Best Running Gag?

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

Okay so we have a topic for the most annoying running gags, but what about running gags that you actually enjoy or enjoyed seeing happen often?

For me, its gotta be nobody getting Butch's name right. I just loved seeing him flip out every time he was called Biff, Bob, Hutch, Bill, or whatever the characters pulled out of their asses. At one point he started to think they were just doing it to torture him. His rage just made this a funny one for me. Brock flirting with every girl he'd see was amusing for a while and I did like how the consequences varied from series. Misty dragging him by the ear in Hoenn, Max filling in for Misty in Hoenn, and Croagunk using Poison Jab on him in Sinnoh. Psyduck also popping out at random and horrible moments was also kinda amusing. I find it funny also how he could distinguish between the Joys and Jennys all around the world. He knew a fake when he saw one somehow. XY has had some amusing ones too that I feel are still amusing enough, such as Bonnie trying to get some women to marry Clemont or how Clemont's inventions always fail. They aren't the key trait of their character so I think that's what makes it amusing. There's a lot more to them than a running gag.

 

[UPratik_12]

My Preferred list:
1) James's Victreebel eating his head and making noises
2) Charizard using flamethrower on Ash
3) Misty pulling Brock's Ears
4) Croagunk using poison jab on brock
5) Gible using Draco Meteor on Piplup.......

To name a Few.....

 

[Umbreon Freak]

Count me in the small minority of fans who enjoyed Cilan's "everything connoisseur" gags. I find Cilan's passion for things really adorable.

 

[GaryOak123]

draco meteor hitting piplup was a good one and i liked brocks flirting tbh, although it did get less funny, and psyduck always coming out was quite good, but groagunk was my favourite

 

[Olive]

Though I enjoyed the Draco Meteor from Ash's Gible hitting Piplup, I actually found Gible's random biting of Ash's head to be personally more amusing.

My all-time favorite gag though -- as generic as it might be -- is Jessie's Wobbuffet randomly popping out of its Pokeball and whatever humor directly follows. Despite the fact that it's been around for as long as Wobbuffet, it still has yet to get old for me.

 

[SammyW27]

Brock's flirting in Kanto, Johto before the ear grab came along, in Hoenn before it was revived, and Sinnoh before he got Croagunk. Ya know, when it has some variety...

Misty freaking out over bug-types

Pikachu's ketchup fetish

Psyduck (and to a lesser extent, Oshawott) popping out at awkward times

Stephan's name. To be more accurate, how TPCI handled it.

 

[Osprey]

Pikachu's thing for ketchup. It's especially funny to me because my friends and I usually refer to Ash as "Ketchup" when we're mocking the character.

 

[BugMite]

I've liked several myself, since I usually do enjoy running gags, including (in no particular order):

1. Getting Butch's name wrong, resulting in his getting agitated. Likewise, everyone not remembering Stephan's name, either.
2. Gible's smashing Piplup with (unmastered) Draco Meteor never got old.
3. Croagunk's knocking out Brock with a Poison Jab, whenever Brock flirts with girls.
4. Whenever Barry and, to a lesser extent, Bianca would run in a hurry and ram Ash - and, in Bianca's case, getting Ash wet in the process.
5. And I'm surprised no one's yet mentioned, "The future is now, thanks to science! Clemontic gear on!"

There are a few others I could mention, but these are probably my top favorites.

 

[jackatlasred]

I love the blasting off again bit. It never gets old for me

 

[Perpetual_Phoenix]

Barry's "I'm going to fine you!" line.

It never got old and made him an enjoyable character in DP.

 

[CynthiaLover]

Gible and Draco Meteor was always a fun one. Serves Piplup right if you ask me.

Brock and Croagunk never got old, as it was a nice little twist on his usual gag.

TRio blasting off, a classic.

Gible's random biting habits and ability to devour all sorts of things was pretty funny (especially how quickly he could polish off a TRio mecha like it was an afternoon snack).

Wobbuffet. Need I say more?

Forgot to mention one more. Breaking the forth wall. Probably my all-time favorite gag, as the various ways to break the forth wall seem limitless.

 

[ManUtd22]

there are a lot of good gag like brock and girls or pokemon cannasour time

 

[Natu? Natu!]

I'm not a big fan of running gags in general and many gags in Pokémon that would have been funny a couple of times are overdone, happening every episode or so. I like the "I'm not only a Pokémon connoisseur, I'm also a *whatever* connoisseur" of Cilan, as it is a bit more varied than e.g. Brock falling in love with every girl, and it doesn't appear in every episode.

 

[ManUtd22]

I'm not a big fan of running gags in general and many gags in Pokémon that would have been funny a couple of times are overdone, happening every episode or so. I like the "I'm not only a Pokémon connoisseur, I'm also a *whatever* connoisseur" of Cilan, as it is a bit more varied than e.g. Brock falling in love with every girl, and it doesn't appear in every episode.

I like when cilan said .. oniisan somulier to brock, i felt like he found a new type of sommulier

 

[Litten]

James and Victreebel's gag for me, especially the latter's shrieks. I can't help liking it.

 

[Madame Pika]

I do have a vague memory of enjoying Takeshi's flirting as a kid, though nowadays I hate that gag whenever it comes up. I don't know if later series just dulled it down for me and it genuinely was enjoyable early on, or I was just more easily amused as a kid. Still, I'll mention it here for the sake of little me. I remember early on in XY being impressed that Citron's inventions were being given so much variety, but that has thinned out a bit of late so I'm hesitant to say if it'll belong here or not by the time XY ends. It is possible that there's a lot more variety to come in the future. I do prefer Eureka's proposals over Takeshi's since she at least is trying to be nice with them. Takeshi is otherwise shown to be mature enough to know that he's just making everything awkward. If he had grown out of it, the gag would have been better, but since that never happened. With Eureka, she does have enough character (and Citron too has enough character) that us seeing her growing out of this gag is possible, therefore I'm hesitantly putting it here. Team Rocket have had a number of good gags over the years and that some of them have developed and changed in how they show TR is part of how they work so well even if there tends not to be much variety (Kojiro's crossdressing come to mind.) That's about as far as I feel when it comes to official running gags. Overall, it feels a little like this is 'least awful' rather than 'best', sorry.

In terms of non official ones, I am enjoying the habit of death being brought up one way or the other in Eureka centric episodes.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

I always forget about Victribell. That was always a funny one seeing it instantly go and attack James the way it did every time it was sent out.

 

[Dogasu]

Pikachu's ketchup fetish

Pikachu's thing for ketchup.

Pikachu doesn't have a thing for ketchup. It's a one-off gag from a filler episode that aired nearly two decades ago that hasn't been brought up since.

(and no, that XY episode absolutely does not count because licking ketchup off your paw one time does not equal "ketchup fetish")

 

[Almonds]

1. Victreebel eating James every single time it is sent out to battle
2. Cilan's hyper enthusiasm for nearly everything.
3. Citron's invention explosion.
4. Bonnie's*"s'il vous plaît!!"
5. Not sure if it counts but the Team Rocket fantasy, especially the Boss Fantasies

 

[Hidden Mew]

Croagunk giving Brock a Poison Jab was the best variation of his gag. I think it was Brock's expression and the way he sounded after getting hit that made it funny. That it was something different than just pulling his ears like they were rubber.

Meowth's Boss Fantasy could be pretty funny at times. I think that they were at their best when James was pointing out how they wouldn't work just to mix things up from how Jessie and James were usually fully on board with his ridiculous fantasies.

Clemont's inventions gag is the best one in XY. There's at least more variety in the gag given that he has to make different inventions each time and they don't always explode in the same way. They're not always funny, but having more variety and not really annoying me compared to Bonnie's running gag makes me like it more.