Catch Phrase/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

* ''[[All in The Family]]'':

** "Meathead!"- Carroll O' Connor as [[Archie Bunker]].

** Edith: "RENÉ! What are you doing with zat [servant] girl in your arms?" Upon finding René in a compromising position.

** René: "You stupid woman! Can you not see..." Response to the above, usually followed by a flimsy excuse, which Edith buys anyway.

* [[The Andy Griffith Show]] Gomer: "Shazam!"

** Goober: "Gol-lee!"

** Mr. Humphries: "I'm free!"

** Mrs. Slocombe: "I think [states opinion], and I am [[You Keep Using That Word|unanimous]] in that."

*** And the response was always, "Thank you Mr. Grace."

** They'll ride up with wear."

* ''[[Ashes to Ashes]]'': Gene Hunt has said 'You are surrounded by Armed Bastards!' a grand total of ''twice'' in the whole series. And yet he says it so well, it's become a catch phrase.

** It even has a [[Shout-Out]] in ''[[Ashes to Ashes]]'' when he says: 'Today my friend, you diary entry will read "Took a prozzie hostage and was shot by three Armed Bastards".'

*** And a third in the final episode when he asks his team: "Are you armed? BASTARDS?"

** "Fire up the Quattro."

** "I love it when a plan comes together." - Hannibal

** Note: "I pity the fool" by Mr. T. is a line from the film ''[[Rocky III]]'' - [[Memetic Mutation]] was in effect even back then, bringing the phrase onto ''The A-Team''

** "Crazy fool!" -B.A. to Murdoch.

** It was also used in the movie.

** Other ''B5'' catchphrases included

*** "What do you want?"

*** "Isil'zha veni" and its English translation: "In Valen's name"

*** "We live for the One, we die for the One."

** As well as the Riddler's "Riddle Me This!"

*** This has also become the catchphrase of the comic book Riddler.

* ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'': The "By your command" Cylon catchphrase on the old one, with occasional mythology gag in the new ''Battlestar Galactica.''

** Also, "So say we all".

* ''[[Beetleborgs]]'': Flabber (who is a cross between Elvis and Jay Leno) has these ones: "Flabberific" "Flabtastic" "Flabout" and various spell incantations.

* ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'' has "Bazinga!" as Sheldon's catchphrase whenever he makes a joke, or what he thinks counts as a joke anyway.

* ''[[Bill Nye the Science Guy]]'': "It's the (Scientific Experiment)...''of Science!''"

** "Science rules!"

** Some variant of "a cunning plan" is uttered by Edmund, Baldrick, Percy, or George in nearly every espisode of all 4 series.

** Lord Flashheart: Woof!

** "When you're a spy..."

* ''[[Caiga Quien Caiga]]'': "What a good question, Mario!"

* ''[[Chapelles Show]]'': "I'm Rick James, Bitch!" It bacame so annoying to Chappelle when fans would holler this out at his shows that he would walk off stage and probably contributed to his [[Creator Breakdown]].

** He has indicated to enthusiastic fans in the wild, "I'd appreciate you not calling me 'bitch' in front of my kids."

* ''[[The Closer]]'': Brenda Johnson (spoken with Southern accent): "Thank you. Thank you so much!"

** "Just one more thing..." - [[Peter Falk]] as Inspector Colombo.

** This one was actually [[Throw It In|started by accident]]. During the filming of the pilot episode, Peter Falk missed his cue and exited the scene with one more line of dialogue to speak. He realized his mistake and came back to deliver it.

* ''[[The Comedy Company]]'': By the end of its run, most of the sketches consisted of nothing but characters spouting their catch phrases, especially Con the Fruiterer ("Good day gentleman and how are you today?", "Coupla days, bewdiful!").

** Magnitude, the one man party, has "POP POP!"

{{quote| '''Brent:''' Honestly, Dad, you gotta give that word a rest.<br />

'''Oscar:''' What word?<br />

** Danny's "Boom!" whenever he finds a crucial bit of evidence or obtains a useful lab result. Eventually causes Lindsay to start saying it (hey, she becomes {{spoiler|his wife}}), and his constant usage prompts Lindsay to ask him to stop for fear {{spoiler|it will become their daughter Lucy's first word}}.

** Adam's "What up!". He even lampshades himself about it in one episode.

** There's also Frazer's "We're doomed, doomed!", and Jones' other catchphrase "They don't like it up 'em!"

* ''[[The Daily Show]]'': "Settle down!"

* ''[[Degrassi the Next Generation]]'': Paige calls everyone "Hun." And Manny uses the term "cuckoo bananas" enough to spark Facebook Flare and Bumperstickers with her face and the phrase.

* ''[[Dexter]]'': "Tonight's the night."

** And ''by'' characters other than Arnold.

** In ''[[Avenue Q]]'', Gary Coleman (the actor who portrayed Arnold, who is a character in [[The Musical]]) complains about people saying his [[Catch Phrase]] to him on the street, then uses it himself later.

*** He also adopts the phrase "Allons-y!" and uses it repeatedly.

*** He also tends to say "Molto Bene" when a situation is, well, good.

**** On the other hand, if it ends on a [[Flat What]], something has just gone very badly wrong indeed.

*** "Brilliant!"

*** "I really should go", and variants. Subverted horrifically in "Forests of the Dead" when said by "Other" Dave.

*** Frankly, when you've got a character who talks as much as this guy does, it's inevitable that they're going to develop a number of catchphrases.

*** The Eleventh Doctor seems to like his Trio of "No"'s with a [[Big No|"Big No"]] at the end.

*** "[[Bow Ties Are Cool]]." Also sometimes used to refer to other unlikely accessories such as the unfortunate (in two senses of the word) fez.

*** "Look at you" and "I'm/You're/She's fine" are said by multiple characters.

*** "Am I people?" and variants.

** Amy says "Shut up" a lot.

** The Daleks have "Exterminate!" and "What is happening?", older Daleks have "I obey!" and the matching "You will obey the Daleks! Obey! Obey!"; the new Cybermen are very fond of "You are compatible", "You will be deleted" and "Delete! Delete! Delete!". Another phrase associated with the Cybermen of the 80s is "Excellent", delivered in a somewhat camp manner.

** There is a reason "[[Don't Ask, Just Run|RUN!]]" is the Doctor's first line in the revived series. Every single incarnation says variations on it all the time. And Donna even once explained to another character that there was a ''lot'' of running involved.

*** There's also "When I say run, run" and finishing a [[Badass Boast]] with telling the villain to "Basically, run." (They usually do.)

* ''[[Dollhouse]]'': "Did I fall asleep?" whenever any of the Actives wakes up after being wiped and left a blank slate.

** The proper response to this is, "For a little while." At this point, the Active will ask, "Shall I go now?", the response to which is "If you'd like". Failure to carry out the exchange in full after a wipe can have [[Heroic BSOD|dire consequences.]]

* ''[[Everybody Loves Raymond]]'': It seems as if Frank said "Holy crap!" at least once per episode.

* ''[[Extras]]'': Mocked with an appalling [[Show Within a Show]] ''When the Whistle Blows'' with [[Catch Phrase]] "Are you 'aving a laff?; Is he/she 'aving a laff?"

** "I'm Ty Pennington, and the renovation starts right now."

** "Let's do it!"

** "Suits you, sir."

* ''[[Father Ted]]'': Father Jack is a catchphrase in an armchair: "DRINK! FECK! ARSE! GIRRRRRLS!!''

** Kaylee has "Shiny".

* ''[[Flight of the Conchords]]'':

*** "And Murray: present."

* [[Forever Knight]] Don Schanke: "Man oh man oh man"

** "Wouldn't it be cool if..." Twist says before coming up with some ridiculously complicated scheme. Marina always responds "That would be cool." Then she or another character suggests another, simpler, way of doing the same thing. Twist says, "Well sure, if you want to do it the easy way."

* ''[[Friends]]'':

* ''[[Full House]]'': Seemingly every character had their own catch phrases. Joey's was "Cut. It. Out." Stephanie was always saying "How rude!" or "Pin a rose on your nose." D.J.'s line was "Oh Mylanta!" Uncle Jesse's was "Have mercyyyyy!" And then of course there's Michelle, the queen of catch phrases with gems like "You got it, dude!" and "You're in big trouble, mister!"

* ''[[Fugitivos]]'': "And you, WHAT SIDE ARE YOU ON?"

** "Missed it by THAT much!"

** "Sorry about that, Chief."

* ''[[Gran Hermano]]'': "You are nominated/not nominated."

* ''[[The Greatest American Hero]]'': Ralph lets out an annoyed, "Damn!" every time he crash lands... which is nearly [[Running Gag|every time he tries to fly]].

* ''[[Happy Days]],'' best known for Fonzie's thumbs-up "Ayyyyyy!," also popularized the term "nerd," and the insult "Sit on it!" When Chachi was introduced, ABC demanded that he have a catchphrase, so Scott Baio came up with "Wa wa wa" - which didn't catch on.

** Richie's singing "I found my thrill.....", Ralph's "I still got it!", Al's "Yep...yepyepyepyepyep".

** TVtropeseditorsay''what??''

** Ya think?

** "Be there. Aloha."

** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] and poked fun of by the actors in one of the season one commentaries, though they talk more about how some characters seem to be saying different versions of the same line over and over. Sendhil Ramamurthy points out how Mohinder is always saying things like: "Someone killed my father, I must avenge my father's killer, who murdered my father?" etc. Zachary Quinto is then asked what Sylar's catchphrase is, and he replies: "Braaaaaaiiiiiiiins."

** And of course the catch phrase of all the immortals "There can be only one!"

** Richie picked up the catchphrase "I'm sorry, Mac, I know he was your friend" because Mac lost so many friends.

** "Har Har hardy har har" "To the moon, Alice!"

** "Baby, you're the greatest."

** "That's 100% accu-rat."

** "We romans had a lot of crazy emperors, and one of the craziest was a bloke called Caligula."

** "But, umm..." seems to have become Robin's.

* ''[[Series/Hunter|Hunter]]'' has "Works for me."

** Sam usually calls herself ''Mama'' to describe herself or whenever she feels competitive.

** Recent episodes have Freddie showing a habit of saying random Spanish words, usually as alternatives for saying "goodbye" like "''Pantalones!''" or "''Agua!''"

** Or "I'm gonna teach (him/her) a lesson (he'll/she'll) never forget."

** And what about Lucy's obligatory "Ewwwwwwwww...!" whenever something went wrong?

** The Official also had "Shut Up, Eberts!" to reign in his infomaniac right hand secretary. And it wasn't an episode until Bobby Hobbes threw in a "my friend!" to a line of dialog.

* ''[[Interceptor]]'': "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. I liikkke it!"

* ''[[The IT Crowd]]'': "Hello, IT, have you tried turning it off and on again?"

** Also played straight with Mac always saying, "What's up, bitches?" whenever he enters a room.

** "I'm (speaker's name), and this is (stunt name)."

** "Hi, I'm Johnny Knoxville, and welcome to Jackass!"

** When the clue was revealed (yes, ''every time''): "The answer is...!"

** When it was time to cue to commercial, some variant of: "Please watch along with us! Thank you."

** And finally, Jimmy would close with "Goodnight, Canada. Hug your children."

* ''[[Judge Judy]]'' has a few. Her most popular one is "I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!". Her other ones include "If something doesn't make sense, it's not true", "Don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining", "I'M SPEAKING!" (said when someone interrupts her), "(S)he's a nut!" and "That falls under the category of 'Too bad'."

* From the [[Long Runners|long-running]] ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' franchise:

** [[Kamen Rider Ryuki|Shinji Kido]]: "Usha!" (roughly, "Alright!")

*** Shun Makura: "Makura des'!"

*** [[The Movie|Katsumi]] [[Big Bad|Daido]]: "Now, enjoy your Hell!"

*** [[Lovable Alpha Bitch|Miu Kazashiro]]: "[[Gratuitous English|Oops.]]"

** Quite a few characters even have physical "Catch Phrases" ([[Character Tics]]), such as [[Kamen Rider Kuuga|Yusuke]]'s thumbs up, [[Kamen Rider Faiz|Takumi]]'s wrist flick, [[Kamen Rider Faiz|Kusaka]] adjusting his collar, [[Kamen Rider Hibiki|Hibiki]]'s salute, [[Kamen Rider Kabuto|Tendo]]'s skyward pointing, [[Kamen Rider Decade|Tsukasa]] dusting his hands...

{{quote| '''Elliot''': [[I Did What I Had to Do]]!<br />

'''Kathy''': Well, that's refreshing. }}

{{quote| '''Sportacus''': "Someone's in trouble!"<br />

'''Stephanie''': "There's always a way!" (She even has a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}MKVNf6kuhv0 song that goes with it])<br />

** Also Eliot, whenever he's asked how he knows something, replies "I slept with a lot of ________" (referring to some relevant occupation)or occasionally "It's a very distinctive ________*" (weapon or fighting style usually.) Also uses "Damnit Hardison!" whenever Hardison screws up and "There is something ''wrong'' with you" whenever Parker is...being Parker.

* ''[[Lexx]]'''s Kai: "The dead do not _____."

** He also has a tendency to point at someone and say "Ya see that<ref>"That" being the look on that person's face</ref>? That's X", X being some emotion.

* ''[[Life On Mars]]'': Sam frequently says. 'We have no evidence!', mostly because the other coppers in the CID are willing to put someone away with flimsy and/or planted evidence. Gene does a [[Shout-Out]] to that in episode 2x01 when he says. '..We have no flippin' evidence, and I can't believe I just said that!'

** Pete Campbell: "A thing like that."

* ''[[Mad Money]]'': Host Jim Cramer's "Boo-yah!" and "Are you ready, Skee-Daddy?"

** Iola's "Knock, knock!"

** Vint's "Thanks a lot, Mama!"

** Mama's "I'll bet the neighbors are just lovin' this!"

* ''[[The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis]]'': Dobie's indolent beatnik pal Maynard G. Krebs would pop into a scene saying "You rang?" immediately after someone else referred to something dirty, dense, or otherwise undesirable. Co-opted decades later in ''[[Laverne and Shirley]]'' by Lenny and Squiggy, saying "Hello!" in unison.

** "Awww, Peg!"

* Martha Stewart closes every segment of her show with, "It's a good thing."

'''Bollo:''' "I got a bad feeling about this." }}

** Vince Noir wants you to know that catchphrases are ''genius''.

** Uther is fond of "Camelot will not fall to magic while I am king." and telling Arthur "When you are king, you will understand."

* ''[[Mission Impossible]]'': "Your mission, should you choose to accept it..."

* ''[[Monk]]'' has 'here's what happened' (spoken just before [[The Summation]]), 'here's the thing', 'I don't know how he did it, but he did it', and 'he's the guy' (or, alternatively, for [[Red Herring]] characters 'he's not the guy').

** Also "You'll thank me later."

* ''[[The Monkees]]'' had dozens of catchphrases and one-liners, many of them ad-libbed as inside jokes between the group. A few notable examples:

** "Don’t do that!"

** "Isn’t that dumb?"

** "Save the Texas Prairie Chicken!"

* ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]''

** "It's...." - Michael Palin as the "It's" man

** "Spam, spam, spam, spam,...."

** "Nudge nudge, know what I mean. Say no more." - [[Eric Idle]] in the "Nudge Nudge" sketch.

* ''[[Mork and Mindy]]'':

** "Nanu nanu" and "Shazbot".

* ''[[Noah's Arc]]'': Alex: Whats the T! (Often followed by "gurl")

* ''[[Nobuta wo Produce]]'' has several. One of the most iconic is used in almost every episode by Nobuta to try to up her confidence level: "Nobuta power, CHUU NYUU!", which comes with a Magic Girl-esque pose. Shuji has a couple too, the most common being "Bye Bye-cycle!" (accompanied by a mine of bicycle handles) and "Do~nichi~getsu~ka~sui~mo~kin~doOOoOoOoo!" But Akira has by far the most out of all the characters, due to his habit of exclaiming certain phrases when surprised. "Kon kon!" is the most recognized of all these among fans(as with the previous characters, it comes with a signiture move; a hand barking like a fox) Also, theres "Akira SHOCK!", "Akira DOWN~" and "Shu~u~ji-kun!"

* ''[[Out of This World]]'': Donna: "[[Full Name Ultimatum|Evie Ethel Garland!]]"

** "I know you are but what am I?"

** "MMMM...."

* ''[[Pinon Fijo]]'': "Chu-chu-hua, chu-chu-hua, chu-chu-hua-hua-hua" from

** Rita: "I have a headache!"

*** After Rita got purified by the Z-Wave and turned into the Mystic Mother, she retained the catchphrase.

*** [[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers|Rita]]: "Magic wand, make my monster... grow!"

*** [[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers|Rita and Zedd]]: "Make our monster grow!"

*** [[Power Rangers Turbo|Divatox]]: "Fire the torpedoes!"

*** [[Power Rangers in Space|Astronema]]: "Fire the Satellasers!"

* ''[[Psych]]'':

** "I've heard it both ways." "No you have ''not'', Shawn!"

**** To say nothing of a guest star in "The Head, the Tail, the Whole Damn Episode" pirating the line apropos of nothing.

** "You know that's right."

* ''[[Quantum Leap]]'': After assessing his situation after each leap, Sam will declare (in various inflections) "Oh, boy."

** Averted in one episode, in which he says, "Oy vey, I'm the rabbi."

* ''[[Reading Rainbow]]'''s "But you don't have to take my word for it..."

** Does that really have to be covered up? there were two episodes about that and with no mystery.

** Smeg!

** Don't forget the Man's Prayer: "I am a man... but I can change... if I have to... I guess."

* [[Riget]]: Danskjävlar! (Danish devils!)

** The Sheriff has "A clue: no" (the name of an episode), as well as the sarcastic "Oh, la-de-dah-de-dah." Allan-A-Dale gets "I'm not trying to be funny, but...", and Little John has "We go to (insert place)" and "(Insert name or item) I like/do not like."

** In the second season, the whole gang adopts "We Are Robin Hood", which also becomes an episode title.

** Every single one of these was dropped in the third series, which featured more or less a completely new team of writers, with the exception of one use each for the Sheriff's 'la-de-dah-de-dah', Little John's 'we go to Nottingham' and one 'We Are Robin Hood!' in the finale.

** A six-note pattern preceding a code-word or punchline to an off-color joke, such as "do-doo-doo-da-do-doo ... smack!" or "... family jewels!" (sometimes extended to 18 notes by repeating the GGGDEC pattern two more times before the code-word). This same musical phrase had been used as a "signature" at the end of many pieces played by Spike Jones and his City Slickers.

** "I didn't know that." (Dick Martin's occasional response to what happened on an episode)

** "That's a shame." - Jerry, when something bad happens to others.

** "I'm kind of in the middle of something." - Jerry, when interrupted.

* ''[[Shear Genius]]'': The host says to each week's winner, "Congratulations, your work is sheer genius." To the loser he says, "I'm sorry, this was your final cut."

* ''[[Sledge Hammer]]''

*** Peace out, suckers!

** "Fine!" "Good!" "Fine!" "Good!"

** And of course...[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRkE_Gv6ALM OH!] They also like to say "there he is" where most people would just say ''hello''.

* ''[[Sordid Lives The Series]]'': Sisay has a lot of them: "Sweet baby Jesus!" "I know it...I know it...I know it..." (when talking on the phone) "Woooooo!" (in reply to Noleta calling out likewise when she is at the front door)

** "[[Oh Crap|Oh, crap]]...!" -Rodney McKay

*** Sheppard was fond of it as well. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yig5CBGPzs Once], when the situation that had prompted whoever used it this time to say it was explained, ''an Asgard'' said, in that deadpan voice, "Crap, indeed."

** Teal'c's usual "Indeed". It was "I see" in the first few episodes before he switched. Eventually [[Lampshaded]] by Ronon, to which he responded, "Do I? I had not noticed."

** Jack O'Neill has:

** Contrary to popular belief, ''no'' permutation of "[[Beam Me Up, Scotty]]" was a catch phrase. As the chief engineer, Scotty wasn't a frequent transporter operator - there's a guy whose job is apparently only that! - and Scotty was only asked to beam someone up on special occasions (something wrong with the transporter, etc.) For some reason, he can [[Never Live It Down]]. The ''actual'' usual transporter commands are "[Number] to beam up" (and sometimes "[number] to beam directly to sickbay") and "Energize."

** "Bones" McCoy started a tradition of [[Main/ptitletzsppi 6 i|"I'm a doctor, not a..."]] phrases. Voyager's EMH ran with it. It's a rare chief medical officer who hasn't done it at least once.

** Let's not forget Spock's "Fascinating," followed by Data's "Intriguing" and Tuvok's "Impressive."

*** Lampshaded by McCoy in the episode "The Ultimate Computer":

* ''[[Survivorman]]'': Les Stroud is fond of the mantra "I hate to kill any living thing, but in a survival situation, everything is fair game" whenever he dispatches and devours something cute and fuzzy. A mantra that is markedly absent whenever he scarfs down insects (usually still moving) or fish.

* ''[[Taxi]]'' had "Dank you veddy much" ("Thank you very much") for [[Andy Kaufman]]'s character Latka Gravas. The character and phrase - the whole mock language - originated in Kaufman's stage act when the persona was usually known as "Foreign Man".

** Fez: "I have ''needs.''"

*** Also:

** Kelso: "BURN!"

* ''[[That's So Raven]]'': "Oh snap!" (Shared with ''[[My Name Is Earl]]''.)

* ''[[This Is Wonderland]]'': [[The Judge|Judge]] Malone gradually acquired "There must be something we can do to help this man/woman/child," as a [[Catch Phrase]].

* Before each commercial break on ''[[Today]]'', the segment host will tell the audience what is coming up in the next segment, followed by "But, first, this is ''Today'' on NBC."

'''Audience:''' "''HOW ______ WAS IT???!!!''"<br />

'''Johnny:''' "It was so ______ that ______." }}

* ''[[Top Gear]]'': Each of the presenters has a couple:

{{quote| '''Clarkson:''' '''''"Poweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer!"''''', "...in the World.", and "How hard can it be?"<br />

'''Both:''' Goodnight! }}

* ''[[The Vicar of Dibley]]'': "No, no, no, no, no, no, no... Yes." (''Monty Python'' fans will associate this phrase with the "Nudge-Nudge, Wink-Wink" sketch.)

* ''[[Victorious]]'': Cat has, "What's THAT supposed to mean???" She hasn't used it as much in the later episodes of Season 1, though.

** She uses "Kay Kay" all the time.

** If we're going to mention Josh's Donna, there's Leo's "Margaret!" as well.

** And Ainsley Hayes, "Are you going to eat that?" though that may be more of a [[Running Gag]]

** Also, the Chief would frequently dismiss Greg with a simple, "Greg? Go away."

* ''[[White Collar]]'':

*** '''Neal:''' Look at us, saving America's youth from a life of crime.

*** Okay, yeah, it qualifies.

** When describing Questions Only, 90-Second Alphabet, or other simple games, "This is a great game to play when you're at a party with no chicks or booze."

** The UK version had "This is me, Clive Anderson, saying good night. Good night."

* ''[[The Wire]]'':

** Jimmy McNulty: "What the fuck did I do?"

** Proposition Joe: "Got a proposition for you." Or, really, any time he ever uses the word "proposition" in a sentence.

** Omar: "Oh indeed" along with "I surely do".

* ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'': "I have many skills."

* "[[Yes Minister]]" Said by Sir Humphrey at least once every episide in the series of the same name. Later it would become "Yes, Prime Minister".