Avenue Q/YMMV


 * Anvilicious/SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: Everyone's a little bit racist, and the Money Song in particular.
 * Some of the overt "lessons" may be justified by the show's premise of being "Sesame Street for adults."
 * One of the overall messages in the show though, that wasn't as lighthearted as the rest were presented was that not everyone knows their purpose. Some people may never find out what their calling is. And that's okay.
 * Big Lipped Alligator Moment: "I'm Not Wearing Underwear Today"
 * It does show how truly horribly unfunny Brian is.
 * Ear Worm: Nearly every song, really.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: Rod and Nicky, as well as Trekkie. Mostly because their songs are the ones that have become the most memetically widespread ("If You Were Gay" and "The Internet Is For Porn", respectively), and also because a lot of us grew up with the characters that they're shamelessly parodying.
 * Family-Unfriendly Aesop: "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist", "You Can Be As Loud As The Hell You Want (When You're Making Love)"
 * Somewhat averted with "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" in that the song ultimately preaches a higher level of tolerance and peace in the world through a "don't sweat the small stuff" mentality.
 * "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" promotes a Grey and Gray Morality view of racism, or maybe even Black and Gray Morality. Either of those is very different from the Black and White Morality more common to racism in fiction, especially racism in fiction aimed at children like Sesame Street. The Aesop of "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" isn't necessarily incorrect or immoral, but it is still family unfriendly.
 * Black and White Morality about racism? That carries a lot of Unfortunate Implications. You're a little bit racist!
 * Also, given that racism is a learned behavior, stating that is the normal thing to be to children, who haven't necessarily learned it yet, would be very unfriendly. And that is assuming the premise is even true in the first place; if not, is someone who isn't racist weird?
 * Also the respective aesops of "The Money Song" and "For Now" are surprisingly family friendly.
 * In a way, "Schadenfreude" is one of these too. ("Sure it's not nice ... but everybody does it!")
 * Funny Aneurysm Moment: In the song "Purpose" Gary fears he's fulfilled his purpose and "is on a long slow walk to the grave". Gary Coleman is now dead.
 * Sucks to be him.
 * One production by an independent theater in Minneapolis had a bit in the end where Gary goes to change the "For Rent" sign, falls down the stairs and dies. A new sign was put up that said "Now Hiring" in its place.
 * Harsher in Hindsight: Certainly having Gary Coleman as a character at least feels a bit bittersweet since he died.
 * Especially with everyone singing how much it sucks to be him in the opening number.
 * Worth mentioning: the day after his death was announced, his actress on Broadway made a special statement when the show was over, in tribute to him, to say "For me, at least, it has never sucked to be Gary Coleman on Avenue Q."
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: A Sesame Street parody with a song called The Internet Is For Porn. Fast forward to 2011, which Sesame Street's official YouTube channel being hacked and pornographic videos being uploaded.
 * Ho Yay: Nicky and Rod, of course! Big surprise there. And then you have things like this.
 * Memetic Mutation: The Internet Is For Porn, a Trope Namers, and also very popular material for AMVs on YouTube.
 * Pick any anime character ever made ever, and there will be three different AMVs featuring them: 1. Them singing about their lack of underwear. 2. Them convincing their friend to come out of the closet, as well as a video of their friend trying to convince them. 3. How much they ruv someone, but also want to kill them in equal measure. there are no exceptions to this rule.
 * Even applies to Bert and Ernie.
 * Nightmare Fuel: "Purpose".
 * Tear Jerker: Heartbreaking enough to get its own page.
 * This Is Your Premise on Drugs
 * Values Dissonance: According to the "Everybody is a Little Racist" song, intentionally telling jokes designed to insult a ethnic group, and using an ethnic slur while doing so, is only a "little racist", like unintentionally using an outdated term to refer to an ethnic group. And to be clear, it was "Polack" jokes, and the teller was Gary Coleman, so there was no N-Word Privileges.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?: Just because it's puppets doesn't mean it's for kids.
 * The Woobie: Everyone. They are fuzzy. And angsty. How can you not want to give them a hug?
 * Woolseyism: The Hungarian production of the show is considered the best Hungarian localization of any work in recent years. The most significant change was the replacement of Gary Coleman with Michael Jackson; this was in part because Gary is all but unknown in the country, and mostly because Hungary has almost no black population and thus no one to play the role. In the original book, Jacko ended up on Avenue Q after two six-year-olds sued him for his entire estate; after the Pop King's death it was adjusted to say that he faked his own death to escape from his creditors.