History Main / AbandonedCatchphrase

* Victor Meldrew's pained cry of "I don't believe it!" in ''OneFootInTheGrave'' was extremely popular with the audience but the writers and the actor who played Meldrew, Richard Wilson, were sick of it and so its use was toned down. Not completely abandoned, however, as it did still pop up in later episodes.

** "I want cheesy poofs!" and "I'm not fat, I'm big-boned!" were popular catchphrases for Cartman in the early seasons but haven't been used in years.

%% * ZeroContextExample

** The first ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' had Lois give a catchphrase along the lines of "X is God's way of telling you that Y".
** Certain ''FamilyGuy'' examples have been Lampshaded in the show itself

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E15FeelingPinkieKeen Feeling Pinkie Keen]]", Spike frequently uses the catchphrase "Holy Guacamole!", never heard before and after that episode.

* As seen in the "False Alarm" of ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'', Eugene's catchphrase was "I'm fine" but it was changed to "I'm okay" by the end of Season 1.

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''

* The Hero Cortez from ''VideoGame/TimeSplitters'' had a catchphrase, 'Time to Split' which he always loudly exclaims before shifting to another time. Viciously played upon in the third game, where this is met with blank stares and disbelief by his partners in time, sometimes causing Cortez to falter and just give up. It could be an example of CharacterizationMarchesOn, since the characters in ''Timesplitters 2'' were pretty one-dimensional, until Future Perfect, in which the characters actually have personalities and dialogue.

--> '''Marge:''' Oh Bart, [[LampshadeHanging you haven't said that in years.]]

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* The Hero Cortez from ''VideoGame/TimeSplitters'' had a catchphrase, 'Time to Split' which he always loudly exclaims before shifting to another time. Viciously played upon in the third game, where this is met with blank stares and disbelief by his partners in time, sometimes causing Cortez to falter and just give up. It could be an example of CharacterizationMarchesOn, since the characters in ''Timesplitters 2'' were pretty one-dimensional, until Future Perfect, in which the characters actually have personalities and dialogue.

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** He used "For the sheer fact" quite a bit in ''[=FireRed=]'', but he deliberately stops himself from doing it come ''Pokémon Crystal''.

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* In ''Film/HarryPotter'', the titular character initially had the habit of saying 'Don't mention it' whenever he helped someone. It wasn't brought back past ''The Chamber of Secrets'', when the series began to change directors and take on a harsher tone.

* The first season of ''Who Wants to be a Millionaire'' had the host recite the catchphrase "Is that your final answer?" after every single question. This was later shortened to "Final answer?", then to just "Final?". Two possible reasons for doing away with the original catchphrase: (1) Viewers got a little fatigued hearing the same phrase over and over again, (2) Regis Philbin, the original host, was getting more than a little sick of having people say the phrase to him everywhere -- see also ''Never Heard That One Before''.

---> ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''

* The 4Kids dub of ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'' gave each girl a catch phrase on the bonus [=DVDs=] that came with the dolls. The phrases were never actually said in any version of the show.
-->Bloom: Earth girls rule!
-->Stella: Style is, like, so always in style!
-->Flora: Peace out!
-->Musa: Royalty rocks! (Referring to the dub error that Musa is a princess)
-->Tecna: I'll catch you on the download!

* Nanoha from ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'' originally had the cutesy catchphrase "[[GratuitousEnglish Lyrical Magical]]". This was phased out in ''[[Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs A's]]'', and replaced with the far more appropriate "Zenryoku Zenkai!" ([[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Full Power! Full Throttle!]])[[labelnote:*]]The latter half is also a homophone for "[[StuffBlowingUp Total Annihilation!]]"[[/labelnote]]

** Finn used to say "Mathematical!" and "Algebraic!" (a leftover from the PilotEpisode) but it was quickly forgotten. It is very unlikely to ever come back especially since the cancellation of its CompanionShow called ''Mathematical!'' due to it openly discussing HoYay after the episode "[[Recap/AdventureTimeS3E10WhatWasMissing What Was Missing]]".

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':
** Early English dub episodes tried to translate Meowth's Japanese VerbalTic as "meow" or "Meowth". By the end of Kanto they scrapped it.
** Originally Team Rocket would say "Yana kanji!" in Japanese when blasting off however later episodes use "Ii kanji!" instead.

* WebVideo/BrainScratchComms mainstay Lewis's "Peach was useful!" was abandoned after its overexposure during the ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'' playthrough.

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* Creator/RayNarvaezJr used to have multiple catchphrases during his time at Creator/AchievementHunter, although as time's gone on he's retired a large number of them. The reasons for these vary; some were retired after he left, some he just stopped using, and he stopped using "YOLO" among other catchphrases [[WhyTheFandomCantHaveNiceThings thanks to fans quoting it to him ad nauseum and annoying him repeatedly]].

** "I am a giant squids of anger!

* On ''Series/SesameStreet'', Mr. Snuffleupagus used to always say "Oh, dear" in a worried voice. Big Bird even lampshaded it once; when Snuffy went missing in one episode and BB called the police (an Anything Muppet) to take a report, part of his description was that he said "Oh dear" a lot.

** The Eleventh Doctor's "Geronimo!" was dropped after the first season.

* Annie from ''ComicStrip/LittleOrphanAnnie'' had a catchphrase of "Hot alligator!" that was eventually dropped. Her "Leapin' lizards" catchphrase stayed though.

* ''VideoGame/TimeSplitters 2'' & ''Timesplitters:Future Perfect'' might qualify. The Hero Cortez had a catchphrase, 'Time to Split' which he always loudly exclaims before shifting to another time. Viciously played upon in the third game, where this is met with blank stares and disbelief by his partners in time, sometimes causing Cortez to falter and just give up. It could be an example of CharacterizationMarchesOn, since the characters in ''Timesplitters 2'' were pretty one-dimensional, until Future Perfect, in which the characters actually have personalities and dialogue.
* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' used to have "[[GottaCatchThemAll Gotta catch 'em all!]]" as its {{Tagline}} but it went out of fashion with [[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Generation III]] probably because it was impossible in ''Ruby'' & ''Sapphire'' to have all the 386 Pokemon existing at the time, a good chunk lost in the transition between II and III and impossible to transfer (early previews of the games still featured the tagline, but it was eventually removed). It however reappears once in a while since [[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY Gen VI]] and its will to [[PanderingToTheBase appeal to its nostalgic fanbase]]. The new catchphrase created for its [[MilestoneCelebration 20th anniversary]] is "Train On".