Title Reading Gag

"Another Tree Problem"? One wasn't enough!?

— Bird, Peg + Cat, "Another Tree Problem"

In a show where a character reads out the title during the Episode Title Card, one of the readings of the title has a joke of some sort in it.

It could serve as Foreshadowing for what the episode is about — for instance, the Sick Episode might have the character read it in a sickly voice, or the Musical Episode might have the character sing the title instead of speaking it.

Maybe the character has Medium Awareness, and comments on the title itself via Breaking the Fourth Wall or an Aside Comment — for instance, if the title is Alice's Bad Day, and it's Alice who's reading the title, she might follow it up with an Oh, Crap!. If the character reading the title is a Deadpan Snarker they might make a joke, perhaps commenting that the story sounds bad or is badly titled. They might also lampshade the Idiosyncratic Episode Naming by saying something like "Why is there always the word X in the title?!". They might also whip out a pen and change the title.

Also sometimes happens as a dub gag, particularly in Latin America, when the narrator translates it in a funny voice or with a joke added.

Compare Logo Joke, Special Edition Title, Couch Gag, and Variations on a Theme Song.

Examples

Anime & Manga

• Kirby: Right Back at Ya!: An In-Universe example in the episode where Dedede makes his own anime. The Japanese version has Dedede's anime have a title card in the style of the actual show's own, reading "The Plump Visitor" (a nod to the actual show's first episode, "He's Here, The Pink Visitor") Fumu starts to read out the title, but briefly pauses midway through, before saying it in an exasperated tone, and questioning if that's really the title. (Since the dub didn't have title cards, its version instead has Tiff seemingly read the title "Dedede Saves The Day" from the script. She still does question it afterwards.)
• Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt: "Les Diabolique" has Panty saying the title card "Lez Diabolique!" Stocking corrects her "That's "Lay", Panty", to which Panty cheerfully acknowledges and corrects.

Comic Strips

• Popeye: At the beginning of The Hungry Goat, the titular goat walks past the title card before noticing what it says and bemoaning the fact that he has to be on the brink of starvation.

Fan Works

• Peeking Through the Fourth Wall:
  • In Episode 4, when the kids find that the story they will MST is called Road Trip Rage, they fear that it will be the third Dark Fic in a row.
  • In Episode 24, Lucy comments that she doesn't like the sound of it when she sees the story is called Lincoln Betrays Lucy.
  • In Episode 7, when Lola hears that the story is titled Diary of a Loud, she gets excited, thinking it sounds "juicy". She doesn't end up liking it.
  • In Episode 27, Lincoln says, "Uh-oh" after reading the title, which is A Town Hates a Boy.
  • In Episode 3, when Lincoln reads that the title of the fanfic is Bad Blood, he comments that anyone who sings the Taylor Swift song of the same name will get smacked.
  • In Episode 28, Sid gets excited when she sees the story is called The Bestie That Stole My Heart since she guesses that she's in the story.
  • In Episode 33, when Lynn sees the story is titled Will Lynn Tell?, she comments that it's "neat" to be getting another story about her.
  • In Episode 11, Lisa says, "Ohh, boy!" when she learns the title is My First Fanfic, I Know it's Really Bad. Despite this, however, she ends up liking the story.
  • In Episode 18, when the kids read that the story is called Hughs and Kisses, the sisters, with the exception of Lily, become lovelorn, since Hugh is their crush.
  • In After Dark: 2, when the girls and Bobby read that the title is Tryst of Fate, they comment that they don't know what a tryst even is.
  • In After Dark: 3, when the girls and Benny read the title of the story (Diary of Luan Loud), they comment that it sounds similar to the story read two episodes ago (Property of Luan Loud) and the story read on Episode 7 of the main series (Diary of a Loud).
  • In Episode 20, Lucy gets excited when she sees the title is The Fury of Lincoln Loud, since she likes the idea of it being about a "tormented soul".
• In Punishment, a Creepypasta about Bluey, this is Played for Horror when Bandit yells the title voiceover, jump-scaring the narrator.

Films — Animated

• Finding Dory: In a trailer, Dory reads the title and thinks Dory is missing, having forgotten that she herself is Dory.
• The Lion King 1 ½: In the trailer, the title is initially presented as The Lion King III only for Timon to come in and reject it by removing one I. Before he can discard it completely, though, Pumba reminds him that The Lion King II already exists. As their story isn't exactly a sequel anyway but rather a retelling of the original, Timon puts one I back on at an angle and modifies the other one to form the movie's actual title.
• Shrek 2: In the DVD menu, Donkey comments that the title is unimaginative and tries to think of alternate titles.

Films — Live-Action

• Babe:
  • When the mice read out the title for the segment "A Pig That Thinks He's a Dog", they then burst out laughing.
  • The mouse reading the title "Pigs Are Definitely Stupid" struggles to pronounce "definitely", and the rest of the mice chime in to correct them.
  • "A Tragic Day" is read in a sad voice.

Literature

• The Monster at the End of This Book: Grover reads the title of the book and spends the rest of the book begging the reader not to keep reading because he is afraid of the monster.
• Pig the Pug: All of the books have Pig crossing out "Pug" and replacing it with a different noun.
• In Yucky Worms, the cover has worms reading the title and being offended, saying things like "How rude!" and "I'm not yucky!".

Live-Action TV

• Police Squad!: At the start of each episode a title card shows the title of the episode while the announcer announces a completely different title.

Theatre

• Urinetown: In the opening exposition scene, Sally mentions at one point that the musical has "bad subject matter" and a "bad title".

Video Games

• The Rune Factory games have the title read out by different characters each time the game is started, with a few gags thrown in:
  • Rune Factory 3 has Pia proudly announce the game as Rune Factory 2 before going, "Huh? They made a third one!?"
  • Rune Factory 4 has Dolce say, "Rune Factory... but which one? I won't tell."
• Mario Is Missing!: The introduction has Mario himself seeing the title and getting flustered, which is enough of a distraction for Bowser to capture him.

Web Videos

• Bum Reviews: At the beginning of the episode where Chester reviews Red Riding Hood, the announcer initially calls it Twilight 4 before Chester corrects him. After that, the announcer calls the movie by the correct name while still complaining that it should be called Twilight 4 which Chester doesn't disagree with him on.
• Kid Time Storytime:
  • In the video for P is for Poop, Storyteller is shocked at the title and acts coy about saying the word "poop".
  • In the video for A Children's Book About Lying, Green Bear says, "Uh-oh!" when he reads the title, since he fears he's been caught in a lie.
  • In the video reading Daddy Lost His Job, Doug reads the title and freaks out, thinking that his father lost his job.
  • In the video for Little Good Wolf, characters are surprised by the inversion of Big Bad Wolf — Green Bear says, "That's not right" in a deadpan way, Doug gets nervous, Witcheficent calls it "blasphemy" and "not even a real book", and Fernando Fox just says a Rapid-Fire "No!".
  • In the video for Baby's First Jailbreak, Doug reads the title and then begs Storyteller not to read the book, since not only is it wrong to be in jail in the first place since it requires lawbreaking, breaking out is doubly wrong, so it's "breaking too many rules".
  • In the video for Giraffes Ruin Everything, Storyteller says, "Uh-oh!" upon reading the title, knowing that Gilles (a giraffe) will be offended, and sure enough, he is.
  • In the video for Mary Had a Little Lab, Fuchia Fish misreads the title as Mary Had a Little Lamb and sings the Nursery Rhyme.
  • In the video reading Goodnight Lab, a parody of Goodnight Moon, Doug, upon seeing the title, gasps dramatically and yells, "WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MOON?!".
  • In the video for the Dinosaur Vs book "Dinosaur vs. the Potty", Doug is unhappy when he reads the title since mentioning the potty (especially in relation to a dinosaur, since he's half-dinosaur) brings back embarrassing memories of his own toddlerhood when he was being potty trained.
  • When Doug sees the title in the video for Dragons Get Colds Too, he wonders how it's even possible... despite being half-dragon and suffering a cold himself.
  • In the video covering Pink is for Boys, Pink Bear is glad to see the title, since after being mistaken for a girl so many times just because he's pink, he's pleased someone knows that pink can be for boys too.
  • In the video about the Rotten Ralph book "The Nine Lives of Rotten Ralph", Maleficent is excited to see the title, because she thinks the book is about death.
  • When Gilles reads the title in the video for the Little Princess book "I Don't Want to Go to the Hospital", he says, "Well, Little Princess, here's a clue: no one does."
  • In the video for Aliens Took My Daughter, Perry takes the title as evidence that Alien Abduction exists.
  • In the video reading the Aesop's Fables story "Belling the Cat", Two Tone meows in intrigue upon seeing the title has the word "cat" in it.
  • In the video for A Thousand No's, Green Bear, upon seeing the title, yells, "But I don't like no's!".
  • In the video reading Pencils on Strike, when they read the title, Green Bear and Doug are shocked at the idea of pencils being on strike.
  • In the video for Finn's Little Fibs, Witcheficent is happy when she reads the title since she thinks it's for learning how to lie. It turns out to be the opposite.
  • In the video about The Grouchy Ladybug, Witcheficent is happy to hear a story with "grouchy" in the title, since she's grouchy herself.

Western Animation

• Bluey:
  • In "Bumpy and the Wise Old Wolfhound", the title voiceover is in the context of a play the characters are putting on, so Bluey says, "This story is called" instead of "This episode of Bluey is called".
  • In "Unicorse", Chilli asks her husband Bandit to help get Bluey to bed. Bandit decides to do so using an obnoxious hand puppet called Unicorse, who Chilli hates. She says, "This episode of Bluey, unfortunately, is called 'Unicorse'."
  • In "Hairdressers", Bingo, halfway through the episode, changes the title to "Nits" and says, "This episode of Bluey is now called 'Nits'."
  • In one episode, Bandit doesn't read the title; he just says through the Unicorse puppet, "I don't know what that says; I can't read!".
• Charlie and Lola:
  • Because "I'm Really Ever So Not Well" involves Lola with a cold, she reads the title in a groggy voice and sneezes before reading it.
  • The title card for "Yes I Am, No You're Not" has Lola read the first three words in a Punctuated! For! Emphasis! voice, and Charlie read the last three words in a frustrated voice, because the episode is about their Sibling Rivalry.
• Each episode of Dan Vs. is titled after the thing that Dan is trying to ruin in the episode ("Dan vs. Traffic," "Dan vs. the Mall Santa," etc.) Near the beginning of each episode, when Dan gets angry at that thing, he yells it in a Skyward Scream as the title of the episode pops up on screen.
• In the Latin American Spanish dub of The Jetsons episode "Haunted Halloween", the voiceover does an Evil Laugh after reading the title.
• Little Princess: The Princess reads the title in every episode, which sometimes leads to gags:
  • In "I Want My Voice Back", she reads it in a hoarse voice to go with the Lost Voice Plot.
  • In "I Don't Want to Go to Bed", she reads it in an angry voice.
  • In "I Want My Sheep", she reads the word "sheep" in a bleating voice.
  • In "I Don't Want a Cold", she reads it in a weak voice.
• Looney Tunes: At the beginning of "Tortoise Beats Hare", Bugs Bunny appears and reads the credits on the title card, mispronouncing the names. Then he gets to the title and reads it, and after a second realizes what it says and loses it.
• Mickey Mouse Clubhouse:
  • For the title card for "Sleeping Minnie", Mickey says "Shh!", then whispers the title.
  • Mickey reads the title for "Donald's Clubhouse" in a confused questioning tone, referencing to Donald's takeover for the clubhouse for the episode.
• My Friends Tigger & Pooh: Darby reads "Darby, Solo Sleuth" in a questioning voice, implying she's wondering why she'll be doing sleuth work alone this episode.
• ¡Mucha Lucha!: Whenever the title card appears, one of the trio members will pop up and say, "A true luchador knows that (insert goofy phrase relating to the episode's plot here)".
• Muppet Babies (2018): In season 1, there would be a title card with one of the Muppets reading the episode's name, and then doing something goofy (such as Animal doing a "King Kong" Climb on a bunch of blocks before they crumble under his weight). As of season two, however, this is dropped and the show goes with the Title, Please! approach instead.
• Peg + Cat:
  • In "The Long Line Problem", Richard reads the title, and then groans and says, "Why does there always have to be a problem!?", referencing how nearly every episode is called "The ___ Problem".
  • In "Another Tree Problem", the bird reads the title in a bemused way and then adds, "One wasn't enough?!".
  • In one episode, one of the Neighbour Ladies reads the title and then says to herself, "I hope it's not too much of a problem".
• The Real Ghostbusters: In Seasons 3-7, after reading the title in the opening sequence, Slimer would say, "And me! And me!".
• Tex Avery MGM Cartoons:
  • Partway through The Screwy Truant, Screwy Squirrel suddenly encounters the Big Bad Wolf chasing Little Red Riding Hood, and he protests that they're in the wrong cartoon, pulling down the title cards to prove it.
    Screwy: See? The Screwy Truant, featuring Screwy Squirrel.
    Wolf: Heh, one of them corny B-pictures, eh?
  • Swing Shift Cinderella: Red and the Wolf run right past the opening title card. Then Red realizes it was the wrong title, so she pulls it back onscreen, and she and the Wolf confirm that the cartoon is in fact called "Swing Shift Cinderella". Then the real story starts.

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