Also from Arrested DEvelopment: The same three cops that always show up and arrest a character with a final smack with the nightstick.
And the too-literal Doctor: “He’s going to be all right.”
Or Vera on Cheers.
I also like not knowing the name of Malcolm’s family on Malcolm in the Middle.
Gomez Addams: I love it when you talk French
Pinky: Are you pondering what I’m pondering?
Homer Simpson: Mmmmmmmmm…(insert food item here)
In the same vein, I like when ever Phil makes a completely random double entendre with that laugh…
Ha ha cookies on dowels!
OK, it’s from a movie rather than a TV show, but Shirley “Don’t call me Shirley” has to get an honorable mention.
RR
…Back in St. Olaf…
Honorable mention goes to any newscast on Family Guy, especially if it involves Ollie.
Another from Arrested Development: Tobias’s inadvertent gay references.
Tobias (talking about the dance troupe for the party): “Hot Sailors! Or maybe Hot Seam-”
Michael (quickly): “I like Hot Sailors.”
I love how every so often they make a little reference to Anya’s fear of bunnies on Buffy.
And the big angry chicken. Gotta love the chicken.
Veiled references to Mulder’s too-frequent masturbation on The X-Files.
Foghorne Leghorne’s insults.
Homer Simpson’s “D’oh!” in all its permutations.
Kirk and McCoy needling Spock at the end of many Star Trek episodes - and him getting them back with the occasional zinger.
The changing - and silly - forms of the soul-capturing receptacles provided by the Devil in Reaper (a Dustbuster “forged in the fiery bowels of Hell,” anyone?).
“This is Carlton, your doorman” on Rhoda.
Both Joey’s cluelessness and his success with the ladies on Friends.
From Only Fools and Horses, Trigger always calling Rodney “Dave”.
The whole idea of Kramer’s life. As summed up by George Castanza:
Kramer goes to a fantasy camp. His whole life is a fantasy camp. People should plunk down two-thousand dollars to live like him for a week. Do nothing, fall ass-backwards into money, mooch food off your neighbors and have sex without dating; that’s a fantasy camp.
I think the show with the most re-occurring gags was the Beverly Hillbillies:
Jethros Appetite
The country menus
Elly’s cooking
Granny’s white Lightning
Cement Pond
Elly’s Critters
Jethros 6th grade education
Elly looking for a husband
Jethros career search
Granny soap cooking
Drysdale’s tightness
Miss Janes plainess
Granny wanting to go home to the hills
Jeds clothes
Elly being a Tomboy
Fancy eating table in the Billiard Room
hillbillies not realizing just how much money they
Drysdale storing their money in bank…free of charge
The Truck
So so many
Married w/ Children had a lot too.
“Tish! That’s French!”
It’s small, but Cliff and Rudy Huxtable loved to “zerbert” each other on The Cosby Show. It was cute because it seemed so genuine.
“That’s what she said!”
In Malcolm in the Middle, the appearance of Dewey’s hamster exercise ball never failed to elicit a chuckle in our house.
Practically every Fairly Oddparents has a running gag in it that’s only used for that episode- but most of them are usually funny. (True story- I actually found a nickel in a bathroom once. I didn’t pick it up, but I did name it Philip- at least in my head. Yes, it was a girl nickel.)
Some other running gags I enjoy:
Futurama: Professor Farnsworth walking into a room and starting a sentence with “Good news, everyone!”
SpongeBob Squarepants: An offscreen voice shouting “My leg!” during chaotic or violent scenes.
SpongeBob has a lot:
SB’s nerdiness
Mr. Krabs’s stinginess and love of money
Squidward’s sneeringly superior love of culture
Patrick’s incredible idiocy
Sandy’s Texas pride
The endless parade of secretaries and “Close the door!” on Murphy Brown.