The Flintstones were mostly unfunny rote Hanna-Barberra style jokes. There was one though that had perfect comic delivery and timing…Fred’s “I was a slug” line was delivered with perfection.
Fred Flintstone:
Well one year I was in the spring play at Public School 158.
Television Producer:
And you were Hamlet? Romeo? King Arthur?
Fred Flintstone:
No, none of those things. Some of the kids were trees, some were flowers, some were butterflies…
MTM: Ted is visiting Lou in the hospital after he’s had surgery to remove an old piece of shrapnel from his body:
**
TED:** How come you never told us anything about it, Lou?
LOU: (Shrugs) What was there to tell? It was World War II … France…
Bart has exchanged the choir’s religious music with “Inna Gotta Davida”; it slips by the Reverend at the beginning “In the garden of eden, baby, don’cha know that I love you…”
Homer: Hey Marge, remember when we used to make out to this hymn?
Sheesh, so many. I’ll throw in my favorite Night Court exchange:
(setup - a Japanese man who was supposed to be honored at a dinner with the governor dropped dead in the courtroom. His body was put in a wheelchair and Bull was supposed to bring it to the morgue. But the wheelchair was electric, and a kid turned it on, sending it into an elevator while Bull’s back was turned)
Harry: Bull, how do you lose a dead Japanese industrialist?
Bull (sheepishly): He outsmarted me, sir.
Harry: Outsmarted you?? A corpse is a corpse!
Dan: Of course, of course.
Same episode (they all have to share a tent because of a shortage of heating oil during a brutal winter), Frank Burns comes into the tent carrying a rifle.
Hawkeye: Chickie, the house dick!
I don’t know why, but that one still makes me laugh!
Harry Stone: Is there room for a person to lie down in there?
Dan Fielding: Full-grown man, two women, and a midget with a camera.
But I’m pretty sure that Dan’s line concludes with “…but that’s just an estimate!” after half a beat.
And one from Cheers. Sam and Diane are in his office arguing, while there’s another meaningless debate around the bar. Suddenly over all the other voices, Norm yells, “Oh yeah? THEN I GUESS THAT MAKES WILE E. COYOTE THE ANTICHRIST!”
They were great - I imagine their jokes would qualify as “popular” rather than belong in this thread. So many great lines, but I wouldn’t type them - they lose so much if they’re not said in those soft, slow voices.
But Yakov Smirnoff as a Russian immigrant was another great recurring guest. One of my favorites of his, when his wife was finally joining him from the USSR:
Yakov: I haven’t been with a woman in two years…I’m very, how do you say…
Harry: Excited?
Yakov: Right
(Christine walks in)
Christine: What’s everyone smiling about?
Harry: Yakov’s finally going to see his wife again!
Christine (to Yakov): That’s great, I’m so excited for you!
Yakov: Thanks, but I can wait a few more days.
My favorite joke from Wings is also the only one I remember.
The whole cast including the dumb mechanic Lowell and Helen the girlfriend gets on the plane for some sort of event. Something goes horribly wrong with the plane.
Lowell: It sounds like catastrophic engine failure.
Helen: What causes that?
Lowell looking at her like she is a complete idiot: A catastrophe.
My favorite throw away line from Seinfeld. When George’s boss is doing everything he can to make him quit. “Tomorrow they are putting in asbestos.”
One of my favourite Simpsons jokes is from Kent Brockman:
Just miles from your doorstep, hundreds of men are given weapons and trained to kill. The government calls it “the Army”, but a more alarmist name would be… The Killbot Factory!
Dharma has a bird statue that she gives to people who have had sex in the strangest places, called the Duck Award. When her staid in-laws end up having sex on the courthouse steps, she gives it to her mother-in-law.
MIL: This isn’t even a duck, it’s a goose. Why do you call it the duck award.
Dharma: Because “goose” doesn’t rhyme.