“If you’re here, then that means…uh-oh!”
Oh, and adding the word “again” to a wacky situation I find is very lazy writing.
Yes, but in real life…it’s hilarious.
To the OP:
“NO! Absoultely NOT! There is NO WAY I will agree to dress like a giant hot dog!”
::quick cut to scene of guy in hot dog suit::
Ah, the Gilligan cut. So predictable, but so funny.
Why you, low down, dirty, double crossing, dishonest…adorable stud muffin! You did all that to impress me?! smooch
The “doofus dad” (many sitcoms built on that principle)
The “I’ll lie to my (wife/husband/mother/father)” and then (s)he finds out. (IOW I Love Raymond’s entire run)
What’s the word…Grease.
I just died a little from reading that.
shudder
anything with amnesia
anything with promises to never lie again… ever! even if it means the truth hurts … only to find out everyone hates the former liar now as a result of the brutal honesty
anything dealing with an innocent conversation that seems sexual to an eavesdropper
anything dealing with replacing a broken item with a cheap substitute and hoping the owner doesn’t notice the difference
The bumbling boss that the lower level people always outwit - Col. Klink, Leadbottom on McHale’s Navy, etc.
When I grow up, I’m going to have so much amnesia! [/futurama]
Replace “broken item” with “dead or missing pet that was supposed to be cared for by main character” and you have at least one episode of every series on Disney Channel. They even did the “OMG we’re handcuffed together” story on Hannah Montana. Though I have to give them credit for naming a street musician act “The Aristocrats,” even though they were part of yet another overused sitcom plot, the “OMG we forgot Dad’s birthday” story.
“Who could possibly that stupid, thoughtless, clueless and jerky?”
(Door opens and wacky neighbor walks in.)
This is why all Disney Channel series lack souls.* And why I swear up and down that we had it better in my day! We had plots like “Whatever happened to Mr. Tastee?” and “What’s the deal with the mysterious phone-in-a-field that has been ringing for several decades?”
I nominate the scene where two characters who hate each other are in a basement/attic/boiler room/meat locker and one of them says,
“Don’t close the—”
Other character shuts door.
“–door.”
Other character tries to re-open the door, but it’s locked.
Both: “NOOOOOO!”
And then they spend the next 20 minutes starting to warm up to each other, only to resume their mutual antagonism after finding freedom via some wacky means.
*Except Even Stevens; I was always kind of charmed by that one.
How about the head tilt when viewing pornography?
Little kids- like preschool age- making topical jokes about politics or saying “Mom and Dad are gonna have sex aren’t they?” type adult observations. (Family Ties was a major offender of this one, and FULL HOUSE was pretty much all about preschoolers saying things no preschooler would ever say- they’re walking Ids at that age, not social commentators.)
One thing I’ve seen over and over is two characters who aren’t in a romantic relationship interacting in a way that is stereotypical of people in a romantic relationship. E.g.:
The famous stud actor playing a version of himself in the sitcom where he lusts after every hot bird he meets as per Joey or Two and a half men.
Chortle chortle ,oh look he fancies that incredibly good looking young girl whos only wearing a mini skirt and a low cut blouse,giggle,giggle how incredibly amusing ho ho,its just so whacky tee heee hee.
Fetch me a bucket somebody.
All the principals go ice fishing in a small hut on a frozen lake, and hijinks ensue when one of them breaks out a flask of whisky.
A line I’ve heard a variant of in many a bad sitcom episode:
A: Can you keep a secret?
B: Can I keep a secret? Of course I can! Does anybody know that Billy from Accounting is [bald/gay/epileptic/has tasted human flesh/having an affair/something similar]?
Yuk yuk.
Or, as I call those, “Squiggy moments.”