This trope is under discussion
in the Trope Repair Shop.
Batgirl: You just had to say that.
An expression used by a character numerous times in a work. Merely uttering this phrase in the office will clue others in to the character you're referring to.
To be a Catchphrase, the phrase must be repeated multiple times in an identifiable way — what is simply the most memorable line of a movie is not a Catchphrase unless it is repeated by the same in-universe character. When it's the audience that adopts a character's line as a Catchphrase, it's a Memetic Mutation.
If the character has a Badass Creed, it will probably double as a Catchphrase. Beam Me Up, Scotty! is a false or oft-misquoted Catchphrase. Compare Arc Words, One-Liner, Other Stock Phrases, Word Power. Contrast with Author Catchphrase, which is when a phrase is recycled across unrelated works by the same author/actor/creator.
Not to be confused with the gameshow Catchphrase.note
Sub-tropes:
- Abandoned Catchphrase: A phrase that used to be a character's catchphrase, but they don't say it anymore. Or they just wanted to make room for a new one.
- Alternate Catchphrase Inflection: A character says their catchphrase in a different tone of voice from normal.
- Author Catchphrase: A line that the author tends to use.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: A character says someone else's catchphrase.
- By the Power of Grayskull!: An object that's voice-activated and requires a certain phrase.
- The Catchphrase Catches On: Real people start borrowing a fictional character's catchphrase.
- Catchphrase Insult: Somebody's catchphrase is an insult.
- Catchphrase Interruptus: A person is interrupted from saying their catchphrase.
- Catchphrase Spouting Duo: Two young slackers who have a catchphrase.
- Defeat Catchphrase: A catchphrase the villain says whenever they are defeated.
- Elimination Catchphrase: A phrase that is said whenever a person on a reality show is eliminated.
- Flashback to Catchphrase: A Flash Back which shows how characters got their catchphrase.
- In the Name of the Moon: A catchphrase said before kicking someone's butt.
- Mad Libs Catchphrase: Someone's catchphrase has the same structure but is different every time.
- Mangled Catchphrase: Someone fails to say another person's catchphrase properly.
- One-Word Vocabulary: A character can only say one thing.
- "On the Next Episode of..." Catch-Phrase: A catchphrase that advertises the next episode.
- Pokémon Speak: A creature that can only say its name/species or parts thereof.
- Phrase Catcher: Characters who often get a particular phrase said to or about them.
- Pre-Mortem Catchphrase: Some people’s last words are their catchphrase.
- Self Botched Catchphrase: Characters accidentally says their catchphrase wrongly.
- Share Phrase: Multiple characters, or even all of them, share a catchphrase.
- Signing Off Catchphrase: A line of dialogue set at the end of every (or nearly every) installment.
- Subverted Catchphrase: Characters purposely says something else instead of their catchphrase when they'd normally say their catchphrase.
- Untranslated Catchphrase: A fictional species has a catchphrase that the whole species says, but it's in their language and never translated.
- Verbal Tic: A catchphrase that's put into the beginning, middle, and/or end of all (or nearly all) this character says.
- Verbal Ticked: A character who normally has a verbal tic speaks normally.
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