Why do some over the top reaction faces work in some shows and fail in others? This I post here for discussion

Why do some over the top reaction faces work in some shows and fail in others? This I post here for discussion.

I think it has to do with how different they are from the normal artstyle of the series, they dont work in ppg where they are already bug-eyed freaks

Someone made a demotivational poster of this show? In this current year?

yeah i didnt expect to find it when I was searching for a pic for my topic here.

That art is horrendous, if you put a silly face on it it's horrendous art with silly faces. It's terrible by default.
The exaggerated faces normally add more detail to everything about the character, including even shading, blending, texturing and photo realism. In here it's just the same ugly thin lines and over saturated colors, but with more elastic expressions.
Things that did it right: Courage, Gumball, Spongebob, Ren and Stimpy.

why the fuck are their eyes the colour of their dresses?

Because the new artstyle is terrible. Even the deformed PPG copies in that one episode have better weird faces than here

It's just gotta do with knowing how the characters in your show work, and what degree of off-model it can reach before becoming uncanny.
Total Drama, being a show animated with flash puppets, is obviously very strict with its models, but on the few occasions when they try and go over-the-top, it works because it's odd enough to stand out but not too much to be distracting or even, like OP's pic, somewhat unnerving.

bumping because this is actually an interesting discussion topic

to give a good example imo, why does THIS work?

is it because of the character it's attached to? seeing the usually neurotic and level headed Double D so chaotic and joyful? Is it the eyes, with the manic expression with the circles around the pupils to further emphasize their dilated size? the stretched mouth?

It works because ed edd n eddy is a masterpiece made by professionals who fully know what they're doing.
Power puff tumblr isn't.

Don't you mean the other way around?

FLAPJACK

welp makes sense to me!

Ah yeah they also know how to animate and that expression don't look so unnatural on double d contrary to the powerpuff girls.
Is it better now

I think and said it best.
The funny exaggerated face works when it doesn't way off model and the subject itself isn't already a stylized.

Bubble's expression is the only one in OP's pic that doesn't look retarded

Becuase there's trying too hard and then there's when it happens on accident

This is the equivalent of those comics that uses a silly face as the punchline instead of an actual joke.

This is the equivalent of a punchline being delivered with fitting expression to go with it.

The thing that I believe separates good over the top reactions (pic related, a favorite example of mine) from bad ones () comes down to two things.

1. Stretching and squashing to emphasize certain parts of the character's expression and/or body. Say what you want about John K but at least during his height (Ren and Stimpy season 1-2), he knew how to morph the characters to most effectively and entertainingly achieve the expressions he wanted to show. OP's pic, on the other hand, are just wacky faces slapped onto the otherwise unaltered circular heads of the girls.

2. How recognizable the expression looks for the character. In pic related, even though Peabody and Sherman exaggerate to many wild expressions, they still look like Peabody and Sherman. Sometimes, not following this can work but only on rare occassions (the student's reactions to the Teddy VHS in Gumball's The Saftey comes to mind). On OP's pic, the expressions of Buttercup and Blossom don't remotely look like Blossom and Buttercup. As accidentally pointed out, Bubbles is probably the best looking one since her expression actually looks kinda like Bubbles normally does.

Because there's a difference between that, and this.

It works because it is on model and not a meme face plastered on a round shaped bug eyed blob.

Pic related is a better example to go with OPs question, because Joe and Jeff are the most competent storyboard artists on the show, but they tried a weird face here that a lot of people agree didn't look right (even ignoring the tone issue)

It's a poor man's cartoonists' attempt at a joke without having to actually make one. It's gotten overused in Gumball and Adventure Time, too.

This, the Ed, Edd and Eddy picture follows the design philosophy of the show and keeps the character recognisable despite how distorted his face is. The nuPPG examples look like they're from 3 different shows or done by fan artists, things like weirdly sharp angles, unnecessary lines and the way their irises fill up the entire eye for some reason just make the characters look weird