[[quoteright:300:[[Webcomic/CyanideAndHappiness http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/comicbesidemyselfnew_9145.png]]]]

->''"Our top story today: Convicted hit man Jimmy 'Two-Shoes' [=McClarty=] confessed today that he was once hired to beat a cow to death in a rice field using only two small porcelain figures. Police admit this may be the first known case of a knickknack paddy-whack."''
-->-- '''Colin Mochrie''', ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway''

These are jokes that require so much setup and work behind the scenes that you would wonder why the effort was made, but you don't because it's just that funny.

Compare MassiveMultiplayerScam. Also compare ShaggyDogStory, which is a long story or joke that seems like it will lead somewhere but doesn't; BrickJoke, which is a gag or plot element that simply comes back much later; and {{Henway}}, which is a joke specifically set up to "trap" the listener. The end result may be an IncrediblyLamePun. If the joke is specifically a short story with a pun at the end, it's a {{feghoot}}.

See also DisasterDominoes, which when PlayedForLaughs is a slapstick gag which needs a lot of events occurring in succession.
----
!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* In ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', Orihime Inoue does one of these on her friend Tatsuki. She asks to stay over because she's been evicted from her apartment as of a few days before. Tatsuki is, understandably, flabbergasted and asks where Orihime's been sleeping, upon which she pulls out a squashy sleeping bag and says that it's soooo comfortable. Then she reveals that she was just kidding. Tatsuki asks her how long she'd been carrying around the sleeping bag in order to do so, and Orihime answers, "about three days, I was actually wondering if ''anybody'' was going to give me the opportunity." Of course, Orihime is a bit of a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} anyway.
* The first chapter of ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' has a Negi falling into a rather large and complex BucketBoobyTrap that must have taken quite a while to set up. Although, given that the Negiverse has a lot of RidiculouslyFastConstruction, it isn't too farfetched.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comedy]]
* Demetri Martin parodies this trope perhaps better than anyone else has ever managed to:
-->'''Demetri:''' Last time I saw Dean was like five years earlier when Dean and I were doing a roofing job on top of a 40-story building. He started talking crazy that day and he goes, "I can't take it, man," and he got up on the ledge, and he jumped. Just after he jumped, I looked down and I noticed that Trampoline Emporium was having a sidewalk sale that day. Dean landed right on one of the trampolines, bounced back up 40 stories to where I was standing, and just as he floated up he said to me, "Y'know, I think a lot of your joke premises are contrived and hard to believe."
* A heckler breaks up what he ''thinks'' is this during a PattonOswalt special. Patton then explains how this works, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDndsvjyIG4 and spends more time trouncing the heckler]] than the uninterrupted joke's setup would have been.
-->'''Patton:''' [[SarcasmMode Fuck me for building a moment...]]
* In one of his shows, Dara O'Briain has a part about the midwife that he and his wife were seeing during his wife's pregnancy. When it comes to a joke about childbirth, he runs over two to boys in the front row he was talking to earlier and spends the next minute alternatively explaining the importance of the thing he's going to say and [[PreemptiveApology apologizing to all the women in the audience in advance]].
-->'''Dara:''' And then she gets to a major issue -- Oh, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads... you'll know nothing about this, but I'm gonna say something here that you will never have heard of before in your life. But when I say it, watch out for this: When I say something in about a minutes time, every woman in this room is gonna make a noise. Every one of you will make this noise, and I am not proud of the noise I am about to make you make. It's not a good noise I'm gonna make you do. There's good stuff just beyond that noise. That's gold! But there's a noise barrier, and you've got to make that noise to get through that barrier, right? During the process, there's a point where a decision may have to be made... -- Icannotappologizeenough -- ...[[spoiler:[[{{Squick}} between a tear and a cut.]]]]\\
'''Audience:''' Eewww....\\
'''Dara:''' There's the noise!
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* GarthEnnis once created a demon named Baytor in his ''ComicBook/{{Hitman}}'' series so he could eventually have him become Lord of Hell and be referred to as "Master" Baytor.
* A [[TheViewAskewniverse Bluntman and Chronic]] comic featured marijuana-themed hero Bluntman getting distracted only to notice that Chronic has been tied up under a boulder held up by a crane. Derris, the villain, then delivers what amounts to "Give up or your sidekick gets stoned," and a couple police officers watching {{lampshade}} this by saying "So that's why he went through the trouble of dragging that huge crane over there!" "Yeah! For that incredibly lame pun!"
* In an issue of ''ComicBook/{{X-Men}}'', Mystique goes out to scatter the ashes of her [[IsThatWhatTheyreCallingItNow companion]] Destiny, a precognitive. Destiny, before her death, left detailed instructions on exactly when and where to scatter the ashes -- the fantail of a specific cruise liner at a particular point at an exact time. Mystique, at the right time and place, releases the ashes, and a gust of wind blows them back into her face. She doubles over laughing realizing that the instructions were intended to set up an OverlyPreparedGag.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Strips]]
* In one ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' strip, Dilbert and Dogbert are playing Scrabble, and Dogbert [[ScrabbleBabble tries to pass off "neans" as a word]] in order to get rid of some excess "N"s, just to goad Dilbert into saying [[IncrediblyLamePun "The N's don't justify the neans".]]
* ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'' often does this with Sunday strips; everything up to the last panel is building up an IncrediblyLamePun or overly long string of rhyming/similar sounding words ("Please don't help my mama bomb a Osama Obama llama diorama"). The last panel is, invariably, Rat expressing his disgust and/or [[RageAgainstTheAuthor threatening violence against the writer]]. A particularly elaborate/contrived one [[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dBajcEL3geM/TwxiErLMyEI/AAAAAAAAArs/8CEVJyTRQ4w/s400/PBS+Hoffa+Pun.gif in this one]].
* ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' had a ShoutOut to ''Pearls Before Swine'' -- Peter immediately surmised that Jason had been reading too much ''Pearls''.
-->'''Jason:''' I'm making a miniature RV out of these plastic building blocks. It's transporting a frozen waffle along with several expectant mothers obsessed with ''RockyIV'' from the tip of South America to a country in southern Europe.\\
'''Peter:''' Okay...\\
'''Jason:''' Here, [[SchmuckBait grab it from me]].\\
'''Peter:''' What for?\\
'''Jason:''' Just grab it. ''(Peter grabs it)'' Leggo my Eggo-carrying Lego Winnebago full of preggo fans of Drago en route to Montenegro from Tierra del Fuego which is south of San Diego.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/KungPowEnterTheFist'': The villain tells people to start calling him Betty at one point in the movie. It's funny on its own... then at the end of the movie [[spoiler:when he's wearing black and preparing to fight, Ram Jam's "Black Betty" starts playing.]]
* ''RatRace'' has a gag where half the humor of it is how contrived the setup was: [[DisasterDominoes A series of increasingly implausible incidents]] result in a Jewish family crashing into a WWII veteran assembly in a car decorated with swastikas, and the father gets out sporting a black lipstick {{Hitler}} moustache and a tongue injury that makes him speak in German-sounding gibberish, and in [[ICanExplain trying to explain what happened]] starts sticking out his burnt middle finger and waving his hand in the air in a Zieg Heil-esque gesture.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''
** In ''Discworld/SoulMusic'', Nobby and Colon are watching Imp y Celyn busking in Ankh-Morpork and Colon comments that he's "playing the harp". Nobby says "Lyre" and Colon says, "No it's true... Oh I bet you've been waiting all your life for someone to say 'that's a harp', just so you could make that joke. I bet you were born hoping that someone would say that."
** Most of ''Discworld/SoulMusic'' is a build up to one of the final lines said in the book, [[spoiler:"There's a new boy working at the fried fish stall, and I could swear he was [[ElvishPresley Elvish]]!"]]
** There's also Imp's name, which translated means bud of the holly, the y signifying "of the".
* JasperFforde, PungeonMaster that he is, likes doing this.
** Throughout Jasper Fforde's ''[[NurseryCrime The Fourth Bear]]'', the characters share office gossip about others in the police station. In the end, this comes together as a long "Peter Piper picked a peck of peppers" kind of tongue-twister, and they even [[BreakingTheFourthWall break the fourth wall]] to complain about the gag: "I don't know how he gets away with it."
** Fforde names a minor villain Yorick in his first ''Literature/ThursdayNext'' book for no real reason other than that he can bring him back four books later to make a ''{{Hamlet}}'' pun.
* "Death of a Foy" (can be found [[http://www.9timezones.com/ia/znovel.htm on this page]], ctrl-F the word "foy"), by Creator/IsaacAsimov of all people. The careful and elaborate setup of an intricate setting and alien religious culture were all for the purpose of [[spoiler:an IncrediblyLamePun based on the first several lines of ''Give My Regards To Broadway'']]. For added effect, he even carefully tailored its length for the sci-fi publication he originally sent it to, so the reader had to turn the page right before the punchline hit out of nowhere. Lots of Asimov's short stories are like this. He could fill a book with them -- and did!
* Also used in ''Literature/{{Everworld}}'', with a character making an awful pun on "gymnosperm", then announcing he'd been stockpiling it since junior high.
* Every Tall Tales Night and Punday Night at Callahan's Crosstime Saloon is filled with these.
* The book ''Dogs Don't Tell Jokes'' is about a kid who wants to be a stand-up comedian, but is considered unpopular and weird by his classmates. He finally gets his chance to prove himself during the school talent show, comes on stage wearing a hat, and launches into a long rambling story about how he bought some shampoo that was too strong. He punctuates this story with many other unrelated jokes, and actually manages to get laughs from his peers. Finally he reaches the end of the story and removes his hat, revealing that he is now bald from the shampoo. This gets a huge laugh from the crowd.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* On ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'':
** J.D. and Turk do a lot of shift-switching to put two doctors named Turner and Hooch together on a medical case, ''just'' so they could shout, "Film/TurnerAndHooch!"
** This can fizzle very easily: J.D. once told Doug that a patient had "updoc" in a class, hoping that he would would ask, "[[BugsBunny What's]] [[WhatsAHenway updoc?]]"
** J.D. set it up so a patient thought his name was Daman, so that, when the patient asked who was doing his procedure, J.D. could answer "Doctor Daman", prompting the patient to ask "Who's Daman". Needless to say, it failed, miserably. The patient was rather too polite, and added the honorific.
** The Todd has been known to wait in hiding for hours until someone unwittingly sets up a [[InnocentInnuendo double entendre]].
** J.D. also spent over a week setting up a joke about [[TheOprahWinfreyShow Oprah]]-themed cereal in ''My Happy Place'', recording a member of staff's Oprah impression and rigging a cereal box (the design and manufacture of which he was presumably also responsible for) so that the recording played when it was opened.
* Phoebe did this on ''Series/{{Friends}}''. Chandler was forced to leave a restaurant wearing only women's panties (''[[ItMakesSenseInContext long]]'' [[ItMakesSenseInContext story...]]), so she says she'd like to write a song, but can't because her guitar is missing a string.
-->'''Phoebe:''' Hey, Chandler, can I borrow your G-string?\\
'''Chandler:''' How long have you been waiting to say that?\\
'''Phoebe:''' About 20 minutes.
* Moving into their flat in ''Series/{{Spaced}}'', Tim is wearing a oversized green T-shirt and brown trousers, and Daisy a chunky orange sweater and red skirt, with thick-rimmed glasses on top of her head. No apparent reason, until they talk about which ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo'' character they are. Tim picks Fred and Daisy says Daphne. He slouches, and the glasses fall down on her face... making them look like Shaggy and Velma.
* ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway'': Colin Mochrie is a master of this. While the show is largely improvised, Colin plays the anchorman role in Weird Newscasters often he enough that he's got many a overly-prepared gag as his opening number. In addition to the one listed as the page quote:
** One even halted the show for several seconds because everybody was laughing so hard (watch it [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH5oQ05Bs70 here]]):
--->'''Colin:''' Our top story today: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer dead at 53. Over Barcelona today, the famed reindeer was hit by a flock of seagulls and a 747. Eyewitnesses report... [[MyFairLady that the reindeer in Spain]] [[IncrediblyLamePun was hit mainly by the plane]].
** Another brilliant one [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W87N93UMQso here]]:
--->'''Colin:''' Our top story today: Famous playboy Hugh Hefner managed to successfully stop an order of monks from operating a business on his property. The police forced the friars to close down their stall, which was outside the Playboy Mansion, where they had been selling flowers. Said one friar, "Well, if it was anyone else, we may have gotten away from it, but, unfortunately [[IncrediblyLamePun only Hugh can prevent florist friars]]."
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jWRr0rt8ZE And again]]...
--->'''Colin:''' Our top story today: Sixties musical group The Byrds today announced a twenty-four city reunion tour with their new band member George W. Bush. To save money Mr. Bush will play both guitars and drums. According to a spokesman, "A Bush in the band is worth two in The Byrds."
** You get the pattern by now...
--->'''Colin:''' Our top story today: noted archaeologist [[TheFlintstones Fred Flintstein]] made an amazing discovery today in Sweden. On a wind-swept fjord he came across some primitive musical instruments plus some minuscule deposits of fossilized stool. When asked what the stool could be, Flintstein replied "A dab'a {{Abba}} doo."
** In a game of "Greatest Hits", Ryan makes a joke about having a bug and being jittery as a lead into introducing a Jitterbug song. Colin pokes fun at him by doing the next two segues completely over the top:
---> '''Colin:''' I remember one time I went to the circus and I saw a strong man bend a car...bend a car? '''Music/PatBenatar!'''\\\
'''Colin:''' When I was a jockey, and in my bed-well it was more of a cot- we had this sanitary paper for the fillies and... wait... bed cot filly paper? '''Red Hot Chili Peppers!'''
** Subverted in the [[CrowningMomentOfFunny infamous]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBzwv057GPs "Arctic Tern" ]] moment, when Colin ruins Ryan's setup. For which we are all grateful -- not because Ryan's setup was ruined, but because the scene of Ryan ''absolutely losing it'' (along with Wayne having to bend over from laughter) was funnier than anything else they could have done.
* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''
** In the episode ''The Girl in Gold Boots'' there's a shot of a pool table set up just right so that Mike can pull out a cue from under his seat and pretend to shoot some pool.
--->'''Servo:''' Say, how long have you been saving that sight gag, Mike?\\
'''Mike:''' Oh, not long, about... eight years.
** In ''The Screaming Skull'', Pearl, Brain Guy, and Bobo trick Mike and the bots into believing they've all previously agreed to meet dressed as penguins. They had to reserve the penguin costumes eight months in advance for $900 each.
** In ''Track of the Moon Beast'', some characters play a weird, confusing prank on an anthropologist, then spend the next several minutes explaining it. For a host segment, Crow tried to do the same to Mike, and it's even more awkward.
* One episode of ''Series/LabRats'' is spent getting the entire cast contrived juuuust right so that they look like a circus at the end of the episode (as the administrator insisted that their attempts would end up as one throughout the episode).
* Another visual one was the {{BRIAN BLESSED}}-hosted episode of ''HaveIGotNewsForYou'', where he kept pulling props out from under the desk. One of these was a huge Spartan soldier's helmet which he put on between shots to provide HypocriticalHumor about continuity errors on television.
-->'''Ian Hislop:''' That's a fantasically elaborate prop for that joke!
* ''TheTwoRonnies'' did these kinds of jokes leading up to news headlines, much like the Colin Mochrie example above (but predating it by decades).
* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' has Barney go through weeks of planning, months of experimenting, waiting ''10 years'', and spending $30,000 on fake medical bills, all to get Marshall to try to eat an exploding sub-sandwich.
* ''{{QI}}''. Most particularly, during a round wherein [[StephenFry Stephen]] was discussing declining surnames and mentioned "Glascock" as one of them, Alan chimed in with the anecdote: "We had a Jimmy Glascock at school. You could always see when he was coming." After the laughter died down, he remarked, "I never thought I'd have a chance to do that joke."
** Rich Hall's "centi-claws" joke, also lampshaded.
* ''Series/{{Community}}'' featured the German foosball jocks who bought a soccer ball and walked in a row of three constantly carrying the ball with them, just waiting for the opportunity to kick a ball at Jeff foosball-style. Immediately lampshaded by Jeff.
* An entire episode of ''{{Frasier}}'' builds up to one of these. The A-plot involves Frasier and Niles, stuck for ten minutes at a parking garage because Frasier doesn't want to pay the parking fee. The B-plot involves Roz, who has to fill in for Frasier at the radio station. Roz lets slip that she and Frasier had a night of intimacy. Naturally, everyone wants details. Frasier is blissfully unaware of this, and upon bursting in late, turns on the mike and announces:
-->'''Frasier:''' I'm sure Roz has informed you of my exploits. It wasn't my finest hour. Let's just say, I got in there, realised I'd made a mistake and then tried like hell to get out! There was a lot of shouting and then a line started to form behind me... Luckily, my brother was with me for moral support, and, let's face it, someone to talk to. You know, you'd be amazed how long ten minutes can be when you're watching the clock. But, in the end, I got out of there without paying the four dollars!
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* PaulAndStorm combine this with OverlyLongGag in their song The Captain's Wife's Lament, in order to set up the song's [[HurricaneOfPuns Hurricane Of]] ''[[HurricaneOfPuns Pun]]'' (singular) ending. In the album version, this is merely a charming interlude, but the live version (which intersperses the song/setup with AudienceParticipation "Arrr"s and pirate jokes) takes it UpToEleven, often stretching the four-stanza introduction out to lengths of ten minutes or more.
* The whole of ''Music/WeirdAlYankovic'' "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4539G-5yUgg Since You've Been Gone]] song.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Radio]]
* Taint of the ''Lex and Terry Radio Network'' once alleged that he had become a vegetarian some years before in hopes that a woman would one day offer to "eat [his] meat." Eventually, [[HilarityEnsues one did.]]
* The elaborate puns on ''Radio/ImSorryIHaventAClue''. The host's scripted ones are the best examples, but some of the ones the panellists come out with are really more notable for this, since they're being thought up on the spot (usually) and are more likely to be [[IncrediblyLamePun incredibly lame]]. In "Sound Charades," the audience often groans very early on as soon as it becomes clear what pun the players are relying on to convey their assigned title, and the rest of the round becomes an exercise in drawing out the setup for as long as possible.
-->''(only after much scene-setting, Graeme and Barry get started on ''ThePoseidonAdventure'')''\\
'''Hamish:''' But look here, look here, ye're late today! Ye've missed the ''Series/{{Teletubbies}}''!\\
'''Dougal:''' Oh no!\\
'''Hamish:''' Aye!\\
'''Dougal:''' What hijinks were they up to today?\\
'''Hamish:''' Ohoho, I tell you, I was gripped.\\
'''Dougal:''' [[HoYay And me not here!]]\\
'''Hamish:''' Something terrible happened... to Po.\\
'''Dougal:''' Speak on, old friend!\\
'''Hamish:''' Aye, well, Tinky-winky, Dipsy, and La-la... ''couldn't see Po from the front''!\\
'''Dougal:''' No. Divulge!\\
'''Hamish:''' Ye've no heard the worst of it.\\
'''Dougal:''' No?\\
'''Hamish:''' They couldnae see him from the back either!\\
'''Dougal:''' Mercy me!... ''(and so forth)''
* In an episode of ''Radio/JustAMinute'' (the panel game where players have to talk about a subject without hesitation, repetition or deviation), Paul Merton took the given subject OffTheRails -- not unusual for him -- and started talking about the Welsh and Scottish parliaments. Clement Freud brought the house down by challenging him for "devolution." In a program remembering Freud after his death, Merton revealed that Freud had asked him before the show to work in the necessary reference, without telling him the joke.
* ''Radio/TheGoonShow'', on ''multiple'' occasions, spent twenty minutes setting up to a pun that managed to be SoBadItsGood.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* The vampiric comedy duo [[spoiler:Jack and the Cabbie]] from ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'' go to ''incredible'' lengths ([[spoiler:namely, orchestrating the entire plot and playing you and everyone else like a fiddle]]) to set up what turns out to be a glorified "knock-knock" joke. [[spoiler:Mind you, "Me, half a ton of C4" and "Half a ton of wha-[[KilledMidSentence BOOOM!]]" is one ''heck'' of a punchline.]] At least [[LaughingMad the recipient thought it was funny.]]
* In ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'', Solt and Peppor serve as tutorial fights several times. Each time results in Peppor giving instructions on how to best hurt your party, and Solt failing at this in every way possible. This happens five times or so throughout the game. Upon finding the two in Home World, they perform a stage act..Both stand still, and Peppor hits Solt every couple seconds. They do this until you leave the room, and will keep doing it at random as part of the show. Much later in the game, a person in the audience delivers the punchline: "I thought they were a joke at first, but you start liking them after a while!"
* [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 "No... that would be ''your mother!''"]]
** To elaborate, [[spoiler:the BLU team Spy had been setting up the RED team Spy as an unstoppable badass the entire video. Eventually, it lead to his team's Scout to say "What are you, president of his fan club?" The BLU Spy followed up with "No... that would be ''your mother''," pulled out a manila envelope and dropped it onto the table, revealing it is ''full'' of pornography of the RED Spy and the BLU Scout's mom.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* The creators of ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' once joked that the series would eventually end with one final punchline that the entire show had been leading up to all these years and every PlotHole would suddenly make sense.
* ''WebVideo/UltraFastPony'': the episode "Shameless Self Reference" is filled with, well, [[ShamelessSelfPromoter shameless references]] to previous videos in the series and to the creator's other work. The episode ends with Rainbow Dash declaring, "I guess I'm just an [[TitleDrop Ultra. Fast. Pony!]]" The end credits have a subtitle claiming that the entire video series was created for the sole purpose of that title drop.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic'' does this a lot.
** [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/590.html #590.]] [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/comic.php?current=579&theme=15&dir=prev #579]]. The author admits that yes, he named the character James Stud ''just'' to get that one joke.
** Also, [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/1858.html #1858]]. In-universe and real world.
** Occasionally David Morgan-Marr uses these in his annotations, for example:
--->''Swearing of oaths used to actually count for something. It used to be that people really respected sworn oaths, and would take you at your word, pretty much without question. Nowadays we're much too cynical a society to really put anywhere near as much credence on to an oath. I mean, if the director of a huge company swore on his mother's grave to stop polluting the rivers near his chemical factories, would anyone really believe him? It would be nice if we could revive faith in oaths, so that you really could believe someone if they swore to stop dumping toxic chemicals into the waterways. Lend such things more credence. It would be a credence clear-water revival.
* ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}''
** [[http://xkcd.com/123/ Comic #123]], in a way.
** [[http://xkcd.com/410/ xkcd seems to like doing this a lot.]] [[http://xkcd.com/153/ Even in his crypto algorithms.]]
** [[http://xkcd.com/887/ And again]], except this time it's the actual joke, not an in-universe setup. Seriously, it's nine pages long. Or at least nine page-downs.
** [[http://xkcd.com/757/ And another one.]]
* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick''
** [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0723.html "Generally Relative"]]. As per usual, given a [[LampshadeHanging lampshade the size of Canada.]]
** And in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0852.html "Under the Helmet"]].
--->'''Tarquin: Totally''' worth wearing a mask under my helmet for two days.
** [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0854.html Two pages later,]] Malack comments that Tarquin has always been willing to go the extra mile for a punchline.
* ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'' has this in conjunction with a BrickJoke: One of the first comics had Black Mage make an off-hand comment that a party of four White Mages would "never work" (He was reading a ''NintendoPower'' magazine, which actually suggested a [=WMx4=] party set-up in a sidebar article). Fast forward almost ''ten years'' in real time, and guess who defeats the BigBad? Black Mage's reaction was extraordinarily subdued, but by that point, it's safe to assume he was far too used to being the Universe's ButtMonkey. [[BrianClevinger The creator]] has admitted this as being the entire reason for making the comic in the first place!
* ''Webcomic/CyanideAndHappiness'': [[http://www.explosm.net/comics/2174/ Cloning oneself to make a "beside myself" pun]] and [[http://www.explosm.net/comics/2319/ turning oneself and one's car into a mermaid to make a mer-cedes pun]] are two fine examples.
* ''Webcomic/DinosaurComics'': [[http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1287 "T-Rex! You just spent hours learning about accounting for a pun!"]]
* ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal''
** [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2150#comic 10+ years of prep for a one-time one-word joke.]]
** An earlier comic pulls [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/?db=comics&id=1538#comic the same thing]], though the [[BestServedCold long-term revenge]] numbs a bit of the humor.
* Kickback set up one in [[http://www.insecticons.com/insecticomics/v4/321.html "The Fallen Finds a Bridge"]] of the Webcomic/{{Insecticomics}}.
* ''Webcomic/FollyAndInnovation'' has [[http://follyandinnovation.com/2010/03/totally-worth-it/ one with 65 days of patience for the sake of a pun.]]
* ''Webcomic/CaptainSNES'' has [[http://www.captainsnes.com/2012/07/06/780-backside-opening/ "Backside Opening"]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* [[http://flyingmoose.org/tolksarc/theories/grima.htm Here's one that's lampshaded at the end.]]
* ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' -- "7 Bizarre Noises from Outer Space": the editor listed six videos for noises. The seventh? [[spoiler: [[UranusIsShowing Uranus]]. He even admitted to making the article just to have the line "This is the noise Uranus makes."]]
* Geoff and Gavin of RoosterTeeth, on their ''Achievement Hunter'' site, they spent twenty ''hours'' preparing an elaborate ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' city for the crew to live in (complete with a massive recreation of the AH logo and a gigantic monolith serving as Geoff's house)... [[{{Troll}}and the entire point was that there was a single misaligned block that would pour lava into Jack's house when he'd try to fix it]]. Twenty hours of work just to set one guy's house on fire when he tried to clean it up; and it failed as Jack was able to save his house. [[CuttingTheKnot So Gavin just poured a bucket of Lava on it]]. It was later revealed they also had a "failsafe", [[spoiler:having spent an additional hour burying hundreds of cubes of [=TNT=] under the city and then luring Michael into pressing the trigger button]].
* [[http://loadingreadyrun.com/videos/view/38/Rapidfire-Episode-1 One skit]] in a LoadingReadyRun ''[[RapidFireComedy Rapidfire]]'' video took place over several cuts spread out over five minutes, featuring a morose clown waking up to face the day. All completely irrelevant, until the payoff in the final cut.
* Subverted in the page quote for JustForPun:
-->''Upon discovering that Miles Black, the famous phrenologist from Yorkshire was going to take up yodeling to lonely goats in Bali, James White decided to balance four planks of wood on a beer keg and call it an abstract work of art in the style of a famous fourteenth-century architect, just going to prove that people will read any old garbage if they think there will be a good pun at the end of it.''\\
-- The Grand Panjandrum's Special Award for Vile Puns, [[http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/scott.rice/blfc2008.htm The 2008 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest]]
* ''WebVideo/FiveSecondFilms'' provide us with a beautiful example with [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkAUFeOyf6s&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL The Ballad of Truck Thunders]].
* [[http://skippyslist.com/2008/05/08/a-painful-story/ "A Painful Story"]]
* ''WebVideo/GameGrumps'': While talking about experiences playing video games at cons, Creator/{{Egoraptor}} mentioned that he likes to parody new-age gamers by playing retro games, running through them terribly, and [[RageQuit rage-quitting]] the second he dies. However, once while playing the original ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'', he just ran through the game, unintentionally doing a perfect speedrun... And he didn't get hit ''until he reached the final level''. Whenever he did die fighting Bowser, he had already garnered a huge audience expecting this to be his original intention, but he just went with the original joke, throwing down the controlling and yelling "[[ItsEasySoItSucks THIS GAME]] ''[[ItsEasySoItSucks SUCKS!]]''" and left.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' has an in-universe example. CIA Director bullock sends himself and Stan on a 16 hour flight to Japan and meets him in full Kabuki dress in a Japanese tea house.
-->'''Bullock:''' Thank you for flying out here Smith.\\
'''Stan:''' Of course Sir, but why are we dressed up like this?\\
'''Bullock:''' Because I thought we could be Secret ''[[IncrediblyLamePun Asians.]]''\\
'''Stan:''' A 16 hour flight for a bad pun? ''(Stan smiles, points at Bullock)'' Yes. Yes.
* In the WesternAnimation/YoungJustice ''Insecurity'' there's a scene where Cheshire pins Red Arrow down, holds a Japanese forked dagger to his neck, and steals a kiss, saying "A kiss is just a kiss". This appears to be entirely a setup for Wally to take the weapon and fire back with "And a sai is just a sai".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* TruthInTelevision: In ''If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie Actor'', Creator/BruceCampbell relates a true complicated prank he played on a friend involving his broken down car and the US Park Service.
* InvokedTrope: At the beginning of the vice-presidential debate in the 2008 U.S. election, Sarah Palin and Joe Biden shook hands and she could clearly be heard saying, "Nice to meet you, can I call you Joe?" Many commentators later guessed that (given that candidates aren't really allowed to talk to each other during these "debates") she'd only asked so that she could begin one of her rebuttals with, "Say it ain't so, Joe!" In fact, it was because she had accidentally referred to him as "Senator O'Biden" repeatedly during debate prep.
* [[http://notalwaysright.com/a-positive-ending/9283 You just charged me for assault and battery!]]
* The RockBand Network is a system for small bands to get their own songs into the official Rock Band DLC store. The program that compiles the song for testing is called Magma "'cuz that's where rock comes from." The developers have stated that yes, that joke is the sole reason for the name.
* While filming ''Series/TorchwoodMiracleDay'', JohnBarrowman decided to "scare the crap out of {{Eve|Myles}}" by sneaking into her trailer and jumping out from the shower. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99jwDW19CEM He was in there a long time.]]
* [[http://www.lolroflmao.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Troll-Dad-Rules.jpg This gem.]] Beside hacking the phone to change the contact names, it's implied the man named his son [[StarWars Luke]] [[LukeIAmYourFather just for that]].
* The self-described "[[http://longestjokeintheworld.com/ Longest Joke in the World]]" (over 10,000 words, almost a novella) is essentially [[{{Feghoot}} one giant, shaggy-dog style buildup to...]] a {{pun}}: "[[spoiler:Better Nate than lever]]!"
[[/folder]]
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