History Main / ObligatoryJoke

* It's lampshaded in ''StrongBadsCoolGameForAttractivePeople'' episode 5. Homestar is in a dungeon suspended by his "arms". Strong Bad asks him what's up:

* The page quote was used in ''JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' after the heroes foiled Gorilla Grodd's plot to turn all of humanity into gorillas.
* In one episode of ''KimPossible'', Kim discovers that the villain keeps electric eels, to which she replies, "The puns just write themselves. Shocking, isn't it?" Of course, the villain says the very same line later when he reveals his electric eels.

--> -- ''JusticeLeagueUnlimited'', "Dead Reckoning"

* WebOriginal/TheNostalgiaCritic did [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/21604-the-care-bears-movie a review]] of the ''CareBears'' movie, and when the leader of the Care Bear Cousins said his name, Braveheart, Critic showed a clip from ''{{Braveheart}}'', asking how could he ''not'' do that joke. Later, he opened a review of the film ''Alaska'' with "SarahPalin is stupid. That's my obligatory SarahPalin reference out of the way. Now, ''Alaska''..."

->'''Superman:''' Is everything okay?
->'''Wonder Woman:''' Well, I'm sort of missing Flash's obligatory joke about Grodd having made a Monkey out of us.
->'''Superman:''' ''[[YouJustHadToSayIt Just]]'' [[YouJustHadToSayIt couldn't let it go unsaid]].
->'''Wonder Woman:''' Obligatory!
--> ''JusticeLeague Unlimited'', "Dead Reckoning"

* The quote above was used in ''JusticeLeague Unlimited'' after the heroes foiled Gorilla Grodd's plot to turn all of Humanity into gorillas.
* WebOriginal/TheNostalgiaCritic did [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/21604-the-care-bears-movie a review]] of the ''CareBears'' movie, and when the leader of the Care Bear Cousins said his name, Braveheart, Critic showed a clip from ''{{Braveheart}}'', asking how could he ''not'' do that joke.
** Later, he opened a review of the film ''Alaska'' with "SarahPalin is stupid. That's my obligatory SarahPalin reference out of the way. Now, ''Alaska''..."
* In one episode of ''KimPossible'', Kim discovers that the villain keeps electric eels, to which she replies, "The puns just write themselves. Shocking, isn't it?" Of course, the villain says the very same line later when he reveals his electric eels.
* Yahtzee's review of ''NoMoreHeroes'' opened with the song...''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4pkNcE8nsM No More Heroes]]'' by ''The Stranglers'', which he cut short stating it was too obvious.
* On [[http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1119 this page]] of ''DinosaurComics'', T-Rex complains about the overuse of the phrase "a whale of a good time" in conjunction with literal whales.
-->'''T-Rex:''' It should mean "a good time that is large or immense: METAPHORICALLY like a whale", but the metaphor's broken because it's always used on literal friggin' whales. "Dog-gone great" is getting there too.
* ''{{Castle}}'' uses the "tied up right now" variant when the titular character had bound himself to a chair [[ItMakesSenseInContext to see whether he could free himself]].
** Played with in a recent episode: [[TheCoroner Lanie]] finds out that the recent victim, who had been burnt in a pizza oven, has the last name 'Burns'. She tells Castle, who had started to look excited, to make the Obligatory Joke...but it turns out that Castle had actually recognized the name.
* Michael Caesar of TheBoondocks often makes obligatory bad jokes about current events or whatever the topic of the day is about. His best friend Huey's response is usually to [[BeatPanel stop and glare at him]], [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere and then walk offscreen without saying a word.]] Caesar usually quips that he needs a better audience.
* ''TheSpectacularSpiderMan'' also had Green Goblin do the "tied up" joke, chuckling to himself that you gotta love the classics.
* In 'Doctor's Disorders' of ''DannyPhantom'', Penelope Spectra tries to get a sample of Danny's DNA to make a perfect body for herself. When she's not looking, Danny swaps it out with something from his dad's uses hankerchief. The result is Spectra turning into a Jack Fenton-shaped snot monster. Danny comments, "There's a 'You blew it' pun here somewhere, but I'd rather not." When the fight begins, Spectra growls, "Let's boogie!" to which Danny replies, "That's ''exactly'' the kind of pun I was trying to avoid with the 'You blew it' comment!"

* To hear Harry Dresden tell it, he's the original this. He claims that he's now so well known that if he isn't flip and punny to every supernatural being of a distinctly higher weight class than him, they'll be insulted, because they expect him to be. Note that this was a retrospective excuse to Sigrun for pissing off [[spoiler: ''Odin's'']] secretaries.

* In a particularly silly episode of ''TheNewBatmanAdventures'', Robin and Batgirl are fighting genetically altered giant cows. Batgirl lampshades the fact that Robin couldn't resist yelling [[MythologyGag "Holy Cow!"]]

* In 'Doctor's Disorders' of DannyPhantom, Penelope Spectra tries to get a sample of Danny's DNA to make a perfect body for herself. When she's not looking, Danny swaps it out with something from his dad's uses hankerchief. The result is Spectra turning into a Jack Fenton-shaped snot monster. Danny comments, "There's a 'You blew it' pun here somewhere, but I'd rather not." When the fight begins, Spectra growls, "Let's boogie!" to which Danny replies, "That's ''exactly'' the kind of pun I was trying to avoid with the 'You blew it' comment!"

* In a particularly silly episode of TheNewBatmanAdventures, Robin and Batgirl are fighting genetically altered giant cows. Batgirl lampshades the fact that Robin couldn't resist yelling [[MythologyGag "Holy Cow!"]]

* TheNostalgiaCritic did [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/21604-the-care-bears-movie a review]] of the ''CareBears'' movie, and when the leader of the Care Bear Cousins said his name, Braveheart, Critic showed a clip from ''{{Braveheart}}'', asking how could he ''not'' do that joke.

In certain situations, characters (and writers, it seems) just ''have'' to make certain puns. And they're usually the same ones. But TropesAreNotBad, as in many cases the audience may feel ''disappointed'' if the obligatory joke fails to come up.

->'''Superman:''' "Is everything okay?"
->'''Wonder Woman:''' "Well, I'm sort of missing Flash's obligatory joke about Grodd having made a Monkey out of us."
->'''Superman:''' "''[[YouJustHadToSayIt Just]]'' [[YouJustHadToSayIt couldn't let it go unsaid]]."
->'''Wonder Woman:''' "Obligatory!"

* Michael Caesar of TheBoondocks often makes obligatory bad jokes about current events or whatever the topic of the day is about. His best friend Huey's response is usually to [[BeatPanel stop and glare at him]], [[ScrewThisImOutOfHere and then walk offscreen without saying a word.]] Caesar usually quips that he needs a better audience.

* Anything involving a primate is going to involve lines like "Monkeying Around" or Making a Monkey('s uncle) out of someone". And let's not forget the inevitable use of the phrase "Monkey Business".

* If an animal of some kind is bitting someone, an onlooker will be prompted to ask, "What's eating you?"

See also IncrediblyLamePun, BondOneLiner, QuipToBlack and others, which have considerable overlap. YouLookLikeYouveSeenAGhost is one subtrope.

See also IncrediblyLamePun, BondOneLiner, QuipToBlack, and others, which have considerable overlap. YouLookLikeYouveSeenAGhost is one subtrope.

* The quote above was used in ''JusticeLeague Unlimited'' after undoing Gorilla Grodd's plot to turn all of Humanity into gorillas.

* In one episode of KimPossible, Kim discovers that the villain keeps electric eels, to which she replies, "The puns just write themselves. Shocking, isn't it?" Of course, the villain says the very same line later when he reveals his electric eels.

* ''{{Castle}}'' uses the "tied up right now" variant when the titular character had bound himself to a chair [[ItMakesSenseInContext to see if he could free himself]].
** Played with in a recent episode: [[TheCoroner Lanie]] finds out that the recent victim, who had been burnt in a pizza oven, has the last name 'Burns'. She tells Castle, who had started to look excited, to make the ObligatoryJoke...but it turns out that Castle had actually recognized the name.

----

* Cat-related jokes are sometimes ''cat''astrophic or ''cat''holic.

* Cat-related jokes are sometimes ''cat''astriphic.

->'''Superman:''' "Everyone alright?"
->'''Wonder Woman:''' "Well, except for missing Flash's obligatory line about Grodd having made Monkeys out of us."
->'''Superman:''' "[[YouJustHadToSayIt You just]] ''[[YouJustHadToSayIt had]]'' [[YouJustHadToSayIt to say it]], didn't you?"

In certain situations, characters (and writers, it seems) just ''have'' to make certain puns. And they're usually the same ones. But TropesAreNotBad, as in many cases the audience my feel ''disappointed'' if the obligatory joke fails to come up.