I thought of another one.
A character will decide (or is encouraged by others) to market their secret-recipe/homemade food (pick one: pies, cakes, cookies, spaghetti sauce, salad dressing…the messier the better) and within a day or two has transformed their kitchen into a mini-factory, complete with a little conveyor belt.
Hilarity ensues as two or three of them totally screw up and end up with the ingredients all over the place.
If a child gets in a fight/beat up by a bully, they may end up with a bloody nose or a black eye, but their clothes are often undirtied. In fact, children always come home with spotless clothes; their parents must have low laundry bills.
If someone does get a black eye, it will go away very quickly, unless its continued presence would be embarassing for the character (i.e. school photo, dance, play)
Porcelain objects like vases can be glued back together quite easily with no cracks or missing shards. However, the glue is often too weak to withstand any more damage. Luckily, the damage will be inflicted by the person who would have been upset, who will then think it was their fault.
If someone is leaving town for a week, a main character will be asked to take care of their pet. The pet is sure to die within days, if not hours. Luckily, pet stores keep a stock of clones on hand for just such an occasion. However, the price of the clone is beyond the means of the character. They will find some way to afford it, and find it’s worth every penny since the owner cannot tell the difference (they implant the memories, like in The Sixth Day). However, the ruse will be discovered when it turns out someone else has also bought a clone and tries to pass it off as an original to the owner.
And remember, kids :
Teens + alcohol = tragic results like near-fatal or fatal car accidents, legal troubles, or sickness.
Adults + alcohol = hilarious results like drunken confessions, physical comedy of actors sliding all over the place. And hangovers can be funny, too!
Oh, this is hysterical! I love this thread! Okay, forgive me if this has been said:
One of the family’s kids is considered stupid (Theo Huxtable, Mike Seaver, etc). After several seasons of being teased by siblings, and getting in trouble for poor grades, the kid will get a teacher who realizes that…gasp!..he/she has dyslexia! What a shock! Although I think on Family Ties it just turned out that Mallory really was smart, but hadn’t been applying herself (sigh).
Also, to go along with the earlier post about High School reunions, no main character ever wants to go to theirs. And if it’s a single woman, she will recruit a male friend to pose as her husband/boyfriend/fiance. If it’s a man, he will pretend to be more successful than he is. Hilarity ensues.
Another Christmas sitcom cliche is the take-off on
O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi.”
Whenever a child or a teenager on a sitcom has
stomach pains, it always turns out to be appendicitis.
Most of the humor on “Three’s Company” was situational irony. One character engages in an innocuous activity, which the others secretly discover and misunderstand, thinking it’s something horribly sad or morally bankrupt. Then the laughs keep rolling in the second half as the inevitable double entendres are trotted out, which redouble the others’ horror/outrage.
I wish I could have used this observation somehow in an English Lit paper in my college years. They didn’t let the engineering students do much creative writing. 
I can’t believe no one has mentioned this one:
The male center of the show meets a female he hates immediately. They will inevitably have a loud angry argument. At one point during this argument they will suddenly start kissing and making out like there is no tomorrow.
This one’s a little more recent, but it’s become pretty common.
The moment a character says “Awww, isn’t that cute?” the object of affection will immediately do something extremely un-cute. A baby being cuddled will either wet, poop or projectile vomit, while a cuddly animal will suddenly fly into a violent frenzy.
–sublight.
This one’s a little more recent, but it’s becoming pretty common.
The moment a character says “Awww, isn’t that cute?” the object of affection will immediately do something un-cute. A baby being cuddled will either wet, poop or projectile vomit, while a cuddly animal will suddenly fly into a violent frenzy.
–sublight.
Crap, I didn’t think that first one went through. Sorry everyone.
Forgive me for resurrecting this old thread, but I just saw two more yesterday (in the same show, no less). Forgive me again if they’ve been mentioned already, but I don’t believe they have:
-
[people yelling loudly]
person A: OH YEAH?!
person B: YEAH!
A: IS THAT HOW YOU REALLY FEEL?!
B: YEAH!
A: WELL, I AGREE COMPLETELY!
B: THEN WHY ARE WE YELLING!
A [the loudest yet]: I DON’T KNOW! -
When a person says something “official-sounding,” then the following (for example):
[general confusion with one person trying to gain control]:
A: Order in the court! Order in the court!
B: But we’re not in court!
A: I know, but ** I’ve always wanted to say that! **
I will go away now. My deepest apologies.