Running gag

The running gag is a popular hallmark of comedy television shows and movies. A running gag is an amusing situation or line that constantly reappears through the course of a movie or television series. Frequently, the humor in a running gag derives entirely from how often it is repeated.

Unplanned running gags

Some running gags were not meant as such, but are errors or plot holes that keep repeating themselves, such as the Redshirt problem from '. Basically, security officers wore bright red shirts. Every time the main cast brought the frequently unnamed red shirts with them on an away mission, all or all but one of the red shirts would die. Other unplanned running gags for Star Trek include William Shatner's stunt double looking nothing like him, and being rarely hidden from the camera; and all aliens simply being humans with a little make-up and bizarre clothing (see Klingons).

Related Topics:
Redshirt - William Shatner - Klingon

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Similarly, since Star Trek many television science fiction series share an unconsciously common factor which has become a running gag and in-joke to those "in the know." For example, the inclusion of a large, muscular, usually African-American actor who plays a character with a penchant for fighting from Worf in ', to Teal'c in Stargate SG-1, or to Tyr Anasazi in Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda.

Related Topics:
In-joke - African-American - Worf - Teal'c - Stargate SG-1 - Tyr Anasazi - Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda

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In some TV westerns of the 1960s and early 1970s, if any male character on the show got seriously involved with a woman, as soon as he married her, she was killed off or died gruesomely in the same episode. This happened in The Big Valley each time one of the Barkley sons got married, and in Bonanza, whenever any of the Cartright sons got married. This also was the case with the father, Ben Cartright, in that each one of his sons was the offspring of a different wife, who, when shown in a flashback episode, would die in the same episode (except for the wife who gave birth to Hoss (Real name Eric) who lasted for two episodes).

Related Topics:
The Big Valley - Bonanza

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