Your favorite running gags.

You rang?

Maynard G. Krebs

Mary Tyler Moore’s disastrous dinner parties. They all failed inventively.

You rang?

Lurch, The Addams Family

Not quite a running gag but Itchy and Scratchy. I don't even know what it's so funny.

You rang?

Maynard G. Krebs, Dobie Gillis

...Blucher!

Sideshow Bob stepping on rakes.

Sideshow Bob stepping on rakes.

10 points to the first person who connects OP's picture to the one in R2.

Gertrude the goldfish who keeps dying and coming back to life on [italic]Gimme A Break![/italic]

My Pussy...

I'm Free!

The BOUQUET RESIDENCE, LADY OF THE HOUSE SPEAKING.

R9, Happy Days?

r14 Yes! Henry Winkler is in the background of the MTM photo. And Fonzie was the one who introduced the Laverne and Shirley characters on "Happy Days."

Edina Monsoon exiting a car

Shitbottle.

Lurch makes his second appearance in the thread - as one of the 14 wall-climbing window-opening cameos on Batman.

The one with Col. Klink bothered me greatly as a child. One, he was a Nazi, and surely that was worse than The Penguin. Two, Hogan’s Heroes was set during WWII and Batman was set in the then-present 1960s. I registered lots of complaints to my parents about shit like this. Now I take it to DL.

"Picture it! Sicily! 1933!"

"And don’t call me Shirley."

So campy, r18!

Police Squad!’s opening credits, always capped by Tonight’s Special Guest Star shown in a clip being killed, when the actor in question never appears in the episode.

And to drive the gag home, the first and last episodes show the exact clip of a man stabbed in the chest and rolling out of a moving car, first Lorne Greene and then William Conrad.

Also, the episode title, which in print never matched the narration.

Guest stars were also being killed quickly on "The Last Man On Earth." The funniest one was Jon Hamm being shot by January Jones.

"The Simpsons" couch gags and Bart's blackboard.

"Yes, Carlton?" "This is Carlton, your doorman."

Soupy Sales and the pie to his face.

Unbilled stars calling in to Frasier.

BBT's elevator's being broken, until the last episode.

^ What is BBT?

BBT = Big Bang Theory

"Royle Family" - "Have you had your tea? "Yeah." "Wha' ja have?"

Kiss my grits!, usually said to Mel

Hyacinth and the calls intended for the Chinese take-away.

Durwood. Dimwit. Dagwood Dalton Dar-Dar Darius Darwick Darwin Darwood David Dawson Delbert Dennis Denton Derek Derwin Dexter Digby Dino Dobbin Dogwood Donald Dorian Dumbo Dum Dum Dumpkin Duncan Durweed

And my favorite:

What's his name.

The Cheers “NORM!” greeting when he entered the bar, and the joke Norm told when asked how he’s doing.

Joey Tribiani’s “how you doing?” pick-up line on Friends.

R22 You forgot Rex Hamilton as Abraham Lincoln. LOL.

He-haw!

Jimmy Kimmel's feud with Matt Damon

Drake mispronouncing easy common words & place-names in DRAKE & JOSH to the chagrin of his brainy stepbrother Josh.

Drake’s character was a song/lyric-writer so presumably his issue with reading was either undiagnosed dyslexia, a sight problem or plain laziness. Whatever the set-up Drake (the actor) sold the mistakes perfectly as a straight (hah!) man.

Honorary nods to the teacher character Mrs. Hayfer’s perpetual hatred of him (“I hate you, Drake” “I know..”), and the offscreen character Bruce Winchell who is conversely praised for his every quality.

R16 I remember hearing that Ed’s car exit was based on Jo & Jen’s perception of how a drunken Bananarama used to crawl on their arses out of their rides to their front door after nights out.

"Fawlty Towers" changing anagrams on its signpost.

Mary Cherry always calling Harrison "Joe" (on Popular).

The great Green Acres was loaded with them. Climbing up the utility poll to use the phone. When you opened the bedroom window the closet door would fly off. Eb always calling Oliver Dad. When Arnold the pig spoke everyone understood him except Oliver. So many more.

r31 I think I'm getting a sick headache.

Hi, it’s me Stan.

Gene Parmesan, aaahhhh!!!!

The silent faceless fifth housemate nobody watching noticed was even there until decades later on THE YOUNG ONES.

And, Cliff Bloody Richard!

Susie on Curb Your Enthusiasm, "Larry, get out of my fucking house!"

All the eating on Law & Order. Everybody in the squad room was eating Chinese; if walking on the street, it was hot dogs; if in the DA's office, it was whatever the deli delivery guy brought them.

Angie Tribeca -- The dog is treated like a real cop.

Kramer entering Jerry's apartment.

"Oh! It's the big one! Ya hear that Elizabeth? I'm comin' to join ya!"

"Hoh glory!"

"I am unanimous in this."

"God will get you for that, Walter."

"I bet the neighbors are just lovin' this!"

"Who CARES Rose?!"

On [italic]Person of Interest[/italic], the characters getting annoyed with each other over interpersonal surveillance, e.g., Reese following Harold, Joss complaining about Harold listening to her phone calls, Shaw bugging the library.

[quote] Unbilled stars calling in to Frasier.

They were billed. They’re listed in the closing credits. I only know this because sometimes I’d hear a voice that I couldn’t pin down. That would be the only time I watched the closing credits to see who it was.

“Hello, Newman.”

“It was about a bunch of pussy-cat people singing in a garbage can! What would you do?!”

R53, you really don’t get it, do you?

"No, there ain't no Julio here!" from Gimme A Break!

What's brown and runny?

Usain Bolt.

Trevor Ferhman’s hapless geeky teen character falling or vaulting over the split stable-door entrance in the family home of ODD MAN OUT (the 1999 American sitcom, not the British one from 1977).

The first time he encountered the door half-closed he quipped, “what am I supposed to do, lean over it like Mr. Ed?!”, and thereafter entered through that same doorway in increasingly ridiculous ways. It’s a very small simple slapstick gag in a generic obscure series but I found it charming

R57, care to tell us at what point in the episode you linked that little tidbit is? I’d like to see it but I’m not watching the entire episode.

^Ah, sorry. Timestamp for the “Mr. Ed” line is 8:25 in the linked episode, R58.

10-Q.

R46, First of all, the eating scenes aren't "gags," running or otherwise. Secondly, the food signifies how a cop's day is outside normal life.

Cute, but the director should’ve slowed him down just a bit. The line gets lost and the character would have had to come up with that thought in microseconds, which misses the punch.

On Gimme A Break the phone would ring in the midst of a family crisis. Nell would say something like "Samantha honey, is that you?". Then yell "No, there ain't no Julio here!"

Murphy Brown's secretary-of-the-week.

r54 I'm not r53, but I think r53 qualifies. The running gag was Mr. Sheffield's obsession with Andrew Lloyd Webber and having passed on "Cats."

R63, meet r55.

Every time Tony Soprano paid a visit to a business associate or friend, he brutally murdered them.

R46 The eating scenes are just stage devices for the actors so they can fill in exposition. In the 'olden days', actors would light a cigarette or blow smoke....

Back in the 90's, working as a server, I and pretty much all the other servers were big coke heads. Any time one of us sneezed, instead of saying "bless you", we would all just say "damn, there goes 20 bucks..."

"Regina Phalange"

"Oh, Smitty, you kill me!"

Marion tossing her slut daughter's bastard child in the wastebasket, "As the Stomach Turns," [italic]The Carol Burnett Show[/italic]

R69, are you lost?

The dog that apparently lives in Daisy and Onslow's car in front of their place, and barks loudly whenever Hyacinth walks by, causing her to fall over every time, on "Keeping Up Appearances."

"Hi, I'm Larry, this is my brother Darryl, and this is my other brother Darryl."

Phoebe and "Smelly Cat". Murphy Brown & Phil's Bar - "Shut The Door!"

R76 put the "gag" back in running gag.

[quote][R69], are you lost?

Maybe you should try Hare Krishna.

Homer's many lifelong dreams

The fishing trip in Gavin and Stacey

[bold]MUHNSWEAH.[/bold]

Mind the pedestrian.

Ooh ooh Mr. Kotter!

"No, there ain't no Julio here!!!!!"

R84: IIRC that was a single episode, not over the whole series.

No, it happened a few times not just in one episode.

Nathaniel Fisher Sr. and his heavenly cigarettes.

Penny *knock knock knock* Penny *knock knock knock* Penny *knock knock knock*

This thread reminds me of a time, back in St. Olaf...

Shut up, Rose R89!

Shady Pines, r90!

Laugh-In (which I watched in reruns on Nick at Nite, thank you) was full of them.

How many episodes featured "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia"?

R92 As was its country cousin Hee Haw.

The Fonz fixing broken appliances, TVs, stuck drawers/doors with a thump of his fist and an ‘ayyyyye’. Also, anytime he entered a room or said ‘sit on it’.

R95 Funny, I associate "sit on it" with Mrs. C, not the Fonz.

[quote]How many episodes featured "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia"?

Just one, and also the first movie.

"Duffy's Tavern. Duffy ain't here." (Yes, OLD!)

The unseen neighbor over the fence on "Home Improvement."

'No, see, ....'

100 posts, and no...

"Youuu bubble-headed booby!!"

100 posts, and no...

"Dumb Dora is soooo dumb..."

Cheers: Norm’s wife, Vera remained unseen but was always the butt of fat jokes. Actually, she was seen once in an episode where she showed up, but took a pie to the face so the audience never saw her face.

Then Frasier did the same thing but inversed: Maria was stick thin and never physically seen. Though there were a few episodes where she was assumed to be part of the scene, but then it turned out she wasn’t there.

I always liked the Cheers episodes where they challenged Gary's Olde Towne Tavern to a competition: bowling, baseball, whatever. I liked the Gary character a lot. In fact, the bowling competition was one of my favorite episodes. Woody, the expert bowler, choked and froze in action. Diane dusted off her bowling skills and turned out to be a really good bowler.

Brainy and Helga on Hey Arnold.

Gilda Radner’s Emily Littela in SNL, always misinterpreting things because of poor hearing.

One of my favorites used to be Bart calling Moe's bar and asking for a punning name--not because the puns were so funny, but because Moe woukld always call out the name in such a way to make the pun even more humiliating to him.

"Guys, do I have a Hugh Jass? Tell me if I have a Hugh Jass here!"

"I'm looking for Amanda Hugandkiss. Can I please have Amanda Hugandkiss?"

R95 "Sit on it" I never understood what they were supposed to sit on? ? If they were talking about cock, wouldn't that be too dirty for network TV? So what the hell were people being told to sit on??

Good question, r107.

I always assumed it was effectively giving the middle finger since we used to flip someone the bird and say, “Sit on it and rotate!”

[quote]Police Squad!’s opening credits, always capped by Tonight’s Special Guest Star shown in a clip being killed, when the actor in question never appears in the episode. And to drive the gag home, the first and last episodes show the exact clip of a man stabbed in the chest and rolling out of a moving car, first Lorne Greene and then William Conrad. Also, the episode title, which in print never matched the narration.

My favorite "Police Squad!" gag was the Epilogue, with Leslie Neilson's character summing up the episode with "Looks like (Insert Episode Villain Name)'s gonna be _____ up at the Statesville Prison, along with (laundry list of previous episodes' villians)." Imagine how long that list would've gotten had the show lasted two or three whole seasons.

Also, the "freeze-frame" closing credits were simply the actors (and not necessarily anything else around them) freezing.

Computer says "No."

The moment in every episode of RAB C. NESBITT when Rab breaks the fourth wall to monologue profound tragicomic observations is always the hilight.

“AH wis an inspector oan theh buses!”

“Acting!!”

“Thank you!!”

The Cheers gang won their battle with Gary. Con man Harry the Hat conned Gary into bulldozing his own tavern.

Chris Jericho’s lifelong passion for grievance lists. It’s very in the Datalounge line.

Johnny La Rue's drunken tirades on SCTV.

R115 Oh, Johnny La Rue and his monogrammed clothes!

Hi, Gang at Cheers!

Whatever oddball thing Dr. Bombay happened to be in the middle of whenever Samantha materialized him forthwith sans appointment.

Peter vs the Chicken on Family Guy.

He has fought him more than once and the fights are always brutal and 5+ minutes long.

The introductory scene is Charlie’s Angels with Charlie on the speakerphone, cutting from the agency to Charlie, shown only from the back of his head, always accompanied by some new whore, usually in a bikini, with job titles like golf pro or or history professor.

The angels would engage him in double-entendres about his companion of the day. Jaclyn Smith was the best at this.

For r118.

Someone should do a compilation video of all his entrances.

R118 The Dr. Bombay entrances playing dr. every time he's called is one of my favorites.

The use of the witness protection program on the Sopranos was another great euphemism.

Mamas Family with Iola always having some mother trouble due to her extreme obesity.

[quote] Mamas Family with Iola always having some mother trouble due to her extreme obesity.

[italic]Married with Children[/italic] did that, too, with Peggy’s mother.

R123 the 'fat shaming' on this show was another level. Also the general disdain towards the archetypal frau to the point of forming a mens group against women, was another good one, but JMO, the show ran too long. The 90s were rife with material that wouldn't be touched today especially with this show.

All the fat women eventually got back at him and formed a kangaroo court against him. They even made Peg take the stand.

The gagging and barfing from every TV in America tuned to ABC for Friday nights in the late 80s and early 90s.

[quote]Mamas Family with Iola always having some mother trouble due to her extreme obesity.

Also Iola's ridiculous crafts.

This was my favorite Iola craft.

There were lots of women like that in the rural/suburban South when my grandmother was alive, R128.

On the Nanny the jokes about Morty's toupee. Always saw the hair but had to wait years to see the man.

"You...are a meathead."

All of Lucille Ball's comic tics on I Love Lucy.

When things didn't go as planned, she'd curl up her lips and go "Ewwwwww"

When she was surprised at something, she'd open her mouth and eyes real wide.

When she didn't get her way, she'd puddle up and cry "Waaaah", sometimes accompanied by, "But, Ricky..."

And in one episode, The Simpsons hilariously spoofed this. You hear the television playing an I Love Lucy episode. You hear a smack, then Lucy does the crying, then you hear Fred say, "Hey, Rick, I think you hit her pretty hard there." So wrong, but so funny.

Am I the only one who assumed that Lenny and Squiggy were a same-sex couple?

^ I think you were ahead of your time.

Eddie Haskell: "What a lovely dress you have on, Mrs. Cleaver"

Robert putting his drink to his chin before drinking it on "Everybody Loves Raymond"

Barney talking to the unseen waitress Juanita on "Andy Griffith Show"

Laverne & Shirley were obviously a same sex couple. Laverne was the butch and Shirley was the lipstick.

Lenny and Squiggy were prototypical incels.

Bobcat Goldthwaite’s incendiary monologues as the stuffed bunny Mr. Floppy in UNHAPPILY EVER AFTER (the bitchy satirical version of MARRIED...WITH CHILDREN). These tirades were typically very politically-incorrect, reactionary and often broke the fourth wall.

The bird jokes about Dee on It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia

The "furries" skits on Trigger Happy TV

¡Oh, esa mujer loca! ¡Lo que acaba de pasar es imposible! ¿Qué está pasando en su cabeza?

Nick's terrible coffee on Barney Miller. When a gay character is arrested and he makes a fresh pot Nick's confused about the colour of the coffee. The guys says he washed the cups and Nick's shocked believing that was their original colour.

Les Nessman's weekly bandage/Band-Aid on WKRP in Cincinnati.

Uncle Junior Soprano's recurring insult to Tony: "He never had the makings of a varsity athlete." Tony's temper tantrum would follow.

Larry Dallas lying to his date/bimbo du jour/potential hookup about what he did for a living.

Bobbie Morgenstern on "Joey," in general.

^ That show was awful, but Jennifer Coolidge was wonderful.

R131: Both y’all are HONKIES! Watch me move on up to the East Side with my dry cleaning chain and make money beyond your wildest dreams while the best you can do is buy out some crappy dive bar. Yeah, I even bought a nicer bar than you did! Thanks for selling your house to a brother! Consider that block successfully BUSTED!

The blockbuster was and is the real hero of [italic]All in the Family[/italic].

I just saw that episode again the other day and, in a sign of changing times, I was flabbergasted when Archie comes out of the kitchen and meets the guy for the first time.

Archie: “You’re colored.”

Sam Puckett (played by the wonderful Jennette McCurdy) intimidating others people and committing petty acts of gratuitous violence on iCARLY.

JM is a gifted physical actress, and it’s a rare treat to see a teen girl character played this way in a sitcom - in fact I can’t think of another one who’s anything like Sam was. She was the only funny thing on the show.

That’s what she said.

Key & Peele - School substitute teacher calling roll call: A-aron! (Sorry, it's too hard to put in print)

[italic]All in the Family[/italic] was just Norman Lear projecting his father's racism onto working class America.

R153! Yes! Ja-Nice? Ja-Nice? Ummmm, do you mean Janice?

[quote]Am I the only one who assumed that Lenny and Squiggy were a same-sex couple?

[quote]^ I think you were ahead of your time.

You're both right.

“I’m comin’ Elizabeth!”

“Carrie, you’re so beautiful”.

R153 YES! There was also Jam-Ezz for James!

"What you talking about, Willis?" -- Gary Coleman as Arnold

"Dynomite!" - JJ on Good Times

^ Catch-phrases for another thread.

Joe Jack on King of the Hill calling everyone "honey".

Sheridan Bucket and his "friend" Tarquin on Keeping Up Appearances. And him always asking for money for some absurd class, or craft, or outfit.

[quote]Now you're not spending it on girls, are you, dear? You promised Mummy. We agreed not until after you've finished your education. [she listens] Oh, you and Tarquin aren't interested in girls. What a comfort that is to a mother's heart, dear

You remember our friend, Violet?

Ja-kwell-en! Jakwellen... you here?

Never gets old, R165!

Maybe not a gag but I always like the Vulcan nerve pinch on Star Trek.

The dishy vicar and his wife always referring to Hyacinth as "the Bucket woman."

[quote] Ja-kwell-en! Jakwellen... you here?

Crucify me if you must, R165, but I just can’t place that. It’s so familiar sounding but I can’t remember.

Here u go R169

......

....

R169 I would’ve sent you to O’Shag Hennessy’s office but I think R170 saves you. Now quit being churli

Lol the kids are hysterical in that skit too.