A Running Gag that is always associated with a particular situation; the audience expects it whenever that situation comes up, but may not always find it as funny after the nth repetition. Yet, removing the gag for a while will make the audience ask where it went.
Usually not put in every episode, but frequently enough it becomes associated with the show as a whole. Writers may even start to make increasingly complicated setups and punchlines just to keep the novelty.
Anime and manga have become associated with Megaton Punch gags to the point that it's customary for Japanese Media.
If it's regularly being Lampshaded, then it's also an Overused Running Gag.
See also Character Exaggeration.
Examples:
Live-Action TV
- California Dreams: Brent Gore cites this as the reason he left the show in its third season; as his character gets reduced from the focus character of the show to a one-trick pony who mostly shows to whine 'Aww man' when things don't go his way.
- Home Improvement: Wilson's un-shown lower face becomes. Originally, he just stands behind a fence on stage. As the show progresses, Wilson is shown out of the house more and set designers go to town to find ways to keep the portion of his face hidden with props. In all these cases, he is never shown, being obscured by at least three props in the scene as he moves around the set. Even at the final curtain call, actor Earl Hindman comes out holding a miniature fence in front of his face. Hindman is even known to do out-of-character appearances—for instance, interviews about his experience working on the show—with his face obscured.
- The IT Crowd: The apathetic Roy will always answer the phone with "Hello, IT, have you tried turning it off and on again?" In later seasons they progress to "Is it plugged in?", and later still "I'm sick of saying that... what do you WANT?!"
Newspaper Comics
- Peanuts: Charles Schultz says he's in a bit of a bind regarding the strip's annual, seasonal gags like Lucy and the football, and Linus and the Great Pumpkin. Some people complain the gags are stale, but even more people complain if he tries to skip them.
Theatre
- Tsukiuta: The second act of every production is a dance live performed by the idol main cast, and at the beginning of the act, the members all introduce themselves briefly. Hirai Yuuki, who took over as Fuduki Kai from episode 9, has done the following gag at every performance he's been in at least through episode 13: he starts by giving a standard sort of introduction, then stops as if thinking of something... then he puns some word he'd just been saying into the name of the venue. He then runs back and forth across the stage, puts his arm around someone else's shoulders, and/or shouts "Sooo-re!" ("Thaaaat's it!"). It's incredibly cheesy, and he even seems to cringe at himself. When he tries to skip it, the other Procellarum members don't let him, especially since Washio Shuuto returned as Haduki You.
Video Games
- Metal Gear: The cardboard box started out as a really overpowered gag item in Metal Gear and has made an appearance in every game since, as it is now a signature item of the series, though changes in gameplay mean it has become progressively less and less useful. It even makes an appearance in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, which isn't even a stealth game.
Webcomics
- The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!: Bob's roof has to get destroyed at least once per story arc. Bonus points if it gets destroyed, fixed, and re-destroyed in a single storyline.
- Irregular Webcomic!: Readers expect the characters to spout puns like there's no tomorrow for the most inane reasons. It has been subverted on some occasions, like the 2008-07-14
entry, to lampshade the absence.
Websites
- Usenet: The jargon "pred" (for "predictable", naturally enough) denotes a response to a topic that is a) completely unoriginal and b) nonetheless required.
Web Video
- Bro Team Pill: Combined with his own running gags and mocked in the Guns of Icarus review.
"I sure hope JEFFREY shows up! Or that I end up in a SEWER!" (Laugh Track)
Western Animation
- Family Guy: Much of the humor is based on Non Sequitur asides that play off the characters' metaphors. Occasionally, an aside doesn't happen, causing the character to flinch, "Oh? We're not doing one? Right?"
- Phineas and Ferb: A great deal of the humour comes from the formulaic plot and its Once an Episode running gags and catchphrases. To keep them fresh, the show will constantly tweak, rotate, or make them pointedly absent in funny ways.
- Pinky and the Brain: Brain frequently asks, "Pinky! Are you pondering what I'm pondering?" before a zany scheme, prompting Pinky to agree, before spouting a goofy non-sequitur. They occasionally turn it on its head, with Pinky thinking the same thing once, then discarding it as too absurd. On one occasion, time they hold an entire conversation about it. In one episode told from Pinky's point of view, the viewer sees his train of thought leading up to his non-sequitur, and it makes perfect sense.
- South Park: Kenny's frequent deaths are one of the original hooks for audience attention. The creators quickly grow tired of the joke, however, and go to extreme lengths to lampshade or subvert it. They eventually leave Kenny dead for a whole season, then bring him back and only kill him off occasionally. In a later episode, it's revealed that Kenny actually remembers being killed, but his friends don't. His mother gives birth to him again each time, and he matures to his current age overnight.
- Space Ghost Coast to Coast: Space Ghost abuses his Destructo Ray to blast the guest or Zorak when he tires of them.
