The term “ gag rule ” originated in the mid-1830s when the U. S. House of Representatives barred discussion or referral to committee of antislavery petitions.

This gag originated with Sid Krofft, who had used a similar device on The Brady Bunch Hour ; on each episode, Greg would push Peter into the swimming pool.

The chalkboard gag for the episode, which is an " apology " for the song in " A Streetcar Named Marge " This episode originated when Al Jean commented to Mike Reiss, " We had a lot of luck with Homer stealing cable, which was based on the eighth commandment, so maybe we could look to other commandments.

However, the most popular running gag of the beach party series is " The Himalayan Suspender " technique, originated by Professor Sutwell in Beach Party, in which the forefinger is pressed against a certain part of the skull, rendering the victim paralyzed.

At the end of a sketch, they would " poll " the public ( another cast member playing an anonymous Canadian ) and give its results, the gag being that only one person was polled in the survey ( and thus one leader would get 100 % of the votes, but on one occasion the person abstained ).

They toned the gag down after 1941, though they kept it going often enough as the years continued, climaxing on Allen's May 26, 1946 show, in which a sketch called " King for a Day ," satirizing big-money game shows, featured Benny pretending to be a contestant named Myron Proudfoot on Allen's new quiz show.

In spite of being designed as a sketch comedy television program, the series is set in a fictional universe in which it also is broadcast as a popular television comedy as evidenced through staged mishaps with members of the viewing audience and performers featured the program and comedic sub-plots involving Amanda's unhealthily obsessed, nerdy, feckless self-proclaimed " Number One Fan " Penelope Tate, who has prioritized devising schemes that will assist her in achieving her lifelong goal of meeting Amanda before all else and her multiple failed attempts at landing a meeting with the hostess of the series ( as a gag, Amanda Bynes actually portrays Penelope in reality and the pair are never shown onscreen together ).

As a running gag, the Pythons would frequently insert " Ann Haydon-Jones and her husband Pip " into any sketch where a list of names was being read off.

The two brought different skills to the company ; Barbera was a skilled gag writer and sketch artist, while Hanna had a gift for timing, story construction, and recruiting top artists.

Another running gag not featured in the fictional show, but would be part of its introduction, would be a sketch in which Herring naively complains about a recent report in the media, only for Lee to try to correct him before realizing the best way to make him understand better is showing him " An educational film for the under fives " he taped from cable TV.

This sketch made a reappearance as a recurring gag in Touch Me, I'm Karen Taylor.

* Visual gag, a comedian's term for a joke, a comedic sketch or routine, or the visible effect of a magical illusion

", cast member Charles Rocket was " shot " in the last sketch of the episode, after a running gag in which other members of the cast shared their grievances about Rocket with one another.

A brilliant director of feature films, Coppola turns out to be an incompetent TV director, resulting in a running gag in which each sketch is ruined in various ways by Coppola's bumbling.

The show's title — and a basic summary of its premise — had previously appeared as a one-time gag in a " Wake of the Week " sketch on CODCO.

The American circus term for a clown's act is " gag "; Europeans refer to it as an " entrée ", and amateur clowns sometimes refer to it as a " skit " or " sketch ".

A fat, jolly-looking man ( played by David Barber ) who formed a running gag during the original show — for no apparent reason he would walk into the middle of a sketch, hand something to a character ( usually appropriate to the situation ), be told " Thank you Fat Bloke!

") Another recurring gag involves rubber chickens being thrown at Svengoolie after a cornier-than-usual joke — usually at the end of each episode's closing sketch.

A running gag is that sometimes what appears to be a short phrase spoken by the cast appears to have an extremely long translation ( the entire sketch is done with subtitles ), or vice versa.

A " gag " is a very short piece of clown comedy which when repeated within a bit or routine may become a " running gag ".

The 1987 movie Robocop while in no way presented as fact, does include several fake television ads which have nothing to do with the rest of the movie but become a running gag.

He also led the fight against the gag rule, which prevented congress from hearing anti-slavery petitions.

Excellence in the fields of newspaper strips, newspaper panels, TV animation, feature animation, newspaper illustration, gag cartoons, book illustration, greeting cards, comic books, magazine feature / magazine illustration and editorial cartoons, is honored in the NCS Division Awards, which are chosen by specially-convened juries at the chapter level.

* In the Garfield comic strip and television series, there is a running gag about a " splut ," which is usually the sound of a pie hitting someone in the face.

" The joke was sometimes combined with another running gag in which, rather than having a sign language interpreter visually presenting the news to aid the deaf, the show would provide assistance from Garrett Morris, " head of the New York School for the Hard of Hearing ", whose " aid " involved cupping his hands around his mouth and shouting the news as Chase read it.

Zeppo figures in a well-known gag in which Groucho dictates a letter to his lawyers in rambling pseudo-legalese.

The House passed the Pinckney Resolutions on May 26, 1836, the third of which was known from the beginning as the " gag rule " and passed with a vote of 117 to 68 ( The first stated that Congress had no constitutional authority to interfere with slavery in the states and the second that it " ought not " do so in the District of Columbia.

He also occasionally drinks to excess and has a gambling problem, which leads to the second gag: every time Parker tries to profit from gambling on events he recalls from the future, he picks the losing side ( the lone exception to this is when he gambles to get a bankroll for a charitable purpose ).

The gag shorts, which lasted 90 seconds each, were shown with the following umbrella titles:

However, this began a running gag on the show in which he would apologize to one town and make several jokes at the expense of another town named Canton then repeat the cycle a week later.

Along the way, the duo launched the temporary running gag that made them near-irrevocable radio stars: the famous hunt for Gracie's " lost brother ," which began on January 4, 1933 and eventually became a cross-network phenomenon --- Gracie was also liable to turn up on other shows ( especially those produced by the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, which produced the Burns & Allen series ) looking for her brother.

Bad publicity after a bid by NBC to squelch the stunt --- and an accidental mention by Rudy Vallee on his Fleischmann's Hour --- helped the stunt continue, according to radio historian John Dunning's On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, which also mentioned that Gracie's real brother, a " publicity-shy accountant " living in San Francisco, went into hiding until the gag ran its course.

A common gag had Archie always mispronouncing his minister's name as the " Reverend Fletcher " and being corrected, " Feltcher ," to which Archie's answer would invariably be " whatever.

In Episode 115, Fozzie constantly annoys Kermit with a running gag, delivering a number of pun items, such as a " wire " and a " letter " for Kermit the Frog which turned out to be a clothes wire and the letter R, respectively.

This led to the creation of Modeste et Pompon, a gag series which included contributions from René Goscinny ( of Astérix fame ) and Peyo.

This is the subject of numerous running gags in I ’ m Alan Partridge, in particular his numerous efforts to deny his interest in Bangkok " lady-boys " ( whom he describes as ‘ fascinating creatures ’ whilst insisting that he is merely confused by them and not attracted to them ) and a recurrent gag in which he will daydream about performing an erotic dance in a peephole Pringle jumper and a vulcanised rubber thong for a selection of men ( usually those who can help further his career in some way, such as BBC Chief of Programming Tony Hayers ).

Because gifts of value would mark social status contrary to the spirit of the season, these were often the pottery or wax figurines called sigillaria made specially for the day, candles, or " gag gifts ", of which Augustus was particularly fond.

This message, which changes from episode to episode, has become known as the " chalkboard gag ".

The other gag is known as a " couch gag ", in which a twist of events occur when the family meets to sit on their couch and watch television.

As a running gag, one of the other character would ask Rags what the " T " stood for, to which he'd reply, " Larry.

A running gag in the show, for example, is that whenever a character exclaims, " Great Scott!