Running Gag/Web Original

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Running Gags in Web Original works include:

Subpages

Anti Cliche and Mary Sue Elimination Society

  • Cristoph being unable to complete his opening speech.
  • Adrian's trenchcoat never surviving a mission.
    • In the same vein, Stephen's Plothole Generators are seemingly always doomed to destruction.
  • Chrys always stealing Aster's chocolate before she can eat it.
  • Chrys never being able to read a rare Bomberman B-Daman Bakugaiden manga (it disappears, is destroyed, or bursts into flame for no reason).
  • People attempting to steal Adrian's food will end up setting off and getting stuck in his booby traps. If they somehow evade it, they'll only leave the yellow Starbursts.
  • The Fourth Wall breaking, followed promptly by Adrian yelling 'ASTER!'

Aster: Kyaaa!

  • The Darkness singing juvenile songs instead of attempting to corrupt its host.
  • Shirley reacting to bad jokes or cliches with gratuitous violence, usually towards Ben or Dave.
  • Volt claiming his IQ is 265, followed by somebody (usually Marcus) saying it was a typo.
  • Alice glomping people she meets for the first time.

Atop the Fourth Wall

  • Since his review of Superman: At Earth's End, Linkara is frequently screaming "I AM A MAN!!!" followed by a punch. This has evolved to include him pulling back the punch to find something odd in his hand.
  • Bitter references to Spider-Man: One More Day, or a comic completely disregarding a series' continuity, often followed by the Continuity Alarm going off.
  • "EXTREME!!!"
  • "Because poor literacy is kewl."
  • POWERHOUSE EXCITEMENT!!!

That Guy With The Glasses

As expected from a website made of different shows, That Guy With The Glasses is chock full of them, with many that originated from the eponymous "That Guy" creeping into other shows.

  • The Nostalgia Critic will show a clip showing M. Bison from the Street Fighter movie shouting "OF COURSE!" every time he reveals that a character in the movie/cartoon he's reviewing wants to Take Over the World.
  • That clip itself went meta in his review of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, when he told people that he was sick of that joke and that we wouldn't hear it again. The joke itself then shoehorns itself into the clip, squashing the Critic in the process.
  • I was Frozen Today!
  • He will also show a clip showing William Shatner as James T. Kirk from the Star Trek II movie shouting "KHAAAAAAAANNN!!!!!" whenever there is someone with the word "Kahn" or "Khan" in his/her name (including Shere Khan and Shao Kahn).
  • Do you know what the pure essence of all comedy is?
  • Zuul, motherfucker, Zuul !
  • Also in his Godzilla review, when he mispronounces the main character's name, said character will appear in a clip and state his name, to which the Critic says "whatever". It's most ridiculous the last time, as the name the critic uses lasts for several seconds.
  • When he says the word "elephant", The Burger King appears. (This is a parody of the "I don't know!" *cue green glop* gag from You Can't Do That on Television.) The Critic will often take advantage of this by summoning the King intentionally in order to chase away any scene that refuses to end.
  • There's also the use of the "Wah Wah Wah Waaaaah" sound effect followed by him shrugging when a stupid line or action happens in the movie. If it happens multiple times in one review he shrugs higher every time.
  • TIMING!
  • A-CHUCK A-NORRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS!
  • "I'm acting!"
  • "...and Verminous Skumm wants to be ruler o-" *whack*
  • And so on and so on. Too many to list them all, really.
  • In The Nostalgia Chick's Labyrinth review, she pointed out a running gag by having the word "Gag" with stick-figure legs run across the bottom of the clip. Yes, it's a running gag based on running gags themselves.
  • Chick and Critic both like to use the Non Sequitur Scene.
  • Paw's LP of King's Quest V referring to anything Cedric mentioned as being poisonous. Particularly that "POOOOIIIISONOUS SNAKE!"
  • Film Brain loudly shouting "SYMBOLISM!!!" when a movie is being overly obvious with what is supposed to be subtle symbolism.
  • Many of the reviewers dub chase scenes over with "Yakety Sax" from The Benny Hill Show.
  • Horror reviewer Phelous just can't seem to get away from terrible movies called Pulse.
  • "Unsubbing" and Minecraft penises in Video Games Awesome.
  • "I love the power glove. It's so bad."
  • Whenever a delicate subject comes up (usually an actor who can't be made fun of comfortably due to tragedy striking them since the thing being reviewed was made), the issue is forcibly brought to The Critic's attention by The Elephant In The Room. As in, an actual elephant in the Nostalgia Critic's room who just hangs out and demands to be acknowledged when awkward jokes happen or tempt.

The Onion

  • A therapist by the name of Eli Wasserbaum will be asked for comment in some articles.
  • Don Turnbee, a middle aged man featured in articles about his patronage of various fast food establishments.
  • Any time there is porn mentioned, one of the titles will be an installment of the Butt Fuck Sluts Go Nuts series.
  • The print version will have a page with a "continuation" of a non-existent article that contains nothing but the phrase "Passerby were amazed by the unusually large amounts of blood" over and over again. Makes for a good space-filler...
  • Before he died, any article about Strom Thurmond would conclude with "The Senator then died." When he actually died, they ran the headline "Strom Thurmond Finally, Finally Dies"
  • In their mock history book Our Dumb Century, a few of the running gags included "[Scopes Monkey Trial/Sacco and Vanzetti/Nuremberg/OJ Simpson The Trial of the Century", an editorial cartoon of the Statue of Liberty getting raped/attacked by the menace du jour (The Spanish, Lounge Lizards, capitalist pigs, hippies, Arab terrorists), and an editorial by T. Herman Zweibel declaring "We Must Strike Now While England Is Weak!" at various times in the century.
  • Clifford Banes, who couldn't be here now as he is currently racing to the airport to find the woman he loves?!
  • Prominent (American) Congressmen are often portrayed as children learning Very Special Episode style about responsibility, friendship and so on. They're also often attributed quotes in articles on practically any topic; it's just funny to imagine Orrin Hatch declaring, 'Would Al Jourgensen wear a T-shirt depicting smiley aliens telepathing 'Love' to their baggy-pantsed children? Techno should be about hate, not love. Techno is about wearing black and screaming, not standing in one place and swaying peacefully. I say, bring back the days of Skinny Puppy'.
  • Anytime a church is mentioned, it's nearly always "Holy Christ Almighty [Denomination] Church".

Other Examples

  • Oancitizen's "Brows Held High" movie reviews always start with him reading a book.
  • I LIKE CEREAL!!! * BLAM!*
  • The Angry Video Game Nerd's fight scenes that involve him will have a convenient pile of cardboard boxes spontaneously appear occasionally whenever he knocks someone back, making his opponent fall into the boxes.
    • Lampshaded, in all of places, when the Nerd and the Critic met. The Angry Video Game Nerd kicks the Nostalgia Critic into a pile of boxes, to which the critic wonders why there are boxes everywhere.
  • The Onion's had a Running Gag for the last few months of some gruesome improbable injury happening to George Bush, in a short article ending with the phrase "Bush is resting comfortably at Bethesda Naval Hospital".
  • Before the yusketeers were formed, every time Yusiko met Yumeko or Yukito he would say "we have similar names, we should be friends!"
  • The Chin Review has several. CHEESE AND WINE! Edam, Tarquin! Edaaaaaaaam!
  • Ever since starting their Endurance Run, Giant Bomb has made Persona 4 something of a running gag in their website, often making references to the game within their other articles/videos. Within the playthrough itself they have such gags as flanderizing Dojima's already poor parenting, comments about the Funky Student NPCs and often making voices of Personas they encounter and reject.
  • The SCP Foundation discourages the use of Running Gags since the [REDACTED] resulted in some quite hideous [DATA EXPUNGED].
    • Why didn't we try to use it against 682?
    • It was too dangerous, so we launched it into the sun.
    • SCP-447 must NEVER come into contact with a dead body.
  • I Am Not Infected has several, including Paul's sign off ("I'm not infected, at least not the way you think") which refers to his HIV, but not zombie, positive status. A bet between Paul and Charlie concerning getting Charlie to admit he's gay has also come up twice, and will likely come up again.
  • Whateley Universe examples: Tennyo's constant eating, Jade (who can cast herself into multiple objects) having trouble with personal pronouns, Ayla being picky about food, Jericho's clothing choices, Nate's flatulence problem, Chaka's inability to sit still, ...
  • Raocow's burning hatred of Yoshi, whom he keeps insulting, specifically by calling him a "stupid freakin' horse".
    • Raocow has a number of these, such as referring to Chargin' Chucks as "Charlie", proclaiming any and all deaths to be purposeful "demos" or "for science", and repeatedly saying "cat planet" on his let's play of Cat Planet.
  • Caught Chatting has a few, including "Bingo!" and the 75 dead starlings.
  • In Chuggaaconroy's Let's Plays of Paper Mario, whenever a nonhuman character kissed Mario, Chuggaaconroy would famously scream, "BESTIALITY! THIS IS NOT SONIC NEXT-GEN!!"
    • Whenever something happens... NO!
    • Pointing out every instance of "Nintendo logic" ever.
    • Getting aggravated at his pikmin frequently disobeying him.
    • Before he became a partner he constantly mentions the time limit and how it hinders him.
    • Building on the notion that the Mario games are based on Shigeru Miyamoto's real life, whenever something bizarre is seen, he speculates on how messed up Miyamoto's early life must have been.
    • Calling the galaxies inside the Engine Room Dome unoriginal.
    • Taunting the enemies in the day ending sequence if none of his Pikmin are left behind.
    • Whatever.
      • Him getting annoyed at saying whatever.
    • Whenever he says a level's easy he dies, a lot. Whenever he says it's hard he gets it in the first try or two.
    • "What? What! WHAT!"
  • Ruby Quest has Tom's MANLY PHYSIQUE and Ruby's GIRLISH FIGURE. And towards the beginning, whenever someone would suggest something dirty (which was often) the response was always some variation on "besides, there might be cameras watching." (There were.)
  • On youtube one can find a fan-dubbed (in Swedish) version of The Lord of the Rings, titled Sagan om ändringen, meaning "the fairy tale about the change" (the original Swedish title of the first book in the trilogy is Sagan om ringen, meaning "the fairy tale about the ring"). It can be watched with English subtitles, and has a few funny moments here and there, even though the majority is pretty bad. One funny thing though, getting increasingly funny each time it appears, is Frodo's tendancy to sing whenever they are out walking.

Frodo: (singing) Oh what a pleasant day!
Sam: (annoyed) Quiet.

"TRANSYLVANIA!!"
dramatic music sting
"...yeah, that's not gonna get old quick."

    • In the SF Shinseiki Lensman review:

"Buskirk takes it well."
*scene of Buskirk flipping out*

    • "Godlike aliens... Man, do I HATE godlike aliens!"
  • Dana from Echo Chamber constantly tells Tom that he and his works suck.
  • Collegehumor's Facebook History of the World has a few.
    • Common Sense, trying to give good advice but ignored by everyone.
    • Nobody caring about Africa's issues.
  • Fabulous Life Of Bratz:
    • "Huh, what,WHAT THE HECK?!"
    • "Where's that music coming from?"
  • nigahiga calling a lamp an umbrella.

Rihanna: You ain't getting under this
Chris Brown: Under what?
Rihanna: (holds a lamp over 'her' head) Under my umbrella!
Chris Brown: That's a lamp.
Rihanna: So you think you're some kind of umbrella expert now?!

  • Wheezy Waiter has a ton here's a video with a bunch of them. later ones include:
    • The Eagle
    • Quiet Clone, Sexy Clone, and Revenge Clone
    • The sun getting upset with him.
  • Rather Vocalized Illusion regularly uses a Rule 34 image as a Jump Scare to shock the audience. YMMV on whether you find this gross or funny.
    • TACTICAL NUKE! INCOMING!
  • Skippys List has several instances involving an inflatable sheep.
  • In There Will Be Brawl, whenever someone calls either Mario or Luigi a plumber, they always react with some variation on "We're not plumbers!" Mario always says it with anger, while Luigi says it more with annoyance or resignation. This holds even when Luigi is out of breath from a (small) fight and extended running.
  • YouTuber personality The Spiffing Brit has "Reanu Keeves", Keanu Reeves' "beautiful cousin", a grotesque figure Spiff recreates in every game where he has the option of controlling the player character's appearance. Occasionally he uses a different name, such as "Seymour Clevarge".
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