YMMV / Llamas with Hats

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Does Carl actually enjoy the atrocities he commits, or does he just do them to make Paul keep paying attention to him? The second half of the series strongly implies that the latter is true, especially considering that Carl "finishing his work" may have been blowing up the Earth (which would have ended his life too, while not contradicting the Word of God, and guaranteed that no aquatic or underground life survived). Seeing Paul dead could have ended his desire to truly finish his work, causing him to just take his own life.
• Archive Binge: Thanks to the episodes' short length (3-4 minutes on average), watching all twelve will take you less than twenty minutes.
• Creepy Awesome: Carl is a totally insane sociopath with a long history of violence, but how many villains have successfully managed to destroy all life on Earth? On purpose, no less! Plus, while it just further illustrates Carl's horribleness, you've got to admit: the Meat Dragon is actually pretty cool.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Everything Carl does, at least until he draws a new line purely for the sake of crossing it again. The series itself crosses it a third time by the halfway point, going from Black Comedy to straight psychodrama.
• Fandom Nod: In episode 3, Carl is surprised to learn Paul is male and that he thought he was a woman because of the hat. Presumably, this was a reference to how many fans assumed Paul was female, as it had never been stated in the two prior episodes.
• Fan Nickname: Some fans of the series took the liberty to name the Meat Dragon that Carl made in episode 6 "Paulina".
• First Installment Wins: The first four episodes are some of the most quoted videos in the entire history of web-based entertainment. The post-revival episodes, while loved in their own right for their sharp dramatic turn and genuinely unsettling narrative, are nowhere near as popular.
• Fridge Horror: Episode 9 has Carl pretending he’s being yelled at by the Paul mask for killing someone. This would be considered normal, if not for several details: Carl doesn’t remember killing anybody, there are no specific body parts on the ground (just chunks of meat), and he is covered in cuts and scars that he didn’t have before. That can only mean one thing.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The German Dub of the video has developed into a national phenomenon in both Germany and Austria. Especially in high schools, iPhone versions of the videos are currently the most popular pastime of the students. The creator himself has linked the fandubs on his blog, and admits he finds them funny.
• Harsher in Hindsight: From episode 2: "That is what forgiveness sounds like. Screaming and then silence." At the end of the series, Carl, having killed everyone on earth, including Paul at some point, jumps from an overpass, screaming like Paul used to to his death, leaving behind silence...
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The first short has Carl cut off his victim's hands and eating them. Several years later, the film Pain & Gain has a sequence where the main characters cut off two victims' hands and cook them on a grill (they don't eat them though). Played for Laughs, of course.
  • The line "Caaaaaarl, that kills people" can also be applied to The Walking Dead. Possibly overlaps with Memetic Mutation.
  • One of Carl's many atrocities is collecting human meat to construct a (somehow) living dragon. A few years later, season 3 of Stranger Things gives us the Mind Flayer, a monster constructed entirely of liquified humans.
• Ho Yay: Carl and Paul live together, go on cruises and vacations together, and that's not even getting into the pictures Carl apparently has on his computer. Of course, Carl was apparently under the impression Paul was a woman. The second half of the series is full of romantic imagery between them, starting with Paul moving out of their shared house in a way that looks just like a break up. Carl spends the entire rest of the series pining away for Paul, eventually committing suicide because he cannot bear to live without him.
• I Knew It!: Steele's original plan for Episode 5, which was to be the final episode, would have had Carl destroying the entire planet. However, after Episode 4 was released, almost every commenter was able to predict this, and Steele ended up cancelling the episode, and by extension, the series, until its revival in 2014, once he had decided on a legitimately surprising way to end the series. Paul saying that nothing Carl did surprised him anymore was Reality Subtext; the audience wasn't being surprised anymore and the creator decided to go a different direction than what everyone had assumed.
• Jerkass Woobie: Carl in the second half of the series, where it becomes clear that he's legitimately mentally ill and delusional.
• Moral Event Horizon: Carl outright states that he does this on purpose. When Paul tells him he's gone too far in episode 4, Carl takes it as a challenge. The series begins with him crossing it by killing a person, then chopping off and eating their hands, and he only gets worse with every episode.
• Squick: Flayed faces. Raw flayed faces. Raw flayed faces attached to balloons. Even Carl was grossed out by the faces... because they were undercooked. That just won't do at all. Raw face is just gross.
  Paul: I think I'm gonna throw... oh God, one touched me.
• The Woobie: Poor Paul. His best friend turns out to be a violent, unstoppable sociopath and he bears witness to all of the traumatizing horrors Carl inflicts on the world. You just can't help but feel like he needs a hug for all he's been through.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Many people, including Carl himself, thought Paul was a woman. Mostly the hat. The fact that Paul and Carl argue Like an Old Married Couple and (although it was always explicit that Paul had a male voice actor) Paul's voice easily being able to pass off as a man doing an impression of a woman probably contributed to it.

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