There are several of that sort of thing in the movie.
Most obvious is the “Plate o Shrimp”:
Later on, they pass a restaurant with “Plate o’ Shrimp” shown on the sign as a special.
There’s also the Repo Man’s code:
The code is a paraphrase of Isaac Asimov’s First Law of Robotics.
That scene is hilarious! But then one day, my family was hiking in the mountains of California. We came across a lake and stopped to enjoy the scene. My son commented “there’s small rocks floating in the water”. I found it impossible to explain why I was laughing so hard. (Around certain volcanoes, pumice can be found floating in lakes.)
Seeing as how TV shows have been brought into this…running gags can get tiresome, but I always appreciate when there’s a variant on it.
On Newhart, there was “Hi. I’m Larry, this is my brother Daryl, and my other brother Daryl.” every show, more or less. Best one ever was when the brothers arrived in a hurry and Larry says “Hi. To be brief, it’s us.”
Likewise, most of Norm’s one-liners as he walked into Cheers were great, but the two best for me were:
ZORRO, THE GAY BLADE is probably* my favorite superhero movie, and amidst all of the Bugs-Bunny-esque antics there’s a little joke that stuck with me: the Alcalde has decided, as bait for our hero, to have jewels on display at a costume ball; what Robin Hood type could resist? So the guards are getting instructed: “Remember: stay alert! He is cunning. He is crafty. He is not just going to walk in here and say, ‘Here I Am!’”
This is, of course, right when Zorro walks in and says, “Here I Am!” And, of course, gets arrested on the spot; quoth the Alcalde, “I tell you something, I am almost disappointed.”
As if genuinely puzzled, Diego de la Vega — now minus his Zorro mask — explains that he’s of course not Zorro: “I’m wearing this costume at your request!” He goes on to mention that a servant came to his house with a message that the Alcalde wished for him to come to the party dressed as Zorro: “I thought it was in slightly bad taste; but, after all: you are the Alcalde.”
This is the setup for the big payoff: literally dozens of partygoers arrive — each (a) in full costume as Zorro, and (b) ready to honestly repeat the lie the real Zorro just told — so no one will be looking in the right direction as the jewels get heisted by, like, the one guy there who isn’t dressed up as Zorro.
But along the way to that punchline, he only gets to slip the “after all, you are the Alcalde” bit in because it could be taken as deferential instead of being a quip at the guy’s expense; in a movie that otherwise goes so big and broad, it’s so small as to go unnoticed by the target.
*I was wrong to say “probably.”
And correct. That whole scene is funny and doesn’t fit with the few scenes from the movie that I have seen. Guess I’ll have to watch it someday.
This may have been from a movie, I’m not sure which one. Or maybe Bob Newhart.
Guy dials the phone and a voice on the other end answers:
“Smith, Smith and Smith. How can I help you?”
Let me speak to Mr Smith.
“He’s on vacation.”
Let me speak to Mr Smith.
“He’s in a meeting”
OK, let me speak to Mr Smith.
“Speaking.”
‘You don’t say.’
No, “ROman”.
The scene in Gremlins where the father calls from the inventors convention.
Saw it in the theater, laughed my rear off. Nobody, I mean nobody else got it.
And the fuhrer searches for trinkets in the desert.
In Zero Dark Thirty when they are riding the helicopter in and Chris Pratt’s character is like “I got plans for after this! Big time! I want to talk to all of you about it!”
Deadpool & Wolverine obviously has a lot, but there is one scene that’s a callback to Hulk and Loki - “I am Marvel Jesus you dull creature! And I will not be”'-- HULK SMASH!
If it was from a Bob Newhart, it was stolen from (or a tribute to) this 1930 Animal Crackers bit:
(My bolding.)
In re “little” jokes, I’ll cite another Marx Bros. favorite: In Monkey Business a typical ‘pompous business man’ foil is trying to introduce his debutante daughter to partygoers:
Another variation of Larry, Daryl and Daryl happened when one of the Daryls had an argument with the other two and left home. The two remaining brothers walked into the inn and Larry said, “Hi, I’m Larry and this is my other brother Daryl.”
Is the little joke you reference the zany inventions walking around? I do like that they said, “Hey, if he is at an inventors convention, what the heck would be there?”
I did see the Lost In Space robot.
From?
Another from that movie:
Carol: You get that tape of Sam Stone finishing off his wife, and that man will give us anything we want for the rest of his life!
Earl Mott: Yeah! Then we’re off to Haiti.
Carol: Not Haiti, Tahiti!
The time machine — excuse me, The Time Machine — is there.
And then it isn’t.
I’ve seen the “Smith, Smith, and Smith” joke reprinted in Jewish humor compilations, with the law firm’s name as “Cohen, Cohen, and Cohen.” It probably goes back to the vaudeville era.
(Recall as well the law firm in the title of the Marx Brothers’ radio program: “Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel.”)
My son still laughs at the law firm from Car Talk:
Dewey, Cheatem, & How.
Do we cheat 'em? And how!
I don’t remember.
The phone rings, and a guy (Husband?) picks it up.
Guy/Husband: Hello? … You don’t say… You don’t say! … You don’t say! … OK, goodbye.
Other person/Wife: Who was it?
Guy/Husband: I don’t know. He didn’t say.
In the Saturday morning series Monster Squad one of the villains had a weapon that would do the same thing. It was called the Ronald Ray-Gun. The series aired in 1976, one year after Reagan’s term as governor of California had ended.