Cosmo and Wanda: A Couple in Decline 

Get 20% OFF + Free Shipping and TWO Free Gifts with code LSMARK at mnscpd.com/LSMark #manscapedpartner

Cosmo's voice went from buttery smooth to breaking eardrums throughout the years. I remember how they used to be "two halves of a whole idiot" in a good way. They worked off each other so well. It baffles me how the writers thought ruining the dynamic is comedy gold.

You know, in hindsight, Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Wanda (more so Anti-Cosmo) felt more aligned to how the pilot portrayed the original character albeit with some exaggerated trait of their own.

The slow decline from 'Newly Weds obsessed with eachother' to 'Bickering Couples who basically hate eachother' is almost kind of depressing when you look at the full show

"Who are you?" "I'm an animated sitcom in which the husband went from a lovable oaf who cared about his wife more than anything to a complete jerkbutt idiot and the wife went from a fun-loving but cautious and relatable woman to a huge fun-hating nag." "Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?"

I hate that Cosmo and Wanda went from the lovey dovey, hopeless romantic couple type, to the punchline of a Boomer Humor meme.

The pilot truly shown how cosmo and Wandas relationship should’ve worked

"I'm not bright. Big words confuse me. I have the attention span of a rodent. But Wanda loves me anyway. And that should be enough for you!" -Cosmo back when loved his wife

Fun fact: In Fairly OddParents (2001-2017), Wanda's hair was originally planned to be blue, but her hair was changed to pink so it would not clash with Timmy's bedroom walls.

i hate how loveless/miserable marriages are played for laughs on TV in general. Marrying someone you cant stand and constantly bickering and putting each other down isn't funny, its uncomfortable. And like you said, cosmo and wanda being all lovey-dovey isn't exactly funny either but its more pleasant to watch, and maybe can get a chuckle out of ya. And when its done in a children's show it can be harmful, as it shows children that bad marriages are "normal". Yes I know that marriages aren't supposed to be perfect all the time but you gotta at the very least like the person you married and tolerate being around them

I find it incredibly sad to see two characters who loved eachother and served as positive role models for our protagonist turn into a loveless marriage full of bickering and spite. In a way, it reflects how a lot of relationships turn out, though I highly doubt the show was intending to do that

I think what Cosmo said in “Power Mad” perfectly sums up the peak of their relationship: “We’re two halves of a whole idiot!”

Another weird example of this that disappointed me was Juandissimo - originally Wanda found him overbearing and was embarrassed to admit he was her ex-boyfriend, preferring Cosmo instead but eventually she began to lust after him and stuff and that always bothered me because I loved the adorable relationship she had with Cosmo.

Wanda and Cosmo went from "girlboss and malewife" to a "wife bad, husband stupid" couple

At this rate. I guess the pure ultimate torture for LSMark is ranking all Fairly Odd Parents' episodes until his death

When I saw the pilot for the first time, I was absolutely shocked to see both Cosmo AND Wanda as equally goofy and playful, but both caring to Timmy. Makes me wish they kept them the way they were in the pilot, especially Cosmo's snazzy voice.

I'm hella stoked for that interview with butch, I'm really curious how that went down

Seems like Butch kinda has a trend of making his main female characters “naggy” (Wanda, Sam, Kitty etc )

Cosmo and Wanda should’ve been a more lighter-toned version of Gomez and Morticia Addams. That’s how they played to me in those early episodes.

I hate how "unhealthy relationship funny" is one of the most universal tropes. It's like all media wants us to believe that all relationships must end in you hating each other. It's just depressing

I like their interactions in the original pilot it feels like they were a real couple

I'll never get sick of watching you talk about Butch Hartman's failures

Imagine an alternate timeline where Cosmo never dropped the Troy McCure voice.

the episode where Timmy wished for Cosmo and Wanda to go to marriage counseling was chilling also Poof was a save the marriage baby, I just realized.

Still can’t believe that the writers threw Cosmo and Wanda’s relationship out the window.

i'm telling you, one of my FAVORITE character tropes of all time is: "the married couple who love each other so much it's sick" and its runner up "man who loves his kickass wife so so so much and wife who loves him just as much but is more reserved with her affection" (some notable examples of this trope being Roger Rabbit and more recently Felix Madrigal from Encanto) it's just so wholesome and it makes me happy to just see two characters in love man, and it's SO much less exhausting than the "wife bad, freedom good, don't get married like me, young child who will interpret this relationship as a normal, healthy dynamic for two people in love to have" trope... because it always begs the question: "why don't you two just...leave each other??" 🤨

Cosmo has better chemistry with Timmy's dad than Wanda

The best way to describe Cosmo in the later seasons is to look at Patrick in the later seasons of SpongeBob. Both started off as dumb characters that meant well while occasionally screwing up things, but later down the line they started acting both Braindead or downright Evil with their stupidity causing things to get worse

Mark has gone from commentator to cartoon analyst to cartoon tier list, and now cartoon relationship/ identity analyst

I remember when Cosmo and Wanda was like the parents that Timmy always wanted.

There was this one episode in Season 9, Cosmonopoly, that I actually enjoyed. The premise is that Cosmo, Wanda, Timmy and Poof end up getting trapped onto one of Cosmo’s board games. Of course, with this being Season 9 Cosmo insane and buffoonish antics ensue throughout the board, but it ends up tying it all up in the end with the reveal that the reason why Cosmo made the gameboard was in order to commentate his first meeting with Wanda, and even made a board for the day of their wedding. It was a sweet moment that stuck with me.

does anybody miss Cosmo's sleazy buisnessman nature and Wanda just going along with it? I wonder how that turned into "hehehe i hate my spouse"

I liked cosmo’s pilot season personality more, like he made mistakes but understood the situation at hand. By the end of the show that personality is pretty much entirely covered up and it’s pretty sad considering the show ended on such a low.

Great video, man. Legit, I forgot about how much Cosmo & Wanda hated each other, and IMO, it's the main cementing reason why the later FOP seasons weren't as good.

Honestly I would kind of prefer it if Cosmo sounded like a 1970s car salesman.

To be honest, I almost forgot about how abusive and ignorant their relationship was in later seasons, though that could be because I kinda lost interest at that point. I just always remembered them as the two sweethearts who sang a love song so beautiful it made Jorgan cry. But rewatching these later scenes… yeah it was toxic

They seriously did the “husband forgets anniversary” plot? Is this the fucking 90s? The misandry and misogyny in the writing is both aggravating and tiresome.

Never been a fan of animation portraying couples like this. Like I get that not every relationship is perfect and arguments are bound to happen at some point but I much prefer seeing sweet moments between married couples as opposed to.... this

I can't wait for the Butch Hartman episode! Just a heads-up that Jeff Kinney will be outside your window tn while you sleep 😊

Early season Cosmo and Wanda were low-key couple goals. But then over time they took on the, "My Idiot Husband/My Nagging Wife" tropes and became unbearable.

Early season conflicts with them : how am I gonna survive being away from Wanda for 3 whole hours ?! Later seasons : how am I gonna survive being around Wanda for 3 seconds?

I think the best representation of Cosmo x Wanda was in the musical TV film mostly because, while there's elements of a somewhat troublesome relationship, we still knew they genuinely cared for eachother. You know what moment, the sentimental song to distract Jorgen followed by Cosmo sacrificing his happiness for Wanda.

The peak of their relationship portrayal in my opinion was “Floating With You” from School’s Out.

In the episode where Wanda loses her wand, you can actually see that Wanda was supposed to be the idiot. She couldn't figure out how to wear a pirate eye-patch and then let Vicky abscond with her wand. When Cosmo took charge to try getting it back he cleverly disguised himself as a human and tried to smooth talk Vicky into giving the wand back. Wanda could not keep her jealous under wraps long enough to let him tho. Really wanted to see more of this Wanda and Cosmo and was left feeling disappointed when they changed everything around.

Besides flanderization, I recall how it was also when Fairly Odd Parents had this thing of having characters act based on their gender. With the men being idiots and women being nags. I don't know if this is for comedy but it was a thing that I felt is annoying in some of the newer episodes that might contribute to this.

Cosmo and Wanda suffer from the same thing that happened to Peter and Lois in Family Guy. When we first met them, they were clearly in love. But overtime they became obnoxious pricks who could barely stand each other.

I once described a relationship with an ex as “extremely Cosmo and Wanda.” This just reinforces that idea

There were times when the Cosmo and Wanda relationship reminded me of the Jessie and James dynamic. You could even make a case for Timmy being Meowth.

My favorite part of the show was also when Cosmo and Wanda felt more like parents to Timmy than.. Timmy’s parents. How at the end of the day they were family and they loved each other.

The one-note Honeymooners gag is the best way to stretch out a series well past its breaking point. Writing out actual character trajectories, that's hard, and takes time. Going the shallow route makes it MUCH easier to simply crank out content just to put on air.

The shows decline kinda represents their marriage. They became so unlikable (Cosmo especially) and bitter towards each other you wonder why they're even together when they had a loving marriage in the beginning.

I think my main problem with cosmo x Wanda is that cosmo looks at other girls too much and can be a real heartless prick while Wanda is really condescending towards cosmo and talks down to him about his stupidity and nags him too much. This video breaks everything down and highlights my problems With cosmo x Wanda very well. Props to you LSmark!

When looking back at old episodes of FOP , it feels genuinely jarring to hear Cosmo sound super low pitch compared to his super high pitched in the later seasons.

"Season 0" Cosmo's voice is so smooth he could convince me to do bad things. I'm just saying, always loved his voice.

The Cosmo and Wanda of the older episodes definitely felt like the fairy godparents most kids watching FOP would want to have (unless they were fans of Juandissimo)

Man cosmo and wanda were couple goals back in the day. Remember when they actually liked eachother and even if when they fought it was completely normal or used as a joke. Now at this point they can't even stand eachother.

One of my favorite moments of Cosmo and Wanda is toward the beginning of the series when they have the fight over their anniversary. It’s the moment when Cosmo’s mother is insulting Wanda again for marrying Cosmo and Cosmo declares that even though he’s an idiot, Wanda loves him anyway and that she in turn makes him happy and “that should be enough for you!” It’s a beautiful scene that solidified my love for them when I was younger. They were always a couple that despite their problems, they always worked through them and always loved each other through thick and thin. But none of that love or genuine emotion is present in their marriage anymore and it’s legitimately upsetting. Just another thing the show has ruined now.

i missed it back when these two actually loved eachother, they were so cute together

Even as a kid, I never found this funny, just unpleasant, I was especially offended and frustrated already knowing that this was only for comedy and nothing else. I don't think any other kid would find a bickering couple to be hilarious, they would probably see it as either: unpleasant, annoying or both. Bonus points if those children happen to live with parents basically already on the brink of a divorce because of all their arguing. Plus, since I already grew up with these characters, it just becomes a depressing and infuriating slap to the face to see them turn into this.

I prefer Cosmo's and Wanda dynamic relationships back at the pilot and season 1 and early seasons. Not sure why the Butch change this. This reminds me of Peter Griffin and Lois Griffin where the do love each other but as the series going its like they're seriously hate each other and I'm surprised they haven't gotten a divorce yet.

I grew up with the show too and I totally forgot just how loving Cosmo and Wanda used to be. Now i'm married myself and I couldn't imagine staying with someone if we acted like they do in later seasons.

What's with animated shows turning pretty healthy and positive portrayals of adult relationships into two people who hate each other and don't even want to be in the same room?

Remember when in the special about the muffin who could grant wishes without rules, Cosmo was very distrought about having let Wanda down by not being able to protect her and her being captured ? Yeah that was a really nice character moment that I wish was the norm.

Wasn’t there a whole special where Cosmo’s mom tried to break them up but the entire episode was them showing their undying love for eachother

Idk what is with TV writers and making their married couples borderline hate each other, it’s not even just FOP. Like no the “I hate my wife/kids/they lowkey ruined my life” joke wasn’t funny the first time it’s just annoying and kinda sad. Like shit no wonder so many younger people don’t want to get married/have kids when these jokes are so prevalent in sitcoms made by middle aged people.

They were really cute and charming Seasons 1 and 2. Really made for a refreshing dynamic as opposed to the stereotype married couples on other TV shows. Started to sour around S3 I think but neither were particularly grating until the post cancellation seasons.

I never really liked Fairily Odd Parents, but I still watched it when there was nothing better on other TV channels. And now whenever I see images of the show a lot of them have this strange purgatorial, liminal feeling to them.

You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. Butch is an example of a hero dying too late.

Anyone else remember that one scene where Cosmo and Wanda sing a really sweet love song in one of the musical episodes? That was a favorite of mine.

ok as someone who just marathoned Jimmy Neutron including the crossovers, Cosmo and Wanda’s relationship decline is so damn clear. In the 1st Jimmy-Timmy Power Hour they’re entirely civil toward each other, Cosmo isn’t that dumb, etc. Then in the 2nd and 3rd Power Hours which were made a couple years later, basically every word they say to each other is just insulting-Wanda calls Cosmo an idiot unprovoked, Cosmo makes some kinda joke abt how he hates Wanda, rinse and repeat. It was sad

Sadly, every major character in the Fairly Oddparents have been flanderized. Mr and Mrs Turner went from oblivious but decent parents who loved Timmy into neglectful assholes. Vicky went from a simple jerk into the reincarnation of Satan. Crocker went from a goofy but threatening antagonist into a complete joke. Timmy went from an average kid who no one understands into a punching bag. Cosmo went from a dumb but kind man into a moron who is nit as dumb as Mr Turner, but still stupid. Wanda went from a wise and sparky woman into a nag. And the other characters were erased from this show.

Its kinda sad but loving healthy relationships in media are actually extremely rare. Characters that are supposed to be in love are almost always written to basically hate each other or only show love through over the top grand displays of affection. Cosmo and Wanda early on were definitely couple writing goals it's a shame we can't still have that.

i feel like as soon as their marriage started souring (cosmo kept looking at other women and making remarks more often than not) they also started being much more ignorant and meaner to timmy which defeats the purpose of him even having them in the first place, he surely gets enough neglectful abuse from one pair of parents

If they made a season 11 the plot would’ve been Cosmo and Wanda getting a divorce

I remember watching them when I was younger and it always made me upset when they bickered. Seeing them in their “honeymoon” phase made me really happy I would’ve loved to seen that version of them when I was growing up

I really hate seeing bickering married couples in media. Like... Happy marriages exist and are nicer to watch than bickering... But I agree with Mark that it's for cheap comedy, and I'll add cheap drama to that as well - "Oh, Wanda and Cosmo are in a fight again!" Is an easy, *easy* plot to pull out, I bet. When the idea well runs dry, use a contrived fight between characters to supplement real issues. I'm of the opinion that every story needs to have a planned ending and that ending should not be fucked with.

Finally a worthy rival to "Brian Griffin An Icon In Ruin"

Why is it so hard for writers to have a marriage where they don’t hate each other

Does anyone agree that Vicky, Denzel Crocker, and Francis are pure evil and beyond redemption?

I can see that they tried to pull a dynamic similar to Pepa and Felix from Encanto (with the fun, lovable, and a bit of an airhead of a husband with a wife that’s tired of his shenanigans but still loves him deeply) but failed miserably

Just rising up another reason why FOP's downfall went into a black hole. In seasons 9 and 10, which is where it officially felt like it had died grisly death, all they cared about is to make Cosmo as brain dead as possible and Wanda as pushy as possible. The only good episode in both seasons was "Cosmonopoly", because it was the only episode in this dreadful area that actually cared about characterizing the characters instead of using them as buttjokes. I did feel Cosmo and Wanda's chemistry in there, and I wish that for this area, ALL the other episodes were like this one.

Cosmo's old persona reminds me of Genie from Aladdin. Goofy and silly but not dumb and still competent in helping people with magic.

The thing im noticing about longer running TV shows isnt just that they flanderize the characters. But that when they do the characters tend to just end up being huge assholes to each other. Why does it happen so often

Though I grew up with the later seasons, I can say that the old ones were much better. These characters went from well thought out comic reliefs to idiot jerks realll quick. It angers me that one of my favorite cartoons ended up this way.

Ahh Cosmo and Wanda, once a loving and funny couple turned into the animated version of a boomer comic husband and wife

As someone who grew up watching the later seasons, I was so shocked to see how they interacted in the pilot! Even the first couple of seasons are sooo different from how they ended up becoming. I don't mind that Cosmo is the slightly more goofy one while Wanda is a little more sensible, but you're right Cosmo became a total lunatic and was always trying to get away from Wanda

Even as a kid that joke in Channel Chasers where Cosmo realizes he can shoot giant lasers from his hands, then immediately tells Wanda "you should start listening to me more" always struck me as rlly weird

Seeing Cosmo's portrayal in the series of shorts caught me off guard. He feels so different, but in a good way.

Broke: Ye West & Kim Kardashian are having a rocky relationship. Woke: Cosmo & Wanda are having a rocky relationship.

Character relationships in this show were badly handled with all going from bad to worse. I feel that Vicky was the most mistreated of all. We all see her go from selfishly hateful teenager to a total psycho. Sadly, she got to redeem herself in the season 6 season ender Wishology, but Jorgen wiped her memories of the events of Wishology, thus resetting her back to being a fruitcake. Vicky and Timmy could've become close friends (as a result of being forced to spend time together every time the Turner parents went out) and still have some acrimony towards each other, but creator Butch Hartman decided that the all-mighty reset button should always be pressed at the end of each episode..... I'd like to see a new FOP animated series that allows Timmy and Vicky to have at least a prickly friendship, but if the new live action series succeeds, then I'm afraid a new animated series will be about the new characters..... One last thing... Vicky seemed to be aware that Timmy's goldfish weren't ordinary goldfish and vowed to find out why things at the Turner household were so strange. Sadly, she was never given the chance. In my mind, Vicky needed Cosomo and Wanda to teach her how to be a normal, caring person.... I'm sure that relationship would've been prickly as well :-)

I swear the characters reflect the writing team given enough time. Starting out full of ideas and life and then being hollowed out into shells that dont care about anything

Wow I'm really surprised at how low quality the new episodes are in animation, there's so little actual drawn in-betweens that it's not even at the level of indie animators, it looks like those animations you see in work presentations and low quality commercials.

Timmy has the power to wish for world peace or to end world hunger, but instead he wishes for a chocolate shake.

Cosmo and Wanda really should get couples therapy.

I hope future cartoonists take into account time passing and age their characters appropriately. I know in most cases children will turn into 30 year olds (Simpsons, Family guy, South Park) but you just gotta go with that if you don’t want things to get stale

Unpopular opinion: Some episodes after Poof's birth were still good, it wasn't immediately after he was born that the show started to lose quality

I will give the show credit, this does portray marriages very well. Starting off with the two in love and happy, then becoming progressively more miserable to the point where they can’t stand to be around eachother, only staying together for the kids.

I really miss Cosmo and Wanda’s relationship from season 0 where Cosmo voice actor uses his deeper voice and that Cosmo was actually the smart one in the relationship and being charming while Wanda was actually the dumb one. This really make a lot of their moments with each other really cute and charming in season 0 where they refer to each other by nicknames like “Pookie” and really contrast with Timmy’s parents as well where they do come off as wish fulfillment or something you only see in a fantasy and it still works since their Timmy ideal image of how parents should act. We got to remember that Timmy was a neglected child under the supervision of an abusive babysitter where he probably never got the chance to interact a lot with his parents, and thus Wanda and Cosmo comes in. Even though there are moments where Timmy parents are extremely worry about him season 0, this idea works extremely well with his parents in the official seasons. As well this could have defied the trope of stupid child husband and nagging wife with season 0 Cosmo and Wanda Edit: Thank you to the person who helped me spell Pookie

“Timmy this bike is as cool as you are!” Ok, that actually got a laugh out of me

I always preferred when they were a loving couple, it was so cute and sweet. I preferred pilot Cosmo too.