and quite different melodic lines that nonetheless fit together when played simultaneously--in "How Beautifully Blue the Sky" and "When the Foeman Bares His Steel". The first example is even ''more'' impressive in that the lines are in two different time signatures. While he's mostly remembered for accompanying comic operas, Sir Arthur was a talented composer in his own right.
** George Rose stopping every show with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSGWoXDFM64 the all-time greatest version of "I Am The Very Model of a Modern Major General]], tongue-twisting like there's no tomorrow. And then he does it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1dy44jV8EM ''faster!'']]

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Ruth's played as a dotty old woman, but she's the only one who knows what's going on at all times. Indeed, she nearly marries young Frederick, knowing he's a lord while he's ignorant of it. Despite being only a nurse, she's there with the pirates every step of the way after Frederick rejects her, and takes a personal hand in both returning him to their fold and in TheReveal that the entire ship is crewed with orphaned lords. Given that the pirates themselves had no idea of this, it's plausible Ruth's the true mastermind behind the film's events.

*** "quote the fights historical from Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical" -- He has only read about them in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifteen_Decisive_Battles_of_the_World The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World: from Marathon to Waterloo ]] but can't even remember the timeline. And as a cherry on top, all the battles in the book except one are land battles.

* IdiotPlot: A deliberate case. Most of the plot stems from various people taking HonorBeforeReason to imbecilic levels, and most of the humor comes from the fact that the audience can easily tell how stupid this is.