YMMV / Clone High

• Americans Hate Tingle: The only time the show received any attention in its original broadcast was when it managed to seriously piss off a number of Indian viewers with its depiction of Mahatma Gandhi as a shallow, petty, non-stop party animal. Gandhi is still very much beloved in his home country and his followers don't take too kindly to any negative depictions of him. This led to protests outside of MTV India and Viacom's New York headquarters, convincing MTV to swiftly kill the already failing show.
• Accidental Aesop:

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  • Many people who experienced Sleep Deprivation in high school have said that the half-joking Sleep Aesop in "Sleep of Faith" was more germane than most of the heavy topics covered in actual teen dramas!
  • "Litter Kills: Literally" is often considered the only episode of the show to play the Very Special Episode straight. Despite how clearly it's intended to be a parody of Tonight, Someone Dies, it's also a straightforward depiction of grief.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: While it's clearly a joke, is Cleo forcing Abe to wait for the perfect moment to have their first kiss, despite all of her previous sleeping around, just her being a hypocrite, or is it because she values her relationship with Abe more than her previous flings and wants to give it the proper respect it deserves? And if it's the latter, is it because she respects Abe or, more likely, believes that she deserves to start her new relationship on the most perfect of first notes because she's Cleopatra?

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• Alternative Joke Interpretation: "I'm a Kennedy! I'm not accustomed to tragedy!" While obviously a joke about the infamous "Kennedy Curse," this could also mean that a rich, privileged, popular teenager like JFK (at least this show's version of him) isn't used to dealing with having nice things taken away from him.
• Awesome Music: The numerous 2000s-era pop punk and emo songs which score every episode. Amazingly, unlike most shows of this nature, all of the licensed music was retained for the DVD release (though unfortunately not the streaming ones).
• Base-Breaking Character: Abe. People either see him as a decent character, or others see him as a bland Vanilla Protagonist.
• Better on DVD: Being a serialized comedy pre-Netflix may have been a little too ambitious. Watching it on DVD or on a streaming service allows the viewer to keep up with the overarching plots and character arcs.
• Crosses the Line Twice:

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  • Blink and you miss it: in their first scene together, Gandhi casually gives JFK finger-guns, and JFK flinches. Wonder why.
  • Normally, a joke involving a guy trying to have sex with a girl by getting her drunk would be rather tasteless, but when JFK tries it on Joan...
    JFK: So, ah, are you, ah, drunk enough yet to sleep with me?
    (Joan roundhouse kicks JFK in the face and knocks him to the ground. He sits up and points at her)
    JFK: Answer the question!
  • The way Ponce de Leon dies. It involves lots and lots of litter. And so much blood.
  • The whole episode with Ponce is this, except instead of being funny, it's sad.
  • "Nothing bad ever happens to the Kennedys!" Car flips over. Better yet, it's an open top car at that, for a few extra feet past the line.
  • JFK refusing to work Cleo's kissing booth because he doesn't want to kiss fat girls? Not funny. Cleo telling him that at least she doesn't complain about kissing poor people? Now it's funny.
  • The Spoof Aesop of "ADD (The Last D Is For Disorder)": "people will only accept neurological disorder if they're less disgusted with it than they are with homosexuality."
  • At one point, the head of the Board Of Shadowy Figures tells Scudworth that he's "on thin ice. Clone of Karen Carpenter thin!"^note Karen Carpenter died from complications caused by anorexia.
  • Daniel Feldspar, the stereotypically Australian dragon. That is all.
  • "If there's one thing Mahatma Gandhi stands for, it's revenge."
• Cult Classic: It is fondly remembered by fans as a hilarious parody of high school melodramas. But it received mediocre ratings during its initial run.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Van Gogh. After the first episode he only ever appeared in cameos, but it's not hard to find fanart of him.
  • Ponce is a very popular character. Despite being created to mock the Tonight, Someone Dies Trope, his friendly nature, the genuine sadness JFK feels upon his death and the fact that the best Heartwarming and Tear Jerker moments came from his death makes him a surprisingly popular character.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: After their tryst in the last episode, Joan and JFK are more popular than canon ships like Joan and Abe or JFK and Cleo.
• Fair for Its Day: In an age where teenage romance and sex is seen more negatively, Gandhi and Marie Curie ending up in a celibate romance feels like an Author's Saving Throw to the show’s over-the-top treatment of teen sex. Co-creator and voice of JFK Chris Miller said as much himself.
• Fountain of Memes: JFK became one in 2020, with his mannerisms and design being a source of several memes.
• Genius Bonus: The show is a lot funnier if you have a strong grasp on history.
  • None of the five main characters died of natural causes: Gandhi, JFK and Abraham Lincoln were assassinated by gunshot, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake and Cleopatra was bitten by an asp.
  • In "Plane Crazy; Gate Expectations," Abe tries to get a ride in the alleged plane with Buddy Holly, Richie Vallans, The Big Bopper, Jim Croce, Stevie Ray Vaugn and half of Lynyrd Skynyrd, all of whom died in plane crashes.
  • Joan dressing up as "John Dark"; dressing in drag was one of the charges that got Jeanne D'arc executed. George Washington Carver also lampshades how "John Dark" is a pun of Jeanne d'Arc, Joan's French name.
  • Though JFK crashing his car after proclaiming "Nothing bad ever happens to the Kennedys!" is obviously a reference to the infamous "Kennedy curse," it may specifically be referencing the Chappaquidick incident.
  • Ghandi's Buddy Cop Show in "Film Fest: Tears of A Clone" is called Black and Tan. While obviously meant to parody blaxploitation or Salt and Pepper movies, a "black and tan" was also the name of a kind of cop during the Irish War of Independence.
  • There being twin clones of Elvis isn't just a gag to show him both at his peak and his downward spiral. Elvis had a twin brother named Jesse who was stillborn.
• He Really Can Act: None of Abe's convoluted, melodramatic mixed metaphors would be anywhere near as funny if Will Forte weren't reading them with total dramatic conviction. The "thinking dock" scene is a prime example.
  "You don't know what you're getting into! And that's out of my friendship!"
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The caption at the end of the finale: "TO BE CONTINUED...?!"
    • Alternatively, Harsher in Hindsight.
  • Mr. B, the gentleman robot, meet Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer
  • Some have noticed that Abe bears a pretty good resemblance to Shaggy. 18 years later, Will Forte, Abe's actor, would eventually play Shaggy in SCOOB!.
• Hollywood Homely: Joan; however, some characters do seem to realize she's attractive before her reveal of Beautiful All Along. Inverted with Marie Curie, who is hideous yet no one treats her any differently.
• Ho Yay:
  • JFK takes to the prospect of being attracted to men rather quickly when he develops a crush on "John Dark" (and his foster parents are a gay couple). And then there's his "best friend forever" Ponce in episode 10, complete with break-up and incessant weeping and crawling into the coffin. Late in that same episode, Abe holds him on the Thinking Dock and kisses his forehead.
  • While Gandhi's kiss with Abe in the episode "A.D.D.: The Last 'D' is for Disorder" is Played for Laughs, Gandhi still pays him for it, implying he liked it. Or he's stupid.
  • Scudworth and Mr. Butlertron are all but stated to be a couple. They live together, are almost never apart and constantly bicker Like an Old Married Couple. Mr. B even assumes the role of housewife in several episodes that take place in their home. There are also a couple of scenes where they're holding hands and lovingly gazing into one-another's eyes.
  • After thinking about it for a second, Cleo admits that sex with Joan would've been hot.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Cleo. It's implied that her Alpha Bitch personality at least partially stems from being paired with a foster mother who's a chronic alcoholic.
  • JFK. Just try to not feel bad for him about Ponce's death. His anguish is frighteningly realistic.
• Magnificent Bastard: "Raisin the Stakes: A Rock Opera in Three Acts": The Pusher, in actuality Larry Hardcore, is a rockstar drug dealer who sells raisins as drugs to teenagers. A loyal fan of the California Raisins who was hired by the raisin council to come up with a plan to sell more raisins to teens, the Pusher takes advantage of the average teenager's rebellious attitude to sell them raisins under the guise of hallucinogenic drugs, having done so to several high schools before doing the same to Clone High. Growing more powerful with each raisin buyer, the Pusher allows Principal Scudworth to create a divide between the students and their parents just to sell the teens more raisins.
• Memetic Mutation:

• "SAY WHAAAAAAAAAAT?"^Explanation A scene from "Film Fest: Tears of a Clone" where Gandhi tries to make George Washington Carver exaggerate one of his lines, which became a source for shitpost remixes.

• "... Wesley."^note Mr. Butlertron's Verbal Tic.

• I like your funny words, magic man!^Explanation In "Raisin the Stakes: A Rock Opera in Three Acts", JFK says this phrase after hearing the Pusher talk about his raisins. The phrase has been used as a reaction to a person describing a complex topic, discussing a topic that the listener knows little to nothing about, or using Purple Prose.
• "Nothing bad ever happens to the Kennedys!"^Explanation Comes from "Sleep of Faith: La Rue D'Awakening", wherein JFK's car suddenly flips over during a drag race with Abe immediately after announcing this. The clip suddenly became popular for edits in 2020, generally attributed to have started when people used it to make fun of politician Joe Kennedy after he lost the Massachusetts primary in September.
• "My day be so fine, then boom, [x]"^Explanation Not a line from the show itself, but instead a quote on an image featuring JFK that got used for edits featuring other characters.
• Drawing other characters to look like JFK was a minor trend in 2020, sometimes accompanied by his "er, uh" Verbal Tic.

• Misaimed Fandom: "Litter Kills.... Literally," which was intended as a scathing attack on dramas that introduce new characters to be killed off for the sake of cheap drama, plays the faux-drama Up to Eleven and ends up being the saddest episode of the whole show.
• Mondegreen: In one episode, Abe gets glitter in his eyes and shouts “Dinger!” However, the sound quality (not helped by the song playing in the background) makes it sound like he said... something else...
• Nausea Fuel
  • Gandhi grabbing Joan's retainer from out of her mouth and shoving it in his own in "ADD: The Last D Is For Disorder." Especially the sound effect.
  • Abe before forced to eat broken glass in "Snowflake Day." Again, the sound effects elevate it from Bloody Hilarious to viscerally painful.
• Retroactive Recognition: Pre-Saturday Night Live Will Forte stars as Abe Lincoln.
• "Seinfeld" Is Unfunny: Will Forte once described the series as "Niche TV before niche TV existed." It arrived a decade too early for the age of binge-watching and streaming services, which are much kinder to quirky, serialized shows.
• Squick: Invoked whenever Cleo and JFK kiss. Their tongues wrap around one another like snakes and make a loud, slimy sound to be as hilariously gross as possible.
• This Is Your Premise on Drugs: Used for a joke:
  Smoking raisins is like LSD... on acid!
• Too Good to Last: A fondly remembered Cult Classic that lasted one season of 13 episodes.
• Unacceptable Targets: The show's portrayal of Gandhi has caused an uproar from Indians.
• Unpopular Popular Character: Gandhi frequently tries and fails to be popular in-universe, not getting invited to parties and dropping catchphrases and funny jokes that never fly. The fandom, however, finds him one of the funniest characters on the show (controversy from the mainstream audience notwithstanding).
• Vanilla Protagonist: Lincoln gets a fair bit of this; given how much of the show is parodying teen drama, it's likely intentional that his character ends up being one of the blander castmates. It's often speculated that this might be why he ultimately Did Not Get the Girl—his "relatable everyman" issues finally caught up to him.
• Vindicated by History: Like every animated series on MTV not called Beavis and Butt-Head, it wasn't seen as anything special during it's initial run and was canceled due to low ratings as soon as the controversy with Gandhi's character came up. Today, it has an impressive cult following and is considered one of the best shows of The Millennium Age of Animation.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: The streaming site Flixanity has Clone High listed as a kids show and Nelvana released the show on their YouTube channel for children shows, but it's really not. Keep in mind that even though the show is about famous historical figures and has an art-style in the vein of kids shows like Dexter's Laboratory, it's actually about the clones of said historical figures who are portrayed as stock high school teen show characters, like the Jerk Jock, the Alpha Bitch, the apathetic Goth girl who hates the popular kids, has a crush on The Everyman protagonist, and dresses in black, the party animal and comic foil to the protagonist, etc. While animated historical series for kids exist (such as Liberty's Kids, Histeria!, Horrible Histories, Time Squad, Peabody's Improbable History, Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum etc.), this one is not all that educational and not all that kid-friendly.
• "Weird Al" Effect
  • Most fans of the show have never seen a single episode of the shows it set out to parody.
  • How many millennial viewers will recognize that the reason Mr. Buttlertron calls everyone "Wesley" is because he's an expy of Mr. Belvedere?

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