In retrospect, this episode was very much made specifically for the animators to get out all the crazy Twi faces that they could before her calming in “Summer Sun Setback.”

Beautiful.

@NLTLF  
That too.

@TheRocketMan
 
eh i think yakkity sax is a better example

@Background Pony #90B1  
You must not have seen Filli Vanilli

They should’ve just named this episode “Face Freeze”. Because that’s the only thing that matters in this episode.

Spitfire: This is a academy record

The animators and storyboarders really had some fun with this one. You can tell.

To toss my hat into the ring, it’s fine if there’s silly or crazy faces and expressions. That’s one of thw wonders of animation, to go as crazy as you want.
 
 
However.
 
For this episode, it all felt overflowed with them. A good amount of them is fine, but if it felt like your episode RELIED on them, then something might be wrong.  
My best guess is the animators wanted to find a good episode to go as crazy as they could given they won’t work on MLP anymore, this episode being that open opportunity, but didn’t take into consideration how obnoxious the amount would be.
 
Those are my thoughts on the whole ‘meme face’ thing.

Fun stuff.

@northern haste  
you’re acting up tight as shit you know that

@northern haste  
I think it was pretty obvious what I meant.

@PurpleWonderPower  
Anything can end up as a meme.  
And even if they do become memes that’s on the fandom not the show

@northern haste  
Well, they’re incredibly exaggerated and weird. Those are the kind of faces that end up being memes.

@PurpleWonderPower  
The only thing I’m believable is that you think that these are meme faces.  
Seriously a silly face is not a meme

The amount of crazy, messed-up, squished-looking meme faces there are in Season 9 is unbelievable.

@Background Pony #90B1  
>Worst animation  
No,if you said “i dont like character making funny faces” i’ll say more power to you but you’re just jaded and sad here

Ponies are weird creatures.

Everything great about this episode summed up in one colleague

@northern haste  
Maybe not in terms of strict classification, but this a “craziest faces” contest, not a “best categorized” contest.

@Scrounge  
That’s not how it works

@northern haste  
It aired in the middle of season 9. Excluding it on a technicality seems unnecessarily nitpicky.

@Scrounge  
he said season 9 that special was not a season 9 episode

@JP  

 
I dunno, Pinkie’s still a pretty strong conten….
 

 
…Never mind, Twilight’s pretty much got this one nailed down.

Easily the episode with the worst animation of the entire show, also with the worst characterization of ponk, ever.