Credits Gag



A joke based on, or buried in, the credits to a program.

Not to be confused with Creative Closing Credits or simply running credits over The Tag, The Stinger, or the Hilarious Outtakes, a credits gag involves a show making jokes within, about or upon the credits themselves. These may be a form of Couch Gag in a television series.

Common versions include:
 * The credits getting "broken" and arguments over fixing them
 * Spoof credits, such as false names, or nonsensical or ridiculous roles
 * Referencing things within the credits, sometimes within a self-deprecating manner
 * Running fake credits before the end of the show, only to continue later.
 * Homemade productions made by one person list job after job after job; with the same person's name next to it.

Can be a variant on No Animals Were Harmed. See also Logo Joke, Character as Himself.

Anime

 * The closing credits for the North American dub of Excel Saga contain multiple different gag credits in each episode.
 * A quick example is "Ms. Calvello's wardrobe provided by Straight-Jackets R Us". And after an episode whose theme is that there are to be no gags, the credits are given straight with a comment reminding the viewers that it was the "no-gags" episode.
 * As the closing credits roll, underneath Menchi the dog sits on a stage and mournfully yips a song entitled "Bolero of Sorrow (Please Don't Eat Me)"; in the corner of the screen, a translator dutifully renders the lyrics in Japanese. For the very last episode, they trade places, with the woman singing, and Menchi translating her performance into Dog.
 * In The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya, the credits include characters from the show among the production staff. For instance, in both the North American adaptation and the original Japanese the opening credits cite "The Ultra Director Haruhi Suzumiya" as being in charge of the program.
 * Similar to the Excel Saga example mentioned above, the ADV Films release of Full Metal Panic!! includes in-character voiceovers from the main cast to accompany the FBI warning. While the warning itself is standard, the voice-overs paraphrase in various ways; Kaname announces that she is setting out some rules as Class Representative, while Sousuke warns against using the disc or its packaging as a weapon and makes sure to note that any Humongous Mecha specifications the viewer may come across are strictly confidential. This is carried over from the similar voice-overs done for the piracy warnings on the Japanese DVDs, which are included as extras on the ADV Films DVDs.
 * FMP wasn't the first use of that device—the dub of the Ranma ½ OVAs frequently included piracy warnings performed in character; perhaps the best was Nabiki's, recited over a picture of her taking Marilyn Monroe's place in the famous "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" sequence (or perhaps Madonna's in the "Material Girl" video).
 * Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei credits all characters as playing themselves, and then goes on to credit some random non-characters (also played by themselves).
 * Gurren Lagann plays a trick with the credit for Makken, the "Cotton Hill"-look-a-like side character. He's credited as "Leo Kaminaga", which can be scrambled to instead spell "Ore ga Kamina", or "I am Kamina", as an allusion to his real voice actor who shares his voice with Kamina.

Comic Books

 * In the first issue of Transmetropolitan, the editor has his job description changed to "whore-hopper".
 * This is a fairly common gag in comics credits; generally the jobs will be changed to something related to the issue, e.g. "warden" if it takes place in a jail.
 * This was a staple of the late-'80s Giffen/DeMatteis/Maguire Justice League International comics as well. One issue had the letterer's name in huge letters, above the writers and artists, and ended with the comment "Isn't that better than a raise?"
 * This trend continues with their run on Booster Gold.
 * Each issue of the Sin City: That Yellow Bastard miniseries ends with a double-page spread with the title and credits. In the final issue, the main character is shown left hanging to death and finally giving up the fight to save a young girl. The next two pages are the credits, but it's all a fake-out—the protagonist changes his mind and says that he won't allow his story to end like this. There follows another half-issue of action.
 * Stan Lee era Marvel comics usually credited the creators in some rather over-the-top way ("Wonderfully Written by: "Spectacular" Stan Lee." "Drawn by: Steve Ditko Master of the Macabre." etc.)
 * And then they'd make fun of the letterer. "Lettered by: Art Simek, because his name fits this space."
 * On Bongo Comics titles, Matt Groening was given various story-related job titles of authority until it was decided that he would be credited as "publisher".

Fan Fiction

 * Oxenstierna D. Yuki-Rin's fanfic, "Vanity Fair is a Magazine, Not a Book", ends with a creative set of credits. Some of them make sense in context, but others... not so much.

Films -- Animated
"There should be a rule that the song under the credits Remotely pertains to the movie’s basic plot That rule has not been made so for now we’ll have to say Hey! Hey! Hey hey hey hey hey hey"
 * During the ending credits to the Veggie Tales movie Jonah, three characters interrupt midway through the credits to sing a meta-tastic song about how "this is the song that goes under the credits/these are the credits, so this is where it goes/it has nothing to do with the story" and so on. Eventually they all get bored and wander off to do something else.


 * Happens regularly with Pixar movies:
 * Monsters, Inc. featuring odd, colorful, and extremely active opening credits, with (among other things) one sequence being eaten by a monster (including the merciless hunting down of a quick-footed "e") and then being regurgitated into the title. This was added because the studio found that starting the movie with the "monster simulator" scared younger viewers; the cheery opening helps set the tone for the beginning of the film.
 * And in the end credits, they actually perform the play they made up as an excuse earlier.
 * Finding Nemo featured funny things happening around the credits during the end, such as Mike Waszowski (from the Pixar film Monsters, Inc.) swimming through a gap.
 * A Bugs Life decorated its credits with a blooper reel.
 * The credits for WALL-E start with a series of vignettes depicting the Axiom's passengers readjusting to Earth life, done in progressive art styles. It then depicts the characters running around and chasing each other among the credits in faux 8-bit video game graphics style.
 * Not just running around chasing each other, but re-enacting the events of the film in Cliff's Notes style.
 * Throughout the end credits of Wallace and Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit little bunnies float around on the screen. At the very end, the line "No animals were harmed in the making of this motion picture" comes up. The last rabbit rises until he bumps his head on that line and falls squealing off the screen.
 * The first few end credits of The Lion King 1 1/2 are shown "falling apart."

Films -- Live-Action
"WARNING If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don't you have better things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can't think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all who claim it? Do you read everything you're supposed to read? Do you think everything you're supposed to think? Buy what you're told you should want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you're alive. If you don't claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned ...... Tyler"
 * The credits for Monty Python and the Holy Grail begin with dark, dramatic, epic-style music... then faux-Swedish subtitles start showing up, interspersed by notices that first state the people responsible for the fault in the subtitles had been "sacked", then that the people who were supposed to sack those responsible for the fault in subtitles were also sacked. Things become slightly more sensical...until credits revolving around moose start appearing. Eventually, we are told "The directors of the firm hired to continue the credits after the other people had been sacked, wish it to be known that they have just been sacked." Then the credits begin flashing in seizure-inducing colors, while credits related to llamas start appearing and Mexican music plays in the background. All this nonsense, and the movie hasn't started yet.
 * There was a reason for this: the movie was too short and the Pythons had run out of money, so they wrote really long credits.
 * Anyone who puts the DVD in their player gets to sit down and watch the first two minutes (and credits) of Dentist on the Job (a genuine movie, in case anyone was wondering) before the "projectionist" (Terry Jones) realizes his mistake and puts the correct film in.
 * And then there's another credits gag at the end: there are no end credits, since all of the credits people have been sacked. So you get to listen to three minutes of jazz organ while watching a black screen, which also doubles as Fridge Brilliance.
 * Count Von Count "counts" the credits of Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird, including a Shout-Out to show creator Joan Ganz Cooney ("Hi, Mom!").
 * Airplane! and most other Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker films have numerous gags buried in their end credits.
 * Airplane! had the following:
 * Author of A Tale of Two Cities ... Charles Dickens
 * Generally in charge of a lot of things ... Mike Finnell
 * Foreez ... A Jolly Good Fellow
 * Thirteenth President of the United States...... Millard Fillmore
 * Following the "best boy" (a genuine crew position): Worst Boy..... Adolf Hitler
 * The copyright notice ends with, "So there!"
 * Hot Shots has two recipes, for brownie topping and cookies.
 * Hot Shots! Part Deux spoils The Crying Game.
 * In The Naked Gun, the credits include people getting credited by their single spoken line, people getting credited for made-up roles like "Second Second Assistant Director," and the safety warning, "In Case of Tornado: SOUTHWEST CORNER OF BASEMENT."
 * Second Second Assistant Director is actually a legitimate position in film.
 * The credits for the movie Wrongfully Accused have many of these, including one where.
 * During the credits for Gremlins 2, Daffy Duck pops in a few times to make sarcastic comments. (He also appears at the beginning of the film, attempting to usurp Bugs Bunny's place on the Warner Brothers logo.)
 * Like Excel Saga, the Fight Club DVD plays a very in-character gag on the FBI warning. At first it appears as normal, and then with some flickering and warping (the film's "Tyler has started fucking with something" visual cues), it is replaced with this:

"Gonzo: Gee, a lot of people worked on this movie! Kermit: Oh, this is nothing. Wait 'til you see the end credits!"
 * The Blu-Ray version of Fight Club takes it one step further—it starts off with the menu screen from Never Been Kissed before transitioning into the correct one.
 * The Court Jester: Danny Kaye interacts with the opening credits, including making the cast names appear, then pushing them off (Basil Rathbone's credit is particularly aggressive, hinting that he plays the villain of the piece); referencing how awesome Technicolor coloring looks ("You'll see, as you suspect/Maidens fair in silks bedeck'd..."), miming a tune for the music credit, and dancing to the choreographer's credit. Watch it here.
 * At the end of the various Phantasm horror films, along with the standard legal penalties, copyright-violators are threatened with "the wrath of the Tall Man".
 * Similar to Phantasm, Bubba Ho Tep warns copyright violators that they will be punished with "the wrath of Bubba Ho Tep".
 * Perhaps it should be noted that the entire Phantasm series and Bubba Ho Tep were all directed by the same person.
 * Spy Hard has many: Emergency Operator: 911, Enterprise Captains: James T. Kirk, Jean-Luc Picard, Still Waters: Run Deep, Horse Translator: Dr Doolittle, Dead Sculptors: Michelangelo, Rodin, This film owned by the Juice Mafia, Sketches: Vincent Van Gogh, Plastered: My Weird Uncle Bob, Loaded Cameraman Getting Help, Kung Fu Grip: G.I. Joe, Chicago Gangboss: Al Capone, Missing Accountants Under Investigation, Ms. Sheridan's Stand-Out: Her Legs, Horse Shoe Ringer 3 Points, Legal Advice Kanwee, Cheatum and Howe, Gorgeous Blonde's Phone Number: Still Trying To Get It, Go see Naked Gun 33 1/3
 * The last cast credit in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is "That Woman", played by Alanis Morrisette, who hasn't appeared at all in the film—until its final moments after the credits where she, reprising her earlier role as God, appears to close the book on the The View Askewniverse.
 * In the documentary on the Clerks II DVD release, Kevin Smith notes that the page of the book with "The End" on it is actually in the middle.
 * The French cult movie La cité de la peur features credits gags such as Tulle à vue played by Kim Onku (ask your French friends), includes Bruce Wayne as Batman, Peter Parker as Spiderman and "Ca en fait" played by "Du monde hein?" (put together that means "That's a lot of people, isn't it?"). There's also a line about the number of lumps put by one of the actresses in her teacup and how people should watch the movie again just to count them.
 * The Great Muppet Caper opens with Kermit, Fozzie, and Gonzo riding in a hot-air balloon and commenting on the credits as they appear.

"Any Similarities to Any Individuals Living, Dead, Undead, or Currently Dying is Purely Coincidental. Unless We Ripped Them Off for Material."
 * Robert Altman's M*A*S*H ends with the camp's P.A. announcer reading off the names of the cast.
 * This was also done on the TV show, in the Season 4 premiere "Welcome to Korea".
 * Speaking of Altman films, Nashville opens with a fake commercial for its own soundtrack album, with the cast members' names ("Twenty-four of your favorite stars!") being rattled off by a motormouthed voiceover announcer in the manner of an old K-Tel spot.
 * The Biopic Man on the Moon (1999) opens in black-and-white with Andy Kaufman (Jim Carrey), in character as Foreign Man, thanking the audience for coming to see the movie about him, and that he wishes it was better. He goes on to say that he isn't happy with the result because of all the changes made to his life "for dramatic purposes," so he recut it. "Now the movie is much shorter. In fact, this is the end of the movie. Tank you veddy much. [pause] I'm not fooling. Goodbye. [longer, more awkward pause] Go." Andy proceeds to put on a record of sappy music and the end credits cast list rolls. This was inspired by the opening of Andy's 1977 TV special, in which a similar gag was employed with Foreign Man.
 * The film School of Rock ends with the characters' band playing AC/DC's "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock and Roll)," as the credits scroll over the scene. Near the end Jack Black sings the new lyric: "Movie's almost over!/Credits got to roll!/Look at that name there!/I do not know that guy!"
 * Particularly interesting, when you notice that Jack is "following" the credits in the wrong direction! (he's scrolling down, they're scrolling up)
 * Or the TV version, with no credits.
 * In the credits for the Pirates of the Caribbean someone is credited as "Joe Pancake". During the DVD commentary with Johnny Depp, he stops in the middle of talking about how people were helpful and fun to work with to say "Joe Pancake??" and then just moves on.
 * No-budget horror director Henrique Couto does this a lot, often with a bit of Self Deprecating Humor:

"Wayne: "Well, that's all the time we had for our movie. We hope you found it entertaining, whimsical and yet relevant, with an underlying revisionist conceit that belied the film's emotional attachments to the subject matter." Garth: "I just hope you didn't think it sucked.""
 * That might be a Shout-Out to An American Werewolf in London, which used the "any persons living, dead, or undead" version.
 * The Great Dictator has one, being that both Hynkel and the Jewish Barber are played by Charlie Chaplin, the opening credits end with a footnote saying: "Any similarities between Chancellor Hynkel and the Jewish Barber are purely incidental."
 * The opening credits for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs simply has "A Film By" which sits for a moment before adding "A Lot Of People."
 * In the closing credits of Mary Poppins, the name Navckid Keyd (credited as playing the part of Mr. Dawes Senior, the elderly banker) is unscrambled to reveal that it was Dick Van Dyke in disguise.
 * The Star Wars prequel trilogy has the latter two credit "Michael Smith as Javva The Hutt", thanking the owner of ILM's coffee hut.
 * Pulp Fiction has a subtle example. Right as a name relating to sound production shows, the background music gets changed to static before changing to the next song. There are also characters credited as "Long Hair Yuppy Scum" and "Coffee Shop". The latter is the coffee shop owner who says "I'm only a coffee shop..."
 * The opening credits to Attack of the Killer Tomatoes named one man for six different positions, each with a variation on his name (C.J. Dillon, Constantine James Dillon, etc). It also claimed the film included a special appearance by the "Royal Shakespeare Tomatoes", and was based on "The Tomatoes of Wrath" among other gags.
 * In the sequel, an elderly woman appears just as the ending credits start, stating her son (the director) and a lot of other people worked very hard on the film and the audience should sit through the credits.
 * Return of the Killer Tomatoes also did this with the opening credits. It opens with a parody of a movie host introducing the film, then plays the opening credits for a movie called "Big Breasted Girls Go to the Beach and Take Their Tops Off".
 * The President's Analyst allegedly bothered the FBI for its portrayal of the agency - so to placate them it starts with a disclaimer caption "This film has not been made with the consent or cooperation of the Federal Board of Regulations (FBR) or the Central Enquiries Agency (CEA). Any resemblance to persons living or dead is coincidental, and so forth and so on."
 * They also redubbed all the film's references to the FBI and CIA with FBR and CEA, sometimes making the dubbing very obvious.
 * The 1968 comedy Skidoo (directed by Otto Preminger) closes with Harry Nilsson singing a song containing all of the film's credits, including every single cast and crew member and legal disclaimers.
 * Wayne's World ends with a fade to black and a credit roll. About halfway through Wayne and Garth fade back in -

"Garth: "Um...I don't think anybody's gonna tell us when to leave." Wayne: "Good call. I think they'll just fade to black when they're done." fade to black Garth: "I can't believe they did that." Wayne: "Told ya.""
 * They then fade out and the credits keep rolling - near the end they fade back in again reading magazines and periodically looking into the camera.


 * The end credits for Woody Allen's Gag Dub film What's Up, Tiger Lily? featured a split screen sequence. The credits ran down the right hand side while the left hand side featured Woody watching a stripper. At the end of the credits came the text 'If you're reading this instead of looking at the girl on the left, we suggest you see either a psychologist or a good optician," followed by an eye chart scrolling up.
 * The first movie of Brazilian comedy group Casseta & Planeta has fake credits (with things such as "Camera Operator: Stevie Wonder" and "Special Effects: O. Bin Laden") before cutting to a "post-scriptum" with the group, then come the real credits.
 * Ethan Coen's 15-year-old son Buster was credited as Mr. Damon's Ab Double in True Grit. He actually was an assistant to the script supervisor.
 * More of a quirk than a gag, but in the opening of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, the film's title appears during Willie Scott's musical number, carefully form-fitted so that Willie appears to be standing in front of the words.
 * In Ocean's 11 (the original, with Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack), the ending scene has the Rat Pack walking past a marquee on the Vegas Strip with their names on it.
 * Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.'s credits list the writer of the story as Retlaw Yensid.
 * In the film adaptation of the Discworld story Hogfather, Terry Pratchett is credited as "mucking about with the script".

Literature
"The 'Galactic Cleansing' policy undertaken by Emperor Zhark is a personal vision of the emperor's, and its inclusion in this work does not constitute tacit approval by the author or the publisher for any such projects, however undertaken. Warning: The author may have eaten nuts while writing this book."
 * Some of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next novels include credits at the end, the first gag being their very presence in the book. These would include things typical to film credits, such as thanking characters from other stories for agreeing to appear in the book, the copyrights owned by companies and people who appeared, thanks to Fforde's family or friends for coming up with a particular idea or joke, the crew and machinery who built the novel in the BookWorld ("Made wholly on location in the Well of Lost Plots") and messages such as:

"CAVEAT: Bringing about Armageddon can be dangerous. Do not attempt it in your own home."
 * Good Omens has one on its copyright information page:

Live-Action TV
"Head Inquisitor: NO ONE EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISIT... (Screen cuts to "The End") Oh bugger!"
 * The main cast of How I Met Your Mother form a band to impress Barney's father. They, in place of the credits, sing the theme "Hey Beautiful" instead of the usual opening credits.
 * The final scene from the Babylon 5 episode Atonement was a scene of Marcus Cole singing "The Major General's Song" from The Pirates of Penzance. The credits featured an extended version of the tune, followed by the sound of Franklin screaming for him to stop.
 * Before the beginning of the sixth season of Friends, actress Courteney Cox got married and changed her name to Courteney Cox Arquette. During the opening credit of the first episode, all of the actors, the writers and the producers have "Arquette" added at the end of their name.
 * In one Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode, they "broke" the credits several times.
 * In The Movie, Mike and the bots apply the show's treatment to their own movie's credits at the end ("Puppet wranglers? There aren't any puppets in this movie!").
 * In Teenage Crime Wave the credits are restarted several times, just to see Frank get maced by Dr Forrester.
 * Rhino DVDs, including their releases of Mystery Science Theater 3000, used to feature the face of the late FBI director J. Edgar Hoover being doodled over in yellow marker during the FBI warning.
 * Monty Python's Flying Circus sometimes changed the usual end credits to prolong a Running Gag, such as Spam in episode 25, anagrams in episode 31, and pornographic references in episode 36. In episode 35, one of Eric Idle's characters reads the credits out loud. The Michael Ellis episode ran the end credits immediately after the opening titles, and ended with one character explaining various ways of ending an episode, including fades, walking off into the distance, and finally, the hard cut to black.
 * One episode ended with the BBC apologising for a supposedly insulting reference to Buzz Aldrin; this was followed by the credits run over a picture of Buzz Aldrin with Buzz Aldrin being credited for everything in the show, with "The Star-Spangled Banner" used as background music.
 * Episode six ended with the Pythons as Hollywood writers with silly American accents. The sketch ends with 'Larry Saltzberg' (played by Idle) reading off the credits, in which everything is credited to 'Irving C. Saltzberg' except for 'Additional Material', which lists the Pythons as 'Graham C. Chapmanberg', 'John C. Cleeseberg', et cetera. Also, Irving C. Saltzberg.
 * There was also the show within a show "Timmy Williams' Coffee Time" which had enormous credits for 'script by Timmy Williams' and then 'Additional Material by' followed by a huge list of names in tiny print (This was a Take That at David Frost who would treat his writers in a similar way—several of the Pythons had written for The Frost Report).
 * The Spanish Inquisition episode ends with the credits rolling over the Inquisition as they attempt to make it to court before the end of the credits. They just barely make it and get cutoff mid sentence.


 * The end of Whose Line Is It Anyway? has the 'winning' performer reading the credits in a style of the host's choosing.
 * Police Squad!! had a Running Gag in the closing credits, which was that the freeze frame was not a freeze frame, but just the actors standing very still (often while other things in the shot—e.g., a suspect being booked, or a chimpanzee (long story!) -- would still move).
 * The series also incorporated several Running Gags in the opening titles/credits sequence. Most noteworthy, the crediting of "Rex Hamilton as Abraham Lincoln" in the opening title sequence, the appearance of a "special guest star" , and the announcer announcing the episode title as a different episode title is shown onscreen.
 * In Garth Marenghi's Darkplace almost all credits for creation are for Garth Marenghi and Dean Learner. The sole exception (besides the real credits at the end of each episode) is the line "music by Stig Baasvik, based on tunes whistled by Garth Marenghi".
 * As of June 2007, BBC-made shows are not allowed to have anything happening in the end credits, since the credits may be squashed, stretched or talked over. In response to this, Charlie Brooker's satirical BBC series Screenwipe ran the credits right at the start in full, then cut to a spoof documentary on "corners". Brooker then walked in halfway through, pushed the documentary-make off-camera and proceeded to rant about the state of British credits. At the end of the episode, Brooker pointed out that the credits had already been shown and unceremoniously—and abruptly—ended the show without anything, just cutting straight to the BBC continuity announcer.
 * Another episode showed footage of someone's rear, so it would like it was speaking instead of the continuity announcer - a fact not lost on the announcer when he spoke.
 * Xena: Warrior Princess has something different in place of the "No animals were harmed" disclaimer every episode, such as "no centaurs were harmed," etc.
 * Hercules: The Legendary Journeys does this as well.
 * Top Gear:
 * The Top Gear Africa special episode had all the names in the credits as Archbishop Desmond (person's surname).
 * The earlier America special featured names such as "Cletus Clarkson", "Ellie-May May" and "Bubba T. Stig"
 * The polar special had all the names read "Sir Ranulph (surname)".
 * The Winter Olympics special had the presenters listed as "Björn Clarkson", "Benny Hammond", "Agnetha May", and "Anni-Frid Stig". This is obviously a reference to ABBA even though the show took place in Norway. The rest of the cast is given as "Björn (surname)".
 * The Vietnam special had them all listed as Francis Ford (surname).
 * The end credits to The Man from U.N.C.L.E. included an "acknowledgment" to the organization: "We wish to thank the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement without whose assistance this program would not be possible." The gag being, of course, that U.N.C.L.E. was a fictitious organization which exists only in the show's own universe.
 * That's just what they want you to think!
 * The Fast Show ran a series of supposedly foreign language game shows, the credits for everything going to "el presidente!" (except for "Rostrum Camera - Ken Morse". This was a TV industry In-Joke - Morse is a real life rostrum camera operator whose name appears in the credits to dozens of shows.)
 * An episode of The Chaser's War on Everything ended with Andrew Hanson taking a piece of paper out of a lottery barrel and declaring it the randomly selected language for the credits that week. The credits then dutifully played in Ukrainian.
 * Red Dwarf paused the credits in "Waiting For God" to allow Rimmer to wail about the episode's reveal. "IT'S A SMEGGING GARBAGE POD!"
 * In "Dimension Jump" we hear Rimmer say "It's Wednesday night. It's amateur Hammond organ recital night. Take it away, Skutters!", before the theme tune is played on a Hammond organ. Similarly, in the following episode "Meltdown", the theme is sung by Elvis impersonator Clayton Mark (who played a waxdroid of Elvis in the episode).
 * The remastered version of "Backwards" has the credits run as a mirror image.
 * Blink and you miss it: in Kung Fu: the Legend Continues the pilot opens with an updated version of the Kung Fu logo over a shot of David Carradine walking. When the second part of the title comes up, he looks back in surprise.
 * In an episode of She Spies, the teaser has the girls captured by the bad guys. Cassie then swallows a bomb, prompting said bad guys to release them, lest Cassie explode in the middle of his base. The girls run to freedom and the teaser ends as the opening sequence starts... only to be shoved off the screen by Cassie, as she complaining that she has just swallowed a bomb and will not make it through the title sequence. After being made to cough up the bomb, she lets the opening credits run.
 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer
 * In "Superstar", the episode in which Jonathan turns himself into Mary Sue, the usual title sequence is interspersed with shots of Jonathan being heroic.
 * The musical episode also features altered credits, with a peppy orchestral version of the theme tune playing over characters' faces appearing on the moon while their names appear underneath.
 * On Roseanne, the first episode after the show's lead divorced Tom Arnold and started being credited by only her first name, every single credit was of just the person's first name.
 * Psych has been known to play with their credits. There have been Christmas episodes that have fake snow put in, and santa hats or candy canes replacing letters in certain actors' names. Also, in an episode where Shawn investigates a murder on set of a Spanish soap opera, the theme song is sung in Spanish.
 * Done again in an episode featuring a Bollywood style musical. The credits are in Hindi.
 * In the Twin Peaks tribute episode "Dual Spires", the opening song is a slower, extended version, sung by the same artist as that of Twin Peaks.
 * Curt Smith of Tears for Fears guest-starred in "Shaun 2.0", and recorded a version of the song.
 * Family Feud once replaced everyone's surname with Dawson in the credits, an unsubtle Take That at then-host Richard Dawson over hiring his son to do some grunt work on the show.
 * An late 2000 episode of Have I Got News for You began with Angus saying "Goodnight." then the credits starting to roll at the beginning followed by "Sorry, that was just to annoy anyone who set their video to record this".
 * "Tool Time," The Show Within the Show on Home Improvement, always opened with Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor coming out and introducing himself (complete with his nickname), and then introduce his assistant Al "(Embarrassing Nickname)" Borland.
 * If the credits run long on Wheel of Fortune, host Pat Sajak sometimes gets a funny title above his name, such as "Pumpkin Picker" on a Halloween week episode.
 * When Peter Ustinov guest-starred on The Muppet Show, he accidentally sat in a chair that was a Muppet, and that was married to a hatrack who was the show's writer. Sure enough, when you get to the closing credits "The Hatrack" is listed as one of the writers.
 * The CD-ROM documentary Making Magic, about the theatrical release of the Special Edition of Star Wars, featured end credits where George Lucas claimed he didn't know if he'd be directing any of the prequels, and if he did he'd only do one. This was intercut with Rick McCallum being asked the same question, and saying that he knew for sure that George was going to be directing the first one, and probably at least one other. The screen showing this then shorted out and dropped out of the frame.
 * The UK version of Deal or No Deal sometimes does this. In one early episode a fly in the studio led to an impromptu bit of business in which it was named "Neil", and in the end credits there was one for "Special Guest: Neil". In another episode, a player was invited to make offers to the Banker in a hypothetical game parallel to the real one. At the end, there were two Bankers listed: the usual "Himself", and the player.
 * Shows produced by Armando Iannucci often feature joke credits. On one episode of The Friday Night Armistice, photos of the crew were used instead of names.
 * Episode 6 of Spaced—the one in which the cast goes to a nightclub—has all the names of the cast and crew written as raver nicknames, often with the typical Xtreme Kool Letterz.
 * Mr. Show's credits gave "Special Thanks" to notable people not involved with the show as an eyecatch.
 * Chris Morris's Jam dispensed with end credits altogether - there was just a caption reading "jamcredits.com". (It turns out that this was a genuine website wih the genuine credits.)
 * The Goodies episode "It Might as Well be String" ends with the camera looking through the backwards credits on the TV screen at the Goodies, who are sitting on a couch making snide remarks about the episode they've just watched.
 * The third season of A Bit of Fry and Laurie had the credits rolling in sync to a hand crank that was being turned by Stephen Fry, stopping and even slightly reversing when he got tired. In one episode the credits came crashing back down at the end when he let go of the crank.
 * A first season episode of The Muppet Show in which the Electric Mayhem were on strike, ended with Rowlf having to play the closing theme on his own. Another episode redid the titles and credits to fit the storyline that the show was taking place in a railway station while the theatre was being fumigated. The end music is particularly off-key, because the band are trying to "play the timetable".
 * Done subtly in the opening credits of the Stargate SG-1 episode "Paradise Lost". While the supporting cast is being listed, actors Bill and Gary  are listed on screen at the same time, despite one of them playing a minor role in the episode.
 * Eureka has a couple episodes with thematically altered opening credits:
 * "Founder's Day", which features time-travel to the late '40s, has sepia-toned credits with a big band version of the theme music.
 * "O Little Town", a Christmas Episode, has Christmas-themed credits: all the normal random levitating objects are replaced with wintery and holiday-related levitating objects, Carter is in a coat, the normally instrumental music is sung to the words "fa la la", and so on.
 * The second season credits for The Monkees mistakenly names everyone Peter, cut to Peter with sad face, cut back to Monkee with his correct name.
 * On an April Fools' Day episode of The Price Is Right, every contestant was wearing a nametag that said "Pat" as part of the many April Fools gags. To keep the gag going all the way to the end, the closing credits changed everyone's first name to Pat as well.
 * The credits for Psalty's Salvation Celebration includes a recipe for chocolate chip cookies, apropos of nothing.
 * That Mitchell and Webb Look presents The Gift Shop Sketch. Parodying many modern video editing tricks and techniques (including every filter ever conceived), they feature credits scrolling way to fast, for way too long (showing a complete recap of the whole sketch) with many silly names and references. Researchers, for example, include Melanie Google, Art Yahoo, Brad Bingley and Bing Bradley.
 * Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two traditionally gives everyone in the end credits a Punny Name for Halloween and the last show of the series (when the puns are Christmas-themed).

Music

 * A quick one: Michael Jackson's Thriller video (well, more of a short subject) had at the end 'Any similarity to actual events or persons living, dead, (or undead) is purely coincidental.'
 * Done years earlier for An American Werewolf in London, which shared the same director and makeup F/X man as the Jackson video.
 * Guns N' Roses' Appetite For Destruction credits someone "Victor 'the fucking engineer' Deyglio", acknowledging the fact that he recorded a on-studio sex session (heard in the song "Rocket Queen"). And there's the "Thanks" section, with several gems such as "Sammy (I be there in 10 min.)" and "Richard Caballero (for keeping Axl and Slash outta jail)".
 * In the only studio album of Brazilian comedy band Mamonas Assassinas, the liner notes are filled with jokes. Besides the credits, which include "Mixed in studio The Enterprise / Los Angeles, in the USA, Stardate 49872.6 by Jerry Napier (the one from Ozzy, ya know?)", there are "Thanks" to the flight crew "who served us food going to the US" and Ultraman "who killed that horrible monster".
 * Michael Nesmith's 1972 album Tantamount to Treason: Volume One splits up the musician credits and sprinkles them throughout the liner notes. The liner notes are a recipe for homemade beer.
 * The liner notes for It's Fun To Steal by John Flansburgh's side project band Mono Puff credit several minor pop culture figures of the past (Trini Lopez, George Sanders, Jo Anne Worley, The Blow Monkeys) with "handclaps" on the song "Imaginary Friend".
 * During the ending of the final track of his 1969 album California Bloodlines folk-rock singer-songwriter John Stewart thanks all the Nashville session musicians who played on the album by saying their names and adding little nicknames ("we'd like to thank Fred 'The Flash' Carter, 'Goodtime' Charlie McCoy...", etc.)
 * Metallica's ...And Justice For All gives extra credits to the " road crew fuckers" (Andy 'I've toned down' Battye...James' guitar and insults) and gives a bunch of reasons to why a "Thanks" list isn't there.
 * Weezer's album Pinkerton contains the credit "Karl Koch: Karl Koch" (Koch is their archivist and webmaster, basically).
 * Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells has a caption reading "This stereo record cannot be played on old tin boxes no matter what thay are fitted with. If you are in possession of such equipment please hand it into the nearest police station." This is a parody of labels advising listeners that stereo LPs may be played on mono equipment provided suitable cartridges are used.
 * The CD booklet accompanying heavy prog band Arena's 2006 album Pepper's Ghost includes a comic strip (owing something to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) which is credited to Tim Bisley. This is obviously a joke because Bisley is Simon Pegg's character from Spaced.
 * Usually when a musician makes a guest appearance on an album, but they are signed to a different label than the one the album was released on, the credits will say something along the lines of "X appears courtesy of Y Records". On Ministry's Psalm 69, Gibby Haynes from the Butthole Surfers appeared "courtesy of his own bad-ass self" instead.
 * Similarly, on the Beastie Boys' Ill Communication, Biz Markie appears "courtesy of his own damn self".
 * In the liner notes to The Flaming Lips' Transmissions From The Satellite Heart, the members all have an irrelevant detail about themselves listed in addition to the instrument they play (shoe size, astrological sign, etc).
 * The liner notes of Iron Maiden's album No Prayer For The Dying has the usual "Up the Irons!" in the thank yous. However, right next to it is "No prayer for the cup?".
 * The album credits for the soundtrack album of Hot Shots! Part Deux, released by Varèse Sarabande Records, have several gag credits ("What Is The Varèse Logo Anyway?").
 * Most Pavement albums have "All Rights Reserved" followed by "All Wrongs Reversed", a joke that apparently originated on bootleg album covers - Stephen Malkmus kept up the tradition on his self-titled solo album.
 * Punk rock band Nomeansno often uses intentionally wrong or misleading information in their liner notes. Former guitarist Andy Kerr was also fond of using obvious pseudonyms, such as on the album 0 + 2 = 1 where he credited the guitar playing to "None Of Your Fucking Business."
 * The back cover of Camper Van Beethoven's Key Lime Pie. Instead of having a straightforward tracklist and credits, all of the relevant information is delivered in a long paragraph that's formatted to wrap around the sleeve, with a few Lemony Narrator-type asides: Among other things, it notes that having to add legal notices on the back "makes it a little more difficult to have a stark artsy sleeve like all those cool British imports", and even apologizes to vocalist David Lowery for the last-minute cutting of an instrumental outro ("Oh yes, David, Dennis (Dennis Herring, the producer) says that the closing theme bit the dust. Sorry, this record's just too damn long").
 * All Type O Negative albums credit The Bensenhoist Lesbian Choir with backing vocals. In reality, all backing vocals are done by the band themselves, and "Bensenhoist" is just "Bensonhurst" (a neighborhood in Brooklyn) written in a phonetic Brooklyn accent.
 * The liner notes of Saint Etienne's albums generally credit the band members with nonsensical contributions alongside their real ones ("Pete Wiggs: Prophet 5, Roland Jupiter, Handclaps, Spriguns of tolgus")

Radio

 * On NPR's Car Talk, Click and Clack read an ever-increasing list of prank call names describing the extensive support staff of the radio show. For instance, the accounting firm of Dewey, Cheatum and Howe, the make up artist Bud Tugly, guest accommodations by the Horseshoe Road Inn, chauffeur Pikop Andropov, etc. They also give odd nicknames to their actual production staff, like producer Doug "The Subway Fugitive" "Not a Slave to Fashion" "Bongo Boy" Berman and Catherine "Frau Blucher" Penalosa (complete with sound of horses whinnying and galloping).
 * Apparently they keep a list of these Here. Some of them only work if you try to read them out.
 * Garrison Keillor credits his writing on A Prairie Home Companion to "Sarah Bellum" (Not that one).
 * With music by Sam and Janet Evening.
 * The closing credits to This American Life credits "our boss, Torey Malatia" (the general manager of Chicago's WBEZ, where TAL is produced) with a random quote from the episode. The result is inevitably funny.

Tabletop Games

 * The good folks at White Wolf have a bad habit of leaving little odd things in their credits. For example, the Manual of Exalted Power: Lunars gave us references to the underwear of Gaia and the Celestial Incarnae, including the "Pantaloons of the Unconquered Sun."
 * Even better, the Alchemicals book gave us all of the names and titles of one Bender "Bending" Rodriguez.
 * Among those listed in the credits of the second edition core rulebook is 'Your Mother'.
 * The credits page of 1E Tabletop GA,Paranoia adventures sometimes gave contributors odd job titles that matched the work's theme.
 * The second edition of Dungeons & Dragons has the Monster Manual, which does not list individual artists for monster art, except two people are explicitly credited for the invisible stalker...

Theatre

 * The playbill for Spamalot, in keeping with the spirit of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, has a batch of ridiculous fake cast bios before the real ones, as well as a fake playbill for a show about the economic rise of Finland.
 * The DVD for The Umbilical Brothers show Speedmouse is filled with these.

Videogames
""No sheep were harmed in the making of this game... a few gnorcs, but no sheep.""
 * Castlevania featured credits telling us who supposedly played the bosses. Spoof names abound, such as Christopher Bee, Belo Lugosi, Boris Karloffice, and Mix Shrecks.
 * Even all but one of the production staff didn't go unscaved: Trans Fishers (Director) and Vran Stoker (Screenplay). James Banana though was an actual pseudonym of the soundtrack composer, a girl named Kinuyo Yamashita
 * A Credits Gag is actually worked into the final boss fight in Donkey Kong Country. After two bouts with King K. Rool, DK assumes a victory pose, the camera pans to the sunset and some very suspicious "kredits" (listing the names of various enemies) roll, followed by a faintly ominous "The End?".
 * Bayonetta does this - once you beat, Bayonetta stands on a piece of debris falling from orbit towards the earth, and the credits start to roll..
 * It then does it again during the actual credits by making some of the flashback photographs that are scrolling by playable. Thankfully failure doesn't do anything but damage your ranking, but if you're playing for ranking you already know this is going to happen.
 * In the second and third iterations of Arika's Tetris the Grand Master, after you have cleared about 300 lines, ending up at blistering speed, the screen clears, and the credits start to roll. But it's not over. Behind the credits, you have to play Tetris blind. As soon as you place a piece, it becomes invisible. If you let the blocks pile to the top before the credits finish rolling, the game is over. But it is possible to complete.
 * Unless you're playing Tetris The Grand Master 3 's Shirase Mode, in which case you get not invisible Tetris, but double-sized block Tetris. Have fun!
 * LucasArts adventure games often did this, such as Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge crediting a "proofraeder", or Full Throttle crediting the game designers' cats.
 * Not to mention Full Throttle's credits' "special biker haiku section."
 * At the end of the credits for The Secret of Monkey Island the game tells the player to get off the computer and go to bed. Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge tells you to go do something constructive and even offers suggestions (e.g. run for president or teach basket weaving to clams). Monkey Island also includes "chocolate supply supervision" as a credited role.
 * Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis has a Long-Suffering Significant Others section, and one for Policy Changes ("you know who you are").
 * Resident Evil 4 ends with a copyright notice from the Raccoon City Police Department, stating that violators will be prosecuted by a member of S.T.A.R.S., "and them some".
 * The end credits of Metal Gear Solid 4 start normally, with the voice actor credits. These end with a credit for
 * Even more shocking: the character is
 * This is referenced in Merry Gear Solid 2, where the same thing happens. The character here is, who was killed in the first game.
 * The original Spyro the Dragon game end with the following:

""No sheep were harmed in the making of this game. For the most part. The one that was had it coming.""
 * In a similar vein, StarCraft assures us that "no pixels were harmed in the making of this game". No guarantees about animals, given that this was the game where clicking on a critter could eventually make it go up in a mushroom cloud.
 * Insomniac continues this tradition in the Ratchet and Clank series. Every game features a 'morph weapon,' which would turn enemies into animals (Chickens, Monkeys, Penguins...), and every game's credits would end with "No -insert animal here- were harmed during the making of this game."
 * Going Commando, the game that features the Sheepinator, gives us the line


 * A smaller gag, though one that remains constant in every game: "A special thanks to our patient spouses, parents, children, girlfriends, boyfriends, and pets."
 * Ratchet: Deadlocked misses out on the inclusion of the recurring character The Plumber, but makes sure to give him a mention at the end of the credits, reassuring players that he was unable to make this game due to a "sump pump emergency."
 * Portal concludes with the theme song playing over the credits, as the lyrics to the song scroll by in a window beside the credits. These lyrics are interspersed with notes like Personnel Report and Addendum, concluding with the last few repeated lines annotated with PS and PPS and PPPS. Oh, and it's all done in the style of an ASCII terminal screen.
 * Portal 2 does the exact same thing with a different terminal layout, except the forms are . Even funnier, one line of the lyrics is [REDACTED] in print, despite the singer singing it.
 * Startopia ends with a set of pretty incomprehensible credits. "Guy with the biggest stick" might be the executive producer and "dudes responsible for breaking the game" could be the design team, but "Cowboys in charge of shooting holes into things"?
 * Most likely they were the Beta-Testers or Debugging Team. Mucky Foot was a small studio and could get away with this kind of thing. Why did they have to die?!
 * Not technically a credits gag but very close in concept, when you first started up the Three Stooges game on the original NES you were greeted with the logo for Ghostbusters 2. Then the Stooges would wander in, and Curly announced, "Hey Fellas! We're in the wrong game!"
 * ''The Simpsons Road Rage's credits were accompanied by comments from the Comic Book Guy who would exclaim "WORST... (whichever team or position was being shown at the moment)... EVER!" Later in the credit he begins complaining about how long the games credits were taking.
 * The N64 title Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire lists "Weena Mercatur" as the "Hopping Woman" in its end credits. See Freakazoid! below.
 * Starting with Crash Tag Team Racing, the ending credits of the Crash Bandicoot games feature commentaries from assorted characters, often saying something amusing about the games' staff members.
 * During the credits of MadWorld, the Deathwatch commentators repeatedly mock the game's developers. They go quiet while the closing theme ("Soul") plays, only to return for one last round of insults over its final bars.
 * Left 4 Dead plays on the No Animals Were Harmed by referring to how many zombies were harmed.
 * Telltale Games usually spices the end credits with a gag or two: listing the staffs' pets ("Telltale Pets") is most common. A most delightful one is seen at the end of Tales of Monkey Island: Lair of the Leviathan: the credit rolls while Murray the disembodied talking skull makes irrelevant wisecracks at the names, sinking to the sea floor as he does so.
 * The Simpsons Hit & Run:  provide a running commentary over the credits, snarking about absolutely everything.
 * The first DLC of Borderlands - the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned - ends with a laughably easy fight against the titular Dr. Ned, whose death triggers the credits sequence.
 * In the credits to the first Street Fighter had many of the developers' names were partially replaced with combat terms.
 * In the closing credits to Escape From Ravenhearst, some of the closing credits' names and headings shift back and forth between the real names and jokes. Also a Mythology Gag, as part of the game itself involves picking out which objects in a number of scenes are shifting between two forms.
 * In the first two Discworld games, Terry Pratchett is credited as "Shouting At People" and "Throwing Rocks From Afar", respectively. In Discworld Noir he is credited as "Far Too Much Interference".
 * In Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist, you can interact with the opening credits using the cursor. For example, using the hand on the job title gives, "You can't take the credit for something you haven't done!"

Web Animation

 * Haloid has "Fake Credits (Sorta)" at the end that say "Directed By Monty Oum", "Produced By Monty Oum", etc.
 * In Sonic Shorts Volume 3, you get to what seems to be the credits.... and then some static appears and SURPRISE! It's the Tails Doll, coming to ruin the moment. After his little scene however, the credits play normally with him trying to come for you again, only to be headbutted and tossed into the air by Tails. He pops up again, this time crying. But don't worry, Marine finds him, and they become best friends! This is one of the more beloved scenes in the series.
 * The sequence led to a continuation released in August 2009 at a very odd time and place. Half the audience laughed, the rest jumped like hell... and then laughed after.
 * A Cyanide and Happiness web animation played with this by making their sequel to "Waiting For the Bus" (probably the most popular of their videos). As it gears up to be emotional, it ends prematurely; the rest of the two minutes are devoted to gag credits, crediting a Jazz Quartet manned by Morgan Freeman, Morgan Freeman, Morgan Freeman and Morgan Freeman among other things.

Web Originals

 * Several in the credits of Episodes 1 and 2 of "The Dr. Steel Show".
 * Arkada of the Desu Des Brigade normally does a text version of this for his episodes. Also, while, he managed to keep composure through his Fruits Basket review, once the camera was off...
 * Life Sketch features two characters who are never shown with the main cast in a panel at the end of a comic specially reserved for them and the credits, doing a witty banter that somehow relates to what happened in the comic itself.
 * The opening sequence of the Red vs. Blue DVDs tend to feature these as well, including one where they have a fake version of the FBI warning, followed by an even more fake Spanish version.
 * This Cyanide & Happiness short has such credits as "Better webcomic by Zack Weiner", "North by Northwest" and "Please by Our Book"
 * Echo Chamber:
 * In episode 4 (Dumbass Has a Point), changed Zack's credit as "Director of Photography" to "Doctor of Photography". The credit card also notes that he is responsible for the "Crap Titles".
 * In Episode 7, the music is by Justin Hill; the sound is credited to Dave Unrelated Hill.
 * In the credits of Episode 27 of Dragonball Z Abridged (which are listed in the info box on Youtube) the voice of Yamcha (whose voice actor had left a while back, so he hadn't had any lines for several episodes) is played by Bill Murray.

Western Animation

 * The South Park episode "Trapped In The Closet", which made fun of Scientology and implied that R Kelly, John Travolta and Tom Cruise are gay, ended with Stan daring the three to sue him. "Do it. Come on, I dare you!" It then cut to credits in which everyone was listed as either John Smith or Jane Smith.
 * Also, one crew member has the position "EIEIO" ("Email, Internet, Electronic Information Officer").
 * Most Halloween episodes of The Simpsons have all credits being given "Spooky names", and the Gracie Films Vanity Plate being accompanied by Ominous Pipe Organ music.
 * The Movie had Homer urging the audience not to leave the theater early; "A lot of people worked hard on this movie, and all they ask is that you memorize their names!"
 * Lisa also speaks, wanting to make sure that no animals were harmed in the making of the film, then breathes a sigh of relief when such a notice comes up.
 * In "Bart Star", a ninth season episode, Homer coaches a peewee football team. Homer talks over the credits, cutting everyone involved in the show, with the exception of guest star Joe "Vapor Lock" Namath. At the end, he cuts the Gracie Films logo.
 * Especially funny in that the very first name Homer cuts is "Dan Castellaneta" - the name of the man who provides Homer's voice. So, in effect, Homer cut himself! (Note: When this episode was shown on Sky with teletext subtitles, one last subtitle came up announcing the subtitler himself was cut.)
 * In "G.I. (Annoyed Grunt)", an army sergeant talks over the end credits. assigning everyone to "front line infantry".
 * Except for Kiefer Sutherland, who provides the voice of the drill sergeant, who assigns himself to the "COAST GUARD!" (Danny Elfman is also spared, for some reason.)
 * In the episode that had Marge losing her memory, she tries to remember the people listed in the end-credits.
 * In "All Singing, All Dancing" the credits had Snake periodically shooting the sound guys to stop the music ("You too, Gracie music! GAH!") Unfortunately, sometimes syndication cuts it off right after his first threat.
 * These credits became a Funny Aneurysm Moment when it was realised that a shot is heard just as Phil Hartman's name appears.
 * In "The Mansion Family", the episode ends with Homer crying over the fact that he's not rich. This carries over into the credits, where he cries over how rich all the people listed are and threaten to report them all to the IRS. When the Gracie Films logo appears, Homer responds to the "Shh" with "Don't shush me, you rich bastard!"
 * Or "Don't shush me!" if you're watching the episode on British televison (at least when it's shown on Sky).
 * The DVD has Homer complaining over all the credits.
 * Another has Grampa Simpson rambling over the credits until the logo shushes him and he apologies.
 * On the DVDs, there is usually list of public places where you shouldn't play DVDs. The Simpsons adds "couches" to the list (very minor).
 * At one point in the episode "Lisa the Vegetarian," guest star Paul McCartney claims that if one plays his song "Maybe I'm Amazed" backwards will reveal a secret recipe for lentil soup. The end credits thus features a recording of "Maybe I'm Amazed" with a backmasked recipe for lentil soup...and a message from Paul that he's not dead.
 * 'Your Mom' is listed at the end credits of one episode.
 * "Smart and Smarter" has Simon Cowell, the guest star of that episode, riff over the ending credits. It ends with "Oh, shh yourself" in response to the Gracie Films logo.
 * At least two in-universe examples: at the end of the first two Itchy cartoons, only one man is listed in the credits. Also, The Poke of Zorro has credits that are just too awesome to be real:

"Farnsworth: Executive delivery boy! Fry: Executive?! Conrad (whispering): It's a meaningless title, but it helps insecure people feel better about themselves. (Credits for the Executive Producers) Fry: I feel better about myself!"
 * Freakazoid!! had some fun with this. Ending credits in the first season gave a tally of the appearances of Emmitt Nervend, a character used entirely for momentary cameos. In season 2, this was replaced by Spoof Aesop proverbs. Multiple episodes credit "Weena Mercator as the Hopping Woman", usually surrounded by fictional names. No such character ever appears.
 * One Freakazoid episode includes in the credits a wall of text which justifies their inclusion of a big song and dance routine performed by supervillain The Lobe, which boiled down to "We had to or aliens would destroy the world". It was on screen for perhaps less than a second, so a freeze-frame was practically required to spot it, let alone read it in its entirety.
 * And again in an episode where Freakazoid dresses up as a Klingon to scare Cave Guy, a caveman with the intelligence of a Harvard graduate into a blinding panic, screaming that a made up race shouldn't have a made up actual language. The credits read that the show didn't want to invoke anti-Star Trek Klingon fans but then switched a sentence later to BIG FAT KLINGONS! repeat ad infinitum, though, yet again, for just a split second.
 * In the third episode, with the Legends Who Lunch segment, there is a similar single-second wall of text talking about the (fictional) source of the characters shown in that episode. Freakazoid did this often.
 * Futurama: In Law&Oracle, Fry is being promoted:

"Bathroom Key: Cannot Be Duplicated Francis Scott Key: National Anthem Writer Key Largo: Starring Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall"
 * This. It's not even in English!
 * Pinky and The Brain defined a different obscure word every episode in the credits.
 * When Elmyra was thrown into the show, the word definition gag was changed so that we were given her definition of the word.
 * The credits in Angry Beavers would have different silly nicknames for many of the cast and crew members in each episode.
 * Bambi Meets Godzilla, a short cartoon written by Marv Newland, with screenplay by Marv Newland, choreography by Marv Newland, Bambi's wardrobe by Marv Newland, and was produced by Marv Newland, who was produced by Mr. and Mrs. Newland, is an early example of this, being made way back in 1969.
 * Animaniacs always had a different gag job for Katherine Page in the credits such as Llama Tamer or Insincere Laugher.
 * One episode ended with Yakko, Wakko and Dot sitting in a darkened studio and saying snide things about the people in the closing credits. Yakko and Dot act offended that other people provided their voices; Wakko grumbles, "Jess Harnell as Wakko..." and then adds "I hear he's cute."
 * Many episodes of Animaniacs also had various gag credits mixed in with the normal credits. For example, at least one episode had the following credits immediately after the credits for Color Key:


 * The "65th Anniversary Special" (really the show's 65th episode) had a TON of fake credits, similar to the ones above.
 * Tiny Toon Adventures and Histeria!, like the other Silver Age WB cartoons listed here, did this often.
 * The Tiny Toon movie takes this to extremes, with tons of gag credits spread throughout the real end credits. At one point, it tells us, "AND THAT'S THE LAST END CREDIT" at which point the credits scroll away and the screen is blank for about ten seconds. Then the words "WE LIED" scroll up, and the credits continue for a few more minutes.
 * Every Tiny Toons episode had a fake credit. Some were references to the episode, such as the pilot with the credit "Created by Buster and Babs". Some were in-jokes among the crew. Others were references to other pop-culture mediums, such as one episode with the credit "Author of A Tale of Two Cities: Charles Dickens," a reference to Airplane!, which had the same fake credit.
 * Unfortunately anyone watching this on ITV} in Britain in the 1990s lost this joke, thanks to every episode carrying the end credits for "Her Wacky Highness" ("The Moral Of The Story: Elmer Fudd Is A Dolt").
 * The early Bugs Bunny cartoon Tortoise Beats Hare has Bugs walk in front of the credits after they appear, and read them out loud (mispronouncing most of the names). When the full import of the title dawns on him, he chokes on his carrot and tears up the credits in disgust.
 * Wabbit Twouble has all the cwedits—er, credits—written out in Elmer Fudd-ese: the "diwector" is "Wobert Cwampett", the music is by "Cawl W. Stawwing", etc.
 * Tex Avery's Batty Baseball cuts right to game action after a brief title card. After a minute or so one of the players stops en route to home plate, turns to the camera, and angrily addresses the play-by-play announcer: "Hey, wait a minute. Didn'tcha forget somethin'? Who made this picture? How 'bout the MGM titles, the lion roar and all that kinda stuff?" The announcer apologizes, and the credits run as normal.
 * Midway through Avery's Screwy Squirrel short The Screwy Truant, the Big Bad Wolf pops up out of nowhere chasing Little Red Riding Hood. Screwy stops the Wolf to tell him he's in the wrong picture, then pulls the opening credits back onscreen to prove it.
 * The Venture Brothers gives its animation director, Kimson Albert, a different nickname in the credits of each episode. The nickname is always a reference to a line from the episode before that one (leading to such credits as "Kimson 'Retard Strength' Albert.")
 * On season premiere episodes, the show's opening credits feature a variation on the two brothers running in silhouette - Season 2 showed
 * In Codename: Kids Next Door, all the cast and crew have the true name of their role in production replaced with a military version (i.e., "head writer" to "head writer of wrongs").
 * In every episode of Robot Chicken, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mila Kunis, and a random crew member who changes every season receive goofy special credits for a reason that isn't especially clear.
 * Every credits for Sealab2021 ends with some anagram of Mike Lazzo, one of the executive producers.
 * The teaser for the Kim Possible episode "The Ron Factor" ends with Kim being surprised that the scientists want to investigate the possible influence Ron has on her brilliance - cut to the opening title sequence, during which Kim lifts up the screen to say what we're all thinking: "No, seriously - you need Ron?"
 * In South Park's Hungarian credits, the voice actors and various other members of the dubbing studio are referred to by comical nicknames, save for the production manager, who has his actual, full name given. But since the most recent dubbing team doesn't have one, they simply end the credits with "Production Manager: there was none". Back when the dubbing was done by HBO, they also liked to pronounce it as "hábéó".
 * The credits at the beginning and end of each episode of Santo Bugito would have the cast members' names altered to be insect-themed, such as Mark Mothersbug (Mark Mothersbaugh), Gabor "Big Bug" Csupo, and Arlene "Honey Bee" Klasky.