History YMMV / TwentyOnePilots

* MagnumOpusDissonance: "Ode to Sleep" and "The Judge" are non-singles that both Tyler and Josh regularly say are their favorite tracks to play live. Tyler has also often claimed that the lyrics of "Taxi Cab" are some of his personal favorites, even though the band did not play the track live for years prior to its return in 2018.
* MemeticMutation:

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: Invoked with the band's ''logo'' of all things. Tyler has said that there is no deeper meaning for the |-/ symbol, only that it represents the band. In other words, it was made for the purpose of... having a purpose.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: Invoked with the band's ''logo'' of all things. Tyler has said that there is no deeper meaning for the |-/ symbol, only that it represents the band. In other words, it was made for the purpose of... having a purpose.[[note]]For ''Clancy'', the logo was slightly modified to resemble the "dangerous bend" symbol used on roads and in mathematics to signal hazards, so it ''does'' now have more of a direct meaning.[[/note]]

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: Invoked with the band's ''logo'' of all things. Tyler has said that there is no deeper meaning for the |-/ symbol, only that it represents the band. In other words, it was made for the purpose of... having a purpose.

** By the time the band released ''Clancy'', over half of their officially released discography will have been dedicated to Dema, with the album title referring to a character name only familiar to fans who have followed the lore for close to six years. As a result, the band had to release a video explaining who Clancy is and what the background story laid out in music videos and other media actually means.

** The sheer extent of the band's dedication to tying all of their music to the Dema storyline across multiple albums (even retroactively looping ''Vessel'' and ''Blurryface'' in to the mythos) has reached pretty ridiculous levels and led to ContinuityLockOut for many . By the time of ''Clancy'''s release, half of the band's available discography will have been dedicated to telling a very earnest and loosely defined story about Tyler's self-insert character escaping a YA dystopian fantasy world several years after the genre fell out of fashion. At the same time, however, many fans love the treasure hunt style of storytelling and appreciate the added layers of detail and the band's long-term dedication to rewarding those who put in the work to learning all of the lore.
** The dance Tyler performs when seizing control of Keons' body at the end of "The Outside" music video is tremendously goofy, made all the more so by the dark and extravagent costumes both figures are wearing and the fact that it is meant to be the inciting incident in the start of a war against Dema.

** ''Scaled and Icy'' builds on the ''Trench'' mythos in its core concept, and the music videos for "Saturday" and "The Outside" explicitly tie into the Dema storyline set up by the "Trench Trilogy." Anyone watching the Livestream Experience without this information would likely have no idea who the talk show hosts are supposed to represent.

* {{Narm}} / NarmCharm: With the band members [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} being who they are]], it's no surprise that the band can occasionally come off as pretty goofy. Their combined self-awareness and sincerity usually leads to this coming off as more endearing than anything.

** The sheer extent of the band's (or, rather, Tyler's) dedication to tying all of their music to the Dema storyline across multiple albums (even retroactively looping ''Vessel'' and ''Blurryface'' in to the mythos) has alienated much of the general audience and even a fair number of dedicated fans. By the time of ''Clancy'''s release, half of the band's available discography will have been dedicated to telling a very earnest and loosely defined story about Tyler's self-insert character escaping a YA dystopian fantasy world several years after the genre fell out of fashion. At the same time, however, many fans love the treasure hunt style of storytelling and appreciate the band's long-term dedication to rewarding those who put in the work to learning all of the lore.

** "The Pantaloon", a song from the band's debut album, is about the inevitable cyclical process of watching your parents and grandparents becoming more mentally and cognitively impaired, a concept inspired by Tyler's grandfather Robert. Almost ten years and four albums later, ''Trench'' presents "Legend", a song about this process fulfilling again in Robert, who passed during the album's production from dementia. At one point in the song, Tyler even apologizes to his grandfather as he could no longer bring himself to visit when his grandfather stopped being able to recognize him.
** The song contains the recurring line "I wish she knew you", stated explicitly by Tyler to be about his wife Jenna and how he wishes she could've known the person his grandfather was before the disease set in. Now that the two have had a daughter -- who has Robert as a middle name -- the "she" works on two levels.

** Several have drawn ties between "Car Radio" and ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}''[='=]s "Sburban Jungle".

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: "Heathens", "Ode to Sleep", "Holding On To You", "Tear In My Heart", "Heavydirtysoul", "Lane Boy", "Jumpsuit"... most Twenty One Pilots songs easily fall in this category.

* GrowingTheBeard: After being the object of a lot of critical scorn from certain corners of the music community, ''Trench'' was met with almost universal praise for its more ambitious production and storytelling. Many reviewers, including [[WebVideo/TheNeedleDrop Anthony Fantano]], expressed outright shock for how much they enjoyed the album after outright disdaining most of the band's previous (and later) work.

* AccidentalInnuendo: “It takes some chivalry and well-placed energy to subliminally get myself inside you.”

** The buildup to ''Scaled and Icy'' was filled with this since the album's name was first hinted at in a message written in the background of the "Christmas Saves The Year" [=YouTube=] thumbnail stating "SAI IS PROPAGANDA". Clique detectives quickly determined that the album title is also an anagram for "Clancy is dead" and began to interpret the album's divergent sound and the absence of the band's logo as hints that it is somehow a "fake" album produced under Dema control. This was all eventually confirmed almost a year after the album's released in the supplemental material for the music video for "The Outside".

** "What's a Blurryface?"[[labelnote:Explanation]]Comes from [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiX-dgZnjJw one particularly bad interview]] where one of the interviewers asked this question to Tyler in a case of extreme CriticalResearchFailure and attempted CringeComedy.[[/labelnote]]

** The Reading Festival 2016 incident. During "Car Radio", Tyler attempted to crowdsurf out to a high platform in the middle of the audience, a stunt he had performed at countless previous shows. The attendees of the festival pulled Tyler in the crowd, tearing his shirt, stealing his mask and shoes, and delaying the set so long that they had to end it early. Much of the Clique reacted with horror, while other observers claimed that the whole thing was blown out of proportion and that Tyler should have had a better read on the crowd, as Reading is notoriously rowdy and many other performers have experienced similar abuse.[[note]]For his part, Tyler referred to the incident as "one of his favorite sets ever", stating that he enjoyed the authentic energy.[[/note]]

** ''Trench'' kicked this up to eleven. The AlternateRealityGame used to promote the album is directly intertwined with the album's lyrics, song titles, and visuals, not to mention how Blurryface likely ties into the narrative as well. If you never checked out the information on the "dmaorg" site, a lot of stuff will be incomprehensible to you.
** ''Scaled and Icy'' builds on the ''Trench'' mythos in its core concept, and the music videos for "Saturday" and "The Outside" explicitly tie into the Dema storyline set up by the "Trench Trilogy." Anyone watching the Livestream Experience would likely have no idea who the talk show hosts are supposed to represent.
* EndingFatigue: "Lane Boy" appears to end with another 30 seconds to spare when another drum solo kicks in. The music video notably eschews this outro entirely.

** Speculation on exactly who/what Blurryface was and how he was manifesting in the album was rampant in the lead-up to its release.

** The buildup to ''Scaled and Icy'' was filled with this since the album's name was first hinted at in a message written in the background of the "Christmas Saves The Year" [=YouTube=] thumbnail stating "SAI IS PROPAGANDA". Clique detectives quickly determined that the album title is also an anagram for "Clancy is dead" and began to interpret the album's divergent sound and the absence of the band's logo as hints that it is somehow a "fake" album produced by the Dema. This was all eventually confirmed almost a year after the album's released in the supplemental material for "The Outside" music video.

** "Car Radio" ''is'' about the positive and negative aspects of distracting oneself from introspection or depression. It also is not just a metaphor -- Tyler really did have his car radio stolen, and the quiet of his commute made him have to be alone with his thoughts much more than when he had music to listen to.

** With Music/FallOutBoy, Music/PanicAtTheDisco, and Music/{{Paramore}}, mostly because a lot of their fans found them when they opened for these bands.
** In turn, Mutemath, [=MisterWives=], and Jon Bellion have all opened for Twenty One Pilots and led to a lot of crossover between them, with members of Mutemath and [=MisterWives=] becoming associated acts. Mutemath collaborated with the band for the [=TOPxMM=] remix EP in 2016, and their frontman Paul Meany has become Tyler's primary producing partner. [=MisterWives=] trumpeter Dr. Blum was for many years the only other live musician to join the band for live performances (most prominently [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JE8R9KfJwI their version of "Fall Away"]]). Meany and Blum joined the band for the ''Scaled and Icy'' Livestream Experience and subsequent tour.

** "The Pantaloon", a song from the band's debut album, is about the cyclical process of watching your parents and grandparents becoming more mentally and cognitively impaired, a concept inspired by Tyler's grandfather Robert. Almost ten years and four albums later, and ''Trench'' presents "Legend", a song explicitly about this inevitable process fulfilling again in Robert, who passed during the album's production from dementia. The lyrics even describe how Tyler could no longer bring himself to visit Robert when he stopped being able to recognize him.
** The song contains the recurring line "I wish she knew you", stated explicitly by Tyler to be about his wife Jenna and how he wishes she could've known the person Robert was before the disease set in. Now that the two have had a daughter -- who has Robert as a middle name -- the "she" works on two levels.

** Sarcastically treating "TB Saga" one of the band's most emotional songs or, alternatively, expressing bemusement at how it could have been written by the same person that wrote said emotional songs.

** Exploiting lyrics for sounding weird out of context. A few examples:
*** "Slowtown": "I put my socks on my feet."
*** "Holding On To You": "The windowsill looks really nice, right?"
*** "Isle of Flightless Birds": "Giving birth and stuff"
*** "The Pantaloon": "Your grandpa died."

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: Invoked with the band's ''logo'' of all things. Tyler has said that there is no deeper meaning for the |-/ shape, only that it represents the band. In other words, it was made for the purpose of... having a purpose.

** The band's cover of [[Music/MyChemicalRomance "Cancer"]] sparked a little bit of FandomRivalry between TØP and MCR over whose version was better, what with how [[TheCoverChangesTheMeaning the cover took such a unique spin on the original's meaning]]. Some say that there was never a competition, and that each version is good in its own right..