Duplicated "Simpsons" Jokes

As much as I love "The Simpsons," as it will probably be the one television series I will be able to watch reruns of until I die, I've noticed a couple of jokes used more than once. I thought it'd be interesting to see what others people have picked out. And I don't mean similar takes on similar topics, but almost exact jokes.

One that comes to mind is the "you can call me Ray, you can call me Jay" Ray Jay Johnson bit. That's been done at least 3 times that I can think of.

The other immediate one is "there's a NEW Mexico," first by Homer, then in a later episode by Mr. Burns.

Yes, I have too much time on my hands.

 

Hehe. If I allowed for quotes fan use from the show, I think we'd be here for a while. Many of my friends and I can have entire conversations via Simpsons talk.

 

I just watched the "Treehouse of Horror" set the other day and saw a few duplicated gags that popped up in the newest episode ("TOH" XII). We got a second use of "Shazbot" plus... damn my feeble memory! I can't recall the other one, but I admit it seemed really lame to get the same gag that had just appeared on an episode I watched only about 40 minutes earlier! Of course, they came years apart when they originally aired, but it still disappointed me to see them recycle gags like that...

 

I like some of the repeated gags, though mainly the ones that come out of left field.

"Wow! It's like a party in my mouth, and everyone's invited!" Moe when he tries a Flaming Homer for the first time, Ken Griffey, Jr. when he drinks that nerve tonic for the first time

The fiendish Dr. Colossus, one of Malibu Stacy's creator's many husbands, and made a brief cameo in the "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" episodes.

Also the numerous ways TV has destroyed Bart's mind: in the B-Sharps episode, Bart says thanks to television, he can't remember anything that happened five minutes ago. Later, when he tries to use his imagination to escape the dreary field trip to the box factory, he's unable to come up with anything. He curses television before pulling out a portable one from his desk to watch some 'toons.

 

Yeah. I mean, I guess it's to be expected there'll be some overlap after so many episodes, but on the other hand, it makes me wonder just how familiar some of the newer writers are with the earlier material.

 

Don't forget, there's over 300 shows now. That's a lot of one-liners!

 

But the ones you refer to are call-backs, not repeated gags. When Griffey said the "party in my mouth" line, it was intended to reward viewers who remembered it from Moe; they never thought we'd think it was a totally new gag.

I don't think that was the intention of this thread. It's looking at gags that HOPE we won't remember them from earlier seasons. I'll have to rewatch the "Treehouse XII" to recall what joke they ran again. It was depressing to see them attempt to go to the same well for a laugh, as it clearly wasn't intended as a call-back to the earlier show...

 

Favorite Homer Saying

After Homer's near execution he is standing and staring at the reporters breasts. The reporter says "My Eyes are over here Homer" to which he promptly responds: "I'VE MADE MY CHOICE."