running gag

running gag

A gag or humorous element that is introduced early on in a story and then appears or is referred to again repeatedly. There's this weird running gag throughout the novel about the protagonist's dislike of avocado, but it falls flat every single time. What was supposed to be a silly once-off joke in the pilot episode turned into a running gag.
See also: gag, running
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • gag gift
  • throat gag
  • gag order
  • gag me with a spoon
  • gag a maggot
  • stressed
  • swab
  • swab (something) out of (something)
  • swab out of
  • out of the ark
References in periodicals archive
Moments of gross-out comedy and drug taking are mixed with political satire and a great running gag about TV stars failing to transition to glorious Hollywood careers, which is especially pointed as there's a game cameo by former Friends star Lisa Kudrow.
Meanwhile, Scott Cote makes a great running gag of memory lapses and mispronunciation as the actor Dennis portraying the butler Perkins.
"I have a running gag with Dominic, I call him the Gigolo of Cases Street as a joke.
"We have a running gag in my family with a Nigel Farage cardboard cut-out I bought as a joke birthday present for sister.
In another strip, in each of the first two panels, the blob stares up at the phrase running gag, spelled out in green bubble letters.
But it's a running gag involving his role in Frozen being left on the cutting room floor that really impresses.
The running gag all evening was that we were at an airport in Havana, where a bunch of assorted passengers were given the run-around by airport schedule organisers.
The character's mysterious employment status also became a running gag on the show and is still joked about by fans today.
Without Oceng's memorable turn and an amusing running gag about a supermarket reward card, this would be an interminable slog from beginning to laughable end.
The audience loved the play's humour: a mystery parcel, dirty laundry, a running gag about a certain body part (the clue is in the title) and lashings of white wine.
The definitions that he has expanded include back story, computer-generated imagery, psychosexual analysis, queer cinema, gross-out film, and running gag. The entries are highly cross-referenced.
? THE Harry Styles/older women running gag on ITV's charming Off Their Rockers.
The plot unfolds in tense events interrupted by a running gag involving MarronA[c]'s escapes to the commode.
Here they must endure the scorn of the village's women-folk - a running gag that might quickly run out of steam.
And to top it all Simon Cowell's running gag all week was to make Bruce Forsyth look like a silly, out of touch old fool for expressing fears about children on the show.