When I first met my ex’s mother, she was wearing a T-shirt that said that. She had no idea what it meant.
-Joe
Anyong.
Ever noticed on WKRP that Les Nessman always had a bandage on one finger, but never the same one?
They seem to be doing something similar on HIMYM with Lily entering hot dog eating contests and playing guitar, hope that continues. Also love the slap bet (anyone know how many slaps are left?) and the goat party.
Love anything to do with Mr Turtle on My Name is Earl.
Blackadder:
“I have a cunning plan . . .”
Jeeves and Wooster:
Bertie always trying to buy and wear some newfangled item of fashion, and Jeeves’s (thinly veiled) expressions of horror at the effect.
Similarly, Bertie singing some new popular ditty at the piano and Jeeves in the background trying to conceal his pained expression.
The “Cool Whip/Cool Hhwip” and “Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Conway Twitty!” routines on Family Guy.
Red calling everybody “dumbass”, and all the different permutations of “foot in your ass” on That '70’s Show.
Jimmy James’ bizarre logic and crush on Dave’s mom on NewsRadio.
Colin Mochrie’s baldness and Ryan Stiles’ ridiculous shoes on Whose Line Is It Anyway?
and from some older shows:
Jack Benny’s bad violin playing, stinginess, Frank Nelson’s floorwalker, the Si/Sy routine with Mel Blanc, and The Sportsmen Quartet singing Lucky Strike commercials from The Jack Benny Program.
Red Skelton’s adlibbing through scenes, teasing the sound effects guy, and laughing at his own jokes on The Red Skelton Show.
Rob Petrie’s clumsiness, Buddy Sorrell’s non-stop wisecracks, Mel Cooley’s absolute lack of a sense of humor (being the producer of a comedy show), and not seeing Alan Brady’s face from The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Somewhere on his body - not just the finger. They’re bites from his vicious dog Phil.
That’s got to be my favorite.
Not sure if it was intentional, but the whole “Jan as the family punching bag” thing on the Brady Bunch. And I love Jan’s schizo voice in her head.
Jim Rockford’s answering machine messages.
The Red Guy on Cow and Chicken / I Am Weasel:
“It’s me,”
- Rear-admiral Floyd
- Ivan Panced
- Lance Sackless
- the gym leader! Ben Panced!
- Larry Lackapants, Arkansas Cheese master, soon to be the King & Queen of Cheese!
John Crichton’s references to Earth culture in Farscape, completely confusing his Uncharted Territories companions, informally referred to as Crichtonisms
On a rural, countryside-like planet"
John Crichton; this looks kinda’ like Kansas, or Dagobah…
General Ka D’Argo; Dagobah?
John Crichton; Yeah, where Yoda lives
General Ka D’Argo; Yoda?
John Crichton; Yeah, little green guy, trains warriors
John Crichton (to Scorpius): I hate it when villains quote Shakespeare.
John Crichton: Haven’t you read the Super Villain’s Handbook? This is where you’re supposed to twirl your mustache and gloat.
General Ka D’Argo: Zhaan, let me explain to you what’s going on inside my nose right now. There’s large pieces of green mucus gunk…
John Crichton: D’Argo. D’Argo. D’Argo. No, no, no, no. Stop it with the Luxan poetry.
[John and D’Argo are playing ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’]
John Crichton: Again?
General Ka D’Argo: Yeah.
John Crichton: One, two, three.
[John throws paper. D’Argo throws rock]
General Ka D’Argo: [Laughs] Again, I win.
John Crichton: No, I win. Paper wraps rocks.
General Ka D’Argo: No, paper cannot possibly beat rock.
John Crichton: It does. Paper beats rock.
General Ka D’Argo: Rock rips through paper.
John Crichton: D’Argo, that’s not how it works. Paper beats rocks.
General Ka D’Argo: That’s unrealistic.
John Crichton: Well, it’s the rules. And it’s not supposed to be realistic, it’s supposed to be entertaining.
General Ka D’Argo: My coma was more entertaining.
[about using wormholes to travel through time and space and to alter history]
John Crichton: Ah, screw it. But I am not Kirk, Spock, Luke, Buck, Flash or Arthur frelling Dent. I’m Dorothy Gale from Kansas.
2 1/2 Men is nothing but a string of jokes about stereotypical characters: Charlie’s drinking and whoring, Alan’s lack of cajones, Jake’s stupidity, Evelyn’s bad mothering & whoring, Rose’s stalking, and Berta’s white trash family & sarcasm.
Don’t ask me why it works, but it does.
From Sanford and Son
Fred Sanford: [insult with vague sexual subtext]
Uptight Old Lady: “Well! I never!”
Fred Sanford: “And you probably never will!”
Also the way Fred could never bring himself to say the word “gay”. He always got a terrified look on his face and used a hand gesture.
From The Carol Burnett Show
The way Harvey Korman and Tim Conway would desperately try not to laugh at each other’s jokes.
Bob Newhart’s telephone conversations, regardless of what character he was playing.
Don’t forget Buddy’s recurring references to the never-seen Pickles.
Mrs. Slocumbe’s pussy references on Are You Being Served?
Otis locking himself in the cell after going on a spree.
Jack Tripper femming it up for Mr. Roper.
Bahaha, my favorite was the season 2 cliff-hanger they did with that. Also see the various variations on “High Five”.
There was a subtle running gag about compressor coils on Firefly. Kaylee bugging Mal about needing them for a few episodes, then the compressor coil failing with no spares in “Out of Gas”, then in a later episode, Wash and Kaylee are digging through a junkyard for spare parts, and Wash picks up a compressor coil and tosses it aside.
Commander Ivonova and the word “Boom” on Babylon 5.
Of course the show that was nothing but a string of running gags was Get Smart. “Missed it by that much!” “Would you believe …?”, “… and loving it!” and of course the infamous Cone of Silence.
The collected works: http://www.snpp.com/guides/troy.mcclure.html
I also love the chicken fights on Famiy Guy, and how they get longer and more ridiculous each time.
One of my favorites is from Friends. “Oh. my. God!!” hee.