Tropes A to C / Whose Line

Whose Line Is It Anyway? tropes
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Accentuate the Negative:
- After one commercial break, Drew says, "I'm Drew Carey, reminding you to call your cable operator and complain. Nothing specific, just in general."
- The "Greatest Hits" about retirement begins with Ryan's character in a very negative mood:
  Ryan: Oh, why should we sell these, Colin?
  Colin: Hey!
  Ryan: When I hit 65, they're going to kick me out, and you'll be sitting here talking to a computer.
AcCENT upon the Wrong SylLABle:
- For some reason in the "Improbable Mission" of washing a car, Ryan says "Isn't that one of those lime-os" instead of lim-o's for limousines.
- In "Greatest Hits of the Roommate" Ryan says, "I've just got a craving for some hummus" (pronouncing it hyu-mus instead of hum-us).
Accidental Innuendo: Invoked. "Motown Group" has the unfortunate habit of every song beginning with "Do the ____". This will become an innuendo when the three performers playing the game are grossed out by the name of the song since it could have a double meaning to intercourse. (ex: "Do the Sewer Worker")
Accidental Misnaming:
- Before one "Greatest Hits", Drew accidentally calls Wayne "Brad". Ryan asks, "Brad showed up?" After Wayne gets mock-offended, Ryan tells him, "Hey, Clive's allowed to make mistakes." Drew then tells Ryan, "I'm sorry, Greg."
- Before a "Newsflash", Drew accidentally calls Ryan "Colin". Ryan deadpans, "It's better than Lewis; he's been calling me that for years." Greg adds, "So let me get this straight: Are you Jim or Mariah?"
- Done for laughs in the "Newsflash" with footage of rats: One of Ryan's clues is "One more question, Ben, I mean Colin, I'm sorry!"
- Drew again, when one game starts with him accidentally calling Chip Esten "Chimp".
- In a season 8 episode, Ryan says, "Hey Saul- Col. (chuckles) Sorry, I called you by your Jewish name."
Actually Pretty Funny: In one playing of Scenes From A Hat, there's already been some jabs at Drew's expense, to which Drew, as usual, makes an unimpressed, scrunchy face. It threatens to get worse when the scene prompt is "Pull the string on the Drew Carey doll, and it says..." Somehow, Greg outdoes himself and gives a one-liner that Drew actually burst out laughing at:
Greg: [pulls string] Mimi and I are the same person!
Acrofatic: Mike McShane. Gained the reputation for busting out serious dance moves long before Wayne.
Adaptational Villainy: One game of "Hollywood Director" in the revival series has Ryan and Jeff as church bell repairmen "attacked by The Hunchback of Notre Dame". Subverted as the whole thing turns into a Gag Penis joke.
Adaptation Expansion: Every now and then, certain sessions of earlier games get popular enough to be turned into games in their own right. "Film Noir" in particular started as a "Scene to Music" with appropriately noir-ish music and Jim Sweeney and Steve Steen's epic performance. "Hollywood Director" is essentially a meta variant of "Film, TV, and Theater Styles", and the lesser-played late entries "Doo-Wop" and "Boogie-Woogie Sisters" came from Wayne and Chip's "They Shot My Paw" and Wayne and Brad's "Roulette of Love" from two different "Greatest Hits". Not to mention the "Opening Sequence" game, which always uses the same rhythm of the earlier "Greatest Hits of the Ant Farm" game that had Brad to a sitcom opening theme style song.
Added Alliterative Appeal: In a "Showstopping Number" set in the Senate, Wayne says, "The Itty-Bitty-Panty Party Participates in the Partisan Committee", which he then has to sing.
The Adjectival Man: This is often used as superhero names of convenience for Weird Superheroes.
Aerith and Bob: Wayne's idea of space-themed stripper names: Galileo, Copernicus, and... Tim.
Affectionate Nickname: Ryan and Colin sometimes call each other "Col" and "Ry", especially in "Greatest Hits".
Affectionate Parody: "The Millionaire Show" is a run-through-a-question in the format of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? but with a more direct phone-a-friend to a cast member that is planted in the audience.
African Chant: The Trope Namer, named after a game on the show called "African Chant". It involved Wayne Brady singing to an audience member in the style of an African Chant, but the real comedy comes from the three other comedians singing and dancing in the background. When Brady was told the name of the game, "African Chant", he (understandably) did not react too well, initially pretending to walk away before sitting again.
Wayne: Hey, how come I gotta do the African Chant?
Drew: Because Colin would screw it up.
The Alcoholic: Parodied, most often during "Greatest Hits", when Colin will say something odd and Ryan will ask if Colin is drinking again.
- Example, from Songs of the Circus:
  Colin: You know, we have more hits than you can shake a stick at. But, you know, don't shake a stick, because that would, uh, damage the CD, and you couldn't listen to it all that well. Because once you've shaken a stick at something, you can rarely get it to the way it was before.
  Ryan: ...You're drinking again, aren't you?
  Colin: Yeah, a little bit.
- A Ryan example occurred in "Songs of the Chiropractor":
  Ryan: ...And not just songs from here in America, but songs all, from all over the world. Almost missed a word there!
  Colin: [cheerfully] That's because you're drunk!
- Wayne can get this role either deliberately (as "an old drunk who used to do the sports" in Weird Newscasters) or by accident (he was supposed to be mimicking a carousel horse in Living Scenery, but Colin deliberately misinterprets Wayne's actions as a drunk named "Crazy Ted"). Unfortunately, he winds up sounding like Bill Cosby...
- Many jokes about what exactly was in Drew's mug were made about this.
- In one game of "Let's Make a Date": Colin plays a drunk and Greg Proops guessed he's his uncle Ted.
- A playing of "Award Show" featured Ryan and Colin winning the award for obnoxious drunks.
Alice and Bob:
- Invoked often by the US players. This Scenes from a Hat session has a whole string of it.
- Chances are, if Ryan's making up the name, the first name will be either Phil or Gary (Greg makes fun of this once during a UK credits reading), the last name either Phillips, Johnson, or, if he's playing Alphabet, "Xavier Hollander." (Rarer, but still present, was the female equivalent, Xaviera: Xaviera Hollander was the author of a bestselling 70s memoir of her life as a call girl, The Happy Hooker.)
- One of the funniest Home Shopping Channel games had Colin take advantage of this proclivity of Ryan's:
  Ryan: It's four o'clock and it's...
  Colin: ...time to shop!
  Ryan: I'm Gary!
  Colin: And I'm Gary too!
All-Cheering All the Time:
- Parodied in a game of "Scenes from a Hat" on the American version: "Moments When Cheerleading is Inappropriate".
  Greg: Grandpa's dead! Gimme a D! Gimme an E! Gimme — Come on! Where's your enthusiasm?
  Ryan: Vasectomy! Vasectomy! Clip clip clip!
  Wayne: Okay! Somebody's goin' to the 'lectric chair! Gonna fry! Gonna fry! Somebody's goin' to the 'lectric chair! Gonna — Come on! (makes buzzing sounds) Say what?! Come on! Come on!
- In a "Hollywood Director" parodying The Hunchback of Notre Dame, one of the styles was cheerleaders and the performers cheered their lines.
All Gays are Promiscuous: Played straight in a "Party Quirks" where Ryan played all the characters in a gay western. Every single character flirted with the host in some fashion.
All Gays Love Theater: During one "Greatest Hits":
Ryan: I think you've figured out by now that Colin and I like to take in a lot of theater. And there's nothing we like more than show tunes!
Colin: [hesitating a bit] Nothing!
Ryan: Nothing! That's... [takes notice of Colin's hesitation] Sorry?
Colin: Nope!
Ryan: No, you look like you've got something urgent to say...
Colin: No, we love show tunes. [pointed tones] I'm married.
All Men Are Perverts: When an attractive and/or famous woman appears on the show, Ryan and Colin usually flirt with her and if they're playing Living Scenery, they'll spend the whole game finding suggestive poses to put her in. Wayne also sweet-talks some of the female audience members during the Song Styles game.
- This is lampshaded by Aisha after Wayne and Jeff's 'Hot Yoga' Duet with Karla Sousa. Sousa's flexibility is clearly quite distracting for the two players, and Aisha comments that it's the first time she's ever seen them stop singing.
- Audience members brought on stage to participate/be the victim in a sketch are overwhelmingly attractive young women. Also, male performers who aren't even participating in the current game (usually Colin and/or Ryan) will often come forward and shake their hands.
- Some of Drew's "The points don't matter" jokes also fall under this category; he compared the points to the part of the Victoria's Secret catalog where they sell the pants as well as foreplay for men.
- When Scenes from a Hat does "unlikely things in a biology class", the guys start with jokes about the reproductive side of biology, and never stop.
Almost Kiss: Occurs a few times. One of the funniest ones was an outtake where Drew and Colin's lips almost met, but they stopped in the nick of time.
Alter Kocker: Kathy Greenwood does this perfectly whenever she plays old hags and crones.
Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Invoked by Ryan in a playing of "Hollywood Director": Colin announced the next style should be Gremlins. When Colin yelled action, Ryan bent down as if getting in a Gremlin car.
- In a playing of "Weird Newscasters", Ryan had the quirk of "The Rise and Fall of a 1940s Boxer". Instead of imitating the sport of boxing, Ryan acted like a boxer dog.
- In one British episode's "Film, TV & Theater Styles" game, "Japanese Noh Theatre" came up. One of the performers began energetically spouting mock Japanese in the style of a samurai film; the other simply looked at him and said "No!" repeatedly.
- Also occasionally invoked in "Living Scenery" when the performers who are pretending to be certain things are interpreted differently by Ryan and Colin. An example in the "Living Scenery" with Whoopi Goldberg: Ryan and Colin were at a carnival and suddenly, Wayne hopped around on one foot, humming a carnivalesque tune. He was supposed to represent a carousel, but Colin remarked: "Hey look, it's Crazy Ted!"
- In the gangster version of "The Millionaire Show", Wayne was the phone-a-friend with a voice imitating Edward G. Robinson (specifically, his "myah!"). After Wayne gave the answer and hung up, Colin observed: "What a smart sheep."
- A Running Gag in "Greatest Hits" when Ryan quizzes Colin on something.
  Ryan: What comes to mind when I go, "Uh-huh huh huh huh huh huh huh..."?
  Colin: Cold toilet seats.
- In the original UK radio series, John Glover and Rory Bremner were playing the game "Couples". They were supposed to play Cagney and Lacey, but one of them impersonates James Cagney instead of the character Sharon Gless played.
Ambiguous Gender:
- During an "Award Show" about the best bitter divorce, Ryan brought a random man from the audience on-stage and said he brought his lawyer with him. Colin remarked that it won't do any good because he's been sleeping with the lawyer. After Ryan allowed the man to return to his seat, Ryan mumbled to Colin under applause, "You're gonna be the woman?" Apparently, Ryan had started the scene with the intention that he was going to play the woman, but Colin turned the tables on him very quickly.
- In the "Greatest Hits" about songs of marriage, one of the songs was "I'm the Groom" in the style of The Beach Boys. The only line of the song was Wayne's confused "I'm gonna get married, I'm gonna find myself a guy..." Apparently, Wayne forgot that he was supposed to be a guy singing about marrying a girl, which immediately cracked him up when he realized it.
  Brad: The band's had a little too much to drink!
- One of the most famous "Party Quirks" was when this affected Colin's character: He played someone who was unsure of someone's gender and did tests to find out for sure. This involved a lot of poking, prodding, and patting.
- In the "Newsflash" with the bodybuilder competition, one of Ryan's clues: "Colin, a question on everyone's minds: Man or woman?"
- In a season 1 "Daytime Talk Show" about Alice in Wonderland, Brad was unclear of Karen Maruyama's character's gender, leading to this hilarious exchange:
  Brad: If I could ask you a question, sir, where in town do you have this building?
  Karen: Wait till I tell my husband you called me a him!
  Brad: I got confused by the mustache, I'm sorry.
- In another "Daytime Talk Show" about Hansel & Gretel, Ryan forgot that Colin was playing a witch, so this occurred:
  Ryan: I put double candy cane locks on the insides of all of those doors. He was obviously intent... or she. Whatever you claim to be.
  Colin: Yeah. Thank you. I am a woman. I can't believe it.
- In a "Whose Line" with the style of Braveheart, Colin's character didn't know his own gender.
  Colin: Ach, I am a woman!
  Ryan: You are a woman! Have you not noticed?
  Colin: No, I've been too busy shouting!
Ambiguous Syntax: Every now and then, thanks to the improv format.
- One standout case during Film Noir involved Colin making up a story about being abandoned at birth, then finding the hospital he'd been born in, only to learn that his father left a talking parrot (presumably it'd been taught to say his last words) with the doctor...
  Colin: Then suddenly, he died.
  [Ryan (playing the doctor) mock-collapses]
  Colin: Um, no, I meant... [gets buzzed anyway]
- After a "Party Quirks":
  Greg: Was he (Colin) an anthropologist?
  Drew: No, he's (Ryan's) just a rat in a maze.
  Greg: No no, Colin.
  Colin: Aren't we all just "rats in a maze"?
  Greg: Man, that's deep.
- In a "Film, TV & Theater Styles", Drew buzzed at a moment where both Kathy Greenwood and Ryan were in awkward poses. Drew told one of the two to just hold that position for a second (Kathy was holding her breasts, so you think he was talking to Kathy), and Ryan wanted clarification on who Drew meant. Drew replied "Both of ya."
- In the "Dubbing" about West Side Story, Wayne dubbed audience member Gayland to say, "Look at me." Gayland thought Wayne was saying to look at him, so she turned to Wayne. Wayne had to briefly break character to clarify. Amusingly, she did this twice.
- Before one "Newsflash":
  Drew: Ryan and Kathy, you're gonna be two anchors in a studio. Two news anchors.
  Ryan: I thought you meant, like, "anchors".
- Done intentionally in the Hugh Hefner episode, when Drew told guests Ava Fabian and Victoria Fuller, "You guys, both of you are looking great."
  Ryan: Thank you.
- In the same episode, after "Living Scenery" with Ryan, Colin, Ava, and Victoria:
  Brad: You think Wayne and I can try that game?
  Drew: Nope.
  Ryan: I don't think I can lift you.
Amusing Injuries:
- Though it probably wasn't so funny for Ryan himself, Chip jumping on Ryan's back was a riot, especially since the cast was joking about it soon afterward.
  Colin: My God! He's over forty! You know we don't have the insurance!
  Ryan: It's [the next "Hollywood Director" style] "porn", so I can lie down, right?
  Ryan: That disc popped right back in!
  Chip: I broke Ryan!
- Another amusing one was when Colin was held upside down during "Action Replay" (as per imitating Wayne's and Greg's actions) and struggled a tad to get up afterward. Drew could scarcely contain his glee after the game: "I don't know why I laugh when you get hurt."
  Ryan: Do you want to throw one of my blue shoes at him?
- The Party Quirks game where Ryan rammed his head into the light on Drew's desk.
  - The fact that Ryan continued to act out the scene without breaking character makes this a Crowning Moment Of Awesome and Crowning Moment Of Funny.
- Infomercial tends to lead to Ryan using the stuff in the box on Colin, almost leading to some not-so-amusing injuries on occasion.
  Ryan: [arranging a mess of copper wires around Colin's face] This will measure the size of one's head!
  Colin: And also it can remove those pesky eyes!
- In one "Helping Hands" Colin spills hot coffee on his hands followed by Kathy trying to help by pouring orange juice on the burns. Drew, after recovering from his laughter at Colin's expense, shared that he wondered "why Ryan wasn't screaming when the coffee hit his hands."
- Parodied here when Drew's pencil somehow flies out of his hands towards the players - it just hits the floor harmlessly, but Ryan fakes an Eye Scream while Wayne collapses "dead."
- During a game of "What's in the Bag?" from the US revival, Ryan takes a spray can out of an audience member's bag and sprays it in Colin's direction in an attempt to make a bad breath joke...and that's how Ryan managed to mace himself.
- Narrowly averted in one "World's Worst" session for "talent acts" - Jeff Davis folding all his fingers together, which looks like the sort of thing grade-school kids do to gross out their parents. So, y'know, he's clearly past the age for that.
- They pretend to do things that cause massive injury or death all the time during "Sportscasters" only for the characters to immediately bounce back to normal.
- Almost happens for real in the revival series, when Colin's habit of carrying women around backfires horribly and he drops her!
- Another Living Scenery with Chris Jericho of all people, who surprisingly goes along with all the insanity enthusiastically, even the idea of an Ass Shove from Wayne... but his hiking up a leg in anticipation nails Wayne in the face.
- Not to the level of the broken neon light but still pretty bad is the Helping Hands with Tony Hawk, when Colin gets champagne in Ryan's eyes and then tries to dab it out with a bread stick, then feeding Ryan with a can of beer, leading to Ryan quipping "that is a SHARP pull-tab!"
- In one of the newer episodes, Jonathan Mangum walked backward and accidentally tripped on the steps behind the chairs and slammed his back into the column next to Ryan's chair. Luckily he was okay, and getting injured became a Running Gag in the rest of the episode.
Anachronism Stew: Frequently seen in "Film, TV & Theater Styles" and "Whose Line", as many of the scenes take place in the past, yet feature modern technology or references anyway.
- In the "Scenes From a Hat" suggestion of "gift ideas that the Three Wise Men considered":
  Wayne: Mary, we have brought this: A PlayStation 2 for the little one.
Angels Pose: Done in "Film, TV & Theater Styles" whenever the style is Charlie's Angels.
Angrish: Frequently in games where Ryan plays a usurper who puts the moves on Colin's wife, Colin comes home and spouts angrish when he sees the two of them together. One time, it's played with: During his angrish rants, he interrupts himself to tell his wife, "Here, I got you something", then continues his angrish.
Animal Motif: Ryan as a gazelle usually doing something weird.
Animated Credits Opening: The last few UK seasons.
- Evolving Credits: The big move to the US was indicated by swapping out the red background from the animated OP with a Hollywood skyline.
  - The OP evolved even before then. The first UK season featured John Sessions (the show's regular) prominently; the second season (in which he didn't appear nearly as often) removed the clips of him and had silhouettes performing the various games. Then it changes to the animated opening.
Anti-Humor: Occasionally occurs due to the improv format; one of the players will be going for a joke, while the other one won't take it in that direction.
- In a playing of "Greatest Hits" about songs of Las Vegas, it looked like Ryan was going to do a joke about Drew Carey (he often does), but it never occurred:
  Ryan: The money, the celebrities. Why, our own Drew Carey, is a frequent visitor here, to Las Vegas! [Drew smugly smiles, expecting a jab]
  Colin: That's right!
  Ryan: And I think one of my favorite... [pauses and looks at Colin]
  Colin: I was just agreeing, and looking perky!
- Another example is in an "Irish Drinking Song", the theme being "Your first car". Greg sings a line about dating a girl named Macer; He was probably setting up an AMC Pacer joke with another singer hoping he'd rhyme Macer with Pacer. It never happened.
- Also done deliberately during "Scenes from a Hat":
  Drew: What penguins are really thinking
  Ryan: Geez, it's cold!
  Drew: Things to say that will always start a fight
  Ryan: Guys wanna fight?
- Common in "Infomercial", when they find an item they have no idea what to do with: "Hey, what's that got to do with (topic)?" "Nothing!" [plonk]
- In-Universe, Colin claimed this was the case in a "Hollywood Director" when he changed the style to "insult comics".
  Colin: Oh, you had the "insult" part down; the "comic" was gone!
- In a "Greatest Hits" about race car drivers:
  Ryan: What comes to mind when I say the word "sting"?
  Colin: ...The guy who sang for The Police?
Anti-Role Model:
- Played for laughs with Drew:
  Drew: You kids watching at home, remember, the less homework you do, and the closer you sit to the TV, the more points you get. [wide smile]
- Another:
  Drew: Trust me, kids: Your homework can wait. Don't need to be doin' homework when Whose Line is on. Skip it!
- Another:
  Drew: Welcome back to Whose Line is it Anyway?, the homework alternative! [gives a thumbs up]
- One "Scenes From a Hat" suggestion was "Bad parental motivational speeches":
  Ryan: A teacher?! A teacher?! Honey, prostitutes make twice that money!
- Drew would also be an anti-role model to parents:
  Drew: Thanks for watching, tonight, by the way. Because let's face it, you could be reading to your kids, but... [audience laughs] so, thanks for joining us for some laughs.
- A helpful tip from Drew:
  Drew: By the way, if you're planning a trip to Disney World this year, Disney World or Disneyland or California Adventure, you can say anything you want to the people working there, and they have to be nice to you.
Are You Sure You Want to Do That?: Not said outright, but the meaning of the trope was definitely there. During a game of Greatest Hits, Drew asks the audience for a European city you would go to to have a good time, and gets back Paris and Amsterdam and has to make a decision.
Drew: Paris... Amsterdam... umm... let's do uhh... P... Am... Amsterdam...
[Ryan, Colin, and Wayne all give Drew bemused, questioning looks]
Ryan: Ooookaay!
Drew: ...Let's do Paris.
Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: During a talk show skit, Colin rants at Wayne and Ryan, saying that they should be put away, never have children, and wear clothes that match.
The Artifact: Reading the credits started out as a necessity due to the show's radio format, but endured the transition to television to the point where it's one of the most recognizable features of the show. Unlike most cases of this trope, there actually was an attempt to get rid of the credits reading—the first US season just features shots of the cast mingling after the last game during the credits. The credits reading was reinstated for season two after ABC realized that people were switching channels during the "new" credits.
Artistic License – Biology:
- Though it can be forgiven coming from a guest, Wilson Bethel taking Ryan's (actually Colin's) blood pressure by pumping the bladder and only holding the gauge is one thing^note, but the numbers 140/260 are very unhealthy indeed.
- Every time the subject of a lobotomy comes up, it's nowhere close to reality.
Artistic License – Geography:
- From one of the first occurrences of African Chant:
  Drew: Uh, Africa is a big country just by Madagascar...
  [Greg laughs loudly]
  Greg: It's also a big CONTINENT if you're a geographer!
  - And, during this whole episode, they continue to mock his mistake, bringing it up whenever they can. Drew gets his revenge at the end though.
- Josie's Greco-Roman Flub during one session of Questions Only that took place in Rome.
  Josie: Are you going to the Parthenon tonight?^note [Stephen fumbles and gets buzzed out]
  Stephen: [to Clive] Could you tell her the Parthenon's in Athens? [leaves, Ryan steps in]
  Josie: Is the Parthenon in Athens?
  Ryan: Would you like to buy a map?
- During a "Scenes From a Hat" about state mottos, Colin gave a suggestion about Miami. Drew immediately corrected him: "Miami's a city." Colin's response: "Florida: Not to be confused with Miami."
Artistic License – History: Done for laughs during a playing of "Greatest Hits" about "Songs of Rome": Ryan remarks that Rome's been around for about 100 years.
Artistic License – Military:
- During a playing of "Reunion" where all three were drill sergeants, Greg said, "At Ease". Colin and Greg did the appropriate "at ease"/"Parade Rest" stance, but Ryan put his hands on his hips, before noticing the other two and quickly switching. Cut to Drew (who served in the Marine Corps), mocking Ryan's mistake, though according to the official regulations, Ryan's initial stance was still acceptable.
- A really ridiculous one in the 2013 revival, a game of "What's in the Bag" that involves Wayne being examined by army doctors for physical fitness (no doubt inspired by Captain America: The First Avenger) - when suddenly the guys mention that they're already in the field. Take your time to figure that one out.
Artistic License – Physics: At the end of a barber shop-themed Narrate, Ryan traps Colin in one of the chairs, straps him in, and spins him to launch him out of the shop. Colin spins in the opposite direction, but catches himself a few seconds later and corrects himself.
- If you watch Ryan's reaction to this, it is simply amazing.
Artistic License – Religion:
- In a playing of "Weird Newscasters," Brad plays a Fire-and-brimstone Southern evangelist saying that the passage of slaying the dragon is found in Leviticus 13. Said section is really about healing diseases. He also makes the sign of the cross, which is a Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox thing. A Southern evangelist would be a Protestant.
- Rabbis do not perform circumcisions, nor do they use a tool called a mohel to remove the foreskin ("mohel" is actually the name for a person who performs them). Of course, this mistake leads to Drew's hilarious impression of Jerry Lewis as a rabbi, so it's all good.
Artistic License – Sports: The "Song Styles" with Tony Cavalero is about Professional Wrestling, and Wayne deliberately ropes in Aisha, who ends up straddling Tony while grabbing his arm and leg. Typically you have to pin them to the mat by both shoulders, not the whole spine (which could be harmful!)
Artistic License – Statistics: Occasionally happens in "Number of Words"; for instance, in a scene from the U.S. version, Ryan Stiles, playing Rocky Balboa's coach Mick, said "Smack the meat, Rock! Smack it!" and "Hit the meat, Rock! Hit it!", even though his character was only allowed to say five words, not six. After the game, Drew Carey called attention to this, and Ryan replied, "With the exchange, it all works out."
Ascended Meme: In the second season of the revival, they reused a past Scenes from a Hat suggestion, "things you shouldn't do when stopped by the police". Before the recycled gags come up Wayne immediately goes up and says "I'm Wayne Brady, bitch!"
Asian Hooker Stereotype: Karen Maruyama plays a version of this during the "dating game" in one episode of the British version. "What would you do on our first date?"
Ask a Stupid Question...: A girl who worked at Hoagie Oagie was brought up to be sung to by Wayne. Drew asked her what her duties were at Hoagie Oagie:
Drew: Do you work behind the counter, in front of the counter?
Katie: Behind the counter.
Drew: Behind the counter, oh.
Ryan: "In front of the counter". That would be a customer, Drew.
As Long as It Sounds Foreign: The whole point of the game "Foreign Film Dub" is to say foreign-sounding gibberish for the other panelists to translate.
Ass Shove:
- Colin's last line of an "Irish Drinking Song" about getting mugged was "He put my stone back in my end!"
  Wayne: Now that is a good friend.
- In the "Improbable Mission" of cooking, Ryan's butt doubled as a microwave; Colin inserted some toast.
  Ryan: Do me a favor: Set it on light.
- A rare self-inflicted one when "Scenes from a Hat" spoofs Superman - Wayne gets the idea to turn coal into diamond by putting it up his own heinie, and clenching.
As the Good Book Says...: In the "Remote Control" about chickens, Jeff (as a televangelist) tells the congregation to turn to "Chickemiah 2:3".
As You Know: Parodied to hell and back in Greatest Hits, as Colin and Ryan attempt to explain a "personal connection" to whichever obscure musical style they're about to hit Wayne with.
Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption: Invoked in one playing of Song Titles.
Ryan: Disco— [sees something flying towards his head] DUCK!
Audible Gleam: In a game of "Living Scenery", Wayne pretends to be Colin's reflection in the mirror. For extra effect, he says "bling" and uses his hand to represent light bouncing off of "Colin's reflection's" bald head.
Audience Participation:
- Half of the show's appeal comes from this. From merely taking suggestions, they've moved on to retool certain games (or make new ones) to involve audience members on stage, and then went one step further by doing it unannounced several times.
- There are also the cases where the audience cheered or whoop along in the style of whatever the actors were doing. One time Ryan called them out for it, for spoiling the answer of this "Newsflash".
- In one Scenes From A Hat game a suggestion said "Things that would make the audience boo." Ryan made a short skit about pushing an old lady into the street, but to his horror the audience merely laughed at the implication. Jeff caught on to the angle they had to go with, pretended to be at the Academy Awards and said "And the Oscar goes to... Keanu Reeves" which got the desired response.
Author Appeal:
- Colin doing his dinosaur impression, Ryan's John Wayne and Carol Channing impressions, Greg's Braveheart and Woody Allen, and Wayne's Bill Cosby and Michael Jackson, not to mention his Latino or R&B numbers.
- Brad does a pretty good impression of Fred Schneider from The B-52s in "Greatest Hits".
- Chip Esten is well known for his Snagglepuss impression.
- Also Jeff Davis, who in his first nine appearances imitated Christopher Walken at least three times.
- During World's Worst Priest or Rabbi, Drew unleashed an impression of Jerry Lewis, as though he were a rabbi. It was so hilarious, it caused all four contestants (yes, even Colin) to convulse uncontrollably with laughter.
  Drew: [as Jerry Lewis] Well hi, if you could give me the knife and the baby!! I'll give it a little cut with a HEY!!!
Award Show: Besides the game named "Award Show", which is all about giving out fictitious awards, there have been a few other instances, such as Colin proclaiming he's a great director because he won a "Dougie" (a Canadian beaver), or saying that a song in "Greatest Hits" won "15 Tonys and a Jeff."
Award Snub:
- Invoked in a playing of "Narrate":
  Colin: As he reached for his gun, several emotions ran across my face: Fear, happiness, sadness. I knew I was going for an Emmy but knew I'd never get one. [beat] Man.
- For the "Scenes From a Hat" suggestion "Things that make the audience boo":
  Jeff: And the Oscar goes to... Keanu Reeves. [audience boos]
Awesomeness by Analysis:
- Ever wonder why Ryan never hosts the "Party Quirks" party? Apparently, he is able to guess anyone's quirk in thirty seconds, which is why so few of the ones taped with him ever make it to air.
- Greg also was fairly good at guessing what the party quirks are, but more of his got onto the show because they often gave him extremely hard-to-guess ones.
- Colin has been employing some of this during "Newsflash" and "Press Conference".
Awful Wedded Life: Parodied in the "Helping Hands" where Ryan and Kathy Greenwood played newlywed lovers enjoying a honeymoon breakfast, a simple request from Kathy is returned by:
Ryan: [irritated] Oh, it's startin' already, is it?
- Whenever the subject of troubled marriages came up, Drew would make light of Wayne's troubled relationship with his then-wife.

Baby Talk: One of the "Hats" suggestions of world's worst dating service video featured Ryan in a baby bonnet, who said, "Baby hungwy!"
- One "Scenes from a Hat" Suggestion is "Inappropriate times to use baby talk." Settings invoked include a presidential address, a funeral, and a boxing ring.
- One "Let's Make a Date" had Colin talking like one would talk to a baby.
Back to Front: "Backwards Scene" starts at the end of a scene and dialogue is spoken backwards, effectively making the payoff to statements to be said first, making the setup the new punchline.
Badass Bystander:
- Every once in a while you get an audience member who can match Wayne in the dancing department. Sam the fitness instructor and Julia the dance instructor come to mind.
  Wayne: [singing to Sam the fitness instructor in the style of Riverdance]
  Well, she'll get busy and dance
  I thought that there was my chance
  But let me tell you all, don't you see
  I didn't know she could actually Riverdance!
- Another audience member, Derek the diesel guy, danced and made YMCA-style hand symbols with Wayne and Chip during "Duet". After the game...
  Wayne: Derek, you want a job, dude?
- An audience member was brought in to play a game where Colin has to animate "dead bodies" in a story. She not only did a fantastic job, she never broke character even when Colin accidentally put her hand over Ryan's crotch.
- In one "Let's Make a Date", Wayne is playing a teenage girl who decides to bring her friends onstage with her. Wayne grabs a random woman who immediately plays along and jumps into character with him, even going so far as to play along with Colin when he acts out his actions on Wayne and her.
- During a game of "Party Quirks", Wayne plays a wrestler that'll challenge anyone to face him in the ring. After briefly fighting some of his fellow cast members, he turns to the audience for a new challenger. Eventually, a brave soul steps in and takes him on (much to the audience's delight), but gets "defeated" in a matter of seconds. However, once Wayne challenges a second audience member, the latter immediately charges at him and takes him down (he was apparently so intimidating that Wayne actually turned tail and ran before getting taken down).
Bad "Bad Acting": Done when the cast has to imitate Baywatch during a scene. Or high school plays, for that matter.
- Colin unwittingly slips into this in a session of Whose Line, presumably while attempting a Vietnamese accent in the role of "a Vietnamese woman bidding farewell to her GI boyfriend at the end of the war". Ironically, the audience sympathy reached an all-time high.
  Colin: That saddens me! It saddens a lot of people...
- Many of the people selected from the audience for "Sound Effects" fall into this, though considering as time went on the people picked tended more and more to be older women, this was probably deliberate, as Colin and Ryan reacting to bad sound effects, and desperately trying to coach them into doing the effect they actually wanted, was often funnier than someone competent at it would be (this reached its zenith with the two audience members of which one did nothing, and the other could only go "whooo!").
Bad Date: The subject of a few games, like a Hollywood Director where Ryan and Kathy Greenwood were a 1950s couple making out: Ryan and Kathy started the scene pretending to have braces and their braces getting stuck while kissing.
Ryan: This is the worst date I've ever been on!
Kathy: Oh stop it, Billy, I'm having an awful good time!
Ryan: You might be, but I'll never date you again! You're not good enough for captain of the football team!
Bad Impressionists:
- Colin, during a Questionable Impressions game:
  Colin: [in his regular voice] Do you have a table for a Craig T. Nelson?
- Also, Wayne Brady during Multiple Personalities, in the style of John Wayne:
  Wayne: Howdy, pilgrim. It appears that someone's... got a flat.
  [Ryan and Greg just stare at him, smiling]
  Wayne: Got a flat!
  - It was so bad that Drew made mention of it after the game:
    Drew: A thousand points to John Wayne Brady! Man of a thousand faces!
- Wayne Brady again when trying to imitate Woody Allen in Film, TV & Theater Styles. When the next style was "horror", Ryan remarked:
  Ryan: Oh my God, that was a horrible impression.
- During a "Film, TV & Theater Styles", the next style was The Gong Show. Colin pretended to be Jaye P. Morgan, and when asked his opinion:
  Colin: [faking a hoarse voice] I thought it... SUCKED. [beat] That's the best Jaye P. I do.
- Ryan's impression of Jerry Lewis once prompted Brad (as Yogi Bear) to ask:
  Brad: Are you Carol Channing?
  Ryan: [promptly switches voices] Would you like me to be Carol Channing?
- In one Scenes From A Hat, Greg tricked Colin into having to a Scooby-Doo impression. After the laughing at the excruciatingly bad impression died down, Colin clarified:
  Colin: Scooby's not one of mine.
- In the 2013 revival, one game of "What's in the Bag" has Wayne as an alien lifeform... and he can't figure out what it should sound like, leading to something that sounds like either Woody Allen or Matthew Broderick.
- This goes two levels deep on Whose Line—Ryan's uniquely horrible John Wayne impression is usually what the other guys imitate very poorly when they are required to impersonate The Duke. Colin even imitates Ryan's spastic John Wayne walk!
Bait-and-Switch:
- When a Greatest Hits performance is based on playing as The Who, the men like to end it with acting as if they're about to smash (imaginary) guitars Who-style, then gently place the air guitar on an imaginary rack.
- One Hoedown in the UK seasons had Steve Frost pull this off marvelously:
  ''"I was riding my donkey, up a stony pass / I fell off... onto the grass..."
Basement-Dweller: From "Dating Profiles" in the 2013 revival:
Keegan-Michael Key: So, I have six bicycles... and a [looks upward] MOM I'M COMING UP IN A SECOND!!
Battle Cry:
- "SHUT UP AND TOUCH THE MONKEY!"
- "GIVE ME LIBERTY, OR A BRAN MUFFIN!"
- "GET MY BROWN PANTS!"
Bawdy Song: The Hoedown songs that don't make it to air are sometimes this. Drew likes these. For some reason, this song about puberty was cut.
Beat: Occurs most often in "Greatest Hits" during the Colin and Ryan banter. Examples:
- During "Songs of the Beekeeper", Ryan said:
  Ryan: We have Songs of the Beekeeper, and what a lonely profession it is, really.
  [Colin stares at him]
- During "Songs of the International Spy":
  Ryan: Oh, and so many styles to choose from.
  [again, Colin stares blankly]
  - From the same episode, Ryan mentioned that he spent "many, many, many years in Hawaii as part of the Navy". There was no response from Colin.
- And one that got somewhat out of control:
  Ryan: ...over 52 songs, on one CD! But it's a big one! [beat] And it's made out of chocolate! [longer beat] I had a little something to drink earlier!
- Another instance, in "Songs of Rome":
  Ryan: You know, I was alive in the '60s, although I was a very young boy, but I used to listen to my parents listening to rhythm and blues, '60s rhythm and blues. My favorite.
  [beat]
  Colin: I have nothing to add.
  Ryan: Okay.
- Beats also occur in "Film Dub", and are largely unavoidable due to not knowing the film footage beforehand. An example, from a scene set in a lab:
  Ryan: I wouldn't worry about it; they seem to be moving rather slowly.
  Greg: Mmmmmmmmm. [beat; audience laughs]
  Ryan: You know, many years ago, when I worked in this lab...
Bedmate Reveal: Done a few times in "Scenes From a Hat".
Drew: Strange things to find in your bed.
Wayne: [pretending to wake up and looking over] Colin?!
Colin: [runs onto the stage and shouts at a retreating Wayne] Teach me to sing like you!
Ryan: [joining Colin onstage] What's his problem?
Colin: I don't know.
- The now infamous "Slept with an Ugly Woman" Irish Drinking Song.
  Wayne: She looked like Jamie Farr!
Bee Afraid:
- In the "Greatest Hits" about "Songs of the Beekeeper":
  Ryan: What comes to mind when I go... [buzzes]
  Colin: I go like this, "OH NO, I'M ALLERGIC!!!"
- Inversely, one of the earliest Colin and Ryan scenes back in the UK version treated them as an annoyance at best. The style they were supposed to be doing? B-movie.
Berserk Button: In the game of "Narrate/Film Noir" set at a gas station, this happens.
Ryan: [to audience about Colin] Apparently he'd forgotten why he got kicked out of town in the first place. The sheriff caught him giving his wife a lube job in late November. I wasn't going to bring it up again. I knew it was a touchy subject with him.
Ryan: [to Colin] Haven't seen you since the lube-
Colin: HEY! COME ON! WHAT THE HELL? NEVER MENTION THAT AGAIN!
Ryan: Sorry. It slipped.
Bestiality Is Depraved:
- Before the "Duet" where Wayne and Brad sang to Lassie the dog, Wayne remarked that Lassie looks so pretty. Drew agreed, then gave Wayne a smart-aleck look. Wayne seemed annoyed that Drew took his comment in a sexual direction.
  Drew: Whatever dude, I'm not judgin' you.
- Jokes like this were actually more prevalent in the UK version, and not just from the UK players; Ryan's impression of a World's Worst "nature documentary", for example. One session of Hey You Down There even ended with Drew commenting "sheep jokes... that's why we're so popular in Scotland" (even though the actual joke was about running over a sheep instead).
- A specific UK-version example: the game was the World's Worst Person to Defend You In Court.
  Colin: Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, it's not like the sheep was under-age!
- Colin has this epic slip in a censored attempt to start a "Greatest Hits" game.
  Colin: We're watching animal porn! [beat as he realizes what he just said] Mary Had a Little Lamb will be right back...
- The Sex Hoedown on the UK version has a verse from Ryan regarding this.
- The game of "Three Headed Broadway Star" has Wayne, Colin, and Ryan claim they made love to the Loch Ness Monster named Bubbles.
- In a playing of "Hats":
  Ryan: [as The Wicked Witch of the West] I want to make love to you... you and your little dog!!
- In a "World's Worst" about "worst things to say or do after making love":
  Drew: Who's a good puppy? You're a good puppy!
- And let's not forget The Who's no. 1 hit, "Miss Kitty Left Me So I'm Sleeping With My Horse"!
- Unintentional example from a scene where Ryan was playing Tarzan:
  Ryan: Tarzan think you no love him anymore. Must get back to roots.
  Colin: What do you mean?
  Ryan: Before you come, Tarzan only have animals. Animals think Tarzan forget about him now.
  [The audience gives a disgusted reaction, Brad cracks up]
  Ryan: [realizing] I mean as friends!
  Colin: I know! I know!
Beware the Nice Ones: In the one playing of "Survival Show", Wayne's character was sunny and tried to get Colin and Ryan to join him in a sing-along. When they refused, he mimed grabbing a shotgun and cocking it.
BFG:
- The "Director" segment of the episode of Robin Williams guest-starring. Wayne yanks out a giant... thing with mechanical noises each time he's called in to exterminate some rats. Even during Riverdance.
- Justified in a session of Film, TV, and Theater Styles — the style called out was Anime. Says it all, really.
- "Sound Effects" sometimes involves Ryan calling out Colin and whoever's making sounds for him on having a pithy gunshot sound, then proceeding to one-up him with a supposedly bigger gun. It doesn't always pan out, of course.
Big Eater: Often used as a Take That! at Drew Carey:
- In a Hoedown about gambling:
  Ryan: I just heard that Vegas just went broke / Apparently it's because of just one single bloke / They never thought that they'd ever see this day / but that's what happens when Drew Carey eats buffet!
- In a "Foreign Film Dub":
  Ryan: [translating for Drew] I love you, but I've had too many meatballs!
Bigger Is Better in Bed:
- A running joke with Ryan. Also the source of gags when Greg was "Viagra Man" in a Superheroes game.
  Greg: Thank goodness the crisis has been averted. [poses] Now I've got a date with the Grand Canyon!
- In a playing of "Scenes From a Hat", the suggestion was "How the naked Fridays policy worked out at your office", which was nothing but jokes about impossibly long dicks.
- Another "Scenes From a Hat" had "Spells Harry Potter tries when nobody's looking." Wayne says "Erectus Giganticus," then runs off calling "Hermione! Hermione!"
- During a "Weird Newcasters", Greg insinuated that Colin's character (a streaker who bets he can get in every shot) had a small penis when he said: "And I wouldn't say that's an Italian sausage, more like a Vienna sausage."
- In another "Weird Newscasters", Colin played a nudist. Ryan, playing a mobster, asked if Colin would use his erect (and apparently really long) penis as his weather pointer. Colin happily obliged.
- Implied in one of the "Irish Drinking Song"s about Drew Carey:
  Wayne: [singing] He has short hair and glasses...
  Drew: [singing] And... other things that aren't so short...
- In a "Hoedown" ostensibly about drunk mothers, Ryan ignored the subject matter and, inspired by Colin's line "Oh by the way, Chip has a little penis", sang instead about penis length:
  Ryan: Oh boy, this Hoedown is takin' mighty long / I am so siiick of this bloody song / Wayne sits there and he gets to rest, / His penis is large, that's why he's behind the desk!
- In "Weird Newscasters":
  Colin: Hello, I'm Quite Hung.
- In "Hats", while holding a fish:
  Ryan: Oh, you can measure me, but you won't be throwing me back.
- One Hoedown sees Colin Lampshade Hanging that everyone makes fun of him for being bald, but he says it's okay because he's the most well-hung. Ryan follows it up by claiming his penis is currently tucked into his sock.
- During "World's Worst" infomercials:
  Wayne: Is your penis too small? [points and laughs]
Big "NO!":
- Said by Ryan in "Weird Newscasters" when he realized that the glass slipper fit on Drew's foot.
- Colin does this in "Improbable Mission", when Ryan pretends to die by being blown up by a land mine.
- A beautiful one from Colin in the "Dubbing" game with Jaime Camil, fully intended to play up Jaime's background in telenovelas - and Jaime matched it admirably..
- Apparently Wayne is under the impression that an old-school action hero has to do this.
Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head: In the "Whose Line" where Colin played a Vietnamese refugee, he told Ryan, "You big... poo head!"
Bilingual Bonus:
- In one playing of "Foreign Film Dub", Jeff Davis spoke a bit of actual Spanish.
- Wayne also does this regularly, it appears he knows at least a moderate amount of the language.
- Similarly, Colin and his French. Which is spectacularly inverted during this session of Hollywood Director. "Just to give it that sort of... I don't know what." That phrase some of you may be thinking of is je ne sais quois, which means just that.
- Both of the above are justified; French and English are the official languages in Canada, and Wayne grew up in Florida, where there is a big Hispanic community, especially in Orlando.
- Stephen Colbert brought some actual German to the table during his appearance, even getting a Hitler quote in.
- In one UK show with Stephen Fry he spoke an entire Questions Only scene set in Rome entirely in Latin.
- In the revival series, Ryan is a French chef for one "Helping Hands", and we've come to expect Ryan's not-really-French by now - so imagine the surprise when special guest Padme Lakshmi actually speaks French.
- In the "Hollywood Director" take on The Hunchback of Notre Dame above, Colin's mention of "Spanish gameshow" leads to Wayne going "Santuario! Santuario!" Which is of course Spanish for "sanctuary".
- Taken to its logical conclusion in the episode with Jaime Camil, when we finally hear all of Wayne and Jeff's Spanish versus Jaime's very authentic Spanish (apart from a moment where he explains that "hermano" means "brother), Colin's quarter-assed attempt, and Ryan not even bothering.
Biting-the-Hand Humor: You'd think they'd avoid it given it's the 2013 revival, but...
Colin: We'll bring you back to The CW remake of Grumpy Old Men with Justin Timberlake and a fetus in just a minute...
Black Comedy:
- Ryan will frequently "hang himself" during scenes.
- Also, a playing of "Superheroes" cast Brad as "Suicide Boy". Somehow, he was able to make that funny.
  Brad: Sweet propane, take me away. [stands up, laughing] This isn't working! It's an electric stove!
- One of the "and the loser has to" variants had Drew saying:
  Drew: And y'know, it's great, I don't even hear the screams anymore!
- Ryan takes this to sublime levels.
  Ryan: Y'know, Col, I love my German metal. (Beat) My grandfather doesn't cos he still has a bit in his buttocks.
- "If Entertainers Worked Funerals". Every one of them involved the deceased.
- One "Scenes from a Hat" had the suggestion "things you don't want to hear from your waiter":
  Colin: [hobbling] I've just been shot! [buzzed]
  Wayne: I just shot another waiter.
Black Dude Dies First:
- Lampshaded by Wayne Brady during a game of Questions Only set at the Bates Motel and also during a game of Themed Restaurant with the theme being horror.
  Wayne: Am I going to be the first one to die, like I always am?
- And again during a Season 8 (of the revival) game of Scenes from a Hat. The subject is the lamest horror movies. Wayne opens a door and says "Hi, I'm the brother who lived," and steps back to much applause.
- One game of Weird Newscasters in the revival series has Ryan acting out a horror movie by himself. Subverted as he goes for Colin before Wayne; then Double Subverted as Colin "comes Back from the Dead" to end the session, while Wayne stays down.
- In the revival, a game of Sideways Scene has Colin, Wayne, and Naima Funk acting. When Aisha says the style is now a haunted house, Naima tells Wayne, "You or I am going to die first".
- One Party Quirks had Wayne essentially reenacting Paranormal Activity by his lonesome. He starts out as the possessed victim, then as the footage being rewound (or is it?) then at the end he takes one look and utters a deepened "aw HELL no" before leaving.
  - Again in one Questions with Wigs when Ryan scores a jackpot with a Hannibal Lecter muzzle. Wayne takes one look and backs off.
  - And again in another Weird Newscasters when Ryan was a "poltergeist terrorizing the studio".
  - Comes to a head in a later Weird Newscasters when Ryan is acting out a war movie by himself, uses a mike stand for a sniper rifle, and finally nails Wayne. The kicker comes after the act is done, when a stagehand fixing the mike stand causes Ryan to yell:
    Ryan: Duck, Aisha, duck!
Blatant Lies:
- In a "Let's Make a Date" where Wayne played a power-crazed state trooper:
  Chip: What's the biggest lie you've ever told?
  Wayne: That you'll be out by six o'clock tomorrow mornin'.
- Before a playing of "Moving People", Ryan said to the audience member who was moving him, "Hi, I'm Dave".
Blessed with Suck:
- Quite a few of the "Superheroes" abilities could probably qualify as this, really. For example, Greg is briefly christened "Useless Man" by Clive before "Superheroes", though he's quickly given another superhero name which gives him more to work with.
- Did someone call for Captain Pork?
- A "Scenes From a Hat" suggestion also featured the subject of unlikely superheroes.
  Robin: I'm Paranoid- [looks behind himself and runs away] ...God...
Blind Date: The subject of numerous Hoedowns.
Blunt "Yes":
- In the Infomercial about face lifts, Ryan put a metal object on Colin's face which came close to poking his eyes. After the game, Drew asked Colin if he was nervous when Ryan did that to him. Colin replied while smiling, "Yes."
- After the "Dubbing" with Joanie Laurer where Ryan kissed Joanie:
  Drew: Hey Ryan, were you spankin' yourself while you were kissing her?
  Ryan: Yes. [audience laughs] ...Doesn't everybody?
B-Movie: Common fodder for the Newsflash game. In this one they've pretty much sealed it.
Body Horror:
- In a "Hoedown" about plastic surgery:
  Colin: Throughout my life I used to laugh like this: hee hee hee! / Not so since I had some major surgery / It really went horrible, it realized all my fears / Because of that surgery, I now pee out my ears.
- In the "Narrate" set in a pizza parlor:
  Colin: She was playing a game men and women had played for centuries. Unfortunately, she looked like an open autopsy.
- Played for Laughs in "Make a Monster", since the premise involves mixing a bunch of unrelated celebrities to create one body.
- One classic "Let's Make a Date" had Ryan as the "head of Colin's angry ex-wife growing out of his neck". Can it get worse? Yes, if that head starts licking your ear.
- From Wayne's song about Randy Couture:
  Wayne: He could make your head go up right inside yourself, and you're like 'Hey, I'm inside of me!'
Boob-Based Gag:
- In "Props", whenever a prop is remotely similar to breasts, guess what it'll be used for?
  Ryan: [breast-like props are on the floor, standing upright] Today, we bury (Pamela Sue Anderson / Madonna / Dolly Parton).
- Fan Disservice version in the frisky old people version of "The Millionaire Show", Ryan's lifeline in the audience was Wayne, playing his caretaker. Wayne put his shoes in his shirt to make it look like he had copiously sagging breasts.
  Ryan: She's from Montana.
  Colin: Oh y-yeah...
  Ryan: Great Falls, Montana!
Bowdlerize: In the "World's Worst Outtake From a Religious Programme", Niall Ashdown pretends to be a priest baptizing a baby, only for it to poo on him and he to call the child a "shitty little bastard". In the Comedy Central airing of the episode, the "shitty" is blanked out.
Brain Bleach:
- One Song Styles ends in Drew mentioning "a brain scrubber - that'll get that tongue-wagging thing out of my head so I can sleep at night..."
  Drew: I was gonna give you points but I'll never be able to get that screech out of my head...
- After a playing of Questions Only where one of Wayne's characters is an elderly man who removes his dentures before trying to kiss the other player, Drew says:
  Drew: Thousand points to everybody but Wayne. Thanks for this: [mimics Wayne's "toothless mouth" expression that he used in the game] Thanks for that visual. I have enough trouble falling asleep at night.
- Similarly, after a playing of "Living Scenery" where Ryan and Colin used Wayne and Kathy as towels, Drew remarked: "That drying-him-off thing was like, uh, just... I'm going to have trouble sleeping tonight."
- During the "Let's Make a Date" where Ryan played the head of Colin's ex-wife sprouting from Colin's neck, Ryan pleaded, "Come home, baby! Nobody treats you like I do." and licked Colin's ear seductively. Drew buzzed multiple times while shouting "Whoa!", and when the audience applause died down, Drew remarked: "That picture's so nasty, they won't even post that on the Internet!"
- The revival series came pretty close with this game of News Flash, but after that:
  Ryan: I don't get the turtles - it must be like Ed Asner with Betty White or something...
  Greg: Try to sleep now in the audience!
Brand X:
- In this "Helping Hands", there's a box of Twinkies with the T painted over. Another one involved what Colin described out loud as "a tin of furniture polish with the brand name erased!"
- Ryan and Heather do a game of "Props" with tubes that look like alphorns. Impersonating the Ricola commercials, but instead of saying that, Ryan yells, "Generic breath mints!".
- Before a playing of "Superheroes", Drew got a suggestion from the audience that the world was out of Cheetos, but chose the suggestion of no more shaving cream instead, as he was worried about the brand name. True to form, Greg brought up Cheetos during the skit anyway.
  - Interestingly, another round of Superheroes had Brad get the name "Captain Morgan", a pretty blatant reference to the liquor.
- An interesting variation: When Drew announced that Ryan and Colin would be doing a scene with Joanie Laurer, he remarked that you might know her better as her WWF name, Chyna. However, he instructed everybody not to call her "Chyna" again because he was concerned about WWF suing them. One could assume that there was a deal that Drew could say "Chyna" once for some brand recognition, but never again.
Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs:
- In the "Greatest Hits" about Las Vegas:
  Ryan: I tell ya, Col', the excitement never stops.
  Colin: That's right, and the music never ends! And we've combined the two: The music that never ends, and the something that never stops, to... Music That Never Ends or Stops! And it's all about Vegas!
- In a post-commercial joke, Drew said to watch for Colin's new show, a combination of Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego and Hair. It's called "Where in the World is My Hair?"
- When Scenes from a Hat does "what the batter and catcher are really saying to each other":
  Ryan: [to Wayne] That's two balls. [buzzed]
  Wayne: [to Brad] Your wife made me breakfast. [Brad takes the 'bat' to Wayne's head, both get buzzed]
  Brad: [to Wayne] Your wife's balls made me breakfast.
  Wayne: Which part of that am I disturbed by?
- In a game of director about Star Wars in the UK version, among Colin's instructions for Greg and Ryan was doing the scene by emphasizing every other word, doing it like they were constipated, and doing it like they were constipated Hungarian strippers that emphasize every other word.
Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick:
- After a commercial break, Drew said:
  Drew: I'm Drew Carey. My turn-ons are big, crackling fires, romantic walks on the beach, and strippers.
- Tends to show up in the "Quick Change" game, usually combined with Rule of Three, as in this example with Brad and Colin plotting to escape from a POW camp.
  Brad: What food did you find for our escape plan?
  Colin: I got some buns and some butter.
  Ryan: Change!
  Colin: A can of soup.
  Ryan: Change!
  Colin: ...Parts of a dog I found outside!
Breaking Old Trends: Ryan and Colin traditionally play the TV announcers in "Greatest Hits", while the songs are sung by Wayne, Brad, and the others. The revival shakes things up by occasionally (but rarely) making Greg one of the hosts while Ryan sings with Wayne. And in the Tiffany Coyne episode, the roles are reversed completely: Wayne and Jonathan play the hosts, while Ryan and Colin sing the songs.
Breaking the Fourth Wall:
- During a playing of "Let's Make a Date", Ryan's quirk was the overly long "a witch who entices the beast to her magic sleeping stool and then must find his true love to break the spell and turn him into a prince". When Ryan was asked his first question and the quirk appeared on the screen, Ryan said:
  Ryan: I'm just leaving a little time, so everyone can read the novel that is my suggestion.
- In a playing of "Sound Effects" where Ryan and Colin were two soldiers escaping from a German P.O.W. camp, the audience members were a little too excited about providing sound effects, appropriate to the situation or not. After a few seconds of this, Colin said:
  Colin: Let me just turn off the radio and let's hope that only the sound effects that happen once we prompt them, will happen!
- An unusual example occurred in the "Greatest Hits" about the president, where an audience member's reaction was worked into the scene. Ryan quizzed Colin: "If this person were alive today, I'd vote for him. Who do you think I'm talking about?" After an incorrect guess, Ryan clued him in: Jim Morrison. After saying Jim used to be with a little band called The Doors, a lone woman in the audience emitted a brief "Whoooooooo!!!" Ryan and Colin were mock puzzled as to what the noise was, until Ryan improvised that the "whoo" was actually an alarm sound effect: "Sorry, time's up; our free offer's ended!"
- The "Helping Hands" game with Florence Henderson, where they dig up a photo of David Cassidy instead, and Florence complains that it's from "the wrong show!"
  Ryan-as-Jan: What 'show'? What do you mean 'show' mom? You think we just live our lives for a half hour every week?
Breath Weapon: In the "Weird Newscasters" where Ryan was a mercenary wanting to replace everyone on the show, all Ryan had to do was breathe on Wayne after biting into an onion to kill him.
Brick Joke:
- In one episode, Drew used a tape player and a pre-taped message of himself giving points to the performers. While Drew was away from the desk during a break, Wayne grabbed the tape player and recorded himself saying "My ass." over and over. A "Helping Hands" was played, and afterwards Drew prepared to award points from his tape player... only to hear "My ass, my ass..."
- In a game of "Irish Drinking Song" with the subject of getting mugged, Ryan finished the first verse, after a Beat, with "A stone I passed!" It cracked the performers up enough to require two rounds of "Oh, hi-dee-di-dee-di-dee-di-dee-di-dee-di-dee-di" to get back on track. Then, in the final verse, Colin finishes with "He put my stone back in my end!" to much laughter and applause. See it here.
- During a game of Newsflash, the scene shown was of a bodybuilding competition, and during the game, Ryan was making jokes about the female bodybuilders looking like men. After the game Drew said "I gotta say Ryan, some day, when you least expect it, a big body building chicks gonna leap out in front of you and kick your ass." to which Ryan respond in a scratchy voice "You made fun of me! You made fun of me!" 15 episodes later, Drew introduces special guest Jane Tricker, a female bodybuilder. Ryan immediately leaps out of his seat and goes to hide backstage.
- In a playing of "Greatest Hits", Colin said, "The great thing about this CD is we have music from everywhere!", and proceeded to flail his arms wildly, presumably indicating that he's pointing to different parts of the world. Ryan asked: "Have you been working out?" Colin replied, "No, I'm a drummer!" and began to imitate Bill, who was previously sung to in "Duet" and who mimed drumming motions while Brad and Wayne sang to him. Then Ryan began to imitate audience member Debbie's minimal stretching from "Dubbing", which wasn't from the same episode but came from the same taping.
  - Then, in a "Hoedown" about doctors:
    Ryan: I went to see my doctor, in his big white cape / He told me that I really need to get in shape / Boy, I really hate him, his words I despise / But I think that today, I'd better start to exercise!
- In one episode, Brad and Wayne sung to Angela, a sign language interpreter. After the game, she taught the cast how to say "I'm sorry" in sign language. Later in the same episode, after Drew made a flub where he called Wayne and Brad "Wad", Wayne said, "You better say..." and made the sign language for "I'm sorry".
Brief Accent Imitation: In "Questions With Wigs":
Ryan: [faking a thick German accent] Aren't you the bride?
Wayne: Do I look like "de brad"?
Bring My Brown Pants: Ryan in the pregnancy test hoedown.
Ryan: My girlfriend is pregnant, I just heard from her, thinking about it, it just make me go GRRR!, someone makes me nervous, someone bring me towels, because when I just went GRRR!, I emptied all my bowels.
British Brevity: Averted; the U.K. version lasted for ten seasons (or series), with 136 episodes total. Not too shabby.
British Rock Star: Wayne plays one in this round of Let's Make A Date.
British Teeth: Played straight in a few "Scenes From a Hat" suggestions on the U.S. version, and with some Props on the same versions.
Broken Record:
- Occasionally, if audience members continue to shout suggestions even after Drew says he has one, he'll repeat the last suggestion over and over until they shut up.
  Drew: Pro bowler. Pro bowler. Pro bowler. Jeez, what, am I talking to myself? Pro bowler.
- Another "Greatest Hits" example:
  Drew: Golf. Golf. GOLF! [shouts into microphone] GOLF!!!
- Unrelated to the Drew examples, but in the "Greatest Hits" about beekeepers, one of the songs ended up going longer than Wayne anticipated, so he ended up singing that bees put pollen in their legs a few times before the song concluded. Colin lampshaded this after the song:
  Colin: You know, some people think that song's repetitive, but I did learn that bees put pollen in their legs.
Brutal Honesty: One "Party Quirks" had Colin as the world's most tactless man.
Colin: Hi, there was a big accident, some people got decapitated, here are their names. [to Brad] You know what? That shirt really makes you look fat. I mean, the color's all wrong. Who shot the drapes?
Buffy Speak: Unavoidable with the nature of the show. Colin of course is usually responsible.
- In this "Scene to Music":
  Caroline: Yes! The spurty spurty, with the little washy things!
- And in the revival, we have new player Gary Anthony Williams:
  Gary: I think Wayne was a morning radio zoom-big-boom... boom, blow up stuff..."^note
- One "Greatest Hits" starts with Aisha taking suggestions and receiving some very mixed messages, declaring that the game will be about "Songs of the Coast Guard or Sailor Guy", which Colin and Ryan immediately ragged on her mercilessly for.
Bunny Ears Picture Prank: One member of Wayne's "extended redneck family" remembered to do this.◊
Busby Berkeley Number: One "Song Styles" piece is Wayne and Chip doing a Busby Berkeley style number about kitchen sponges with Colin and Ryan doing back-up dancing.
- And once on "Weird Newscasters", Ryan had the quirk of delivering the weather in the style of a Busby Berkeley musical number, so he ends up doing a big dance about "sunny days ahead".
But I Digress: During a playing of "Greatest Hits", Colin mentions that the next artist is Jerry Van Dyke. Ryan interrupts and says, "I knew him when he was Jerry Van Lesbian, years and years ago. (audience laughs) But I digress."
But Wait, There's More!:
- A common thing parodied in "Greatest Hits":
  Colin: If you call right now, we will send free, the packaging it comes in.
- And:
  Colin: If you order right now, we'll send absolutely free, absolutely nothing!
  Ryan: BUT ACT NOW!!!
  Colin: Right now! We have operators, somewhere.
- And:
  Colin: And if you order right now, we'll throw in one of Ryan's shoes, which comfortably seats four!
- And:
  Colin: And if you order right now, we'll send you, free, a box of fresh air! That's right!! Air!
  Ryan: We just can't give away fresh air?
  Colin: Yes we can! From the makers of Breath Free, makers of air for Eterrrrrnity!
- And:
  Colin: If you order right now... it'll still take four to six weeks to get there.
Butt-Monkey: Colin, who was the source of many bald jokes, although he was likely the most skilled performer (he almost never cracks up while in character). Lampshaded by Colin himself when he offered to be everyone's "Lightning Rod of Hate."
- The UK version turned Josie Lawrence into this. Paul Merton and Tony Slattery, we're looking at you.
- Happens literally to Wayne after his big secret^noteHe's very ticklish came out...
  Jeff: You LIKE it don't you?!
- The US version featured several jokes about Drew Carey's weight. Those jokes were usually done by Ryan, but other members of the cast got in on it from time to time - even Drew himself every now and then.
- Drew also gets mocked for "sitting behind a desk and doing nothing."
  Wayne: Drew doesn't do a DAMN thing.
- During the opening introductions, Ryan is always introduced last, and every performer has a joke told about them. As the jokes get played more and more at the actors' expense, Ryan thus gets the worst of it.

Call-Back: Much of the humor overall comes from this, with the performers using lines or jokes from earlier in entirely different contexts. Examples:
- Show Stopping Number always, ALWAYS featured a call back to a previous incident during Ryan's song. Some examples:
  Ryan: In case you forget, my name is Ryan! (regarding an audience member forgetting Ryan's name during "Sound Effects")
  Ryan: I crack up when I hear "tapioca"! (regarding Colin making Ryan laugh during "Greatest Hits" by answering a riddle with the nonsensical "tapioca")
  Ryan: I can't think straight since you grabbed my penis! (regarding a "Party Quirks" where Colin checks the sex of everybody else)
  Ryan: At least I can pronounce the name "Howard"! (regarding Wayne misspelling audience member Howard's name as "Horward" during "Song Styles")
  Ryan: Come on and fluff my Garfield! (regarding a catchphrase Colin created during "If You Know What I Mean")
  Ryan: We didn't get the suggestion, we almost didn't get the hint, because Drew almost choked on an altoid mint! (self-explanatory)
  Ryan: You probably don't understand. You're cerebral! (regarding Colin saying his comedy is cerebral after few got his joke in "Weird Newscasters")
- Hoedown also frequently featured call backs to jokes from earlier in the episode. One such Hoedown, about magicians, addressed both Wayne being ticklish in "Party Quirks" and Colin accidentally pouring hot coffee on his hands in "Helping Hands".
- In a "Greatest Hits" about beekeepers, Colin mentioned that eating flan is a great way to get rid of excess celluloid. This is a reference to an earlier playing of "Infomercial", where Ryan kept mixing up the words "celluloid" and "cellulite".
- A subtle one is a "Film, TV, and Theater Styles" game when Drew changes the theme to "horror". Ryan mishears and calls Kathy Greenwood's character a whore. Wayne and Kathy correct him about what they were doing and he apologizes. A later episode had a game of "Greatest Hits" about horror, and Colin keeps overstressing the word Horror to make it clear that's what it's about while Ryan appears to understand it's about his old mistake.
- One suggestion in "Scenes From a Hat" was rejected names for bras, which returned the name "Milk Duds". Later, in a playing of "Party Quirks", Wayne (playing a tribal chief and his native interpreter) said to Kathy Greenwood: "In our country, we do not wear Milk Duds. You should let yours free."
- In a "Party Quirks" where Wayne played King Kong, he accidentally lifted audience member Melissa's skirt, exposing her underwear. Later, in a "Hoedown" about cop shows, Ryan brought up the incident again:
  Ryan: Sure you can watch them if you really want a scare, / Thursdays at eight you can see Melissa's underwear!
  - It was mentioned many times during that episode. Also, because this was early in the series they didn't have many varieties of scenes lined up yet, or established popular ones at least. What they did was to have them do not one, not two, but three Hoedowns. Ryan, though being good at Hoedowns, was obviously annoyed with this. He sang last in all three Hoedowns. No matter the subject, he went right back to the Melissa. On the last one, he ended his part by singing, "Traffic, awww, who cares, it's got no kind of class / Eh, once again I gotta mention Melissa's ass!"
- Many "Scenes From A Hat" jokes go as far as using gags from mere moments before. For instance, Ryan says "I'm Spartacus!" as Carol Channing for "Movie Lines Performed by Carol Channing," and "Things You Don't Expect to Hear When You Put Your Ear to a Seashell".
- In the episode which guest starred David Hasselhoff, Drew laughed at David's nasty habit of using more than one word at a time during Three-Headed Broadway Star. Ryan pointed out: "Remember your first time?", in reference to one of the first THBSs when he said, "And take me on a..."
- In one episode, during a playing of "Award Show", Ryan and Colin mimed Mooning the audience; Wayne was about to join in, but hesitated because he told Brad that he had a G-string on. Drew caught wind of this and found it amusing; Wayne defended his undergarment and even gave the audience a peek at it. The next game was "Party Quirks" and Wayne's quirk was the South American version of The Jerry Springer Show. However, Wayne neglected to work in the "South American" portion of the quirk, just doing a generic Jerry Springer parody. When Drew called him out on it after the game, Wayne was embarrassed that he left it out. Then Ryan quipped, "Someone's thong is too tight!"
- Much in the same vein as the "Showstopping Number" examples above, Colin's final line in one of the "Irish Drinking Song"s was "You can get poo from food!", a callback to an earlier joke in "Scenes From a Hat": "How does food become poo? I'll. Tell. Youuuu!"
- This can go across decades some times - in the 2013 revival, Wayne and Jeff's tune "Oily Cheeks" for "Greatest Hits" was awfully reminiscent of their legendary number "Harley of Seville" back in the old show.
  - Colin shoved Wayne at least once in an old game of "Props" (Wayne was Tim on a crutch), but in 2013, Wayne tried to kick Colin over in "Props" but failed (because Colin put too much weight on his peg-leg to be toppled easily).
  - One game of "Scenes from a Hat" started with two very familiar suggestions, if somewhat reworded. ("Songs that celebrate divorce" is a lot like "Ending a longterm relationship in song", and "If dogs went to therapy" takes the premise from "If dogs could talk" and maybe "What dogs would say on late night talkshows".) And one nearly identical suggestion in another episode even had Ryan reuse a line from back then.
- And in the first new game of "Dubbing", Ryan finds himself saddled with a character who didn't bother moving or even looking elsewhere, calling back to an infamous game of "Moving People".
- The game of "Greatest Hits of spring break" on the CW version of the show has Colin bring up Macklemore. Ryan asks if that's the name of one guy or a band, because he made that mistake before. Ryan's referring back to the original ABC run of "Whose Line", when he did a "Greatest Hits of the warrior princess" game and called Kid Rock a popular band and got laughed at for it.
- The first new game of "Party Quirks" had Ryan as "a Deep South sherriff falling in love with everyone he arrests", very similar thematically to his "all the characters in a gay Western" one.
- Happens twice in the one with Robbie Amell - Colin quips about "animaynecology", after which they reference the old "letter h" gag. And update it to "Capital H".
- Also happened twice in the episode with Melanie Brown, a.k.a. Scary Spice. Ryan tried to resurrect the 'icehole' gag, and Wayne got to redo his singing strippogram routine, complete with the same music used.
- One episode had confused little old ladies do Sound Effects for Ryan and Colin, but the only noise they make is "Ooooohh". The whole audience and cast made fun of that for the rest of the show finding excuses to say "Ooooohh".
- An episode using leftover footage from the Robbie Amell episode not only had the same callbacks from there, but re-introduced Ryan's "alimentary canal flossing" gag from an old "Home Shopping" game.
- Another one that goes across decades - Ryan, after famously acting out "Drew Carey: the Musical", winds up acting out one based on Colin in "Weird Newscasters".
- In the "World's Worst" with the subject of self-help videos, Ryan said "Hi I'm Drew Carey, today we're gonna learn how to walk backwards" and went into elaborate detail about how to do it. This is likely a call back to a previous "World's Worst" where he tripped on the step as he walked backwards.
- A rare one within the revival eps has Ryan reusing Wayne and Jeff's "wet-finger-on-glass" joke from several eps ago.^note Wayne^noteJeff wasn't here this week, sadly caught on to it immediately.
- There's also the game of Secret with Ryan and Colin as Batman and Robin, who find two large female wigs in the box, and get the idea to fight crime as upper-class women. In a later ep they reuse the Batman and Robin suggestion for What's in the Bag, and Ryan and Colin with women's bags made the callback inevitable.
- Wayne is responsible for two within the same game for "World's Worst" roommate - he starts off as an annoyingly hyperactive Keet, which he brings back later when he joins Ryan with his also hilariously annoying "Good Morning" song. Also, Wayne has another contribution where he tells his roommate "I'm bangin' your mom", and later on he acts it out with Heather Anne - except he had to mention it deliberately before the laughs started. Then Heather Anne does a bit as an Abhorrent Admirer - causing Wayne to join her again!
- Another one across decades, during "Dubbing" with Ryan as a professor apparently rubbing his hands with that alcohol-based self-drying hand sanitiser that's gotten so popular during the hiatus, which caused Colin to quickly quip "Professor, leave the gerbil alone." It calls back to an old game of "Secret" (bear in mind that this was during the Bill Clinton presidency) with Ryan as the President apparently playing pinball, which led Colin to quip "Mr President! Please leave the intern alone!"
- The 7x10 episode from the U.S. run ended with the cast reading the credits as the Village People whose song gets faster and faster. Of course, this is a reference to four seasons prior in the 100th episode ^notebut from the same taping , when a playing of "Song Styles" had the cast singing as the Village People whose song accidentally starts playing at double speed.
- Another one going across decades happens in the start of season 14, with the guys reading the credits as a street gang, whereupon they immediately go into West Side Story mode. And Ryan is briefly mimicking a goat.
Calling Your Bathroom Breaks: In "Questionable Impressions", Wayne (as Scooby-Doo) said: "Ruh-roh, I have to use the bathroom." Also counts as an Epic Fail, since he was supposed to say a question. When buzzed: "Ruh-roh, I have to use the bathroom??"
- In a UK "Scene to Rap" set at a zoo:
  Colin: We can't have naked people running 'round like this,
  'Scuse me, please, I gotta take a piss.
- In an "If You Know What I Mean", Brad told Ryan and Colin, "...I'm going to the bathroom."
The Cameo:
- Celebrity guest stars would occasionally fill in the fourth spot on the US show.
- Given how multiple episodes were filmed in one sitting, it's possible to see audience members familiar from one game in an entirely different episode. For example, Melissa (she of the infamous underwear) can be prominently seen prior to the game of Duet sung to Derek (or Derrick) the Diesel Guy.
Camera Abuse:
- The cameras in this show get mugged, kissed, run circles around, and one has even been knocked over by a flying hat.
- Inverted once where Ryan had a bullfight against the camera, and the camera won.
- Wayne in one episode does a brilliant job of getting sucked into a camera that was doubling as a black hole at the time.
Cannot Tell a Joke:
- During one playing of "Hats", Colin came out holding a pumpkin and said, "This is my friend, Gord. (audience barely laughs) No, he's a great pumpkin. (almost silence) ...Aw, screw it." (audience laughs)
- Also, during "Weird Newscasters", Colin's punny anchor name was "Noah Sheshavingmybaby". He said it really fast so the audience likely didn't realize that it was play on "Know her? She's having my baby". Drew called attention to the lack of audience response after the game, to hilarious results.
  Drew: Hey Colin, what was your name at the top of that?
  Colin: Noah Sheshavingmybaby.
  Ryan: "Know her? She's having my-"
  Drew: Oh, know her, she's having-
  Colin: NOAH, NOAH, Sheshavingmybaby.
  Drew: Oh. I didn't get it at first.
  Colin: You weren't alone. [audience laughs]
  Drew: I hated to ask, but we were all wonderin'.
  Colin: You know, my stuff... a lot of it's cerebral.
  Drew: Yeah, the kind of cerebral you pour milk on. [tepid audience reaction] Oh, better than "Noah Sheshavingmybaby"!
- In a game of 'Dating Service Video' Greg puts on a vaugely alien mask and says "I'm a Klingon by trade..." *almost no one laughs* "But when I'm not funny, I sit here with this fucking thing on my head! *much more laughter*
Captain Obvious:
- Colin was literally named this in a playing of "Superheroes". Of course, he played it to ridiculous lengths.
  Colin: I'm standing. I'm looking around. That's air going into my lungs.
- Colin in "Greatest Hits of Taxi Drivers":
  Colin: You know for as long as I can remember, I've had memories...
- At the beginning of a "Weird Newscasters":
  Stephen Colbert: Tonight's top story, trouble causes problems.
- At the start of the Greatest Hits of the Ant Farmer:
  Colin: As long as there's been ant farms, there's been music about ant farms. And if that isn't the truth, it would be a lie.
- The Film Noir set at a grocery store had some babbling.
  Colin: I let him think for a while. Cause I knew he had the answer. I knew it was a good answer and I knew he was going to tell it to me. Cause when you ask a question, you expect an answer. Because that's the way it works. Question, answer, answer, question. If he came up with the answer, I'd have to come up with the question, and that would be Jeopardy! and that's wrong.
- In the game "Sportscasters", when Brad is commenting on the gardening action, he says, "I don't know how you spell pain... but I spell it p-a-i-n."
- In the "Helping Hands" where Ryan was a football coach, he showed Drew a play using miniatures.
  Ryan: [indicating one of the miniatures] This is you. These are not actual size, Carey.
- Before a "Newsflash", Drew said Ryan was in front of a green screen. Ryan lampshaded this obvious statement:
  Ryan: It's really green, Drew!
- Clive does this a lot for jokes, saying things such as, "This episode will start as it often does, with the first game" and "That last game before the break has certainly altered the scoring by adding another game's scoring on top of it."
- Clive also loves doing this while introducing the contestants, saying things like, "Tony Slattery, who's played the title role in "Me And My Girl" which means he either played me or my girl", and "John Sessions, without whom, let's face it, this program would have someone else in it."
- A UK version "Courtroom Scene" game has Stephen Frost say as a lawyer, "Thank you, me Lord. Crime of passion, as we know, is the most common crime committed involving passion."
Captain Superhero: These are often suggestions for superhero names in "Weird Superheroes", with "Captain Obvious" leading to the above.
Cargo Ship: Invoked.
- In one game of Let's Make A Date, where Ryan has an entire relationship with the stool Colin is sitting on. Up to and including having kids.
- In a Helping Hands game, Ryan and Drew played Italian deli employees with the former's hands provided by Colin. Colin picks up slices of cheese which makes Ryan say, "I love-a the cheesy." Colin proceeded to rub the cheese across Ryan's chest while Ryan made moaning sounds.
Casual Danger Dialogue:
- "Newsflash" sometimes turns out like this, unless Colin goes for the "panicky-mortal-danger" approach.
- In a "Whose Line" set in a gladiator arena, one of Colin's pre-written lines was "Give it a squeeze and check it's working!"
  Ryan: ...I don't think you're aware of the fact that you could die out there today. This is no laughing matter.
  Colin: [meekly] Give it a squeeze, and check-
  Ryan: No.
Catchphrase:
- Clive, on the U.K. version: (after listing off the performers that were on the show) "Richard Vranch on the piano, and me, Clive Anderson, saying good night. Good night!" Additionally, reading the credits "in a style of my own choosing". It was such an iconic catchphrase that during a "Press Conference" where Colin had Clive's love child, one of the dead give-away hints was Greg asking "Was it a natural childbirth, or was it in a manner of his own choosing?", to which Colin said "It was very painful...and it was in the style of a hoedown."
- Colin was fond of this, turning one-shot punchlines into Running Gags.
- "Where (...) the points don't matter; that's right, the points are like X."
- Drew, on the U.S. version: "Welcome to Whose Line is it Anyway, the show where everything's made up and the points don't matter." Additionally, for a brief time, Drew remarked that a game would make a great party game to try if "there's no chicks or booze."
- Another catch-phrase of Drew's: "And I'm your host, Drew Carey; come on down, let's have some fun!"
- Eventually, the Info Dump that began the show was phased out, since viewers were fully aware of the show's format. This led to a quasi-catch phrase from Drew after his opening joke: "I got tons of jokes like that, but you don't wanna hear me..."/"But you don't want to listen to me yappin' all night..." and then would jump right into the first game.
- In "Infomercial": "Hey! It's (insert #) o'clock and it's time to shop shop shop!"
- In the 2013 series, due to the high quantity of guest stars, Aisha often says a variant of "We're gonna need some help in this game, so please welcome our special guest..."/"Please welcome back our special guest..."
- Also in the 2013 series, Aisha often begins "Let's Make a Date" by saying the contestant hopes one of the bachelors picks them so they can "end their lives of lonely misery."
Celebrity Endorsement: Parodied in "Infomercial" when Colin played Craig T. Nelson, a throwback to a gag from elsewhere in the same taping. Sometimes invoked in Scenes From a Hat and World's Worst.
Celebrity Resemblance:
- Ryan has more than once compared himself to Neil Patrick Harris, and Greg has been likened to Buddy Holly.
- In one of Greg's first appearances on the British version of the show, Clive has him read the credits in the style of Elvis Costello and claiming he has no idea why Greg makes him think of that.
- A couple times on the British version, Stephen Frost was compared to Sean Connery.
Censor Box:
- In the U.S. version, a small censor box covered the performer's mouths if they said a stronger curse word, in addition to the auditory beep. This was presumably so you couldn't read their lips. Strangely, the censor box wasn't used in every instance, though.
- There was also a censor box used in the "Party Quirks" when Colin checked everyone's crotch to see what sex they were. The censor box covered Colin's hand when it was touching their privates.
- Also a censor box over Ryan's hand when he gave the finger to Drew after the "Party Quirks" where Ryan broke the neon light on Drew's desk.
- A rare and very deliberate invoking occurred during a performance of Hollywood Director when Brad asked Ryan and Wayne "You guys wanna see my fingers turn blurry?" and proceeded to give them both the finger, which really was blurred out, rather than boxed. The censors got some occasional flack on Whose Line, but at least they were perceptive.
Chatty Hairdresser: Wayne often does this in "Props," both as the hairdresser and lampshading the trope with both of them as clients in the chairs. There's also this "Party Quirks" with a chatty manicurist instead - who's possessed by a Scottish demon.
Cheek Copy: One game of "Weird Newscasters" has Wayne as a female secretary trying to find out who put a Xerox of their naked butt in her in tray at work. Apparently, it turned out to be Drew.
Chekhov's Gun:
- The game of "Secret" with bondage gear ends with Ryan playing around with the feathery whip thing until one feather came off, which Ryan discreetly pocketed. Later on, he pretended to cough it up.
Christmas Episode: Both versions had one of these (UK - Season 2 Episode 7, US - Season 8 Episode 6). The UK version had a 45-minute-long special with six contestants (Greg, Josie, Paul, Sandi, Tony, and Mike) complete with special promos. The US version was pretty much a normal episode, although it did have Brad and Wayne singing to Santa Claus and a reindeer.
- This was lampshaded by Drew, when he flat out had to announce that it was a special Christmas episode (since the studio looked like it always does).
Clark Kenting: In the "Let's Make a Date" with Greg as Judge Judy, Wayne incorrectly guessed him to be Judge Mills Lane, which led to this exchange:
Drew: Mills Lane's gonna kick your ass, man.
Wayne: Have you ever seen them in the same room together? ["I thought not" tone] Uh-huh.
Cliché Storm: Invoked in a "Superheroes" where Colin played "Captain Cliche" and ONLY spoke in clichés.
Colin: [his first words] Better late than never!
Clip Show:
- "The Best of Whose Line is it Anyway," which featured clips from seasons 1 and 2 of the U.S. version, wrapped around new footage of Drew (in a fancy suit and bowtie!) introducing the clips.
- Partway through the run their content rules were loosened, so they put out a clipshow of all the bits that were previously cut but now OK to show.
Clothing Damage:
- Happened to Tony Slattery's pants early in the UK version. Only Greg Proops and Richard Vranch got a good look at how bad it was.
- A less comedic version during the Revival when a vigorous 'gator-wrestling' scene leaves a big rip in the arm of Jonathan Mangum's jacket, and he winds up junking it... then the guys spin it into a Running Gag. Notably, all other episodes made from this taping have zero sign of said jacket.
Cluster Crap Bomb:
- Hollywood Director is best known for Colin's... colorful inflections as he halts the scene each time. As seen here.
  Colin: Crap! Crap! Not too bad.
  Colin: You'd need a stepladder to get to their level of crap!
- Played straight in the Hilarious Outtakes. You might be surprised at how much was cut.
The Coconut Effect: Lampshaded several times in "Hollywood Director," usually from No Budget.
Collective Groan:
- In one instance of "Let's Make a Date," Colin is a "bad stand-up comic fed up with the audience," and the audience groans at his jokes.
  - Colin gets so frustrated that he eventually switches out with an audience member.
    Colin: He's not that funny!
- The whole audience groaned when Brad called Colin Stephen Hawking in one "Party Quirks" when Colin was playing a seal. Even some censors found it so insulting, they bleeped out "Stephen Hawking".
Common Knowledge: Invoked in a Greatest Hits about songs of pizza:
Ryan: Y'know, Colin, an interesting fact is pizza was discovered- or made first, not discovered, 'cause then it would be under a rock or something- made first here in America, and not in Italy, as most people think.
Colin: ...I knew that.
Confession Cam:
- Parodied during the one playing of "Survivor Show," where each contestant told the camera who they were voting off; the highlight was when Ryan voted for himself so he could leave the show.
- The confession cam was also parodied during a "Film, TV & Theater Styles" where Wayne acted like a member of The Real World.
Confessional:
- Parodied in "World's Worst", the subject being "priest or rabbi":
  Ryan: I understand; you've slept with three women. [whispering to somebody in the confessional booth] He slept with three women.
- A game of Weird Newscasters had Colin getting this role:
  Colin: I like to shave... animals...
  Brad: ...and that's the evening news. [closes imaginary shutter]
The Confidant: A playing of "Let's Make a Date" featured Ryan acting out "Drew Carey: The Musical", which included making fun of his big glasses, big ass, and saying that he dated blow-up dolls. After the game, Drew awarded 1,000 points to everyone except for Ryan, only for Ryan to reply:
Ryan: I thought I was rather kind... seeing as how I got a lot of stuff on ya.
Drew: Yeah, so like I said, 1,000 points to my good buddy, Ryan Stiles! [audience cheers]
Conjoined Twins: One "Let's Make a Date" featured Colin and Ryan as siamese twins, joined at the butt. Colin's quirk was that he wanted to be separate from Ryan in his showbiz career, whereas Ryan was a stunt motorcyclist. As expected, the physical comedy resulting from this was gold.
Content Warnings:
- A few episodes of the U.S. version featured the tagline "Too Hot" branded next to the "Whose Line" logo, signaling that the upcoming episode would be slightly more racy and suggestive than usual. One such episode which featured the "Too Hot" logo was when Colin repeatedly touched everyone's crotch (including his own) in "Party Quirks".
- When ABC family first picked up the show, they put in a 10 PM weekday time slot. Each airing of the show was preceded by a bumper which used a combination of stick-figure animation of a family and voiceover to humorously but seriously tell viewers that Whose Line? is for adults, and any children in viewers' care should go to bed.
Cool and Unusual Punishment: On one scenes from a hat, they had "Celebrity Fear Factor."
Ryan: A French accent?
Colin: [to Wayne] Put on this plaid shirt...
Ryan: [walks up to Drew's desk] Drew, we're going to have to take your cards. [Drew looks completely lost] ACTION!
[long pause as Drew is unable to function until Ryan returns the cards]
Drew: ['reading' from cards] "Thank you, Ryan." [Ryan cracks up]
Cool Old Lady: Lee the Lunch Lady, who was greatly amused at Wayne's singing strip-o-gram.
Cool Shades: The Hats game sometimes has these for variety. One time Brad and Wayne have to improv a Blues Brothers song, and get some shades to wear.
Couch Gag:
- This happened at the beginning of both series. Clive started out introducing the players and their showbiz origins, then got bored with that and switched to more original, thematic introductions, with a theme and usually a sting for the fourth one.
  Clive: The greatest thing from America since sliced hamburgers, Mike McShane; and the most interesting Canadian after the maple leaf, Colin Mochrie; and the biggest thing in show business since Barnum and Bailey's tent pole, Ryan Stiles; and finally the most interesting thing to come out of Gunnersbury since the North Circular Road, Tony Slattery.
- Drew introduced each episode's contestants by using slogans, figures of speech, or other popular phrases while replacing the last words of the phrase with the contestant's name.
  Drew: If at first you don't succeed, try Greg Proops! If you can't stand the heat, get out of the Wayne Brady! If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say Colin Mochrie! And if you think you have problems, Ryan Stiles!
- Ryan's habit of making a funny expression into the camera during the intro can be traced back to the last UK season. In the US version, all four of them will be making an odd face for their introduction.
  - Occasionally, Ryan will be facing backwards during the introductions.
Couldn't Find a Lighter:
- One of the show's historic moments when Scenes from a Hat does "bad times to be smoking":
  Colin: FIRE!! [lights a cigarette on the fire]
- A recent one has "if Olympics athletes were drunk", leading to a long awaited joke when Ryan lights a cig on the Olympic torch.
Crazy Cat Lady: Invoked in one "Let's Make a Date" with Colin as a "crazy woman who thinks other people's body parts are her pets".
Creative Closing Credits: with a bonus of Leaning on the Fourth Wall as one or more players are chosen to read out the credits in a certain fashion - often as a character they played earlier in the episode that people liked the most.
Crosscast Role:
- Due to the cast being all-male most of the time, whenever a scene has a woman in it, Colin usually plays the woman^notean ironic pun on his baldness. In fact, Colin often calls it before Drew even reads the cards.
  Drew: Ryan is Noah, and Colin is-
  Colin: His wife?
  Drew: Mrs. Noah, yeah. Colin knows his role in every scene.
- One scene had Colin playing a leader of a space colony on Mars.
  Ryan: Is he a man or woman?
  Drew: Doesn't say. If I was gonna guess... woman.
- When Drew was reading the description for a playing of "Number of Words" where Charlie's Angels was the theme, Colin mimed wiping sweat off his forehead when Drew announced he was playing Bosley and not one of the Angels.
- Unfortunately for Colin, he wasn't so lucky in a "Sound Effects" with the theme of James Bond; he played a Bond girl.
- Colin frequently plays a woman in a scene, but Wayne has done so many times as well, such as when he played the girlfriend of a guy getting a tattoo, or a mouthy college girl who's showering and getting ready for a date.
- Before the "Number of Words" parodying Rocky, Drew was stunned that Colin was playing the titular character and not a woman as usual.
Crossdresser:
- In the "Millionaire Show" with the theme of Jerry Springer:
  Kathy Greenwood: [off-stage] I was just about to call you. My frilly underwear's gone missing again!
  Ryan: I ain't wearin' it!
  Kathy: Yeeeeeaaaaaaah right, you ain't wearin' it.
- In the film noir set at a auto repair shop, Ryan claims Colin (his twin brother in the sketch) is wearing a dress.
- And of course, there's the "Whose Line" with the theme of The Alamo, where Ryan (as Jim Bowie) reveals that he's wearing a dress:
  Ryan: They're expectin' us to be wearing buckskins and carrying guns, but who's expectin' this?
Cross Promotion: Since Drew and Ryan were working on both the original American version of Whose Line? and ''The Drew Carey Show"' ABC heavily involved them in the promotion of both.
Curse Cut Short:
- During the "Changed Letter" when "F" replaced "B", Brad tried to goad Wayne into saying the word "buck". Before Wayne could finish his sentence, Colin interrupted simply with, "Yeah." The word was then avoided entirely by calling the male deer a STAG.
  Wayne: I didn't say it.
  Drew: Yeah, you didn't say...
  Wayne: Buck.
  Drew: [disappointed that he didn't say it] Right.
- Done when the cast parodies Shaft: "He's one bad mutha-" "Shut yo mouth!"
- In one "Showstopping Number", Wayne censored himself on his verse:
  Wayne: Without a hole, where would you be? / No place for EHHHHH!!! and no place for the pee!
- One of the openings has Drew introduce everyone with exclamations including:
  Drew: Holy Shhhh-aving Cream! Ryan Styles!
- Inverted in episode 5x02 of the UK series. Greg mimes opening a space shuttle hatch to let a panicked, angry Ryan back inside. As soon as the hatch opens, Ryan says "—tard!"
Cut a Slice, Take the Rest: Done often in "Helping Hands", with Ryan (actually Colin) pouring out a glass for the other guy and then drinking straight from the bottle. He never finishes it, but it still counts.

Whose Line / Tropes A to C

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