Running Gags

[ehh123]

Is it just me or are the writers learning to be more careful with their running gags, at least when it comes with flaws of the trainers' Pokemon? They use the gag for about 5 episodes and then they progress the characters before the joke gets old. Examples include Axew's Dragon Rage, Oshawott's Aqua Jet and Excadrill's disobedience. I know how some of you got tired of Gible's Draco Meteor and maybe they learned from that.

 

[kantoskies]

I just hope any new running gag introduced isn't run into the ground like Brock's obsession with girls.
It was amusing in Kanto, kind of meh in Johto, it felt overused in Hoenn and in Sinnoh.....please.

 

[AshK]

the Brock running gag lasted 13 seasons.... not counting most of Orange league obviously. No running gag will go that long again I'm guessing .I don't think they need to be "careful" of anything.

 

[투 애니원]

Brock's running gag never got old to me. I guess its because what happens after makes it quite funny even if it happens almost/every episode.

 

[sonic10158]

Jessie: "It's Cassidy"
James: "And Botch"
Butch: "THE NAME'S BUTCH!!"

etc...

 

[Cybersai]

Wobbufett popping out during the motto also lasted an extremely long time. Second would be Meowth's boss fantasies, which stopped when BW began.

Oh and remember how Togepi seemed to get lost like every 20 episodes or so in the early seasons? What was that about?

 

[sevenfive]

Ash getting shocked by Pikachu still happens, and I'm sure next time Charizard appears it will still use flamethrower on him.

 

[투 애니원]

I would have wanted the hat turning to continue whenever he caught or chose a Pokemon for battle.

 

[Grave-E]

There is definitely an uncharacteristic lack of running gags going on this time around, especially on an episode by episode basis. Truth be told, it's probably one of the better aspects of this series, imo. I don't think there were many, if any, gags of that calibre that didn't degenerate into becoming insufferable after the first handful of uses. They felt less like gags and more like they were stuck in a rut.

 

[CynthiaLover]

Yeah, the running gags are quite a bit toned down from previous series. That's a little bit of a downer to me. Some of the more classical gags like Brock's flirting and TR blasting off were nice, making the show more lighthearted, and I still never get tired of Gible's Draco Meteor screw-ups. But some of the gags have been resolved too soon in BW. One example is Axew's Dragon Sneeze. I was hoping for a more Gible-like situation: Axew successfully uses the move vs. TRio, but then screws it up afterwards until much later in the series. I mean, we're only in the first 40-ish episodes, and most of the interesting "gags" have already been resolved. That's way too soon. Having Oshawott perfect Aqua Jet early is fine, because Ash seems to make more of an effort in his training, as well as Oshawott being a serious battler.

However, the Dragon Sneeze/Rage perfection was a little too soon for me. Like I said before, I would've been quite happy with Dragon Rage/Sneeze succeeding against TR, but then failing after that until quite a bit later. This is because Axew is quite young and inexperienced, so I'd think it should naturally take longer for a young Pokemon to learn to fully control a move like that. Gible, although we don't know how "old" he was, he was obviously more skilled in combat (knowing 4 moves VS. Axew's 2 upon capture, as well as putting up a decent fight against very skilled Empoleon). It just makes more sense to me. Likewise, Excadrill should've had more time to regain obedience (well, yeah, he did have "years", but from an episode-to-episode basis), since it took Ash so long to get Charizard to obey him, and Mamoswine, although obviously shorter in time, still took a little bit longer than Excadrill to regain obedience. I know that Iris has had experience in the past, but still, she seems to only put effort into Axew from an episode-to-episode basis. Even though I generally hate her, to have Excadrill regain obedience that quickly and Axew perfect Dragon Rage even faster, yet she doesn't show any real effort, strikes me as unfair.

But back on track, all the interesting "gags" have been used up and resolved too quickly. I do hope we still have some Emolga antics to keep us busy, since she is the only Pokemon we have left that actually seems to have a problem (Scraggy is a bit iffy, but that's mostly because of overconfidence). But yeah, as I said before, the gags have pretty much run dry. I wouldn't call it "careful", but it does seem that (almost) all of the main cast's problems have been pretty quickly resolved. Too quickly. To have them only be used a small number of times and then *poof* problem solved is rather boring. Plus, what was the point of the gag in the first place if it would be resolved after a few more tries!? It's like learning a new move in the anime then dropping it after only 2-3 episodes of using it (if you don't know what I mean, look up Buizel's Water Pulse, that lasted only for Sinnoh badge #3, Wallace Cup, and Sinnoh badge #4). The running gags made things interesting, and, as I said before, the lightheartedness of them was always appreciated. So, yeah, they were "fixed" way too soon, thus it seems the "gag pool" has run dry. That's my two cents on the topic.

 

[Ampharos King]

I don't really quite understand what people are talking about when they claim that there are less "running gags" in BW. As a matter of opinion, there is perhaps an even more diverse set of running gags in this series than any other.

- Iris always seems to call Ash (or in certain cases, other individuals) a "kid" when he acts in a certain way, or when he does something she does not approve of.
- Cilan seems to invent a new "It's ___ time" catchphrase every episode, depending on the situation that the group is currently in.
- Iris and Cilan's semi-occassional bickering over the power of nature versus the power of technology and science.
- Someone, either a pokemon or a trainer, screws Cilan over one way or another. In a few episodes, a wild pokemon was stealing Cilan's table and dishware. Other episodes included a scene where Cilan failed to prepare one of his meals on time due to an attack by a wild pokemon.
- TRio's hasty retreats. Some people may claim that it is a character reference, but ordinarily TRio would have fought back until all of the fighting spirit has been removed from them. Now it seems that every time something interferes with one of their plans, TRio would run away rather than fight for whatever they were planning on stealing in the first place.

I felt that the writers decided to preserve the most basic, comical interactions which help keep the relationship between the three protagonists in BW consistent. In previous seasons, these running gags and hints of character interaction were extended on to the pokemon, instead. (Notable example: Dawn's Buneary's attraction towards Pikachu. Buneary would be seen blushing in Pikachu's presence.) These weren't anything major, but the gags helped to characterize certain pokemon depending on these widely observant traits.

Some of the running gags were meant only to be used for a short period of time, because certain characters's lack of involvement in a specific situation do not necessitate its use. I believe that the writers are focusing more on balancing out the interactions between humans, as well as interactions between the pokemon as well. Certain pokemon grow over time and become more adjusted to their movesets or to other characters in the group.

 

[Cybersai]

Pretty much any pokemon on the main cast has a running gag, some moreso than others. I suppose you can consider this a quirk of their personality though.

I agree though that the most tedious running gags are the ones that went on for like 10+ years, (Brock's flirting, Wobbufett popping out, Meowth's boss fantasies), were the 3 big offenders due to how much we saw them.

Some notable ones from the original series was Jigglypuff randomly appearing to put everyone to sleep, Togepi using metronome or getting lost, Psyduck popping out, Charizard using flamethrower on Ash, Muk glomping over everyone, etc.

 

[Super Chao Maniac]

Probably the mispronouncing of Kenyan's name may become a running gag.