Here Comes Honey Boo Boo is a Reality Show program which featured pageant participant Alana Thompson (Honey Boo Boo), along with her mother Mama June Shannon, father Mike Thompson (Sugar Bear) and her three older sisters. The show was mostly filmed in and around the family's hometown in rural McIntyre, Georgia.note It was a spinoff of Toddlers & Tiaras. It ran on TLC from 2012 to 2014, making the title character the Poster Child (and former page image) for Network Decay.
On October 23, 2014, TMZ posted an exposé of June Shannon dating a man who was convicted of child molestation a decade before, generating a PR disaster that led to the show being canceled the following day. That same day, the victim of the molestation who blew the whistle on June came forward and turned out to be June's own daughter, Anna, creating a huge uproar against June and the series in general. Alana and her family would eventually return to television in 2017 on the We TV Spin-Off show, Mama June: From Not to Hot, which follows Mama June trying to lose 300 pounds of weight.
Tropes:
- Big Beautiful Woman: An idea June instills in Alana. She encourages her to love herself no matter how much she weighs, and that she's beautiful either way.
- Big Eater: Alana is depicted as this. She may not look like the biggest eater in the family compared to June, but she is most adamant about food.
- Big Fun: How June and Alana see themselves.
- Cheerful Child: Alana's usually upbeat about everything.
- Deep South: The series was filmed in the rural community of McIntrye, Georgia.
- Fat Slob: June. However, she does get the job done and does what she can to take care of her family. Heck, she organizes her proud, earned-through-coupons stockpile! Not to mention she lost 100 pounds during the show!
- A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted: Defied. You'd think a family that suddenly became rich due to the reality show they're on would spend that money like there's no tomorrow. Surprisingly, Mama June splits the $20K per-episode paycheck among her four daughters, and the money is placed in a trust fund that none of the daughters can touch until they're 21 years old, unless it's to pay for school.
- Good Parents: Redneck stereotypes aside, Alana's parents seem to do the most important things right.
- Manipulative Editing: Or lack of. Most reality shows edit the narration, interviews and conversations to polish them into conventional sounding dialogue. On this show all of the pauses, sneezes, coughs, stutters and other bits of realistic diction are left in (the "ums" are even subtitled), which makes the family look stupider than they really are.
- No Sympathy: Alana's sisters show no sympathy for Alana after she's forced to give up her pet, Glitzy. In fact, they casually state that they're glad the pig is gone.
- Only Sane Man: Sugar Bear. Also see Face Palm above.
- Out of Focus: Chickadee, when she was put on bed rest because she almost went into early labor.
- Supporting Protagonist: The series is more about Alana's mom than her.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Spaghetti with mixed ketchup and butter sauce ("Sketti"), yum!
- Wicked Stepmother: Averted - even though he's only the biological father of Alana, he cares for all the girls as his own daughters. In return, the other girls love him very much.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Glitzy became Alana's pet in episode 2, only to be given up in episode 5.
