Couch Gag / Western Animation

Examples of Couch Gag in Western Animation.

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Shows with their own pages:

• Bob's Burgers
• The Simpsons

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Individual examples:

• In Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, the Gromble always says something different when he comes out from under the floor.
• The Addams Family (1992) had Wednesday trying to pull a prank on Pugsley, if she succeeded or not and how was different every episode. Also the photo shot of the family at the end is different.
• American Dad!
  • Stan will pick up a paper in the opening credits, and the headline (pictured above) will vary every time. It will usually be a cynical pun on a common aphorism, such as "Optimist Drowns in Half-Full Tub", or "Hooker Killed for Heart of Gold". Subverted in an episode where the headline is "Alien Spotted", with a picture of Roger, thus jump-starting the plot of the episode (and ending the theme song early). Lampshaded in a Family Guy episode (the bottom-right image) where a pre-wheelchair Joe Swanson takes Stan's place in the first opening and the newspaper reads "Newspaper Gag Fails To Live Up To Expectations".
  • Starting with the fourth season there's a new opening which ends with Roger appearing in Stan's car and stealing the last line. The new Couch Gag is how Roger is dressed.
  • Neither formula was used in the episode "Flirting with Disaster". Instead the whole opening was an Affectionate Parody of The Office.
  • Some Fox affiliates, when re-running early episodes, skip its normal opening and instead play just the couch gag of a post-season 3 episode (in most cases the one from "1600 Candles", where Roger is not wearing any disguise).
• Animaniacs
  • The second-to-last line in the opening song is interchangeable, but almost always rhymes with "totally insane-y" (the exception being Yakko saying "uhhhhh", his normal Verbal Tic). To note, however, when the show was aired on Nickelodeon, this gag was removed and replaced with Dot saying "Nickel-eeny" (which didn't even rhyme with "aney") for every opening.
    • In one, they added "Citizen Kane-y," and held up the sled.
  • Animaniacs also includes a gag-credit amongst the regular credits of every episode, most commonly "Goodbyyyyyye, nurse!"
  • This becomes amusing on VHS releases as they have all of the alternative openings, one right after another.
  • Also, in early seasons, the line Wakko packs away the snacks was followed by While Bill Clinton plays the sax (showing an image of the then President). This changed to "We've got wisecracks by the stacks" in Season 2, and in later seasons it showed the Warners surrounded by paperwork while they sing We pay tons of income tax. Nickelodeon removed the line entirely as the intro went from "You'll laugh 'til you collapse" in the beginning to "We're Animani" near the end. The 2020 revival replaces the line with "Our careers have made comebacks!" while showing the Warners literally rising from their graves.
  • Subtly, the "2 New Seasons" on the contract the three sign in the revival changes to "2 10/13 New Seasons" for the third season (as the third season is shorter than the first two.)
  • On the same subject, after Pinky and the Brain was spun off into its own show, the line "Meet Pinky and the Brain, who want to rule the universe!" was replaced with "Meet Ralph and Dr. Scratchansniff, say hi to Hello Nurse!" (though episodes with the extended intro continued to use the line, and it was reinstated when the 2020 revival brought back the Pinky and the Brain segments).
• Arthur:
  • The episode title cards usually show a different animation involving characters from the show interacting with a large circle. For example, one title card shows Francine hitting the circle as if it was a gong, followed by Arthur screaming in annoyance. Another title card has Buster spoof the MGM logo. In earlier seasons, these are recurring gags that are used for various characters, though if they don't have one for a particular character, they use a slot machine coming up on that character's face beginning with the fifth season. When the show switched to high definition, the cards become customized, showing an actual scene from the story.
  • The actual intro in the first four seasons contains a couch gag of its own with a different sound every time Arthur falls off the screen. Sometimes the letters fall with the sound of glass shattering. Sometimes the glass shattering is preceded by a "boing" sound. Sometimes the sound is a splash and sometimes it's what sounds like a pile of tin cans falling. Starting with season 5, only the glass shattering sound is used.
• In the Opening Narration of Axe Cop, Axe Cop will be recruiting Flute Cop to stop a different crime in each episode.
• At the end of every episode of The Backyardigans ^note  Except for "The Secret of Snow", due to being a Storybook Episode, and the first half of two-parters , they all go inside the house, then someone will open the door and shout a Catchphrase heard throughout the episode. For example, in "It's Great to Be a Ghost!", the ending line is Tyrone saying "Boo!", prompting Tasha to scream. Some episodes have the character laugh after saying this line. ^note Usually, they laugh before they close the door, but in "The Swamp Creature", there's a variant where Pablo laughs after closing the door.
  • Similarly, the snack and who offers it varies from episode to episode, but sometimes it's tied to the episode's theme. Example: In "What's Bugging You?", Tyrone and Uniqua bake cupcakes to lure the Wormans out of the house. At the end, the snack is cupcakes, offered by Uniqua.
• BB3B: Each episode begins with the postman delivering mail to the family, only for something odd to attack or disfigure him. The exact thing which does this is different in each episode.
• Starting in season 2 of Blue's Clues, Blue hides in a different spot outside the house.
• Bojack Horseman combines this with Evolving Credits, as the beginning sequence constantly updates to reflect the people and happenings in Bojack's life, with the first notable examples being the Hollywood sign losing its "D" in earlier season 1 (causing the city to be called "Hollywoo" for the rest of the series).
• The Boys: Diabolical has the title sequence of every short depict Butcher's dog Terror doing something different (e.g.: pissing on a bullseye, licking his scrotum, humping a doll of Groundhawk, etc.}
• On the first season of The Brak Show, the beginning of each episode showed the title of an old television show, with one word changed to the name 'Brak' (i.e. Leave it to Brak).
• Brickleberry: As of season 2, the intro to every episode would have a gag that would be related to an event happening in the Cold Opening.
• The intro to Buzz Lightyear of Star Command would feature the Toy Story version of Buzz Lightyear rushing to get to the TV to watch the show. Once he landed in front of the TV, one of seven things would happen ^note The most common was for him to simply open his helmet, but sometimes: he'd open his wings knocking everyone over, land painfully on Bullseye, bounce off the floor and smack right into the TV, Wheezy would ride up on RC and knock him away), a toy version of Emperor Zurg would be waiting for him and raise his gun-the scene would then cut to the ion balls bouncing off the TV screen, and the rarest was for him to strike a disco pose. Fittingly enough, the montage of clips from the episodes would vary depending on which gag they used.
• The Buzz on Maggie has the title character dress up in two different outfits/costumes in each credit sequence, before just deciding to go with her normal outfit.
• In the DVD version of Cars Toons, Mater will actually say "If I'm lyin', I'm cryin'" in a different manner that relates to the episode's plot. For example, in "Moon Mater", it is nighttime, and Mater says "Houston, if I'm lyin', I'm cryin'", and in "Mater: Private Eye", it is black and white, and Mater will say the opening title in a manner similar to film noirs.
• The opening of Chowder is from the point of view of inside an oven. While the activities in the background are always the same, the living food being cooked is different in each episode.
  • Or at least that was the intention, as while each episode did have a different food being cooked, broadcast airings of the series generally used the same one for most episodes, meaning that this gag was seen infrequently.
• The short-lived Clerks: The Animated Series had two couch gags. Before the opening credits, a disclaimer (inserted via Executive Meddling) would run, followed by the announcer making an off-hand comment like, "Is anyone still watching after all that?" After the opening Theme Song, Randall would make a sitcom-like announcement about a supposed "live studio audience" as if it were a live-action show. (i.e. Clerks is drawn by a live studio audience.)
• Each episode of Code Monkeys starts with a different mock content warning.
• Courage the Cowardly Dog: Each season, the TV screen would flash pictures of monsters and villains that appear within the season.
• The Critic bookends itself with Couch Gags.
  • Near the end of the opening credits, Jay will watch a short trailer for a fictional movie, which will usually be a sequel to an existing movie, or a cross-over between two movies. Regardless of the clip, Jay will declare "It Stinks!". Also, the credits open with Jay being roused from sleep by a phone call, always bad news, to which he reacts silently; this was later replaced by assorted talk radio chatter from his alarm clock.
• In the beginning of Dan Vs., the titular character would do his Skyward Scream while shouting out whoever or whatever he declares vengeance against.
• The opening credits of Dave the Barbarian finished with the castle collapsing as the door slammed, revealing something different behind the wall each time.
• Devil May Care: The road sign and movie theater marquee in the theme song change each episode.
• Dora the Explorer:
  • For Seasons 1-4 at the end of every episode, a character find plays and the character that had to be found in the closing credits.
  • The closing credits for the Season 3 episodes ^note  Except for "Journey to the Purple Planet", "Rescue, Rescue, Rescue!", and "ABC Animals" and the Season 4 episodes "Star Catcher", "Star Mountain", and "Dora's Fairytale Adventure", feature the explorer star that was encountered throughout the episode.
• Doug
  • The title cards for every episode would have Porkchop painting the episode's title under Doug's logo, adding in "'s" to the logo if it was needed (sometimes it fades in by itself while Porkchop is painting the title), with Doug always reacting negatively enough to scare Porkchop into running offscreen, though the outcome of this would vary from episode to episode. When Disney Retooled the series, Porkchop's way of writing the title would correspond with the episode's plot.
  • Additionally, the way that the screen became black after the title was shown varied as well: sometimes Porkchop turned off the lights, sometimes Doug did, and sometimes Porkchop would throw the rest of his paint onto the screen.
• The Emperor's New School opens with Kuzco (or rarely some other character) making a weird observation about the coming episode. He thens yells "Theme music!" and the opening credits start.
• The Fairly OddParents! ends its opening titles with Vicky's heading getting changed into something (say, a toilet) right after she says, "Yeah, right!". Starting around season 2, Vicky's head was changed into something that had something to do with the plot of the episode.
• Family Guy has a few episodes with an alternate opening, all made right around the same time. Presumably, the idea was to make the entire opening a couch gag, but this never really materialized.
• In Freakazoid!'s title sequence, during the "Floyd the barber cuts his hair / Freakazoid, Chimpanzee" scene, one of three different Stock Footage clips of a chimp would play — very rarely would a continuation of the haircut scene play, in which two chimps pop up and point at Freakazoid. If the clip of a chimp waving its arms is used, then the shot of Freakazoid in a zoo cage during the line "Rides around in the Freakmobile / Freakazoid, Freakazoo" will always be replaced with a package advertising a free kazoo (except for the first episode to feature the arm-waving chimp, which uses the normal "Freakazoo" visual).
• Futurama
  • At the beginning of the opening credits, a small tagline is shown underneath the Futurama logo (for example: "Now in Smell-o-vision," "As Foretold by Nostradamus," or "From The Makers Of Futurama").
  • At the end of the opening credits, the ship crashes into a large screen that is playing a different classic cartoon each time. The majority of the episodes from after the show was Un-Canceled skip this part because the commercial time became longer, so an abridged version of the opening sequence was used to save time.
    • In one episode, when Leela crashes into that screen as part of the episode, one of the crew complains that she's always doing that.
    • In the beginning of "Decision 3012," the crew actually avoids crashing into the screen...but it starts advertising "Free Beer" right below them, provoking Bender to grab the wheel and crash into the screen like always before jumping ship. This is a rare moment where the opening sequence directly connects to the plot.
• At the end of the opening credits to Garfield and Friends, Garfield would say something different, often a one-liner, pun, Lampshade Hanging, or a Take That! at other cartoons and franchises.
  • Of course, he does have the advantage of not moving his mouth when he speaks ("Wouldn't I make a great ventriloquist? My lips never move.").
  • Each Screaming With Binky segment begins with Garfield saying the phrase "Because (reason here), it's time for Screaming with Binky".
• The opening of Good Vibes has Mondo and Woody hallucinating something new every time they run through Lonnie's smoke.
• Gravity Falls has a backwards whisper from creator Alex Hirsch at the end of the opening theme, which usually explains how to decode the cryptogram that appears during the end credits:
  • From episodes 1 to 6, the whisper is "Three letters back," which refers to the usage of the Caesarian cipher which replaces a letter with the third before it.
  • From episodes 7 to 14, the whisper changes to "Switch A with Z," referring to the Atbash cipher and the usage of switching a specific letter with its mirrored position in the alphabet.
  • From episode 15 to the end of Season 1, the whisper is "26 letters," referring to the A1Z26 cipher and using numbers to stand in for their letter position.
  • Throughout Season 2, the whisper is "Key Vigenère," referring to the Vigenère cipher, with the required keyword for decoding the message appearing hidden in the background as a Freeze-Frame Bonus at some point during the episode.
  • There are four instances where the whisper doesn't give the hint: Season 2's midseason finale "Not What He Seems" and the multi-part Grand Finale "Weirdmageddon". "Not What He Seems" has the voice whisper "Stan is not what he seems"; "Weirdmageddon Part 1" replaces the usual voice with that of Bill Cipher (also voiced by Hirsch), saying "I'm watching you nerds"; "Part 2: Escape for Reality" has Bill angrily say "I'M WATCHING YOU"; and "Part 3: Take Back the Falls" returns to Hirsch's usual voice saying "Goodbye Gravity Falls".
• The Great North
  • Shortly after the theme song's first Title Drop, a boat named with a different fish-related pun sails by.
  • From Season 3 onward, during the final shot of the theme song, Wolf is wearing a T-shirt with a fart-related pun on it.
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy has each episode end with Mandy giving a different sardonic, menacing, or downright weird message to the viewer:
  "It's you and me against the world. (Dons military helmet) We attack at dawn."
  
  "'Do what thou wilt' shall be the whole of the law."
  
  "Sometimes you drink the milk, sometimes the milk drinks you."
• Hailey's On It! has an audio-only one. After listing off "Kiss my friend Scott" as an item on her to-do list, Scott peers in through Hailey's window. She hurriedly closes the window to keep him from finding out, making Scott fall over in the process. The sound effect used for his landing is different every time.
• The opening credits for Invader Zim always ended with the disguised Zim imagining himself laughing maniacally atop his house, oblivious to his surroundings. There were three scenes used interchangeably for normal episodes, but two unique ones were made for Halloween and Christmas.
• Jellystone! has the citizens of the Jellystone town walking in a parade in the opening titles. Each episode, a different person sets off the chain reaction that causes the town buildings to collapse.
• In the first season of Justice League Unlimited (the third season overall), nearly half the opening would be composed of "action" clips from that very episode. After the first season, though, this was mostly phased out, although there were still slight variations from episode to episode.
• The first two seasons of KaBlam! had a segment called "Surprising Shorts". It would open with June pantsing Henry revealing that he's wearing goofy boxer shorts printed with anything embarrassing from bumblebees and puppy dogs to Bob Dole!
• Koala Man: From episode two onwards, each episode ends the theme song with Koala Man walking on screen and reciting a rule from his “Koala Code”.
• Partway through the Famous Studios run of Little Lulu shorts, the last card before the title would feature Lulu engaging in an activity related to the cartoon. This carried over with her replacement Little Audrey in her early shorts.
• Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil takes this to its logical extreme, having a completely different opening sequence for every episode.
• Merrie Melodies had perhaps one of the first examples in animation. From "You Don't Know What You're Doin'!" (1931) through "We're in the Money" (1933), the title card had a one-shot character from the featured short posing alongside the Merrie Melodies logo. When the cartoon ended, the same character stood in front of a drum branded with "A Merrie Melody" and shouted "So long, folks!" to the audience. Beginning with "I've Got to Sing a Torch Song", the opening gag was retired, and the ending card was modified to have the character standing on a stage next to the "Merrie Melodies" logo. This continued until "Those Beautiful Dames" where the one-shot was replaced by a jester, now signing off with "That's All, Folks!".
• In the opening to every episode of Mickey Mouse Works, Donald would get something to display "Starring Donald Duck" in front of the title, only for it to backfire in some way.
• On Mighty Magiswords, the opening sequence ends with Grup appearing in front of Vambre and Prohyas after they finish posing for the audience.
• The opening of Moral Orel has Orel waving to God (towards the sky) in different ways for most episodes. The credits feature Orel making a stop-motion animation film, although this happens less as the show goes on. In the Wham Episode, Orel does not look up towards God, but instead remains in prayer.
• Near the end of the opening credits for Mr. Bogus, after the part with Bogus and the ice cream has played out, it will then segue into a different claymation vignette, and play a second one after the first one has aired. After the second vignette is finished, it then cuts to Bogus who is doing his trademark dance before the show's logo comes up at the end of the intro.
• The opening of The Mr. Peabody & Sherman Show features a shot of a museum, the banners on the outside change every episode to advertise whatever historical figure the focus of that episode's time travel story is.
• Muppet Babies (1984): The show would typically close on a stinger involving Animal and another character, usually Gonzo. After some comic incident, Animal would turn to the audience and say "Gooo bye-bye!"
• In The Octonauts, the lyrics to the ending song, "Creature Report", changes depending on what animal is described in the previous episode.
• O'Grady: In the early episodes, Kevin and Abby open the show with different dialogue and different toppings on their pizza each week. Also, each episode begins with the O'Grady logo changing itself to correspond with The Weirdness displayed in each different episode (for example, the logo clones itself in the "Clones" episode).
• Each theme song of Peg + Cat has Cat doing something related to the episode's topic.
• The opening of all Pepper Ann episodes had her either find a different item under her desk each time, from an American five dollar bill to the TV remote control, or make some pop culture references.
• Perfect Hair Forever took this trope to the extreme with both its beginning and ending credits having exclusive sequences with each episode.
• In the title sequences of The Proud Family and it’s revival The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, Oscar closes the door on a series of characters, always starting with Penny's friends and ending with Suga Mama, who forces the door open and goes in. Sometimes one or two recurring characters appearing in that particular episode will appear after Penny's friends, sometimes someone appearing only in that episode will appear, and other times it just goes straight to Suga Mama.
• Razzberry Jazzberry Jam: At the end of every episode, Krupa will utter a snarky comment (usually related to the episode’s events) about having to play the Ending Theme. For instance:
  Krupa: (At the end of “The Forever Song”) Time for another song we’ll never get rid of.
  Krupa: (At the end of “Mixmaster Flash”) Now it’s time for another very silly song.
• For The Ren & Stimpy Show, there was originally a short-lived curtain call segment used at the end of the show before the ending credits. It lasted only for season 1 (except for two episodes) and one episode of season 2 ("Sven Hoek"). It involved Ren saying goodbye to the audience, with a worried Stimpy crying and asking what will they do until next time. Ren suggests two different wacky things he could do, but Stimpy doesn't like them. Ren then suggests a third idea, which Stimpy likes and ends up doing.
  • Interestingly, three of these variants were used on the 1996 VHS of "Nothing But Shorts" at the beginning and end of the video, as well in the middle serving as an intermission segment. All three versions have the dialogue entirely re-dubbed and serve as hosting segments to the video. (In the intermission segment, Ren even lampshades that they can "take it easy by recycling old jokes until the tape runs out", despite Stimpy protesting that it'll make them hacks.)
• For Robot Chicken, the Stoopid Monkey Vanity Plate is different each episode; all of them are a still picture of a monkey being Too Dumb to Live or already dead. For the first half of Season 5, episodes only featured the standard Stoopid Monkey logo that was introduced in Titan Maximum. The second half of the season featured fan art-style pictures.
• The portraits of Craig in the intro to Sanjay and Craig would often show him wearing different outfits. Sometimes he gets depicted in a different style.
• At the end of the intro sequence in Scaredy Squirrel, Scaredy would always say something different, similar in Garfield.
• When Schoolhouse Rock! was released to home video in the 80's, the theme song, sung by Cloris Leachman, would usually have an interchangeable verse about which subject was the focus of the tape. Oddly enough, when the song is reprised over the end credits, the "History's no mystery" variant is always used.
• The title of Sealab 2021 would appear in the opening credits as "Sealab 2020", the name of the show it parodies. The changeover of the final "0" to a "1" would be accompanied by a different sound effect each episode.
• Every episode of The Secret Show opens with "The Fluffy Bunny Show", a program hosted by Sweet Little Granny, who never quite manages to finish her theme song before a team of agents led by Agent Ray arrives to clear out the set in various fashions, commandeering her time slot.
• Every episode of Sheep in the Big City starts with a random commercial parody before the opening sequence. Every episode ends with a monologue from the Ranting Swede (except for the episode "Party of the Shear" when he was replaced by the Ranting Norwegian (who wasn't very good at ranting)).
• Solar Opposites: Korvo narrates the intro, but he ends each episode intro with a different reason on why he hates Earth.
• Newer episodes of Squidbillies all open with a different cover of one of the two songs played during the intro in the early seasons.
• Superjail!
  • The extended scene at the beginning of every episode of Jackknife (the prisoner with the pompadour haircut) getting arrested again by Jailbot and carried through a variety of bizarre events back to Superjail. This effectively make most of the opening a Couch Gag, and the only Stock Footage is the last couple seconds of going through the cloud shaped like the Warden's head to Superjail.
  • Further playing with this, the things that happen in the scene sometimes affect/set off the plot of the episode. One episode started with a particularly brutal serial killer who ripped off Jackknife's face which resulted in Jailbot taking him instead, and other was centered around a kid that Jailbot accidentally picked up.
• The Super Hero Squad Show's first season opening features a scene where Hulk grabs a fractal of the Infinity Sword and transforms into a different version of himself in every opening, from a baby version to Joe Fixit, to the Grey Hulk.
• Teen Titans (2003) has a running title gag that, whenever they did a silly episode, a version of the theme song would be sung in Japanese. The episode "Fractured" took this even further by having it be sung by Larry, a.k.a. Nosyarg Kcid.
• Teen Titans Go! has two Seasonal Variants. You can tell what season the episode about to air is from by the dance animation in the intro and the animal on the outside rock.
• The closing credits of Tiny Planets play over images of the protagonists traveling home, brushing their teeth, and going to bed, before closing in on the photo at the bedside. It's different each episode and always shows a moment from the adventure they've just been on.
• Tripping the Rift: At the end of each opening sequence, Spaceship Bob (the voice of the computer) would utter some different, humorous sentence.
• T.U.F.F. Puppy has several different openings with some random thing happening after Dudley strums the bass chord at the end. Either he falls off of the logo, the bass explodes, the bass turns into a rocket that carries him offscreen, or the bass turns out to be The Chameleon who Dudley then chases offscreen. There's also one where Kitty plays the bass and Dudley drives into her on a motorcycle knocking her offscreen, followed by her coming back onscreen giving him an angry look, one where Keswick plays it and it turns into a robot and chases him away, and one where Snaptrap plays it and Dudley drops down on him and takes it, after which it explodes again.
• In the fourth season of Uncle Grandpa, the original opening is now replaced with the main character saying a different Non Sequitur every episode.
• The beginning of every opening to Unikitty! features a different scene of CGI-animated LEGO characters tuning in to watch the show, at which point it switches to the regular 2D animated intro.
• In a similar manner to Garfield and Friends, the televised version of VeggieTales's opening theme ends with Pa Grape making a different comment about Archibald's sweater.
• The credits of The Venture Bros. always had a "nickname" insert between the first and last name of one of the animation supervisors that is composed of an off-hand line from the previous episode.
• The Title Sequence of the first season of Wakfu always ends with Yugo leaping towards the episode's Monster of the Week. For a string of episodes where the show concentrated on the supporting cast, the role was taken over by Sir Sadlygrove.
• What's with Andy?: Every Season One episode, in their original Canadian airings, has the theme song begin with Andy singing a line or two describing the plot of the episode, a list of which can be found here, including a related clip from later in the episode. Averted in international markets, where a generic version in which he explains the show's general premise is used instead.
• On The Wild Thornberrys, the opening sequence ends by zooming in on a map of the world, to the location where the Thornberrys were in the current episode.
• Each episode of Xavier: Renegade Angel opens with a different Fauxlosophic Narration from Xavier.
• Yin Yang Yo!: After the title from the intro sequence comes a random line from the episode, often one that sounds wrong or bizarre out of context.

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