Borrowed Catchphrase / Live-Action TV

• In The Adventures of Superman, Jimmy Olsen, after being appointed editor for a day, uses Perry White's Catchphrase "Don't call me Chief!" on Perry.
• In 'Allo 'Allo! one of the Running Gags involved Leclerc entering the café in a Paper-Thin Disguise, and then, as if it was a big reveal, raising his glasses and whisper "Psst! It is I — Leclerc." Then, when Mme. Edith had to disguise herself:
  Edith: Psst! [raises her glasses] It is I — Leclerc.
  Leclerc: Hey! What are you playing at? [raises his glasses] It is I - Leclerc.
• This is a Characteristic Trope on Arrested Development:
  • "I've made a huge mistake", GOB's catchphrase (and motto, practically), is also used by Marta (when she realises she likes Michael, not GOB), Michael (when he realises that "hermano" is Spanish for "brother" and the one Marta likes is him), George (when he regrets his affair with Kitty in Mexico), Steve Holt (when he realises he slept with Maeby, his cousin (he didn't actually sleep with her)), and Lucille (when she realises that her grand plan is about to fall apart in the finale).
  • Michael's reaction of "Her?" to his son's bland girlfriend, Ann is shared with the rest of the family.
  • After Gob fails his fire trick in front of the mentally retarded Rita, her response is an astonished "But wherever did [the lighter fluid] come from?"
  • Maeby's standard deflection of "Marry me!" was borrowed by Michael (to use on a woman he suspected to be his long-lost sister), and GOB (when Ann agrees to give GOB some space in Season 4. Unluckily, she takes it literally).
  • Oscar's "...dot com" following his cries of "I'm Oscar!" was later borrowed by the Saddam Hussein impersonator sent to trial in his place with "I'm No-Scar! ...dot com!".
  • Steve Holt's catchphrase of "STEVE HOLT!" was apparently borrowed from his mother, "EVE HOLT!"
  • "The very fact that you call it that tells me you're not ready" in response to the phrase "Pop-pop" was used approximately once a season.
• Arrow plays this for drama in the first season finale, as Moira uses Oliver's Catchphrase to describe herself when opening the press conference exposing Malcolm's plans:
  "My name is Moira Dearden Queen, and God help me, I have failed this city."
• Ashes to Ashes (2008): The catchphrase "You are surrounded by armed bastards!" belongs to Gene Hunt, but Jackie Queen, upon leveling in badass borrows it in 2.04.
• The A-Team: Other characters occasionally use Hannibal's "I love it when a plan comes together."
• Bunk'd: In the Season 2 finale "We Didn't Start the Fire", after Hazel was demoted to CIT for being found responsible for the cabins catching fire, Ravi and Emma utter Hazel's Signature Laugh, "Ha-ha!".
• Buffyverse:
  • On Angel, after making a violent prison escape, Faith asks if Wesley's okay. His response: "Five by five."
  • In Buffy, this is also how the audience realises Faith and Buffy have swapped bodies when Buffy says "Five by five".
  • In Season 8 of Buffy, the titular character calls Twilight an ass clown.
• Castle: in "The Final Nail" when Beckett tells Castle that a suspect's alibi checks out, Castle replies with Beckett's usual phrase, "Shut the front door!"
• El Chavo del ocho:
  • The Mexican sitcom has a musical number near the end of certain episodes. In "Oyelo, Escuchalo", at one point Quico says "Eso, eso, eso, eso", one of El Chavo's catchphrases.
  • Several characters usually call out Chavo when he does something bad to them, even if that something was done by accident ("It had to be the Chavo from the 8!!"), and Chavo would usually respond by saying "I didn't mean to mean it". But in one episode, when Señor Barriga (a recurring victim of Chavo's accidents) carelessly brings down a public drink kiosk where Chavo was selling his drinks, the usual dialogue exchange is swapped, with Chavo calling out Barriga ("It had to be Mr. Barriga!") and Barriga apologizing ("I didn't mean to mean it").
• In an episode of Community when Jeff has to move into Abed's dorm. After awhile living there, Jeff borrows Abed's catchphrase "Cool, cool, cool". This happens to Abed again when Annie pretends to be him in the Dreamatorium.
• Late in the run of Classic Concentration, contestants would say "I'd like to solve the puzzle."
• They're only catchphrases in this one episode, but in the Coupling season 2 finale "The End of the Line", the first evidence that Susan and Steve's relationship is in trouble is that she complains he never makes a decision, just saying "It's up to you", and he complains that every time he moves she asks him where he's going. At the end of the episode, when Susan leaves, Steve asks where she's going, and gets the reply "It's up to you."
• Doctor Who:
  • You know it's a grim episode on those very, very few occasions when the Doctor (Nine in "Dalek" and Twelve in "The Magician's Apprentice") borrows the Dalek Catchphrase of "Exterminate!" Eleven also borrows it in "Victory of the Daleks" while trying to persuade Winston Churchill that the "Ironsides" he's using as secret weapons (read: Daleks) are actually dangerous aliens.
  • "The Christmas Invasion": At the end, Ten uses Nine's "Fantastic" while reassuring Rose about the adventures they can go on.
  • "The Idiot's Lantern": "I'm sorry... so sorry", which is usually said by Ten, is said by Mr. Magpie when Rose is attacked by the Wire.
  • Both Martha and Rose use the Tenth Doctor's "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry" at least once apiece.
  • When Capt. Jack returns in Series 3, he uses the Ninth Doctor's "Fantastic!" when talking to the Tenth Doctor, who grins fondly.
  • Played one hell of a lot more darkly in "Midnight". The alien stealing the Doctor's voice, and with it his habit of saying, "Molto bene!" is all that gives it away and saves him from a horrible death. When Donna quotes it back at him at the end, his "No... no, don't do that" is less "Running Gag" and more "PTSD symptom".
  • "Turn Left": Rose Tyler, taking the role of the Doctor because she's in a Bad Present where he's dead, says "I'm sorry... so sorry..." to Donna Noble while explaining she's going to have to die in order to reset the timeline back to normal.
  • The Waters of Mars: The Doctor borrows the Master's old classic series catchphrase "You will obey me!" in the middle of his Time Lord Victorious phase.
    The Doctor: It's taken me all these years to realise it, but all those laws of time are mine. And they will obey ME!
  • "A Good Man Goes to War": Sontaran Strax's last words are "I'm a nurse." Said to Rory.
  • When River meets the Doctor early/late on, she introduces him to "Spoilers!". Later/earlier:
    Melody/River: Who's River Song?
    The Doctor: Spoilers.
  • "The Wedding of River Song": When Amy kills Madame Kovarian, she says "River didn't get it all from you, sweetie", borrowing River's Verbal Tic.
  • This exchange in "Asylum of the Daleks":
    The Doctor: Don't be scared, Amy.
    Amy: Who's scared? Geronimo.
  • The Eleventh Doctor borrows Ten's "Allons-y" while struggling with the Cybermen taking over his head in "Nightmare in Silver".
  • When River finally figures out the strange man who's been accompanying her in "The Husbands of River Song" is an incarnation of the Doctor she's never seen before, he says "Hello, sweetie" to her.
• In The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, the head of Sunshine Desserts has two yes-men: hip groovy Tony who constantly says "Great!", and neurotic David who constantly says "Super!" After Sunshine crumbles, they react thus to being reunited at Grot:
  David: [dismayed] Great.
  Tony: [dismayed] Super.
• In an episode of Family Matters, when Laura accidentally causes Steve Urkel's car to break down, Steve glares at Laura as she says, "Did I do that?"
• In Fawlty Towers, "He's from Barcelona" is Basil's catch-all way of explaining Manuel's shortcomings. In the final episode, it's Sybil who says it.
• In the Forever (2014) episode "Best Foot Forward," when Abe asks Lucas for help finding records of his missing mother and tells him that she had gone by several names, his response to Lucas's questions is his dad's usual, "It's a long story."
• Friends: Rachel (and a few others) have borrowed Joey's pickup line, "How you doin'?" upon occasion. In one episode, Monica says Rachel's "Nooooooooo" catchphrase, immediately followed by Rachel saying Monica's "I knowwwww!" catchphrase. Chandler's habit of enunciating incorrectly "Could that report BE any later?" is more commonly used by his friends to tease him than by Chandler himself. Also, Ross's sullen "Hi" was said by Chandler when he and Ross were miserable after being bullied.
• Get Smart:
  • A commercial for the show promoted the "Catchphrase Redistribution Service", showing a montage of scenes of other characters saying Max's catchphrases.
  • In one episode, 99 says, "Sorry about that" instead of Max.
  • In one episode, this other guy is following Max around and is interested in his job. He keeps borrowing Max's "the old X trick" catchphrase, which annoys Max.
  • In "The Hot Line" the Chief goes undercover as 'Agent Q' while Maxwell Smart is given his job. At one point, Chief Smart warns Agent Q that he'll be facing constant danger. Agent Q of course replies, "And loving it!"
• Happy Days:
  • Mrs. Cunningham would, very occasionally and when she really thought he was in the wrong, tell Fonzie to "sit on it." (Normally, the catchphrase was used by all the teen characters on the show, but not by the parents and NEVER to Fonzie.)
  • There is a scene where someone brings an embarrassing document (an old yearbook photo, or something) to the dinner table. Marion put it on her seat, sits down, and continues eating. Husband Howard says "That's right, Marion. Sit on it."
• In Happy Endings, Brad tries to make the term "chicksand" catch on. Max thinks it's stupid until the end.
  Max: You drowned, bro, in chicksand. I like it and I'm taking credit for it.
• Played With in Hogan's Heroes, when at one point Newkirk says "Formidable" while LeBeau says "Ruddy marvelous". Next second, they're both looking at the other with funny looks on their faces.
• In House, Tritter uses House's Catchphrase "Everybody lies". Possibly done in order to emphasize that Tritter and House aren't so different.
• House of Anubis had many characters borrow Victor's famous pin-drop speech. Fabian did it once in the school play (where he was playing Victor, of course) and he did it again with Patricia and Alfie when they became sinners.
  Fabian: It is ten o'clock!
  Patricia: You have five minutes...
  Alfie: And then I want to hear you all drop.
• How I Met Your Mother: Mildly lampshaded:
  Ted: Permission to say "Lawyered"?
  Marshall: I'll allow it.
  Ted: Lawyered!
• In something of an inversion, Rio in Juken Sentai Gekiranger borrows Jan's Verbal Tic during his Heel–Face Turn, to which Jan only chuckles.
• Kamen Rider:
  • Done multiple times in Kamen Rider Decade:
    • In the Final Chapter finale movie, Decade activates the Final Form Ride — All Riders, allowing the rest of the Riders to transform into their Final Form Rides (basically, a good guy version of One-Winged Angel). To do so, however, the Riders have to line up behind each other and activate the transformation of the one in front of them. They all say one of Decade's catchphrase throughout the whole sequence: "This will tickle a bit." Hilarity Ensues.
    • In the TV series (specifically, the Hibiki arc), Diend performs the requisite "No More Holding Back" Speech, usually given by Decade. When Decade comments on the theft, Diend completes it by taking another of his catchphrases:
    "I was a passing-through Kamen Rider long before you came along! Remember that!"
    • And when attempting to Power Copy Kamen Rider Den-O's attacks, Decade ends up performing Den-O's catchphrases instead.
  • In Kamen Rider Fourze, other characters would sometimes borrow Gentaro's "Uchuu kitaaa!" ("Space is heeere!", usually translated "It's space tiiime!") and occasionally replace "uchuu"/"space" with something else relevant to the situation. At the very least, they may be in the background shouting it with him when he transforms.
  • One of Kamen Rider Gaim's movies had the main characters use powerups based on previous Riders. Each of the Riders used their predecessor's catchphrases... until the end:
    Gaim: It's showtime!
    Ryugen: Now, count up your crimes!
    Baron: Seiya!
    Zangetsu: Uchuu ki... and that's as far as I'm willing to humor ''that'' notion.
  • Ex-Aid's catchphrases, "I'll clear this with no continues" and "I'll change the patient's fate with my own hands!" gets twisted by two villains - first by Parad ("I'll change the fate of Bugsters with my own hands!"), and later by Shin Dan Kuroto ("I'll clear this, even if I have to use continues!")^{spoiler explanation} When Kuroto does use this catch phrase, he's been revived as a bugster with 99 extra lives; fortunately, he's on the side of the heroes by this point.
• In the Legends of Tomorrow Trapped in TV Land episode, the sitcom versions of Nate and Behran have the catchphrase "On the other hand ... why not?" before they do something stupid, much to the irritation of Only Sane Woman Zari. Once their memories are restored and Charlie is pleading with them to stay in TV Land because if they return to the real world they'll be killed, the two Zaris look at Nate and Behran, then turn and say "On the other hand..." "...why not?"
• Everyone on the Leverage has repeated Hardison's "Seriously?!" at some point.
  • Nearly every catchphrase gets borrowed repeatedly, mostly because the writers loved seeing the actors make it their own (with Seriously?! being their favorite).
• Lost:
  • After Ben Linus is clubbed with an oar:
    Frank Lapidus: I thought you said you trusted that guy!
    Sun: I Lied.
  • In season 6, after Jack and Desmond bring back the light:
    Desmond: But what about you, Jack?
    Jack: I'll see you in another life, brother.
  • Actually, it happens twice, brotha.
  • Sawyer's old standby, "Son of a bitch!" has been borrowed by Jack, Hurley, and Bernard, among others.
• In Mr. Young, Mrs. Byrne borrows Dang's "You called?" in "Mr. Alligator" when Derby says he's looking for a scaly, leathery, prehistoric beast.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: Many catchphrases originated by the character of Joel Robinson (e.g. "I'm weird, which results in creativity", "Wha' happa?", "What do you think, sirs?") became Running Gags when other characters picked them up later.
• The Nanny: In "Franny And The Professor", Fran Fine goes on Jeopardy!, and during "Final Jeopardy!", Alex Trebek is trying to show Fran's response to the "Final Jeopardy!" question when she goes into a tangent about how she came up with her response, leading Alex to shout "MISS FINE!" in exasperation, something that Maxwell Sheffield usually does.
• Once Upon a Time: Zelena is the first in the show to call Rumple 'dearie' when she's pissed.
• In the One Foot in the Grave episode "The Futility of the Fly", the West End backer looking at a play based on the Meldrews complained about the string of Contrived Coincidences and unexplained incidents. His final verdict was "I don't believe it."
• Paul Merton: The Series: One sketch ends with Caroline Quentin (Paul's wife at the time) singing "Je Ne Regrette Rien". At the end of the song, Paul tells her "That's not French — you'll have to do better than that." She addresses the camera with his catchphrase: "Innit marvellous?"
• In Person of Interest while there are a few minor examples, there are a couple of particularly dramatic ones. Reese reverses The Machine's catchphrase "Can you hear me?" at a time when The Machine was going into shutdown. Finch borrows Root's catchphrase "I wasn't talking to you." But while Root almost always used it comedically, as one of the traits that made her appear crazy, Finch uses it seriously. He was also talking to and threatening Samaritan, while Root is always saying it to The Machine.
• Pushing Daisies:
  • Both Olive and the Narrator have said Emerson Cod's catchphrase of "Oh, hell no!"
  • And at another point, an incidental character borrows the catch phrase of the Narrator:
    Rob Wright: I know how it must sound, but the facts were these...
    Chuck: Huh?
    Rob Wright: These were the facts...
• Radio Enfer: During the episode where Vincent dates Dominique, he uses her Mad Libs Catchphrase by saying "Like the Robidoux would say, manure doesn't stick on a tractor which had its Simoniz."
  Carl: Huh, Dominique lent you her Robidoux proverb dictionary? Gotta say it's serious [between you two] and it's real!
• Red Dwarf:
  • Rimmer adopts Ace Rimmer's catchphrase 'Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast' when he has to take over Ace's life. He says it when leaving the ship, and mangles it completely.
  • Subverted when Lister fails to teach Kryten to call Rimmer his catchphrase of "smeghead". He says "smeerr hee" instead because of his built-in censorship. It's later played straight when he eventually breaks it.
  • Lister has also used Rimmer's catchphrases to make fun of him, such as 'up the ziggurat, lickety-split'.
• Seinfeld:
  • In "The Chicken Roaster", when Jerry and Kramer trade apartments, they adopt each other's mannerisms, with Jerry starting to talk about "Bob Sacamano" as Kramer usually does, while Kramer responds to George's complaint that Jerry has become more like Kramer with Jerry's "That's a shame.". Additionally, when he leaves with Elaine, Jerry says "Giddyup" like Kramer does.
  • In "The Invitations", Jerry dates a woman who is essentially a female version of himself. He starts getting creeped out when she uses "What's the deal with...?" and "That's a shame."
  • A nonverbal variation when Elaine tells Jerry about her new job with the J. Peterman catalogue: he gives her her trademark "Get out!" shove, but without the line.
• Stargate SG-1 seems to trade catch phrases more often than a group of elementary schoolers trade Pokémon cards. Notably, an alien boy who latches on to Jack complains "Oh, for crying out loud!" at least once, as does pretty much everyone else. Sam apparently picked up her early catchphrase "Holy Hannah" from her father. The final scene of Season 10 has the whole team (except Teal'c) ending a conversation with exclaiming Teal'c's catchphrase "Indeed". This makes this trope the second to last line in the series.
• Star Trek:
  • Dr. McCoy's "I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder" has been used by other characters throughout the franchise, especially the Emergency Medical Hologram.
  • In "Who Mourns For Adonais" from Star Trek: The Original Series, when Mr. Spock wasn't part of the landing party:
    McCoy: To coin a phrase... fascinating.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation:
    • In "Hero Worship", a little boy emulates Data and says his catchphrases "I am operating within normal parameters" and "That is correct." as an attempt at coping with the disaster he'd survived.
    • In "The Offspring", Lal, Data's "daughter", says, "I am functioning within normal parameters", but eventually gives it up in favour of "I am fine."
    • Any member of the crew acting as the commanding officer in Picard's place will use his catchphrase "Make it so."
  • On Star Trek: Discovery, Saru attempts to come up with his own catchphrase. Tilly suggests that he use Captain Pike's "Hit it" but put his own spin on it; it fails, and he goes back to finding one of his own.
  • The Klingon warlord T'Kuvma is fond of saying "tlhIngan maH! taHjaj!" which means "Remain Klingon! or "We are Klingons! Let it remain!" After his death, it gets appropriated by his disciples Voq and L'Rell.
• In That '70s Show, when Eric refuses Donna's plea to get back together, after having pined for her all season, Kitty calls him a "dumbass", which is normally Red's catchphrase.
• When James May does his first track test on Top Gear, they send him out in the Pagani Zonda F Roadster, a supercar that is insane by even supercar standards. He borrows Clarkson's catchphrase for the occasion:
  May: [voiceover] I think I know what to do at this point. [amidst engine noises] POWEEERRRRRRR!
• In True Jackson, VP every main character borrows True's "You said what now?!" catchphrase at least once.
• In What I Like About You, Ben very hilariously uses Gary's "oh my damn".

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