Department of Redundancy Department/Live-Action TV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Live-Action TV examples of Department of Redundancy Department in Live-Action TV include:

  • Big Time Rush has several examples, usually said by James. The most notable one being "The Hollywood Super Party Kings of Hollywood".

Logan: You said "Hollywood" twice.
James: You bet I did.

  • In the Farscape episode "Revenging Angel", John Crichton's "Letterman list" of reasons to live.
    • Also, in "Crichton Kicks", Rygel is listing Crichton's obsessions:

Rygel: Wormholes. Aeryn. Earth. Aeryn. Scorpius. Aeryn. I'm out of fingers.

Kryten: ... My short-term memory has been erased. This I ascribe to the proximity of Starbug's magnetic coils. In addition, due to proximity of the magnetic coils, my short-term memory has been erased. This, combined with the erasure of my short-term memory, has left me extremely disoriented.

Kryten: A superlative suggestion, sir, with just two minor flaws. One, we don't have any defensive shields. And two, we don't have any defensive shields. Now I realize that technically speaking that's only one flaw, but I thought that it was such a big one that it was worth mentioning twice.

      • And in the true spirit of redundancy, the spirit of the gag was recycled for another gag later in the same episode as the first gag:

Cat: Well, I say let's break out the laser cannons and give 'em both barrels.
Kryten: An adroit suggestion sir, with just two minor drawbacks--
Cat: OK, forget it!

      • And in a later episode, after the one where he used it twice, Kryten used the same gag that he'd used twice in one episode (before this one) again (possibly because his short term memory had been erased):

Cat: There's only one solution: let's climb into the jet-powered rocket pants and junior-birdman the hell outta here!
Kryten: An excellent and inventive suggestion, sir, with just two tiny drawbacks: a) We don't have any jet-powered rocket pants; and b) there's no such thing as jet-powered rocket pants outside the fictional serial Robbie Rocket Pants.

    • The Rimmer Experience starts off badly and deteriorates from there.

Rimmer: Welcome to the Rimmer Experience: a world of wonder, excitement, and... wonder.

    • Everybody's dead, Dave. Everybody, Dave, is dead. Dave, everybody's dead.
    • Four thousand six hundred and ninety-one irradiated haggis.
    • The episode White Hole sees time repeat itself, with the crew aware of it as it happens but unable to stop it. Cat asks "what is it?", prompting the robotic android Kryten's exposition in which he explains what is happening. Cat asks again "what is it?" and the entire exposition scene repeats itself. Eventually time stops repeating and Cat says "what is it?...just kidding", but then that gets repeated when the phenomenon recurs (again).
  • Gilmore Girls

Taylor: Mhmm, just what I thought. This is not the proper permit for this kind of business. This is a type 24B otherwise known as a cart, kiosk, cart/kiosk permit. This is not valid for your business.
Troubadour/Veggie Guy: Whys it say it twice?
Taylor: Hmm?
Babette: You said cart kiosk cart kiosk!
Lorelai: It's repetitive.
Rory: And redundant.
Lorelai: It's repetitive.
Rory: And redundant!

  • The Married... with Children April Fools' Day episode where Al suspects that Jefferson is a spy, and asks him to play a game of "Name the Presidents" to prove his authenticity as a U.S. Citizen. Jefferson runs through the entire list ten times, but the only one Al can name for him is "Dwight. D. Eisenhower."
    • Additionally, in the episode where Al is kept from playing by his softball team, he makes his family sing a little song he came up with as penance for their compliance before he's willing to sub in for an injured player. The lyrics? "D is for da many pies he made us... A is for the apple in his eye... D is for da dish he made da pies in... D is for the apple in his eye... Why? Because we love you. Put them all together and it spells Daddy."
  • Mad TV's Rocket Revengers sketches (a parody of low-budget live-action films) used it twice in a single Catch Phrase:

RR Leader: Rocket Revengers are ready to rocket! Right, Rocket Revengers?
The Rest: Right!

    • Also from Mad TV, a sketch involved Alex Borstein agreeing with what someone was saying, via "Also, I <etc>, too, as well."
  • From Pushing Daisies episode "Pigeon":

Chuck: Ned, do you remember before when I said all the things I learned about you?
Ned: Jealous. Romantic. Jealous. I felt I had to say it twice.

    • Lily and Vivian's synchronized swimming duo is known as the Darling Mermaid Darlings. The travel agency Chuck used in the pilot was the Boutique Travel Travel Boutique.
  • Sophia from The Golden Girls did this several times. For example: "I know a lot of old people. They're all the same. They're cranky, they're demanding, they repeat themselves. They're cranky, they're demanding."
  • Often crops up when parodying overly long side effect lists -- from a fake antidepressant ad on The Late Edition:

... nosebleeds, prolapse, verrucas, chlamydia, forgetfulness, shingles, forgetfulness, and suicide.

"Oh yeah, then we could all get on our broomsticks and fly around on our broomsticks."

    • Earlier, when Buffy unwittingly meets Vampire Willow:

Buffy: You know what? I like the look. It's, um... it's, it's extreme, but it, it, it looks good, you know, it's a... leather thing, and, uh... I said extreme already, right?

    • Also:

Buffy: If Xander kills himself, he's dead.

    • Over on Angel Welsey once broke out:

Wesley: We manly men will gather round and kill it to death.

"Of course, many presenters got their starts on children's TV, including Chris Tarrant, Noel Edmonds, Dennis Nielsen, Philip Schofeld, Cat Deeley, Dennis Nielsen, Jimmy Saville, and Dennis Nielsen."[1]

    • And kids loved that kind of repetition.
      • You mean like Tele-again-again-tubbies?
  • Anne Curry of The Today Show, as popularized by The Soup.
  • From The Office (USA):

Phyllis: Michael wasn't invited on Ryan's camping trip. Toby went, but Michael couldn't go. (smirk) Michael wasn't invited.
Dwight: "Well I don't know about that, because she certainly seems to enjoy making love making with me"

  • In Deadwood when the newspaper wants to publish that the cure for the plague bothering the town will be distributed gratis, Al Swearingen demands it must say "Free Gratis".
  • Cable television programs were formerly honored by an annual award ceremony called the CableACE Awards. "ACE" stood for "Awards for Cable Excellence," which would mean that the expanded name of the awards was the Cable Awards for Cable Excellence Awards. In keeping with this redundancy, in some years the awards were simultaneously broadcast on multiple channels (in 1990: American Movie Channel, BET, Bravo, CNBC, the Discovery Channel, the Family Channel, Lifetime, Movietime, Nickelodeon, Sports Channel America, TBS Superstation and TNT). The awards themselves were eliminated in 1998 because they were considered redundant to the Emmys, where cable programs had come to be competitive.
  • Roseanne actually makes fun of this one at the end of season 8. Darlene & David are doing a ridiculous magazine quiz, with DJ on the couch. One of the questions is "Do you ever feel like you live the same moment twice?" after which Nu Becky and Mark walk through. Then the question gets repeated. Then Nu Becky and Mark walk through. Then the question gets repeated.
  • A reporter from an SNL skit reading off the criminal record of the kids from Scooby Doo:

Prior convictions include 4 counts of meddling, 12 counts of meddling in the second degree, 2 counts of vehicular meddling, meddling across state lines, and last, but certainly not least, sodomy! I'm sorry.. I misread that.. it's "meddling", I apologize.

What is amnesia? Is it A, memory loss, A, memory loss, or 4, the Battle of Hastings?

  • Happens in a Stargate SG-1 episode.
    • Teal'c: We must act now, and once and for all destroy the Goa'uld image as gods forever.
    • Also in the episode Memento the hyperdrive buffer has burned out and cannot be fixed.

Colonel William Ronson: There is no redundancy for that particular system.
Jack O'Neill: So, you're saying there's no redundancy?

  • In Stargate Universe episode Twin Destinies, the scientists are reporting of Destiny's sustained damage.

Adam Brody: There are dozens of systems at the brink of failure. Weapons, shields.
Dr. Lisa Parker: Well, they're operating.
Adam Brody: At mission critical levels. We're down to one last... everything. There's practically no redundancy.
Dr. Dale Volker: Practically no redundancy.
Adam Brody: Wasn't funny the first three times!

  • On Cheers, Frasier once said to Diane, "So you think that I'm repetitive, that I repeat myself, that I say things over and over?"
    • In another episode, Dr. Frasier Crane is explaining his son's name to Woody by telling him that his first name is Frederick, his middle name is his wife Lilith's last name, and his last name is Frasier and Lilith's last names, hyphenated. The actual name (Frederick Sternin Sternin-Crane) is bad enough, but since Lilith already hyphenated her maiden name with Frasier's when they got married, Woody interprets this to mean that the child is named Frederick Sternin-Crane Sternin-Crane-Crane.
  • The Bearded Men of Space Station 11(not word for word, but the jist of it):

But, I'm not an alien.
Well, then, you can't have a beard.
But, he has a beard.
Then, he's an alien.
No, I'm not.
Yes, you are.
No. I'm not.
Then, you can't have a beard.
But, I have a beard.
Then, you're an alien.
He's not, he's from Pittsburgh.

  • Krod Mandoon and The Flaming Sword of Fire
  • During the first season of NCIS the show was called Navy NCIS, essentially making it Navy Naval Criminal Investigation Services. The network named it Navy NCIS because it's a military-interest show and they were afraid nobody would know what "NCIS" stood for.
    • This troper heard it was because the network worried that viewers would think it was a CSI spinoff. This of course would require the viewer to misspell an acronym. If it's true, it's lampshaded by Tony early on:

Some guy: NCIS...is that like CSI?
Tony: Only if you're dyslexic.

  • The Day Today often featured sentences mangled into redundant loops, to add to the appearance that the show was live (and also for Rule of Funny)

"This report from Eugene Fraxby who's got the story with him reports"
"This is Sports Desk, with me, Alan Partridge, and it's a special desk of sport now, as we look back at some of the sporting highlights of the last sporting season. So lie down, relax, and let the sports commence!"

    • Even the soundtrack was not immune; it would occasionally end episodes with the music repeating like a broken record during the final note.
  • Babylon 5, Season 4, Episode 2 opens with a voice-over: "Personal Log, January 8th, 2261, Dr Stephen Franklin recording"... Not a classic example of the trope, but a close cousin, unless you typically record entries in other peoples' personal logs.
  • The Tenth Kingdom- "The mythical tenth kingdom - spoken of only in myth."
  • Ted interrupting the Sheep Of The Year contest in Father Ted: This competition is a SHAM! And a FRAUD! And a... SHAM!"
  • Jamie in The Thick of It: "Tom is going to get a pint glass in his eye, and a pool cue up his arse, and... another pool cue in his other fuckin' eye!"
  • From A Bit of Fry and Laurie:
    • One scene starts:

Hugh: With me to discuss that scene from Scorcese's new release From Here to Just Over There is the critic, critic, and critic Ray Daugh.

    • The recipe for one of the end-of-show cocktails:

Stephen: Now, you may be making this one at home, in which case what you'll need is: a measure of gin, two measures of gin, one of gin, a measure of gin, an item of clothing worn by any member of the cast of 2.4 Children -- in this case I'm using a pair of Gary Olsen's "Fruit of the Loom" Y-pants -- and a measure of gin.

  • Doctor Who
    • In the non-canon Doctor Who episode The Curse of Fatal Death (where the title also is an example)

The Master: And it will be a deadly vengeance... It will be the deadly vengeance of deadly revenge! *Evil Laugh*

The Doctor: "I’ve liberated planets and delivered them from total war/ Saved Earth, Manussa, Dulkis, Skonnos, Earth, Tigella, Earth once more..."

    • On Series 2, Episode 6, titled Age of Steel, there is this conversation on how Cybermen will make everything in life redundant, stopping humans from being human:

Cyber Controller: I will bring peace to the world. Everlasting peace. And unity. And uniformity.
The Doctor: And imagination? What about that? The one thing that led you here. Imagination? You’re killing it dead.
Cyber Controller: What is your name?
The Doctor: I’m the Doctor.
Cyber Controller: A redundant title. Doctors need not exist. Cybermen never sicken.
The Doctor: But that’s it! That’s exactly the point! Oh, Lumic, you’re a clever man. I’d call you a genius, except I’m in the room… but everything you’ve invented you did to fight your sickness. And that’s brilliant. That is so human. But once you get rid of sickness and mortality, then what’s there to strive for? Eh? The Cybermen won’t advance. You’ll just stop. You’ll stay like this forever. A metal Earth with metal men and metal thoughts. Lacking the one thing that makes this planet so alive. People. Ordinary, stupid, brilliant people!

    • In "The Poison Sky/The Sontaran Strategem," child prodigy Luke Rattigan gets extermely upset whenever anyone refers to his invention as the "ATMOS System."

Rattigan: Yeah, well, you see, that's a tautology, 'cause ATMOS stands for Atmospheric Omission System, so you're saying "Atmospheric Omission System System". Do you see, Mister "Conditional Clause"?

Stephen: Battology means pointlessly repeating the same thing over and over again. Battology means pointlessly repeating the same thing over and over again.

Juliet: You disturb me. And your theory on this murder disturbs me. And you disturb me.
Lassiter: You said that twice.
Juliet: Yes.

    • Also:

Shawn: Judgement day? It sounds bad. That's like... the day that you're judged.

  • A category on a 90s/early 2000s Jeopardy! episode was the trope name, word for word.
    • They brought it back again on November 3rd, 2010.
  • A Travel Channel show called a sauce "Shoyu Soy Sauce". Shoyu is the Japanese word for soy sauce.
  • In the Corner Gas episode "Outside Joke," Brent is excited about the gas station's new windshield washer fluid because, "It's red! The old stuff was blue! We used to sell blue, now we're selling red!"
  • In Yes Minister, the Department of Administrative Affairs. Their job is to administer the administration. Also a specialty of Sir Humphrey.
  • Royal Canadian Air Farce:

Jack Layton: Canada needs a new kind of strong. A new stronger strong with a strongly strengthening strong strength.

  • From the very first episode of The Mentalist: "He irks me. He's irksome."
  • German kids' show Hallo Spencer once had the band looking for "a female lady singer, for singing".
  • Chuck had the C.A.T. Squad show up in episode 4x15. That's the Clandestine Attack Team. Squad.
  • At the beginning of every episode of Law and Order UK the announcer mentions "the Crown Prosecutors who prosecute the offenders".
  • From the Glee episode "Night of Neglect":

Dustin Goolsby: I'm handsome, I'm good-looking and I'm easy on the eyes. Also, I'm gorgeous.

  • The Season Six finale of Bones featured a completely obnoxious young bowling prodigy who, by obsessively keeping track of her progress from game to game, predicted that by 2026 she'd be the bowling "World Champion of the World." Lampshaded by Brennan:

Brennan: That's a redundant statement.
Amber: I'm so good they have to say it twice!

Cory: Sometimes two people who love each other are in love, and because of that love, they love each other.

"Two hearts are as one heart
and this one heart has two"

Maggie: And now, I'm gonna be looking at what it's like to be a young unemployed adult! Because--more young adults are becoming unemployed on account of they can't find work! Basically, the problem is this: if you haven't got a job, then you outta work! And that means only one thing -- unemployment!

Chief: Let's see it.
Max: See what?
Chief: The blazer you brought back from Hong Kong.
Max: The blazer I brought back from Hong Kong?
Chief: That blazer is the secret weapon you were sent to Hong Kong for.
Max: That blazer is the secret weapon I was sent to Hong Kong for?
Chief: That's no ordinary blazer.
Max: That's no ordinary blazer?
Chief: It's a laser blazer.
Max: It's a laser blazer? Do you know what you're saying?
Chief: I'm positive! I keep hearing it twice!

  1. ↑ Dennis Nielsen is a notorious serial killer.
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