Running Gag/Western Animation: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Archer:''' Lana? '''Lana?''' '''LAAAANAAAA!!'''"

'''Lana:''' WHAT??}}

* In every adaptation, ''[[Sam and Max]]'' always fight over answering the phone screaming "I GOT IT! I GOT IT!" Sam always wins. There have only ever been two exceptions to this. In the episode "A Glitch In Time" Max inadvertently changes the timeline, causing Sam to become a mild-mannered monk running a Discount Pet Wash. When the phone rings, Max screams "I GOT IT!", then turns to Sam who just stands there, then sighs and answers the phone.

** For the other exception, boogie on down to the entry in the Video Games section.

* An episode of the animated series ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'' incorporates an intentionally blatant running gag: the episode is framed as a "behind the scenes" documentary where Garfield gives advice on comedy. One of his first pieces of advice is that the secret of humor is to repeat something until it becomes funny. As part of the setup, the lights are often lowered to show a clip. Each time they are to be raised, Garfield calls "Lights!", in response to which several hands appear, offering him lightbulbs. His reaction grows in intensity with each occurrence, starting with "Not funny" and progressing to his final...y being incapacitated by helpless side-splitting laughter when it occurs for the final time.

{{quote|'''Garfield:''' [[Lampshade Hanging|Take note:]] if you do the same stupid joke over and over, [[So Unfunny It's Funny|eventually it turns into a running gag and becomes funny.]]}}

* ''[[Total Drama Island]]'' has tons of these, though most of them only lasted for one season:

** Justin losing his shirt.

** Although, in one episode where Timmy wishes himself out of existence, we get to see Crocker as he would have been if not driven fairy-mad. He is seen as a highly appreciated philosophy teacher, yet still spasms as he says "EXISTENTIALISM!!"

** ''Timmy'' spasming in Crocker's [[Day in The Limelight]] special when he finds out that Crocker had fairies as a kid, immediately followed by him asking his fairies to hit him if he ever did that again. He does, they do.

** Every single episode in this show has its own running gag!

* D'Nerd from ''[[The BOTS Master]]'' is a robot that serves as a large databank, and often times would kick into "dictionary mode" to explain the definition of something when the question was meant to receive a more casual response.

*** Nagging Wife: "What did you expect, that a [object] would fall out of the sky?" And then it does.

*** (insert character name) is out, peace!

*** "What if a satellite falls out of the sky?"

*** The Lice Duo, Olga and Chicago Joe, are in (or at least mentioned) in several episodes. [[Makes Just as Much Sense in Context|Never really explained, though...]]

*** The [[Makes Just as Much Sense in Context|talking Zebra that calls Candace Kevin]] shows up a lot, usually when Candace is dreaming or hallucinating. It's even been [[Lampshaded]]. She realizes she's dreaming, and says so. Jeremy says that it would explain the talking zebra, but she says that she sees him all the time.

** This itself is almost becoming a running gag; in the episode "Ill Suited", his reaction is "Oh, man! Even as a senior!" This however was lampshaded and solved in Season 4 as Wade made an unbreakable titanium [[Phlebotinum]] belt for Kim to give Ron.

** In "Clean Slate", where Kim gave Ron the belt, he later used the belt to close a steam pipe, thus making his pants fall down again.

** Which culminated in a montage of previous falling-pants incidents, as Kim (who was suffering from [[Easy Amnesia]] at the time) finally remembered her relationship with Ron, and declared "I love you" to him for the first time. [[Kim Possible/Heartwarming|Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming]]? Yeah.

** Ron himself commented on this in one episode, speaking to Monkey Fist: "You know, you're the only bad guy who ever remembers my name. I respect that."

** Whatever the plot-relevant class, sport, or administrative duty is, Mr. Barkin will be covering it today as [[Two-Teacher School|the regular teacher is unavailable]].

'''Cyborg:''' We're in Raven's room. We should not be in Raven's room.

'''Raven:''' That's ''my'' room! '''''Nobody''''' goes in my room! }}

* ''[[Dexter's Laboratory]]'': The title character suffers this trope, in almost every episode.

** In an in-episode example ("To Love And Die In Dixie") Peter is attacked by a raccoon at increasingly random times.

** The Vaudeville duo "Play me off..." (also resolved), Giggity Giggity, and Stewie talking to Brian about the book he is writing in a high pitched voice are other examples.

** Consuela the maid's "No,...no...", and "more Lemon Pledge"

** "[indrawn hiss]...aaaahhhh...[indrawn hiss]...aaaahhhh..."

* The ''[[Transformers]]'' wiki often follows up something that makes fans happy with "and there was much [[Monty Python and the Holy Grail|rejoicing (yay...)]]". There are also a multitude of jokes about various incarnations of Ultra Magnus dealing/not dealing with things (based on a line from [[The Movie]]). Also, whenever there's a picture of [[Transformers Animated|Animated]] [[The Starscream|Starscream]] or one of his [[Cloning Blues|clones]], it's almost inevitably accompanied by a relevant quote about [[Red Dwarf|Arnold Rimmer]].

** Bonecrusher hates that he was forgotten on this list.

** Any image of a bird alternate mode, some sort of flying alternate mode or just tangentially related to flying will be accompanied by the [[Signature Style|Furmanism]] "like a vast, predatory bird...".

*** Furmanisms as a whole.

** The infamous "Know that I am ''Razorclaw''" speech from the Universe comic. There are multiple characters named "Razorclaw", and ''all'' of them get a reference to it.

** Zuko's ship being damaged in Season 1: being buried under an avalanche (ep. 02), being set on fire by Zhao's catapult (07), losing the miniboat over a waterfall (09), being struck by lightning (12), a Shirshu ripping a hole in the deck (15), and finally being ''blown up'' in the season finale.

** [[Yuppie Couple|The Cabbage Guy]] getting his [[Fruit Cart|cabbage cart]] smashed. ("My cabbages!", lapses for the second season before making a surprise return late in the third season when the playwright traveling the world interviewing people to research the Avatar's journey met 'a surprisingly knowledgeable merchant of cabbage'.

*** In ''[[The Legend of Korra]]'' Cabbage Corp is mentioned in several episodes before appearing, with a statue of its familiar-looking founder standing by his cart. As the owner is being arrested and his company's assets frozen, he cries out "Not my Cabbage Corp!".

{{quote|'''Sokka:''' Take the wheel!

'''Toph:''' That's a great idea! Let the blind girl steer the giant airship!

'''Sokka:''' I was talking to Suki.

'''Toph:''' That would make a lot more sense... }}

{{quote|'''Sokka:''' KATARA!

'''Katara:''' Sorry Sokka. }}

** Also:

{{quote|'''Gosalyn:''' If you don't come [to Honker's birthday party], I won't clean my room.

'''Drake:''' You never clean your room.

''(...)''

'''Gosalyn:''' I never pick up my room! You're gonna have to do better than that! }}

* An episode of ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]'' had a similar joke to Darkwing's literal running gag, only with a clown (making it even more literal).

** Buster and Babs "No relation" gag.

*** [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|Let's hope not.]] [[Animaniacs|This is a family show!]]

** On a few occasions, the pizza restaurant has even changed mid-episode.

** Probably the most famous one, Homer strangling Bart.

** [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?|Springfield's exact location is never given]], or even hinted at too closely.

** “Hi, everybody!”, "Hi, Dr. Nick!"

** All the times the show has [[Biting the Hand Humor|made fun of FOX]].

* ''[[Animaniacs]]'' frequently has Yakko, Wakko, and Dot running by in the other characters' segments, pursued by Ralph the Guard. [[Pinky and The Brain]] would also frequently appear in the background in other segments doing the same thing they do every night. Other characters occasionally get into the act as well.

** And;

'''Dot''': Boys. Go fig. }}

{{quote|'''Yakko:''' Mwah! Goodnight everybody!}}

{{quote|'''Dot:''' [[Overly Long Name|Princess Angelina Contessa Louisa Francesca Banana Fanna Bo Besca the Third]]... but [[Some Call Me... Tim|you can call me Dot]]. [[Berserk Button|Call me Dotty and you die.]]}}

* On ''[[Histeria!]]'', Pepper Mills constantly bothers historical celebrities for their autographs, not realizing until after she's gotten it that the person in question is not the pop cultural celebrity she has mistaken them for.

* [[Da Chief|Captain Fanzone's]] car getting destroyed in ''[[Transformers Animated]]''

** [[I Take Offense to That Last One|My head's not big!]]

** Several episodes have a character suffer a spinal injury and scream "MY SPINE!!"

** "RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!"

** "I'm gonna need about tree fitty."

** Remember that running gag, Al?

** {{smallcaps|..."WHAAAT?"}}

* ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'' has a few: Kid Flash's habit of picking up souvenirs, Robin's backformations and prefix removal, Superboy's hatred of monkeys, and Artemis nearly drowning has officially been repeated three times, so it counts, too. They're starting to play around the various gags, as well, with Kid Flash complaining about forgetting a souvenir and Robin using one of his created words in a deadly serious context.

* On ''[[Doug]]'', Mr. Dink always says things are "very expensive". Subverted in an episode where he notes something was "surprisingly cheap".

{{quote|'''Boris:''' SHUT UP YOUR MOUTH!}}

* ''[[Superman: The Animated Series|Superman the Animated Series]]'': Batman was missing from Gotham {{spoiler|and really under Braniac mind control}}. After Superman as Batman leaves after talking to Gordon, one of the cops standing around remarks "Did he look taller to you?". This is carry-over from the print comic running gag where characters often expect Batman to be taller.

* The chief weakness of ''Planet Sketch'' was that it tried to make ''all'' its jokes into running gags. In the end, there was very little incentive to watch multiple episodes, since they were all exactly the same.

* Hot dog stands being knocked over in ''[[Ben 10]]''. The joke made a brief reappearance in one of the sequels.

** Background pony "[[Fan Nickname|Bon Bon]]" ''always'' has a completely different voice in every single speaking appearance she makes. So far, this comes to five different voices.

** Twilight's [[Super OCD]] has led to chaos on multiple occasions.

** Every time Pinkie Pie has "Pinkie Sense" in episodes other than its introduction, it is always twitchy-tail, the falling sense, and invariably, a flower pot falls from the sky. Once, it fell from the sky inside a tent. Pinkie Pie was kind enough to lampshade it.

* ''[[The Penguins of Madagascar]]'': Whenever there's any off-screen destruction a man is heard yelling, "My car!". In ''[[Long Title|The Return of the Revenge of Doctor Blowhole]]'' Skipper destroys a building in Shanghai and someone yells it in Mandarin.

{{quote|'''Mei Li:''' I never have any friends. Not real friends like you have. Like the cricket and that ''mean man with the stripes''.}}

{{quote|'''Tigress:''' Hey there, you. Um...settling in ok?

'''Bian Zao:''' Yes ''sir''! }}

{{quote|'''Croc Bandit:''' We caught that tiger dude.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:{{TOPLEVELPAGE}}]]