Running gag
The running gag is a popular hallmark of comic and serious forms of entertainment. A running gag is an amusing situation or line that reappears throughout the work. They are often unintentional at first, but familiarity or popularity of such gags among viewers encourage their reappearance. Often, the humor in a running gag derives entirely from how often it is repeated.
Examples of well-known running gags
- Perhaps the best known of these running jokes come from The Simpsons. The most famous running gags throughout the series are the couch gag and the blackboard gag in the opening montage, in which Bart is always writing something different (and most times inane) on the school blackboard after school, and that the family always enters their house and sits on the couch in an absurd, new manner every episode. Another of the famous gags from the Simpsons involves Mr. Burns, Smithers, and Homer. The joke is that Mr. Burns never knows who Homer is—despite Homer’s having worked at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant for many years—and consequently must be informed thereof by Smithers. On one occasion, Smithers even told Mr. Burns that “[[Meta-reference|…all the recent events of [Burns’s] life have revolved around [Homer] in some way.]]” Yet another running gag involves Bart making prank calls to Moe’s; on one occasion, a person by the name of Hugh Jass for whom Bart asked was actually present in the bar.
- Additionally, it is unknown what state The Simpsons takes place in. There are often many clues which do not fit (like traffic signs listing states on opposite sides of the country), as well as characters being interrupted when the state is to be revealed.
- In Star Trek: Enterprise, there was a running gag: whenever the main characters met people of a new alien culture and said they came from Earth, the stock response was “Earth? Never heard of it.”
- For several seasons of the television series South Park, the character Kenny McCormick died in nearly every episode, followed by the character Stan Marsh shouting, “Oh my God, they killed Kenny!” and then Kyle Broflovski shouting “You bastards!” Kenny reappears in each subsequent episode as if nothing happened (even in two-parters), yet the children know that Kenny has died more than once.
- In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, there is a running gag about the “airspeed velocity” of an unladen swallow (“An African or a European swallow?”) and that King Arthur confuses the numbers 3 and 5.
- Kramer’s way of entering Jerry’s apartment (bursting through the door, sliding in) in the American sitcom Seinfeld.
- On each Cheers episode, Norm Peterson’s initial entrance into the bar is always met with a shout of “Norm!” from all the patrons. As he approaches his traditional barstool, another character always addresses him with a commonplace greeting and Norm always makes a woeful, pessimistic (and frequently literally interpretive) reply. For example: Sam Malone asks, “What are you up to, Norm?” to which Norm replies, “My ideal weight… if I were eleven feet tall.”
- The sitcom Friends contains numerous running gags such as Ross’s line “We were on a break!”, references to Monica being overweight as a child, and the fact that nobody is sure what Chandler does for a living. Traditionally, in Thanksgiving episodes, someone gets a turkey stuck on their head and frightens the other characters.
- In Futurama, there is a running gag wherein New Jersey is considered to the be worst place to live in the universe (“I, Roommate”). For instance, “Robot Hell” is in New Jersey. Another running gag involves Bender saying “Neat!” and taking a picture with a purple camera. Another one is that whenever a problem happens, everyone uses Zoidberg as the scapegoat for blame. Another running gag is that the Professor begins almost every announcement with the words “Good news, everyone!”—this is usually followed by terrible news. Last, owls are portrayed in the background of almost every episode as vermin, having replaced rats and pigeons by the 31st Century.
- In the Metal Gear video game series, the cardboard box is an item used by the main character, Solid Snake, in order to hide from enemies. His fondness for the trick developed into a running joke over the course of the series.
- In the television series The Fairly OddParents, Timmy Turner obtains many rare or illicit items through the use of magic. When he is asked where he obtained the object in question, he usually responds, “Uh, Internet?”
- In The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air a favorite running gag is Jazz getting thrown out of the house after offending one of the Banks. Once Jazz was in the driveway and offended Phil, so Phil threw him inside the kitchen door after Jazz made a remark about already being outside. In another character’s dream sequence, a successful Jazz throws a down-on-his-luck Phil out of his house in the same manner.
- In the television series Quantum Leap, Rear Admiral Albert “Al” Calavicci (Dean Stockwell) frequently confuses his third and fourth wives.
- In Animaniacs, Yakko, Wakko and Dot frequently run through sketches not starring them, chased by Ralph the Guard. Also, whenever the brothers see a pretty woman, or the nurse in the series, they shout together, “Hellooooooooo Nurse!!!,” but Dot says it in reference to any well-built and studly man.
- On Whose Line Is It Anyway?, when Drew Carey is introducing the show, he always states that “…everything’s made up and the points don’t matter” before saying something that reflects the points’ unimportance (for example: “That’s right, the points are like vows at a celebrity wedding. They just don’t matter”).
- In both the English and American versions of The Office, a character always refers to himself as Assistant Regional Manager, only to be corrected by the boss that he is “Assistant to the Regional Manager.”
- In Invader Zim, many references are made to Dib’s huge head. Gir is often found watching The Scary Monkey Show, and Zim usually responds, “I hate that monkey…” According to the commentary, the Chihuahua that appears in several episodes was originally going to be somewhere in every episode, but they were too lazy to continue the gag after a few episodes. Another example is Gir’s obsession with a small stuffed pig.
- In the Adult Swim animated series Aqua Teen Hunger Force, a popular running gag is the destruction of their neighbour Carl’s possessions. They destroy either his house, his pool, or his car, and on many occasions, he is either maimed or killed as well. Other gags have included Shake trying to harm Meatwad in some way by trying to convince him that what they'll do is fun, or anything the Aqua Teens discard blowing up once it hits the ground.
- At the ending of each episode of Earthworm Jim(Animated series), a cow falls down, and lands on a character.
- In the Adult Swim animated series Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, there are many running gags. Peter Potamus is often seen walking around saying, "Did you get that thing I sentcha?". Throughout the series, it hasn't been just limited to him saying it, with the phrase appearing in writing as well, such as emails. Also, the character Reducto is always carrying a shrink gun with him and threatening to shrink people with the phrase, "I'll make you [something]-sized!". The [something] often being replaced with words like, 'travel', 'fun', etc.
- In the movie It's a Wonderful Life, George Bailey constantly walks up the stairs in the house at 320 Sycamore in Bedford Falls, and when his hand grasps the newell at the first landing, it keeps coming off in his hand. At the point in the movie wherre Uncle Billy has lost the $8000, George comes home frightened and angry; he walks up the stairs to see his daughter Zuzu and the knob comes off in his hand; he almost throws it, but controls himself and rests it on the bannister. At the end, when he has experienced the unborn scene, he is ecstatic; this time when the knob comes off in his hand, he picks it up and kisses it.
- In Jim Henson's The Muppet Show, Gonzo is seen at the end of the opening credits trying to blow a horn or strike a gong embedded into the Muppet Show logo, always having something unfortunate happen instead. For example, water might spray out of the horn, or the gong might shatter when struck. Another example would be the interruptions that always happen when Wayne and Wanda start to sing some number. A few seconds into each attempt, something unfortunate always happens, such as one or both being blown up unexpectedly.
- Humphrey Littleton often reports that they have received a letter from "a Mrs. Trellis from North Wales" on the popular BBC Radio 4 show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. The letter is usually revealed to have been directed to ISIHAC by mistake, and that it should really have been delivered to one of Radio 4's other shows.
- In the animated version of Wayside, one running gag is that the school principal, Mr. Kidswatter, always addresses Todd by his home address rather than by his name.
- On the Disney cartoon Dave The Barbarian a running gag is that everybody thinks that Fang is a monkey, to which she replies by shouting "Not a monkey!".
See also