4 Forgotten Ongoing Jokes from Popular Shows
A leg up that the world of televised comedy has over movies is the ability to mine running jokes for all they’re worth. They’re great; they give loyal viewers a feeling of gratification for having closely paid attention to a series or something new to notice during a rewatch; and they allow writers to take an early lunch on some days. But not all of these gags quite make it to the finish line, as even some of the most popular shows in history have had recurring bits that fans may have already completely forgotten, such as…
Click right here to get the best of Cracked sent to your inbox.
‘The Simpsons’: Grampa’s Gender Curiosity
This article not your thing? Try these...
In Grampa Simpson’s fervent desire to live his life as a woman. back in Season Four how he had “the nicest dream” in which he was the “Queen of the Old West”?
Then there was the time he claimed to have spent the final days of cabaret singer” — this wasn’t actually true, although Grampa conceded that he did “wear a dress for a period in the ’40s.”
Meanwhile, at the end of Season Five’s “Cape Feare,” Grampa is left at home without his pills, which causes him to grow long hair and breasts and paves the way for him to go on a date with Jasper. While this aspect of Grampa’s character was largely dropped by the writers, as all-female baseball team, the “Springfield Floozies,” in an attempt to avoid being drafted.
‘Seinfeld’: Kramer the Shut-In
It’s hard to imagine Kramer out and about in the world, whether it’s conducting bus tours, riding on the top of a fire truck or scouring the streets of New York in a fruitless search for a place to drop a deuce.
But during Jerry’s place across the hall. The first time we meet Kramer, Jerry remarks that he hasn’t “left the building in 10 years.”
While this aspect of the character was eventually scrapped, Kramer’s apparent agoraphobia is the reason why his character didn’t appear in the classic episode “The Chinese Restaurant” since it was entirely set in a public place.
‘South Park’: Stan’s Vomiting Problem
In the early episodes of Kenny would die a horrible death; and 2) Stan would yak in the face of Wendy Testaburger.
But as the years ed, Stan’s gastrointestinal nervousness around his schoolyard crush seemingly subsided; that is, until Season 11’s “The List,” which ended with Stan going full Exorcist all over Wendy for one last time.
Of course, even that episode’s final callback was to an early joke from nearly 16 years ago, making it very easy to forget that Stan’s barfing was once an essential aspect of the show.
‘Friends’: Ross Claiming to Have Written Several Hit Movies
Throughout Friends, Ross Geller had some memorable (read: mostly extremely obnoxious) recurring character traits, from “we were on a break” to his flagrant disregard for New York City’s exotic pet laws. However, a less indelible running joke was Ross’ penchant for claiming credit for secretly inventing several pop-culture staples.
In a Season Nine episode, Ross weirdly asserted that he was the one who first mosquito.
This aspect of Ross’ character would have been slightly more established had an earlier deleted scene been left in. In the original cut of “The One With Chandler in a Box,” Ross emphatically stated that he came up with the idea for Die Hard and has the napkin he wrote it on as evidence.
Of course, Die Hard was based on a novel written in 1966, meaning that Ross would have had to have been a toddler when he first came up with a story involving an off-duty cop battling mercenaries in an office building — making this claim even harder to swallow than his ionate defense for why it was cool to cheat on Rachel.
You (yes, you) should follow JM on Twitter (if it still exists by the time you’re reading this).