Couch Gag: Difference between revisions

A trope throughout a series by which a part of the opening or ending credits is interchangeably switched, and the content can be different every show. Some of the same shows also have couch gags at the end as a [[Credits Gag]]. Alternatively, this gag may occur at the end of [[The Teaser]], just before the credits start.

 

 

Not to be confused with the ''other'' type of [[Bound and Gagged|couch and gag]].

 

** While not exactly a gag, one of the end credits sequences for the second season focuses on a different one of the 13 squads for each episode.

** The fourth opening, "Tonight Tonight Tonight" features a different pic of a character near the end of the song. It was cut out in the U.S. broadcast only keeping the first one.

 

== Comic Books ==

* In [[Stan Lee]] and [[Steve Ditko]]'s run on ''The Amazing [[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]'', each splash page would contain some kind of gag in the credits, usually replacing "written by", "drawn by" and "lettered by" areas.

** Occurred in some of the other comics Lee wrote, too, such as [[Fantastic Four]] and [[The Mighty Thor]].

* Bongo Comics' ''[[The Simpsons (Comic Book)|The Simpsons]]'' usually credits Matt Groening with a different title in every issue.

 

== Fan Works ==

** Yami Yugi saying something random that usually has nothing to do with the plot, a fly-by of fake cards, and a [[Cold Opening]] before the opening credits.

** It also has [[The Stinger]] after every episode that is usually a blank screen with a joke related to the episode or a [[Spoof Aesop]]. And there is also a [[The Stinger|stinger]] [[Up to Eleven|AFTER]] [[The Stinger]].

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* ''[[Match Game]]'': Host Gene Rayburn made a different entrance for each show. Once, this involved him breaking down the doors.

** The opening credits includes the current population of the Rag-Tag Fleet. This tally is updated in each episode, based on the events (and body count) in the previous episode (and the [[The Teaser|teaser]], if someone dies before the opening credits).

** Likewise, in the opening section, they'd have it say "and special guest star", and cut to a shot of said star, ''so they could then die in the title sequence.''

** Except for the short fourth season, the show use thematic gags to introduce the opening titles. In the first season, Michael Palin, dressed as a hermit, runs up to the camera and says, "It's..." In the second season, John Cleese appears seated at a desk and says, "And now for something completely different," followed by a shot of Palin saying "It's..." In the third season, a nude Terry Jones plays an organ chord, followed by Cleese's "And now..." and Palin's "It's..."

** For the ''Hamlet'' episode, the entire ending theme was replaced by the audio for part of the "to be or not to be" monologue (in keeping with the final scene, in which Tom and Crow present Mike with a talking Hamlet action figure).

* ''[[Power Rangers Turbo]]'' and ''[[Power Rangers Lost Galaxy]]'' had several spots in its opening that had two or three different versions, making instances of seeing the exact same opening twice in a row fairly rare.

** Warning! To the Prime Minister: It's Flag Day, not Flog Day!

** ''(For the hour-long 200th episode)'' Warning! This hour has ''44'' minutes! We are drunk with power!

* ''[[Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger]]'' gives a spot in the opening to each [[Monster of the Week]], changing every episode. (A different shot of the same monster if one monster gets a two-parter.)

* ''[[Weeds]]''

** Each episode of past the first season opens with someone different singing the Malvina Reynolds song "Little Boxes" as a [[Theme Tune]].

** Episodes on the set of created in 2007 open with a shot of a globe with a scrolling marquee on it. The marquee displays a list of cities that changes each episode, often following a theme (such as ancient cities, cities with "Sioux" in the name, etc.).

** Almost every episode opens with Stephen giving a humorously-worded description of the topics he'll be covering (accompanied by punny captions) followed by a non-sequitur one-liner right before the credits.

* England's ''[[The Day Today]]'' would end with a few.

** On occasion, the music track playing over the credits would skip like a broken record near the end.

** Episode 5, which featured Chris inciting a war between Australia and Hong Kong, concluded after the credits with [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozHDTAXB5HE a rather humorous advertisement] for a home video series on the war covered during the episode.

* ''[[The Soup]]'' has its own literal Couch Gag: during the opening sequence Joel and the dog can be seen on a couch watching a clip from/relating to a big media event of the previous week.

* ''[[Web Soup]]''

** The show changes their [[Operators Are Standing By]] introduction clip each episode, where the operator woman and her headset do something stupid like try to answer a phone upside down, or nearly choke to death on the headset cord.

* ''[[The Sarah Silverman Program]]'' always has an opening where Sarah gives a run down of the characters on the show while showing pictures (some completely random), but the pictures she shows and what she says is different for every episode.

* On Dawn French's ''[[Murder Most Horrid]]'', the second-to-last line of the theme song would be different in every episode; they would all rhyme with "horrid."

* Episodes of the original ''[[Mickey Mouse Club]]'' started with a cartoon [[Donald Duck]] trying to ring a gong, with humorous results.

* ''[[Cougar Town]]''

** On the second season, the "Welcome To" part of the title sequence was changed to a gag subtitle [[Lampshading]] the fact that [[Artifact Title|the title no longer goes with the premise]] but the producers coudn't find a better one. For example, the season opener reads "Still Cougartown", while a later episode has "Titles are hard".

** A season 3 episode even references the [[Trope Namer]]: "This is not [[The Simpsons]] chalkboard thing. This is not the Simpsons chalkboard thing. This is not the Simpsons chalkboard thing."

** At the beginning host Clive Anderson started out introducing the players ''and'' their showbiz origins, then got bored with that and switched to more original, thematic introductions, with a theme and usually a sting for the fourth one.

** Drew introduced each episode's contestants by using slogans, figures of speech, or other popular phrases while replacing the last words of the phrase with the contestant's name.

** Ryan's habit of making a funny expression into the camera during the intro can be traced back to the last UK season. In the US version, all four of them will be making an odd face for their introduction.

** The American version started without this aspect, then eventually added it after a few seasons.

** Ones done in the style of a movie or TV show (Such as a "Back To The Future" version where the car travels through time)

** Ones based on current events (One that aired on the opening day of baseball season had a variant where the car drives to a baseball game a and baseball flies into the camera)

** During a week of shows filmed in New York City, each episode featured the same gag: The family jumps onto the top of an underground subway.

** In some cases, the show's opening credits also look different (The aforementioned New York City episodes were done in the style of a subway map and there was also an episode opening done as the opening to ''Happy Days'').

* The last segment to each episode of ''The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson'' begins with the title card "What did we learn on the show tonight, Craig?" with a kitten. What happens next changes from show to show, and it's possible to see a full month of episodes without seeing the same thing twice.

 

== Music ==

 

 

== New Media ==

 

** This was done to an even greater extent earlier on in [[ROH]], during Steve Corino's run in 2003. Prior to every match he would have personal ring announcer Bobby Cruise announce a ridiculously, painfully long list of something that usually served as a means of mocking his opponents. For example, when facing the notoriously straight-edge CM Punk, Corino's list consisted of famous wrestlers with histories with drugs and alcohol that Corino aspired to be like.

* The opening sequence to the post-apocalyptic show Jericho always featured a telegraph beeping in the background. If one knew Morse code well enough, one could tell that each episode's plot was given away by the message ("There is a fire" the week half the town burns down, etc.).

 

== Puppet Shows ==

* ''[[The Muppet Show]]'' has Gonzo's attempt to close the opening credits with a gong or trumpet (depending on the season), as well as [[Statler and Waldorf]] making a comment.

* ''[[The Teletubbies]]'' actually begins and ends with the Teletubbies emerging and reentering their dome in a random order, respectively.

 

== Radio ==

* [[Car Talk]] has the credits that make fun of the various people that work on the show, occasionally changing when a new in-joke or gag presents itself, such as Doug the "Subway Fugitive". He jumped a turnstile.

 

== Video Games ==

* The splash text in [[Minecraft]]'s title screen is randomly selected among about two hundreds.

* ''[[Rise of the Triad]]'' has several [[Guilt Based Gaming]] quit messages worded along the lines of "Press Y to release the cyanide gas", "Press Y to drive your car off the cliff" or "Press Y to signal firing squad". In the registered version, the game plays a sound effect to match the message when you do press Y.

and wondered how long I'd be below.'' }}

 

== Web Animation ==

* ''[[Unforgotten Realms]]'' begins every episode with a black screen with a message about "the following episode", which is accompanied by an announcer-type voice not-quite reading the message word-for-word. The white text has deviated further and further from what the voice says in later episodes. Variations have included "The following episode may or may not contain the word 'tiddly wank'", "The following episode did not care for the new Batman movie", and "The following episode will not have one of those 'the following episode' announcements at the start of it." Episode Nine actually ''doesn't have'' one, cutting immediately into the recap and title theme. {{spoiler|But at the end, the familiar screen shows up to inform you that "the following episode is over"}}

* ''[[Bonus Stage]]'' started having one consistently after its 75th episode.

 

== Web Comics ==

** There are also some recurring jokes on the main menu board, including a drink size "WTF" and a beverage sold as "Frappuccino Ripoff".

 

== Web Original ==

* Parlsey Boobs switched out its lyrics from episode to episode, getting progressively more bizzare until the end.

* ''[[Smosh]]'': A random audio clip playing when the Smosh logo comes up in the beginning always gets interrup- SHUT! UP!

* The [[Philthon Jones]] intro. It started out (for the first three videos) as someone just saying "Philthon Jones", but there have been variations since -- [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1xQRmTNNAA one video] even had the intro segue into the episode itself.

 

== Western Animation ==

** Bart [[Writing Lines|writes something different in detention]] each episode.

** Lisa plays a different solo on her saxophone. Sometimes Lisa will play a trumpet instead.

*** A billboard across the street from Springfield Elementary advertises something different each episode.

*** The Simpsons' wall-mounted HDTV falls off the wall in some episodes, and does not in others.

*** In "Skinner's Sense of Snow", Bart complains that he's written on the board so often that his wrist sounds like a cement mixer (and [[Squick|rotates his wrist to prove his point]]).

*** In "The Parent Rap", the phrase Bart writes on the blackboard is "No one reads these anymore."

*** On the 100th episode, highly advertised by Fox, Bart wrote "I will not celebrate [[Milestone Celebration|meaningless milestones]]".

*** Similarly, one episode had a guest cast or crew member whose name was misspelled in the credits; the following episode had Bart writing the correct spelling on the blackboard over and over.

*** When Matt Groening announced that Springfield, Oregon was the inspiration for Springfield, that week's episode ("Beware My Cheating Bart") opened with the words "Now entering Oregon" next to the main title, while the chalkboard gag read "The true location of Springfield is in any state but yours."

*** In the first HD episode, Bart writes "HDTV is worth every cent."

** The Halloween specials also generally feature gags within the credits, with puns on the names in the credits ("Matt Groaning" or "Bat Groening" being almost inevitably featured)

** For some episodes, the entire opening is changed:

*** Probably the most infamous of the couch gags was [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX1iplQQJTo the one] for "MoneyBART", storyboarded by subversive and [[The Faceless|reclusive]] street artist [[Banksy]]. It started with the typical intro (with "Banksy" written over several billboards and walls, and Bart writing "I will not write all over walls", all over the room) ending with all the Simpsons on the couch. [[Crosses the Line Twice|It then panned out to a stereotypical Korean sweatshop animating the show, with small barefoot children washing the cells in biohazardous material, kittens being ground up to stuff Bart Simpson plushies which are then carted off by a starving panda and packed in boxes sealed with the tongue of a dolphin head, and a person making Simpson DVDs by smashing out the center holes on the horn of a dying unicorn chained to a wall. Then the camera pans out to reveal]] [[Biting the Hand Humor|the sweatshop being inside the 20th Century Fox logo, which has a decrepit, prison-esque look, finally panning out to the Simpsons TV.]]

** If an episode is too short, then a very long couch gag will start to play to fill time. Three noticable examples include one where the family performs a chorus line while the living room turns into a circus, one where the camera zooms out of their house and into outer space and back, and one where Homer is seen evolving from a single-celled organism.

** Two Season 23 episodes have couch gags by guest animators: "Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts", by [[John Kricfalusi]]; and "Beware My Cheating Bart", by [[Bill Plympton]].

** The second-to-last line in the opening song is interchangeable, but always rhymes with "here's the show's name-y". To note, however, when the show was aired on [[Nickelodeon]], this gag was removed and replaced with Dot saying "Nickel-eeny" (which didn't even rhyme with "aney") for every opening.

*** There was ONE That did not rhyme. It was simply Yakko going "Uhhhhh" as if he was at a loss for words, while the music kept going normally.

** ''Animaniacs'' also includes a gag-credit amongst the regular credits of every episode.

** Not to mention the Warners or another character making some comment at the very end of the credits.

** This becomes amusing on VHS releases as they have all of the alternative openings, one right after another.

** Also, in early seasons, the line ''Wakko packs away the snacks'' was followed by ''While Bill Clinton plays the sax'' (showing an image of the then President), while in later seasons it showed the Warners surrounded by paperwork while they sing ''We pay loads of income tax''.

** Stan will pick up a paper in the opening credits, and the headline will vary every time. It will usually be a cynical pun on a common aphorism, such as "Optimist Drowns in Half-Full Tub", or "Hooker Killed for Heart of Gold". Subverted in an episode where the headline is "Alien Spotted", with a picture of Roger, thus jump-starting the plot of the episode (and ending the theme song early).

** Starting with the third season there's a new opening which ends with Roger appearing in Stan's car and stealing the last line. The new Couch Gag is how Roger is dressed.

* ''[[The Critic]]'' bookends itself with Couch Gags.

** Near the end of the opening credits, Jay will watch a short trailer for a fictional movie, which will usually be a sequel to an existing movie, or a cross-over between two movies. Regardless of the clip, Jay will declare "It Stinks!". Also, the credits open with Jay being roused from sleep by a phone call, always bad news, to which he reacts silently; this was later replaced by assorted talk radio chatter from his alarm clock.

** At the beginning of the opening credits, a small tagline is shown underneath the ''Futurama'' logo (for example: "Now in Smell-o-vision," "As Foretold by Nostradamus," or "From The Makers Of Futurama").

** At the end of the opening credits, the ship crashes into a large screen that is playing a classic cartoon. Sadly, the cartoon gag has been done away with thanks to the shortened opening sequence in the new season.

* In the opening credits to ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'', Garfield would say something different at the end of it. (At the beginning of the "Caped Avenger" episode, it was: "[[Lampshade Hanging|You notice how every week I say something different here?]]") Of course, he does have the advantage of not moving his mouth when he speaks. (One particular airing went out with silence where Garfield's quip usually went. [http://www.platypuscomix.net/downloads/garfield94.html See it here].)

** Don't forget the [[Aleister Crowley]] quote "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law."

** "The call is coming from ''inside'' the house", said completely deadpan, per usual... save the slight intonation that whoever was making the call was in for a ''world of hurt''.

* The opening of all ''[[Pepper Ann]]'' episodes had her find a different random object under her desk each time, from $5.00 American to the TV remote.

* Every episode of ''[[Sheep in The Big City]]'' starts with a random commercial parody before the opening sequence. Nearly every episode ended with "the Ranting Swede", who would come out just before the credits and complain about some random topic that annoys him, often based on some misunderstanding about a common idiom. The one exception was the "[[Animated Actors|behind the scenes]]" episode, where his rant and the closing credits came at the ''beginning'' of the show.

** As with ''Tiny Toons'' and ''Animaniacs'', Freakazoid would give a comment at the end of the closing credits. In the second season, a short clip from the episode would play instead.

** Freakazoid also had a semi-couch gag in the opening song around the word "Freakazoo." Some episodes would show Freakazoid behind bars while this word was said; other times an ad for a free kazoo was shown instead.

* ''[[The Secret Show]]'' opens with Agent Ray evicting Granny from in her timeslot in a different fashion every episode.

** In the holiday episode, its last song was [http://byjukebox.blogspot.com/2007/11/07-we-love-snow-backyadigans.html stitched to the final theme of the show] (which is basically a shorter reprise of the opening), which they sing everytime in the end before they went inside for a snack.

** The extended scene at the beginning of every episode of Jackknife (the prisoner with the pompadour haircut) getting arrested again by Jailbot and carried through a variety of bizarre events back to Superjail. This effectively make ''most of the opening'' a Couch Gag, and the only [[Stock Footage]] is the last couple seconds of going through the cloud shaped like the Warden's head to Superjail.

** Further playing with this, the things that happen in the scene sometimes affect/set off the plot of the episode. One episode started with a particularly brutal serial killer who ripped off Jackknife's face which resulted in Jailbot taking him instead, and other was centered around a kid that Jailbot accidently picked up.

* Each episode of ''[[Code Monkeys]]'' starts with a different mock [[Content Warnings|content warning]].

** Additionally, the way that the screen became black after the title was shown varied as well: sometimes Porkchop turned off the lights, sometimes Doug did, and sometimes Porkchop would throw the rest of his paint onto the screen.

* On ''[[The Wild Thornberrys]]'', the opening sequence ends by zooming in on a map of the world, to the location where the Thornberrys were in the current episode.

* The short-lived ''[[Clerks the Animated Series]]'' had two couch gags. Before the opening credits, a disclaimer (inserted via [[Executive Meddling]]) would run, followed by the announcer making an off-hand comment like, "Is anyone still watching after all that?" After the opening [[Theme Song]], Randall would make a sitcom-like announcement about a supposed "live studio audience" as if it were a live-action show. (i.e. ''Clerks is drawn by a live studio audience.'')

** Most of the time (at least at first), the opening theme would include clips from that very episode, featuring the members of the rotating cast that would be the episode's main characters.

* The title of ''[[Sealab 2021]]'' would appear in the opening credits as "Sealab 2020", the name of the show on which it was based. The changeover of the final "0" to a "1" would be accompanied by a different sound effect each episode.

* ''[[Tripping the Rift]]'': At the end of each opening sequence, Spaceship Bob (the voice of the computer) would utter some different, humorous sentence.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Title Sequence]]

[[Category:Paratext]]