Running Gag / Legendarily Popular

• Mew teaching Pokémon moves that they wouldn't usually learn, or can't normally learn, or should be physically incapable of learning.
  "...what," Pikachu asked, succinctly. "Just happened."
  "That was neat!" Ash said. "Uh… what type was that move?"
  "Steel!" Butterfree said. "It was Iron Tail!"
  "But you don't even have a tail!"
  "I don't see why any Pokémon should let that stop them," she sniffed.^note Butterfree is actually Mew, and later goes on to teach Flamethrower and Hydro Pump to an entire swarm of real Butterfree, thus keeping them safe from poachers.
  • Mew actually only teaches Brock's Vulpix one move — but that move is Sketch. And Vulpix can use it separately for each tail.
  • Nobody^note (even the forum members at the time) blinks an eye at Lapras using Sheer Cold. It's actually a clue that Lapras is really Mew.
  • Paul is travelling toward Pallet Town when he sees Raikou flying past using a pair of Steel Wings and turns around, assuming that there are too many Weezing in the area and he must be high.
  • Rebecca, Ash's teammate at the Battle Tower, uses a computer program to help her plan battle strategies. After seeing how Ash's Pokémon fight, she decides it would be simplest to just record them all as Smeargle (which can copy any move it's seen used).
• Ash catching Pokémon that turn out to be Mew in disguise.^note Including but not limited to Butterfree, Mankey, Dracozolt, Lapras, and Cranidos (who appeared to evolve into Aggron and then devolve into Dunsparce partway through their journey). Particularly when those Pokémon seem to have a mysteriously large movepool.
  • Subverted when it turns out that his Metronome-using Clefairy really was a Clefairy, most of the time; Mew talked it into participating for giggles. Lapras was actually Mew.
  • Subverted on a meta level when Ash encounters an unusually typed Purrloin. Readers who had been following the discussion thread recognized it as a Delta Purrloin based on Pokémon Insurgence, but those who had not were sometimes left assuming it was the latest incarnation of Mew — until Mew showed up to teach it Shadow Force. Several regions later, this is double-meta-subverted when it turns out that Delta Purrloin really was Mew, and the "Purrloin" who learned Shadow Force was actually Zorua.
• Ash's other Pokémon being disguised as each other.
  • Zorua is a particularly notable offender; when facing the Ecruteak Gym, where he's not allowed to use Dark types, Ash actually has to have Pikachu (weakly) attack his own Pokémon to work out which one is Zorua.
  • Noctowl makes use of Mew's teachings to mimic the moves of other team-mates, so as to make more convincing illusions of them. Of course, that means copying the signature moves of various Legendary Pokémon...
  • Taken up to eleven when Lawrence captures the three Legendary Birds of Shamouti, and comes back to find three Zapdos. It turns out that he actually captured Ash's Zapdos, Mew pretending to be Moltres, and then Mew again pretending to be Articuno, having broken out and retrieved Zorua to take over being Moltres. And no, that wasn't a clever gambit to gather more information about Lawrence's plans; Mew just thought it was funny.
  • Jon manages to beat one of Ash's Pokémon at the Silver Conference and still doesn't know what he actually fought.
    Pryce: Okay, so, just so I've got that absolutely clear. That started as the Pikachu, then turned into the Latias, except that after that it was revealed to be the Ninetales.
    Vulpix: Lokoko.
    Pryce: Yes, her. But then Lokoko turned out to be an illusion as well and it was really Noctowl, only it was actually a Gengar.
    Misty: Which is a Pokémon Ash doesn't have.
    Pryce: Which is why it then turned out to be a Ditto, which he also doesn't have, only it was Zacian all along, which turned out to be Zorua, except it was really a Stantler, but that turned out to be a double bluff and it was actually Lokoko all along, which was actually Zorua.
    Brock: Who may or may not have been Mew.
    • There are two hilarious bits of Fridge Brilliance there. Ash's Pokédex is a tiny Ditto, and Mew and Zorua constantly take turns to be one of Ash's Pokémon.
  • On one of the few occasions that Team Rocket actually tries to capture Pikachu, they can't tell which one he is, because Zorua, Noctowl, Latias, and Purrloin are all disguised as Pikachu at the time; Purrloin is even riding on Ash's other shoulder. They decide to just steal all of them, but they didn't realise one is a Ghost type.
• Ash believes that Pidgey and Rattata are rare Pokémon, since he's never seen them in the wild, and rarely from trainers.
  • He did frequently have a Pidgey hanging around throughout his childhood, but it was actually Mew.
  • Listening to him talk about the rarity of different Pokémon gives Reshiram (embodiment of truth) a headache.
    Reshiram: He's not lying, at all. But… just listen to him.
    Ash: ...what about other Pokémon, like Rattata? I was asking Miss Suicune about it, and she said that they were even more common than Lugia, but I've met two Lugia already — one of them twice — and I've never met an actual Rattata. One time I thought it was, but it turned out to be Mew, so I was wondering if you'd met any or they're instead just really rare?
  • Ash is amazed when he meets Casey, who appears to have a real Pidgey.
    Ash: Oh, actually, are you sure it's a Pidgey? Because in my experience what looks like a Pidgey usually turns out to be a Mew.
  • When he visits Pallet Town after winning the Ever Grande conference, he actually catches a Pidgeotto; Max worries about what this means for the universe. Despite both Mew and Celebi certifying that it's not a shapeshifter or illusion, it later proceeds to de-evolve into a Pidgey.
  • And then Brandon too quips that Rattata is a rare Pokemon...
• Keldeo getting lost a lot thanks to Teleport... ^note his inability to aim has had people compare him to Ryoga Hibiki And learning new Techniques in the process. All he needs is a Sake addiction and he'll be like a Certain Green-Haired Swordsman with a habit of getting lost.
• Shiny Keldeo (who is actually N) regularly quotes, with great indignation, official rules and regulations that people are breaking — except that he consistently gets the numbering slightly wrong. The one time he managed to quote the correct rule is when he's concussed (and as they aren't in an official battle, the rule isn't technically applicable anyway).
  Keldeo: I think that's a violation of Pokémon League Rule 385 point 16B?
  Arc: 385 point 16B. "Misquoting this rule counts as a misdemenor."
  Keldeo: ...that can't possibly be an actual rule.
  Arc: I'm just as surprised as you are. Fortunately they forgot the a in misdemeanor.
• Rayquaza causing a Mood Whiplash by doting on Mini-Quaza in a manner rather reminiscent of a certain Dad doting on his daughter.
• Legendaries that Ash catches having Pokéballs ironic to how Ash got them or to what the Pokémon is.
  • Zacian has a Repeat Ball, since she was Ash's Pokémon in another timeline.
  • Ho-Oh has a Timer Ball, since he had to wait months for Ash to come catch him.
  • The Pseudo-Groudon got a Heavy Ball, which would be normal for it... if Ho-Oh didn't turn it into a 2-foot-long Shiny Rayquaza.
  • Aten, former king of Pokéatlantis, chooses a ball hand-crafted from an Apricorn, although it's still not really antique enough to suit him.
    Ash: So he got out of it again, and I asked Mew to ask Celebi to take it a few thousand years back in time and retrieve it today, and it still worked! Which is honestly good craftsmanship.
  • Zekrom decides that a Luxury Ball would be the ideal choice.
• Pokémon evolve unusually fast around Ash. This was also a Running Gag in Ashes of the Past, based on how often it happened in the anime.
  • Ritchie is able to beat him in the Indigo League because Ritchie's entire team evolves during the fight.
  • The secret lab at the Lake of Rage was actually trying to reproduce the effects of Ash proximity, and the head researcher is dismayed when Ash actually shows up, since it skews the results.
  • It's really taken up to eleven when all of Ash's more than two dozen remaining Dratini and Dragonair secretly swap into his gym battle, because they keep evolving during the fight.
• Legendary Pokémon showing up (usually via Hoopa) to participate in random races or other events in the vein of Wacky Races, right down to many of them involving directly a Darkrai and Victini who emulate Dick Dastardly and Muttley in the the usual manner for those appearances. One appearance even has a carrier Pidgey distract them from the competition.
  • In the Mastermind of the Mirage Pokémon event, it gets brought up to eleven when Hoopa summons every single Legendary to duke it out with the fake Legends created by the Mirage System, which devolves into a collection of entirely unrelated competitions, from go-kart racing to stacking ice blocks.
  • Exploited by Ash when Brandon (who is about as crazy as him) mentions that he wants to locate Regigigas. Ash suggests that they have a shot put competition. Cue Regigigas immediately stomping up to participate.
  • During a battle between two versions of Hoopa, we have one of the most insane examples of summoning Legendaries going, in a passing mention of Koraidon and Miraidon, since they've not yet made their official debut!
• Ash giving Pokémon professors headaches whenever his antics fly in the face of all known science and conventional wisdom.
  • Professor Oak is driven to drink, and starts sending warnings to the professors in each region Ash goes to.
  • Professor Elm laments how Ash upturns the scientific consensus about Pokémon language just by pointing out that Pokémon all understand each other.
• Phanphy finding Mega Stones. Even for Pokemon that don't have Mega Stones. Not to mention all manner of other items that Pickup doesn't normally grant. It's taken up to eleven when she battles Lucian.
  "Hey, look!" Phanpy said. "I found a big chunk of wood!"
  Her trunk puffed up, and she used Fling to launch a tree trunk four times bigger than she was at Lucian's Gallade. The Psychic-type sliced it in half with a Psycho Cut, narrowly avoiding being hit by the cut ends, and had just enough time to sigh in relief before a flute beaned him in the head.
  "I'm… not sure how many Celestica Flutes there are in the world, but I hope that one's an extra one," Cynthia added.
• Several Pokémon effectively being one of Ash's Pokémon without actually being captured. This includes a Zygarde, a Marshadow and an Absol.
• Ash managing to cause criminal organizations to effectively shut down by just being in the area.
  • Giovanni effectively retires from the business, leaving Team Rocket to run itself, with the only known active cell being the TRio, but...
  • The TRio end up becoming Whitney's replacement gym leaders and have gone from being the comic relief to Hypercompetent Sidekicks for Ash.
  • Team Galactic is on strict orders to leave the area if Ash is in the same area, which, embarrassingly, causes them to defeat themselves due to leaving their equipment behind at a key moment.

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