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Tick: Step one: We must choose battle cries! You know, the kind of cries we emit right before leaping into battle! Arthur: Oh, you mean like 'Not in the face! Not in the face!'? The Tick: Hmmm, lacks force, chum. No, more like... 'Spoon!' Arthur: I don't get it. Tick: Spooooooooooooooooon! Arthur: Look, I'm just the sidekick.
You guys make him feel welcome, alright? ...Butt muscles. CATCHPHRASE!
—Chuck Paulson, The Collegehumor Show
An expression used by a character in numerous episodes of a show. Merely uttering this phrase in the office will key others in to the character you're referring to. For a line to be a Catch Phrase, it should be always the same, and not just catchy.
Two like-minded characters can form a Catch Phrase Spouting Duo, creating an entire lexicon of catch phrases with astonishing efficiency.
In The Name Of The Moon is a form of Catch Phrase, as is Verbal Tic. Beam Me Up Scotty is a false Catch Phrase. If the character has a Badass Creed, that will probably double as a catch phrase.
See also Arc Words, Catchphrase Interruptus, Flashback To Catchphrase, One Liner, Phrase Catcher, Stock Phrases, Verbal Tic and Word Power. Also: On The Next Episode Of Catch Phrase, if you're looking for those said in episode previews to keep the audience excited.
Not to be confused with the gameshow.
Examples
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- Nipaa~
- Rozen Maiden, Suiseiseki, DESU.
- Her Shugo Chara Expy by the same mangaka, Suu, does have the same tic, along with "Leave it to Suu!" Additinally, every Shugo Chara got a "magical" catchphrase: Ran: "Hop, Step, jump!" Miki: "Drew, Draw, Drawn!" and Suu: "Chip, Syrup, Cream!". Amu got "That`s sooo not my character!"
- This trope has been passed down the Armstrong line for generations.
- When you hear someone say "Tabete ii", start running. It's either Gluttony or Fujishiro.
- And of course, beware of Housewives.
- And it's actually subverted at one point when she introduces herself as an alchemist instead, lampshading her normal phrase, and proceeds to kick major ass.
- WHO ARE YOU CALLING SHORT?!
- Fuzake n Na! (translated as "Stop jerking me around!")
- Nagisa from Futari Wa Pretty Cure, who says an average of twice, maybe three times an episode, arienai ("That's impossible" or "That can't be"). Later, in Yes! Precure 5, Nagisa's pseudo-Expy Rin says "nano", a general exclamation, after every sentence, and Nozomi likes to say "kettei~" ("I've decided!") when she plans something, as well as "mite, mite, mite!", ("Watch, watch, watch!"), to both the viewers and someone she's trying to distract.
- My Melody says "Onegai!" when she wants something she Melody Marked to save the day.
- Baku says "Zona" at the end of his sentences.
- Perennial Pokemon villains Team Rocket are a Catch Phrase Spouting ''Trio''. There is is a Lampshade Hanging in an early episode where Ash asks while they always insist on saying "that dumb stuff." They give no straight answer.
- In one episode the heroes dress up as the villains and go through the Catch Phrase sequence, then conclude that they most likely do it for fun.
- Also in this series, whenever Ash catches a Pokémon he'll always say "Yeah! I caught _______!" ("_______, getto da ze!" in the Japanese version). Pikachu always follows suit with a "Pi-pikachu!", which is lampshaded on Starly's capture as it isn't there.
- Misty is the first one other than Ash to go through the routine when she catches her Horsea, and Ash complains about copying his pose. In the Orange Islands, Tracey was given lessons on how to do it after officially catching Scyther.
- Dawn frequently says "Daijoubu!" ("No need to worry!" in the dub). Half the time, this is played for irony—her mom has said that it's usually when she worries the most.
- At the end of the next episode previews, the character doing it says "Minna no Pokémon, getto da ze!" or a slight variation. Even Pikachu has gotten in on the act.
- In the Japanese version there's also May's "Kamo", which is a hint of her nervousness and inexperience as a coordinator.
- Meowth uses "Nya" at the end of his sentences in Japanese. The literal equivalent being "meow", the dub toyed with this in a few early episodes but ultimately abandoned it.
- What, nobody's mentioned Ash shouting "________, I CHOOSE YOU!" before he sends out a Pokemon?
- Anymore, almost everyone has done there own. Dawn would shout "Spotlight", Paul would say "Standby!" and May has said "To the stage a few times".
- Even some of the attacks seem to turn into catch phrases. "<Grass Pokémon goes here>, use your vine whip!" Not to mention the infamous "Thunder Bolt!"
- Plenty in Kanon.
- Ayu: "Uguu~!"
- Nayuki: "You liar.", "Nyuu..."
- Makoto: "Auu!"
- Shiori: "I don't like people who say such things."
- Mai would have one to round out the harem, but...
- So, her best friend Sayuri takes up Catch Phrase duty instead: "A ha ha"
- Misuzu's "gao" in AIR.
- The V-sign she makes while shouting "V" counts as well.
- And who can resist her "nihaha"? Well, aside from Yukito, that is.
- Sister Mimi from Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch likes to say "Hontou da yo ne?" ("That's true, isn't it?") after Sister Sheshe makes any statement.
- Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series invented many catchphrases for characters that originally didn't have them, based on their mangled personalities in the English dub of Yu-Gi-Oh by 4Kids. Some of them (such as Kaiba's "Screw the rules, I have money!") are actually quite appropriate...
- Yugi: "Super special awesome!"
- Kaiba: "Screw The Rules I Have Money!" and variants, as well as "Kthx," and "Shut up, Mokuba," although that one gets tossed around.
- Joey: "Nyeh!"
- Tristan: "My voice gives me Super Strength!" as well as "Holy *** on a *** sandwich!" Occasionally he would continue: "With *** on top! And a side helping of ***!"
- Because he is an American, Bandit Keith doesn't need a catchphrase. But he has one anyway...In America!
- Kemo begins every sentence with "Attention, duelists! My hair is..."
- Mai Valentine begins most sentences with "My breasts are..."
- Everyone: "...children's card game..."
- LittleKuriboh goes on to spoof these too, such as when Joey complains that Yugi's catchphrase "stopped being funny fifteen episodes ago," or when Bandit "In America!" Keith confesses that he's actually Canadian.
- LittleKuriboh also posted a video from the dub, of every time somebody said things like 'Oh no!', 'You're finished' or 'This can't be!'. This one goes for about 4 minutes. There was also a segment about how many times they used ghost puns (also in the 4kids dub) in an episode. "You don't stand a ghost of a chance beating Kaiba, because this time, he is a ghost!"
- Subverted with Joey's "Brooklyn Rage!":
Joey: Be careful, Yug. This guy means business. He wasn't even remotely intimidated by my Brooklyn Rage.
Yami: Joey, stop trying to turn 'Brooklyn Rage' into a catchphrase. It's never going to work.
- A few minutes later:
Yami: Now, Cower before my Egyptian Rage!.
Joey: And how is that different from Brooklyn Rage?
Yami: Because I said Egyptian.
- The real Yu-Gi-Oh! series had some catchphrases of its own, most notably the dub's "Not so fast, Kaiba!" and the original's "Ore no TURN!" (It's my turn!).
- And the spinoff Yu-Gi-Oh GX had some atrocious catchphrases, mostly coming out of the mouth of hero Jaden. "Get your game on!", "I'll throw down a facedown" and "That's game" are the ones he's known for in the dub, while in the original he says "Gotcha! That was a fun duel".
- "That's game" is actually relatively widespread in Real Life card game communities, but is usually delivered by the losing player to indicate a concession.
- Cronos and Napoleon have their own Verbal Tics in the Japanese version, "na no ne? (is it not so?)" and "de aru (isn't it)" respectively.
- Don't forget Jun Manjoume's "Ichi, juu, hyaku, sen, Manjoume Thunder!", a complicated Japanese pun that somewhat understandably was dumbed down to "Chazz it up" in the dub (it still sucks, though).
- The actual joke, for those curious: The "Man" in Manjoume is how they say 'Ten Thousand' in Japan. The lead up phrases are actually numbers, so that, translated, it would read "One! Ten! Hundred! Thousand! Manjoume Thunder!"
- Don't forget the many catch phrases tried in Yu-Gi-Oh GX The Abridged Series for Jadin:
"Why? Simply because I can!"
"And that's how you do it the Jadin way!"
"Oh, so I did that one time...twice!"
- The dub for Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds is attempting to give Yusei the Catch Phrase "Let's rev it up"; time will tell if it catches on.
- The original's chatchphrase is a phrase shouted at the beginning of every duel involving motorcycles. "Riding Duel, Acceleration!" This is also generally used in previews to mark when a specific episode will be [[Badass]]. Most often shouted by Yuusei, the series' protagonist.
- The MC also has one; EVERYBODY LISTEN!!!
- The words "Muda da" (or "It's useless/futile") are common for villains or anti-heroes, but saying them very quickly and repeatedly (especially if punching someone) will evoke memories of Dio Brando, the primary villain of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Screaming WRYYYYYY and pronouncing "The World" as "Za Warudo" have also become Dio's catchphrases.
- Also from Jojo's is Jotaro Kujo's battle cry, "ORAORAORAORA!" and general catchphrase "yare yare daze" (gimme a ***ing break!) Grandpa Joseph's "OH. MY. GOOOOOD!" is actually spelled in English in the manga, and spoken in English in the anime/video game. Josuke tends to say the same thing every time somebody say something (anything, really) about his pompadour haircut: "WHAT DID YOU ***ING SAY ABOUT MY HAIR?!".
- In the second arc, Joseph Joestar also showcases a clever catch phrase in battle consisting of "Your next line will be X", after which his opponent repeats that line before saying "What?!?" At which case, Joseph typically overcomes his opponent. However, the sequence was subverted once, in which the enemy ACDC managed to predict one of Joseph's lines.
- Kenshin Himura of the anime Rurouni Kenshin consistently says "de gozaru" (an archaic sentence ender in Japanese, loosely translated as "that it is") and also has a tendency to say "oro?" in the same fashion as one would say "huh?" in English.
- Not to mention the fact that he (nearly) always refers to himself as "this one" instead of "me" or "I."
- Hajime Saitou tends to repeat a lot the series' made up Shinsengumi motto, "Aku. Soku. Zan." ("Slay evil immediately").
- Xellos of Slayers fame has his catch phrase, "That... is a secret," with which he tends to answer nearly every important question asked of him, and several unimportant ones. He takes a great deal of glee in driving those around him to frothing rage with the frustration this causes.
- Shinji and Asuka from Neon Genesis Evangelion have catchphrases that are famous enough to be parodied in other works.
- Shinji's "I mustn't run away". In the original Japanese it's "nigechatta dame da" (more literally, "to run away is no good"). Has become a famous enough phrase to be used in a Transformers: Beast Wars kids manga (aimed several years lower than Eva). It was also parodied when his English voice actor recorded a commentary track
 about the Gainax Ending:
"Shinji": Okay, okay, okay. I mustn't run away, I mustn't run… Okay I got that, good, okay. Now, if I were to run away, let's analyze that - where the fuck would I go? I'm on a big blue ball!
- Asuka has two: "what are you, stupid?" A pretty direct translation of "Anta baka?", though the translation misses a bit of nuance (it's simultaneously intimate and insulting). And "This sucks!" for "Saite!" (the lowest).
- In Naruto, the title character has a Verbal Tic where he says "dattebayo" at the end of his sentences. Earlier episodes in the dub translated this as "Believe It!", and it was used so much that it's annoying by the time you've reached the end of the first arc. Thankfully, Viz wised up, and quit doing this about halfway through the Chuunin exam arc.
- Except when you consider Dattebayo...which the Japanese Naruto HAS NEVER STOPPED SAYING.
- Shikamaru has "What a drag." ("Mendokuse" ("How troublesome") in the Japanese.) He can also subsitute "pain" for "drag" to give it some variety. He also like to say "This is Bad".
- Sakura has "shannaro!", or "Cha!" in th e dub.
- Don't forget Guy and Lee's "Youthful Moments"
- Kurumi's exclamation "Kyuuuin!" in the original Japanese dialogue for Steel Angel Kurumi is a meaningless sound that sits squarely on the line between Catch Phrases and VerbalTics.
- In Digimon Savers, Yoshino is known for saying "this is the worst."
- In the dub version of the series, Digimon Data Squad, Marcus has been assigned the catch phrase of "it's fightin' time!" This actually doesn't end up being very intrusive because... well, it is fighting time most of the time on this show.
- Marcus parodies it himself in the series' eighth episode, when it's lunch... err, that is, eating time.
- Yoshino also parodies hers at the end of the first episode, when she says that Marcus is the worst.
- Gaomon's catchphrase is either "Yes, Master!" or "Sir, yes, sir!" depending on which version you're watching.
- In Digimon Adventure 02, Miyako also ends up using the phrase "Bingo!" quite often, to the point where it becomes a phrase and part of the main title in her Image Song, "Crash de Bingo". In the dub, this became Yolei's "Perfecto!".
- In Digimon Tamers — since his human tamer's But Not Too Foreign — Terriermon gets "Moumantai," a Cantonese phrase meaning 'take it easy'. The dub kept it, and it was also used in his Image Song, "Anytime Moumantai."
- In Digimon Frontier, Izumi says "Commozione!" (Italian for 'commotion') whenever she's especially happy or pleased. She still speaks Italian in the dub (in which her name is Zoe), just not that particular word.
- The dub also gives Izzy "Prodigious!" in Digimon Adventure and a group catchphrase of "Aw, nuts!" in Digimon Tamers. Almost everyone says it at least once.
- Ahem. Does "It's SHOW TIME!" count?
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha's Catch Phrase was originally intended to be her incantation, "Lyrical Magical", but that tapered off and was replaced with something that fits the beam spamming White Devil a lot more: "Zenryoku Zenkai!" ("Maximum Power!")
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM/WE ARE?!"
- Surprisingly, the original Japanese phrase means the same thing, though it's still more disrespectful than in English. In a case of Lucky Translation, the English phrase matched the lip movements closely enough to be used in the dub.
- Parodied once as Kamina's called attack: "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM KICK!"
- Variants on this phrase crop up throughout the series, as when Viral asks Lordgenome, "Who are these people, anyway?", or when Nia asks one of the Four Generals "Could you be unaware of who I am?"
- "BELIEVE IN ME! WHO BELIEVES IN YOU!" "Believe in you, who believes in yourself."
- Whatever Kamina's third catchphrase is has been translated so many different ways. The fan translation you'll see around here most (because it's a Trope Namer) is "Go Beyond The Impossible and kick reason to the curb!". An online sub of the first DVD by ADV Films (who would later lose the license) hilarious changed it to "We stick to our crazy guns and kick logic out the door!" (especially funny since it was shown that Kamina didn't know what a gun was). The dub that actually came out has "Kick logic out, and do the impossible!" and the subs for the DVDs that did come out have "Reject common sense to make the impossible possible!"
- "Your/My drill is the one that will pierce the heavens!" Ultimately upgraded in the climax of the series to "My drill is the drill that creates the heavens!" Epic beyond all description.
- "That's the way Team Dai-Gurren rolls."
- In Konjiki No Gash Bell, Gash Bell says "Unu" frequently (usually means "Yes!") and often ends sentences with "na(ru) no da" (isn't that so?); in the dub (Zatch Bell), Zatch has a signature laughter ("Hahaha HA, haha") that becomes his catchphrase.
- Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer gives each Deus her own entry phrase, but Misaki also has her "Naa!" ("Eeks!" in the English manga) exclamation... and let's not forget wiggly Icchan...
- Aika in ARIA often corrects her friends by shouting "Embarrassing remarks are not allowed!" (Hazukashii serifu kinshi!), but to her defense it has to be said that her friends are indeed very prone to saying awfully silly things.
- Also in ARIA, Alicia often utters "Ara ara" ("well well"), along with a giggle to signify her good-natured and easy-going disposition. That it tends to infuriate other people at times doesn't faze her in the least.
- Fist Of The North Star. Four words: "Omae wa mo shinderu." ("You are already dead.") (Cue massive burst of blood from a random mook.)
- Lampshaded occasionally by the villains. In one memorable case, Souther's overseeing of the humiliation and execution of a friend of Kenshiro's is interrupted by a bloodied and beaten mook sliding near him. Souther, instantly knowing who did this, casually says, "'You are already dead,' huh?" to the mook, who promptly explodes. Cue dramatic entrance of Kenshiro.
- Shakugan No Shana: "Urusai, urusai, urusai!" ("Shut up, shut up, shut up!") Also Alastor's "hmmm..."
- Excel Saga: Excel opens every ACROSS meeting with an over-enthusiastic "HAIL IL PALAZZO!" Hyatt follows it up with a weak "Hail...", sometimes collapsing shortly afterward.
- Princess Tutu LOVES these...
- Autor: "Would you please be quiet?!" (Later parodied by having Fakir say this to Autor.)
- Fakir: "Baka!" (Translated as "Moron" or "Idiot", depending on the translation/fan.)
- Lilie: "Uso!" ("No way!" in the ADV dub, could also mean "You're lying!")
- Ahiru/Duck: "Quack!"
- Princess Tutu: "Please dance with me, [name]" while using the ballet mime of the same meaning. Also has "I am Princess Tutu! I dance to guide your heart!" in the manga.
- Edel: "May those who follow fate be granted happiness. May those who defy it be granted glory."
- Uzura: "Lovey-dovey." Also finishes most of her sentences with "-zura".
- Mytho: "I don't know" and "not really" in the first season. "You'll give me your beautiful heart, won't you?" and "Love me and hate everyone else!" in the second.
- Professor Cat: "You have to __________, or I WILL HAVE YOU MARRY MEEEEE!"
- Drosselmeyer: "All those who love stories come, gather 'round!"
- Femio: "Oh, heaven! Please pour judgement upon... THIS SINNER!"
- Early episodes of Mai-HiME had the resident church lady Yukariko occasionally giving sermons about "the passions of youth" whenever students were sent to the chapel after getting into trouble. Eventually, these speeches got stuck into the head of stoic kendo captain Masashi Takeda, much to his displeasure (since he was sent to the chapel as punishment for the Panty Thief incident in episode 4).
- Lumiere from Kiddy Grade: "A lady should be more elegant", and several permutations thereof.
- There's also "Ta-daaa!", courtesy of Éclair.
- Keima Katsuragi from The World Only God Knows has "I can already see the ending!" or some variation thereof when he figures out the last push needed to capture a girl. His saying this means that whatever arc the story is currently in is nearly finished.
- Gao Gai Gar, taken from the finishing of Goldion Hammer/Crusher: "HIKARI NI NAREEEE!!!" ("BECOME THE/TRANSFORM/BE REDUCED TO LIIIIGHT!!!!"). This one becomes so popular that it almost always become a staple object for Gao Gai Gar parodies in other series, especially on characters voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama, Guy Shishioh's voice actor.
- It may be considered more Calling Your Attack, but the entire latin chant leading up to the use of Hell And Heaven always struck this troper as just as memorable.
- Guy also has "I'm the invincible/superhuman Cyborg Guy!" In FINAL, it becomes "I'm the superhuman Evoluder!"
- "I'm in despair! The overuse of Catch Phrases in our modern society has left me in despair!"
- Inspector Zenigata in the English dub of Lupin III had a tendency to yell "Crap, crap, crap, crap!"
- And there's also Goemon's "Once again I have cut a worthless object."
- Not to forget Zenigata's other, more universal, catchphrase: "Lupin, you're under arrest!"
- After hearing his long dramatic speeches, when the villain asks his name, Rom Stoll from Machine Robo: Revenge of The Chronos usually exclaims his catch phrase: "You don't deserve to know my name!"
- Shinobu Fujiwara from Dancougar has a tendency to yell out "Yatteyaruze!" (Let's do it!) when he is about to pull off some ass kicking.
- "This land is made of LOVE AND PEACE!" - Vash from Trigun
- Ruri in Martian Successor Nadesico: "Baka bakka" - roughly, "I'm surrounded by idiots," translated simply as "Fools" in the subtitles, and funny every time. This just makes it all the more surprising when it actually gets a genuinely dramatic use midway through the series.
- "Don't mind the minor details" returns all through Moetan, delivered by several characters.
- The maid Ruriko did a nice little Shout Out to Kanon when she listed all their catch phrases as things she didn't want to hear Sumi say.
- In Get Backers, Ban usually ends his Evil Eye-induced illusions with "Just one minute." Once the victim looks around in shock, he adds, "Did you have a [nice] dream?"
- They also have their slogan, "We get back what shouldn't be gone! The recovery service with the (almost) 100% success rate!"
- And "The 'S' in Get Backers means we're never alone!"
- Mitsue in Kamichu! often laments: "Nothing interesting ever happens to me". Having a Shinto god for a friend and being possessed by the local godhood at regular intervals is obviously nothing to get excited about in the universe in which the story is set.
- Don't forget she complains immediately after that she wishes she could get a boyfriend. It's clear what her idea of 'interesting' is.
- Naruto The Abridged Series uses this a few times.
- One, "Gaara...of the funk!", comes with its own short musical score if anyone (except Kabuto) says it.
- Naruto technically retains his "Believe it!" phrase, but is mocked incessantly for it. The phrase is even used as a weapon once. For his part, Naruto has attempted to come up with another catchphrase, but his two attempts...failed. Spectacularly.
- Neji, as befitting his Keanu Reeves-style voice, has "Excellent!" and "Most heinous!", as well as his mispronounced "Buy-a-kew-gan!"
- Kakashi: "Hehe...*insert animal noise*." Holding a carton of milk: "Hehe...moo." Eggs: "Hehe...cluck." Talking about birds: "Hehe...tweet."
- Iruka initially had "Ah, touché"...then got annoyed when everyone stole it.
- Sasuke also seems to use the word "fuzzbag" a lot...
- Eyeshield 21. Good lord, Eyeshield 21.
- Hiruma has "YA-HA," as well as "fucking" nicknames for everyone he meets.
- Taki has "A ha ha!," usually accompanied by a wink and an artful high kick. He also tends to describe things as "100%!", and his response to any failure on his part is "That's impossible!"
- Monta punctuates his speech with "MAX!," and the most common variation on this—"Catch MAX!"—is probably a catchphrase in its own right. He's, like, Catchphrase MAX!
- Kurita uses the nonsense word "Funnuraba!" when tackling or blocking players, which is eventually adopted by the entire line.
- Ishimaru often says "It's okay, it's okay," though we can't blame you if you don't remember him.
- Juumonji, Kuroki, and Togano as a group tend to, when encountering something unbelievable, outrageous, infuriating, or otherwise provocative, say "Hah?" "Haaah?" "HAAAAAAAH?!" in succession, progressively louder and more emphatic each time—leading people to refer to them as the "Hah-Hah Brothers."
- In the anime, at least, Harao replaces "my" with "mine," leading to such constructions as "mine field," "mine team," et cetera. He's got antiquated speech across the board (occasionally slipping into "thou" and such in the manga); That's only part of it. Generally remarked upon as being annoying by other characters.
- Agon Kongo calls those inferior to him (that is to say, everyone), "trash."
- Ikkyu peppers his speech with the phrase "oni," which in Japanese serves to emphasize words, and is sometimes translated as "completely."
- Kotaro Sasaki's catchphrase is the word "smart" in English, but in context means something more like "cool"—e.g. "That's smart," "That's not smart," "Smartly," et cetera.
- Hayato Akabi, on the other hand, often punctuates his sentences with "Fu."
- Kisaragi, being a ridiculously thin and sparkly Bishonen, says that most things are "beautiful," but the iteration that becomes his catchphrase is "Strength is beautiful."
- Marco tends to end his sentences with "...I'd say," e.g. "He's a real monster, I'd say."
- Two teams—the Deimon Devil Bats and the Oujou White Knights—even have their own catchphrases, chanted in the pregame huddle: "We're gonna kill 'em!" and "Glory on the Kingdom," respectively.
- Ikari of the Ojou White Knights has an often-repeated battlecry of "Ora ora!"
- In Speed Grapher, Ginza's favorite choice of words while laying down a smackdown are, "Self Defense!" or "I can self defense you too!"
- Otome from Koi Koi 7 utters "incomprehensible" several times an episode. You can't really blame her.
- Pani Poni Dash: Along with VerbalTics, has
- Rokugou: "...of the year", in English, often used strangely. ("I'm depressed of the year.")
- Becky: "I'm a teacher! I'm a teacher, you idiots!"
- Suzune: "CHOP!"
- Yankee: "...dot com"
- And the most frequent of all, Himeko's Verbal Tic: "Maho!" The second OP has the whole cast say it.
- Persia in Weiss Kreuz ends every mission briefing with, "White hunters of the night, deny these dark beasts their tomorrows."
-
Aya's "TAKATORIIII!" should get a mention here. Adding the "SHINE!" ("DIE!") at the end is optional.
- El Cazador De La Bruja:
- Black*Star from Soul Eater has his "YA-HOO!" whenever he's about to do anything. Maka often says, "I'll take your soul!" or something similar.
- "MAKA CHOP!!"
- Also Crona's "I don't know how to deal with _____" and "My blood is black".
- Stein's "I'll dissect you."
- Eruka's "Gekko"
- Sid's "That's the kind of man I was". The list goes on . . .
- Sora from Sketchbook often utters "uh huh" as an affirmation, always in exactly the same tone. Although it is technically perhaps not a real phrase, it does underline her shy and quiet character very well.
- Hikoichi Aida from Slam Dunk has a tendency to shout "Unbelievable!" in Gratuitous English whenever something exciting happens.
- Sousuke Sagara of Full Metal Panic! says "Not a problem," often enough for it to be his Catch Phrase.
- Mikuru from Suzumiya Haruhi loves saying "That's classified (information)".
- The novels actually imply that she poseses a mental block that prevents her ever revealing sensitive information, replacing whatever it was she was trying to say with "Classified Information." When this mindblock is briefly disabled in Book Seven, she actually expresses surprise that she is capable of speaking freely.
- It's made more obvious in the anime's second season: "I tried to use classified information to classified information, but all I got was classified information..."
- However, when Kyon asks her for her age, she replies "Classified Information" with a mischievous smile on her face. Whether that bit of information was truly "classified" is left to the watcher.
- The infamous Naikaku Kenryoku Hanzai Kyosei Torishimarikan Zaizen Jotaro hasn't been mentioned? His phrase is "DA BOMB!" Unlike others on this page, he is fond of saying it for no good reason, at inappropriate times, in non-sequitur fashion. The writers didn't intentionally make him over-the-top: they honestly thought that Americans can use catch phrases for anything.
- "If my husband finds out about this affair, he'll kill you!" "DA BOMB!"
- Sailor Moon has a few. When Sailor Moon does her little dance, she punctuates it with either "In the name of the moon, I will punish you!" (always in the Japanese version) or "I will right wrongs and triumph over evil, and that means you!" The other Soldiers had their own catchphrases, albeit not quite as, ahem, catchy. Another phrase from Sailor Moon was used for the next episode previews — Tsuki no hikari wa ai no MESSAGE, or "The moonlight carries the message of love" (these segments were cut out of the American DVD release, but you can see them in Sailor Stars which never got licensed and was only available in fan translations).
- While One Piece generally forgoes catchphrases in favor of unique types of laughter, a few gems among the cast are Sanji (Mellorine!), Franky (SUPAAAAAA!), and Brook, who routinely makes bad jokes about his status as a skeleton.
Brook: I can't help but have an eye for the pretty ones!! I can't help it, because being a skeleton, I haven't got any!! YOHOHOHOHO!! Skull joke!
- And then there's Brook's "May I see your panties?" which he says to nearly every girl he meets.
- "If you were to go on a trip, where would you like to go?" It's in your best interest to start running when you hear that one, though that still might not be enough to save you.
- This Troper is embarrassed for having missed it in earlier entries, but:
Luffy: I'm gonna be the Pirate King!!!
- Nova in Bleach has "Not a problem".
- Don't forget Dondochakka, don'tcha know!
- Don Kanonj "the spirts are always with you!" commonly followed by his other catch prase "bwahaha"
- Ryoma Echizen from Prince Of Tennis annoys all his opponents with "Mada mada dane!", aka "You still have lots to work on!" His father, Nanjiro, also uses this phrase periodically.
- In the English dub, this becomes, "You still have a ways to go."
- Ran from Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran likes to display her modesty by claiming: "I am just a beautiful traveler".
- She also tends to find things "utterly inexcusable".
- FLCL:
Fooley Cooley!
Naota : Nothing amazing ever happens here.
Mamimi/Haruko : Takkun!
- Although the last one isn't as much of a catch-phrase; it's a nickname which comes from Mamimi's pet name for him, Naota-kun. Haruko picked it up from Mamimi. Naota, on the other hand, does not appreciate the nickname...
- Probably because, in all liklihood, it was originally meant to refer to his brother, Tasuku-kun.
- Kino's Journey:
The world is not beautiful: And that, in a way, lends it a sort of beauty.
- I don't know about either the Japanese or the English version, but in the Latin American dub of Dragon Ball Z, Vegeta has the catchphrase "Insect!".
- Mahoromatic: "Ecchi na no wa ikenai to omoimasu!" ("I think dirty thoughts are bad!")
- "All HAIL BRITANNIA!"
- Yes, your majesty!
- "Lelouch vi Britannia commands you..." and "...With all your strength!" for...well, it should be pretty obvious.
- "All tasks at hand have been cleared" may also count.
- Death Note has Mikami's cries of "SAKUJO!" or "DELETE!" with every name he puts down. Additionally, the number of times Light uses the phrase "Misa, you idiot!" must qualify.
- What, we forgot "I will be the god of this new world"?
- And "Exactly as planned"?
- And "Humans are so interesting!"?
- Misa: "I'll do my best!" "I'm an actress" "I'll do anything for you!"
- Mello: "I'll be number one!"
- Both L and Light: "I am justice!"
- Macross 7's Basara would like you and that mountain to "LISTEN TO MY SONG!"
- And Sheryl Nome from Macross Frontier quickly took this for her own. Understandable, since Fire Bomber is considered "retro" in the year Macross Frontier takes place.
- A!
- The Prince Of Tennis:
- Echizen Ryoma: "Mada mada dane" ("You still have lots more to work on")
- Kawamura Takashi: [[HotBlooded"BUUUUURRRRNNNNIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG!!!"]]
- Shishido Ryoh: "Gekidasa daze" (translated as "Super lame")
- Atobe Keigo: "Ore-sama no bigi ni yoi na!" (More or less "Be awed by my prowess")
- Shiraishi Kuranosuke: "Ecstasy!" (pronounced "ekusutashiii", which is frankly part of its charm)
- Kabaji Munehiro: "Usu" (in response to whatever Atobe says)
- Sanada Genichirou: "Tarundoru"
- In Sakigake! Otokojuku (Charge! Men's Cram School), the extremely Bad Ass principal of the aforementioned school had a habit of yelling "WASHI WA OTOKOJUKU JUKUCHOU, EDAJIMA HEIHACHI DE ARRRRRUU!("I AM THE PRINCIPAL OF THE MEN'S CRAM SCHOOL, HEIHACHI EDAJIMA!") at just about any given opportunity. One particular episode shows him making a morning announcement to his students that consists of this Catch Phrase, followed by "That is all".
- Detective Conan:
- "I'm Conan Edogawa' Detective!"
- "One truth prevails!" (For this line I prefer the dub version.)
- "A re re"? (Used for Conan to create Eureka Moments.)
- "Oi, oi." (For deadpan snarking.
- Kasumi Tendo's catchphrase "Oh my" ("ara" in the original) became permanently enshrined in the english-speaking fandom (just try to find a Ranma Fan Fic,any Ranma Fan Fic, without it) but her little sister Akane's equally characteristic "honestly" ("mou") did not. Akane's habitual "Ranma no baka" could be considered a catchphrase in the original though it's variously translated as "Ranma you idiot" or "Ranma you jerk" in the dub.
- Similarly, Ryoga's "Ranma, prepare to die!" (spoken only two or three times in the whole anime, possibly only once in the manga- and the first instance was his initial surprise attack against Ranma) and also "Because of you, Ranma/Saotome, I've seen hell!", which (again) only happened once or twice in the canon.
- There's also a few phrases that get tossed around very frequently during battles. Most notable are "An opening!" and "The final blow!" This is done by quite a few characters (read: almost every single fighter).
- Ranma also uses the word "kawaikunee" against Akane a lot, which translate to "you're so not cute." In fact, Akane's "Ranma no baka" and Ranma's "kawaikunee" is the whole basis and the title of their image songs.
- Akagi's chuckle. Typically used when he's just about to destroy someone by playing mahjong.
- Ninja Nonsense has a couple of weird ones. Shinobu likes to say "My feelings are always swirling!", and Onsokumaru yells "GABORA" a lot, probably making an Ultraman reference. The dub hilariously changes this to "Banzai!" — which is still Japanese, just less obscure.
- Once An Episode, Enma Ai sends someone to Hell with an awesome speech that ends with her famous Catch Phrase: "Ippen, shinde miru?" This literally means something like "Want to try dying once?", but most subs use the more natural "Would you like to see what death is like?", and the dub goes with "Perhaps... it is time to die?" Some of the show's funniest moments involve other characters saying the line.
- Another of Ai's Once An Episode lines, "The rest is up to you" (spoken to a contractor after she's explained the rules), has reached the level of catchphrase.
- Katekyo Hitman Reborn has Gokudera's "Jyuudaime!" (meaning the Tenth, referring to Tsuna), Reborn's "Ciaossu", Tsuna's "______ with my dying will!!!!", Ryohei's "KYOKUGEN!!!!!!" or "______ TO THE EXTREME!!!", Hibari's "I'll bite you to death", Squalo's "VOOOIIII!!" - to name a few.
- Don't forget Colonello, KORA!!
- From the Gundam multiverse:
- Amuro Ray: "Gundam, launching!", with most later protagonists having variations on that theme.
- Char Aznable: "No one likes to admit the mistakes of their youth." Also "Blame this on the misfortune of your birth!"
- Johnny Ridden: "I'm not Char!"
- Kou Uraki: "GATOOOOOOOOO!!"
- Anavel Gato: "Solomon, I HAVE RETURNED!"
- Domon Kasshu: "This hand of mine is burning red! Its bright glow tells me to grasp victory!" originally, "This hand of mine glows with an awesome power. Its burning grip tells me to defeat you!"
- Master Asia: "You stupid pupil!" and "Look! The East is burning red!"
- Heero Yuy: "I'll kill you" and "Mission accepted."
- Harry Ord: "UNIVEEEEEEEERSE!!"
- Mu la Flaga: "I'm the man who makes the impossible possible."
- Setsuna F. Seiei: "I am Gundam!"
- Lockon Stratos (both of them): "Sniping the target!"
- Allelujah Haptism (when Hallelujah takes control) "HAHAHAHA!!!" and "Isn't that right, ALLELUJAH?!"
- Yazan Gable "I'm gonna violate you!
- On the note of Gundam, Gundam SEED and SEED Destiny had a catch phrase spoken generally by Naturals, "For a blue and natural world", usually just before doing something horrible to Coordinators (or sometimes not even that specifically).
- Hana Tsukishima of Worst is undefeated in fights where he offers his trademark "No hard feelings" beforehand.
- Diamond Daydreams has "Kita e" (meaning "To the north"), which happens to be the title of the visual novel series it is more or less based on.
- Katsura from Gintama, "'Zura' janai. Katsura da."
- Meaning: "It's not Zura. It's Katsura." Spoken whenever another character (usually Gintoki) calls Katsura by his nickname of Zura (which, incidentally, also means "wig"). Katsura also uses variations of this phrase at different times in the series.
- Zawa zawa...zawa zawa...
- Chiaki Minami has a catch insult: "bakayarou" (it's a variant of "baka" and means the same thing, namely "idiot"). Her sister Kana is the most frequent target, but Chiaki's been known to direct it at everything from classmates to inanimate objects.
- Haruka also tends to find things "fine every once in a while".
- Harukanaru Toki no Naka de has a few, most notably Yasuaki's "mondai nai" ("no problem"); other characters tend to have some as well, for instance, Yorihisa often uses "moushiwake gozaimasen" and similar phrases (with the meaning of "I'm very sorry" said in an incredibly formal way).
- Nodame Cantabile- "GYABON!" from Megumi.
- Train from Black Cat has his "I've come to bring some bad luck" line. Lampshaded as being his catchphrase by Creed, who repeats it and says that that is indeed the Black Cat's trademark line.
- Mahou Sensei Negima. Paio II. "Boobies!"
- From Rosario To Vampire, (Evil) Moka seems to like shouting out "Know your place!" before kicking an enemy half to death. Incidently, the other characters steal this line as a form of parody.
- Kawachi's "Nanyate!" and the managers "Nandato!" in Yakitate Japan
- Urusei Yatsura has quite a few of these, but the most famous has to be Lum's "Darling, you IDIOT!" Then the hurting starts...
- ... would tarnish the reputation of the Seto mermen!
- Written as chivalry (nin kyo), pronounced as mermaid (nin gyo)!
- You want Mawari to teach you the rules of this trope?
- Millie from Lost Universe has "I'm the best ___ in the universe" and variations of.
- Konata Izumi often remarks that she/they "triggered a flag" or some variation thereof. She also keeps talking about "event costumes" or saying "It's an event."
- Doremi Harukaze in Ojamajo Doremi says, "I'm the unluckiest pretty girl in the whole world."
- In Please Teacher, Mizuho says "Saiyu sen jiko yo!" ("It's top priority!")
- Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro has Neuro saying "This mystery is already on the tip of my tongue" once an episode.
- This trope will become one with Russia, da?
- November 11 is always just joking.
- Kuroshitsuji:
- Sebastian: "Aku made shitsuji desu kara." (Translated: "I am one hell of a butler." or "I am a butler to the core.")
- This is a pun since "akuma" means "demon" and depending on the kanji used it can also be translated as "I am a demon and a butler." Sebastian's used this meaning once or twice before, as well... usually before slaughtering whoever it was he was ordered to kill.
- "Yes, my lord."
- "It is only natural that a servant of Phantomhive would be able to (insert whatever task was just accomplished)."
- Ling-Ling from Rosario To Vampire has "Because I am already dead!"
- Played for comedy, no less.
- School Rumble Tenma's "Doowah!".
- Buster Keel
Comic Book
- "Groovy" from Evil Dead's sequels.
- And maybe "This is my BOOMSTICK!!"
- And perhaps "Hail to the king, baby", too.
- The Princess Bride's Vizzini shouted "Inconceivable!" whenever an event he hadn't planned for happened. His partner, Inigo Montoya, eventually says, "You Keep Using That Word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
- Doc Brown's "Great Scott!" and Marty McFly's "This is heavy!" in the Back To The Future trilogy. Subverted in the third movie, where they once exchange lines.
- In the second and third films Marty also developed the Catch Phrase "Nobody calls me chicken!" (or "yellow" in the Western setting) in response to his personal Berserk Button.
- Also hilariously subverted in the first film: "Is there something wrong with the Earth's gravitational pull?"
- "Here's looking at you, kid" from Casablanca.
- The Pirates Of The Caribbean series has several of these:
- Jack Sparrow: "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow." And, of course, "Captain Jack Sparrow," when someone omits his title.
- To the point that when he isn't there, Will and Elizabeth do it for him.
- Of course, the rum is always gone. But we need not forget about that one. Or any of his other multitudes of catchphrases, savvy?
- "This will be the day you will always remember as the day you ALMOST defeated Captain Jack Sparrow!"
- Davy Jones: "Do you fear death?"
- Lord Cutler Beckett: "It's just good business." Also happens to be his Famous Last Words.
- The Die Hard series features John McClane's famous "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker!" Even the PG-13 fourth installment managed to sneak it in, albeit with the last two syllables obscured by a gunshot. Ah, censorship...
- Arguably, "Now I have a machine gun! Ho Ho Ho!"
- Star Wars: "Nooooooooo!" (Once per movie, though not always by the same character.)
- "I have a bad feeling about this," got said about once per movie as well, again by different characters.
- It was even uttered by the droid on the Disney theme park ride!
- Hell, it made it into the fourth Indiana Jones movie. For some reason.
- Yeah, a reason called "Produced by George Lucas".
- "May the Force be with you."
- And, of course, "It's A Trap!"
- "Say hello to my little friend!" - Scarface.
- This one got parodied in an episode of Kenan And Kel. After being used in a gangster movie the pair were watching, Kenan and Kel worried that they were going to get shot when an Italian restaurant owner used this line. Turned out, he was introducing his nephew.
- Also parodied in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. The bad guys bust in to find Ace cradling a skunk and petting it. In a Tony Montana impression, he announces, "Say hello to my STEENKY LITTLE FRIEND!" and lifts the skunk's tail to hose them all down with skunk spray.
- And the parody movie Mafia! when the "little friend" is a midget with a submachine gun.
- In the movie Door To Door Maniac (alternatively titled Five Minutes to Live), Johnny Cash's character has the sung catch-phrase of "You've got [small amount of time] to live."
- T-800 from the Terminator series: "I'll be back!" and any variations.
- It would be more appropriate to say that "I'll be back" was an Arnold Schwarzenegger Catch Phrase, as he uttered it in several other of his movies besides just the two Terminator vehicles.
- It is interesting to note, that while definitely a catch phrase, it is also a bit of Invocation and Foreshadowing in that he will be driving a vehicle through a building. Inverted in Terminator 3, he said it afterward.
- Also: "Come with me if you want to live."
- Parodied in Last Action Hero as Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Jack Slater:
Jack Slater: I'll be back! Ha! You didn't know I was gonna say that, did you?
Danny Madigan: That's what you always say!
Jack Slater: I do?
- In Shakespeare In Love, Geoffrey Rush's character answers every question to which he doesn't know the answer with "I don't know. It's a mystery." By the end of the movie, he's got Gwyneth Paltrow using it, too.
- This is arguably a reference to Rush's portrayal of David Helfgott in the 1996 film Shine, where he frequently said the line, too.
- The Nihilists of The Big Lebowski were so proud of their status as Nietzsche Wannabes that they worked "We believe in nothing" into every conversation. And let's not forget Walter's "Shut the fuck up, Donny."
- "Bond. James Bond." "Vodka martini. Shaken, not stirred." And most women we ever met would, at some point, moan "Ooooooh, James."
- The martini one was subverted in the most recent version of Casino Royale: when asked how he wants his martini, Bond asks "Do I look like I give a damn?"
- Earlier in the film, though, he gives very specific instructions as to how he wants his martini prepared, which is word-for-word out of the original book. "Shaken, not stirred" is a summary of part of this particular order.
"A dry martini," he said. "One. In a deep champagne goblet."
"Oui, monsieur."
"Just a moment. Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon-peel. Got it?"
- He does say "Bond...James Bond" at the very end of the movie.
- Also an example of Phrase Catcher, as some chap or woman will request the name of the titular character.
- The recent film version of Beowulf gives the titular Geat the catchphrase "I am Beowulf," sometimes with pauses between words for dramatic effect, but sometimes he just slips it into conversation. Sidekick Wiglaf, tongue firmly in cheek as a Satellite Character, has the oft-repeated "You are Beowulf."
- In the Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino bandits-on-the-lam-take-hostages-and-then-fight-Mexican-vampires cult classic From Dusk Till Dawn, protagonist Seth Gecko has a Catch Phrase template he adapts to the situation at hand: "Ok [noun], let's [verbed form of same noun]."
- Prior to making the last dash to the Mexican border and freedom: "Ok ramblers, let's get ramblin'."
- Having arrived at the rendezvous at which they are to meet their Mexican contact: "Ok hard drinkers, let's start drinking hard."
- Immediately prior to the last confrontation with the vampires: "Ok vampire killers, let's kill some f*cking vampires."
- The Godfather film trilogy had quite a few including "I can make you an offer you can't refuse".
- Any variation of Frankenstein is guaranteed to have: "It's alive! It's alive!".
- The Shining had "ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY."
- Animal House has "YOU'RE ALL WORTHLESS AND WEAK, NOW DROP AND GIVE ME TWENTY!" which has become a catchphrase of Mark Metcalf who played Neidermyer.
- John Candy has had a few catchphrases in his movies- one of them being..."That's the understatement of the year" from Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
- A Streetcar Named Desire has "Stellaaaaaaaa!".
- "You and I have unfinished business."
- Various characters in Anchorman:The Legendof Ron Burgundy have these. Ron Burgundy has, "I'm Ron Burgundy.(?)" and "You stay classy, San Diego." and Champ Kind has "Whammy!"
- In the Studio Ghibli film Porco Rosso, the eponymous character (who is half man, half pig) bitterly reiterates "I'm a pig."
- Hellboy has Liz's Catch Phrase, which we only discover as such in the second film: "You should be running."
- And let's not forget the big red guy's own catchphrase : "Oh, crap!"
- Repo! The Genetic Opera has a few.
- Scalpel Sluts/Amber Sweet: "I can't feel nothin' at all!"
- They also have "It's quick! It's clean! It's pure! It's rare!"
- Luigi Largo: "Luigi don't take sh** from no one!"
- Pavi Largo: "Pavi steals all of the hearts!"
- Dead Marni: "Assassin! Murderer! Monster!"
- Grave-Robber: "And it's my job, to steal and rob... GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVES!"
- He also has "Zydrate comes in a little glass vial!"
- "A little glass vial?"
- "A little glass vial!"
- "And you shall know that I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you!" from Pulp Fiction.
- "Children of the night. What beautiful music they make." appears in every filmed version of Dracula.
- "Even a man who is pure at heart/and says his prayers at night/may become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms/and the moon is bright" is said in every Wolf Man movie.
- It's worth noting that the movie Van Helsing has both this and the prior phrase.
- "GOOOOOOOOOD MOOOOOOOOO'NIN' VIETNAAAAAM!"
- A Few Good Men has "You can't handle the truth!".
- Galaxy Quest: "Never give up — never surrender."
- "By Grabthar's Hammer, by the sons of Warvan, you shall be avenged!"
- As Ethan Edwards in The Searchers, John Wayne had the Catch Phrase, "That'll be the day." This was the inspiration for the Buddy Holly song.
- I sleep now.
- Mirror Mask has Valentine's "I'm a very important man. I've got a tower."
- Snootch to the nootch.
- "... And that's all I have to say about that."
- "Your weapons are useless against me!"
- In Rain Man, Raymond has "I'm an excellent driver."
- "Definitely, definitely."
- Adaptation Decay has resulted in "bah, humbug!" becoming a Catch Phrase of Ebenezer Scrooge. "Bah, humbug" is only spoken twice in the novel, though "humbug" comes up a few more times by itself. At that time, "humbug" meant "hoax" or "jest", so Scrooge was just dismissing Christmas as a fraud in the lingo of the day.
- Garion's catchphrase in David Eddings' The Belgariad, which the other characters quickly become tired of, is "Why me?" Eventually answered as "Would you have trusted anyone else to do it?", but not before various other characters have taken it up briefly. In one scene Belgarath (who's The Obi Wan, and usually the one being asked and not answering), says it, much to everyone's amusement.
- A handful of Discworld characters have catchphrases:
- Animorphs:
- Everyone, in narration: "My name is [name.]"
- Rachel: "Let's do it."
- Marco: "This is insane."/"Are you insane?!"
- Ax: "We have x of your minutes left."
- Marco: "They're everyone's minutes!"
- And this troper thinks Ax's one-time "Now we have x-1 of your minutes left," line is worth mentioning.
- Ax: "Yes, Prince Jake."
- Jake: "Don't call me prince."
- Ax: "Yes, Prince Jake." (Both Jake and Ax seem to think of this as a Running Gag, though.)
- A Song Of Ice And Fire:
Daenerys: It is true that I am only a young girl, and do not know the ways of war.
Ygritte: You know nothing, Jon Snow.
Ned Stark: Winter is coming.
Arya Stark: Fear cuts deeper than swords.
The Lannister: A Lannister always pays his/her debts.
Shagga, son of Dolf: I will chop off your manhood and feed it to the goats.
The Dothraki in general: It is known.
Hodor: Hodor.
- In L Loyd Alexander's The Chronicles Of Prydain, Gurgi mentioned "munchings and crunchings" often enough for them to almost count as a catchphrase, while Fflewdur Fflam used "Great Belin!" as his trademark Unusual Euphemism (Belin is an ancient Welsh sun god), and Princess Eilonwy would often cry "Taran of Caer Dallben, I'm not speaking to you!" or some variation of the same.
- Not to mention Eilonwy's constant habit of making some sort of out there comparison to try and explain the stupidity of something. For example, "It's silly to worry because you can't do something you simply can't do. That's worse than trying to make yourself taller by standing on your head," or "I don't like being called 'a girl' and 'this girl' as if I didn't have a name at all. It's like having your head put in a sack."
- Also with the Gurgi example, close to every noun he ends with a sentence turns into something similar, like "Smitings and bitings" or "Sneakings and peekings." This form of talking is his "catch phrase", more or less.
- dont forget Gurgi's Poor Tender Head.
- We never give anything away.
- Did any of these appear in the Disney movie The Black Cauldron?
- Yes actually, Gurgi's catchphrases all got in, as did Flewdder's "great Belin!" and the Witches' never give anything away line. Only Eilonwy's idiosyncrasies were dropped, in fact.
- Kurt Vonnegut, as author/narrator Slaughterhouse Five, punctuates everything involving death with the phrase "So it goes."
- In the M*A*S*H novels, Hawkeye has "Finest kind!" as a Catch Phrase. This made it to the movie, and appeared in some of the earliest episodes of the TV series, but was eventually forgotten or abandoned. Hawkeye and Duke together share the Catch Phrase "We're the Pros from Dover".
- Characters in Stephen King novels often have catchphrases shared between each other as in-jokes or references to past experience. For example:
- Dreamcatcher: "SSDD", "No bounce no play".
- It: "Beep-beep, Richie."
- The short story Riding the Bullet had the slightly philosophical phrase "Fun is fun, and done is done."
- In The Stand, Tom Culleen has "My laws!" and "M-O-O-N, that spells (any word)".
- The Harry Potter series has Hermione's catchphrase "I read about it in Hogwarts: A History."
- Scarlett O'Hara of Gone With The Wind fame has "Fiddle-dee-dee!", "Great balls of fire!" and (in the book) "God's nightgown!"
- And let's not forget "Tomorrow is another day".
- Gollum's "My prrrecious..." from Lord Of The Rings.
- Honor Harrington has the phrase 'Let's be about it', which she adopted from her first Captain, and which several of her subordinates have begun using.
- In Dan Abnett's Gaunts Ghosts novels, Beltayn, Gaunt's adjunctant and vox officer, says "Something's awry" to report any kind of problem. Up to and including imminent disaster that could kill them all — a fact Lamp Shaded in the books.
- Abnett also uses this with Aemos in Eisenhorn whose favourite phrase is 'Most perturbatory'. It's even his last words.
- From Robert Jordan's The Wheel Of Time -
- Mat: "It's time to roll the dice"
- Moirain & Suian (and to a lesser extent, all Ai'sedai): "The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills"
- Lan: ...
- The Three Musketeers:
- From the Vorkosigan Saga: Emperor Gregor Vorbarra has "Let's see what happens," used after making unconventional decisions.
- Also no so much as a catch-phrase for him as at him, Miles' cousin Ivan Vorpatril, who is referred to by all well-knowing individuals as "Ivan-you-idiot" or "that idiot, Ivan", and variations thereof.
- The titular character in John Brunner's Traveller in Black: "I have many names, but a single nature" "You may call me Mazda, or anything you please" and, of course, "As you wish, so be it".
- "Shut up, Loiosh."
- The Dresden Files has Harry's "Hell's bells!" and "Stars and stones!"
- 7th Son has:
Kilroy 2.0: "Kilroy 2.0 is here. Kilroy 2.0 is everywhere."
Live Action TV
- Gibbs lets out a "You think?" go at least once an episode, usually directed at someone who has made a brilliant insight helpful in solving the case.
- Royal Canadian Air Farce had a few of these, though without a doubt the best ones went to characters played by John Morgan before his untimely death. The two most famous are "Ach, get stuffed!" (as Jock McBile the left-handed, West Coast immigrant bagpipe technician) and "I'm Mike...from Canmore..." (as...well, yeah.) Roger Abbott's impersonation of Jean Chretien also deserves mention for his tendency to begin speeches with "Hello, pipples of Canada!" (Including a segment where the former PM, on vacation, wrote a postcard beginning with that exact phrase, spelling included.)
- On Due South Benton Fraser would often say 'Thank you kindly.', as well as: 'Oh dear.' Ray had the very succinct, 'Fraser!'
- Also in the last season, when people would ask what a Mountie was doing in Chicago, Fraiser would answer, 'I first came to Chicago on the trail of the killers of my father and, for reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, I've remained, attached as liaison with the Canadian Consulate.' After which people would stare at him, for some reason.
- Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In was a hotbed of catchphrases: "Sock it to me!" "You bet your sweet bippy!" "Ring my chimes!" "Here come de judge!" "Verrrry interesting!" "Fickle finger of fate," etc.
- Flight Of The Conchords
- Mel: "Oh hey guys!"
- Murray: "Band meeting. Bret? ....... Jermaine?"
- Happy Days, best known for Fonzie's thumbs-up "Ayyyyyy!," also popularized the term "nerd," and the insult "Sit on it!" When Chachi was introduced, ABC demanded that he have a catchphrase, so Scott Baio came up with "Wa wa wa" - which didn't catch on.
- Friends has a few:
- "Noooooo", Rachel
- "I know!" Monica
- And, the most famous "How YOU doin'?", Joey
- "And could I BE more _____?"
- Let's not forget "Oh... My.. God" by Janice
- Nearly all of the The Fast Show.
- "I'll get me coat..." has also become a Catch Phrase for The Doctor Who Forum.
- And on the comment pages of The Register.
- And on the Usenet group alt.fan.pratchett, where it's so common it's just "IGMC..."
- They probably got it (and the "IGMC" abbreviation) from the comp.sys.sinclair newsgroup.
- The Two Ronnies ended each programme with the following exchange:
Ronnie Corbett: So it's goodnight from me.
Ronnie Barker: And it's goodnight from him.
Both: Goodnight!
- Entire seasons of Saturday Night Live are memorable solely for what Catch Phrases they developed and then beat into the ground. The State parodied this mercilessly with their sketch about "Louie, the guy who comes in and says his catch phrase over and over again." (Louie's catch phrase was "I wanna dip my balls in it!")
- SNL itself parodied this with an animated sketch detailing "The life and death of a Catch Phrase".
- John Belushi's catchphrase on SNL was "But nooooooo..." and Steve Martin's was "Excuuuuse me".
- Then there's Chris Farley as Matt Foley. "I'm 35 years old, thrice divorced and live in a van down by the river."
- "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!!!"
- "Let's be careful out there", from Hill Street Blues.
- "Will the real X please stand up?", from To Tell The Truth.
- "I'm the real Shady/yes, I'm the real Shady/all the other Slim Shadys are just imitating/so will the real Slim Shady/please stand up? Please stand up?"
- Doctor Who has a number of these:
- "Very interesting! Yess, very interesting! Or is it, young man? Hmmm?" — pastiche of First Doctor (Hartnell) [1].
- Also fumbling lines, although it was unintentional due to exceedingly low budget.
- Less low budget than Hartnell being old and show being recorded almost as if it was a live broadcast.
- And he doesn't do it nearly as much when he's the Abbot Ambrose, so some of it was intentional.
- "Oh my word!" — the Second Doctor (Troughton), pretty much every time he is in trouble.
- "When I say run, run", is also widely associated with him.
- "I would like a hat like that" — discarded Second Doctor catchphrase, but still remains in wide use in his first two serials.
- "Creag an Tuire!" — Second Doctor companion Jaime McCrimmon, before any reckless charge at Immune To Bullets Monster Of The Week (actually the motto of the MacLaren clan, meaning "Boar's Rock").
- "Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow." — the Third Doctor (Pertwee)
- Only said once, making this example more of a Beam Me Up Scotty.
- Reversing the polarity, in general, is however a typical Third Doctor plan.
- The Tenth Doctor said it too.
- "Would you like a jelly baby?" — The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker)
- Although first said by the Second Doctor in the Third Doctor serial The Three Doctors.
- Later quoted, chillingly, by the Sixth Master (John Simm).
- "I can not allow that." — the Fifth Doctor (Davison) usually followed by the villain claiming that the Doctor can do nothing to stop him.
- "Fantastic!" — the Ninth Doctor (Eccleston)
- "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." — the Tenth (Tennant) Doctor's somewhat less optimistic Catch Phrase, although this is used by other characters as well.
- About as often, "Don't. Just don't," usually when his Companion says something in an attempt to fit in with the current time period.
- He also adopts the phrase "Allons-y!" and uses it repeatedly.
- Also used variations, such as "Avanti!", which means the same but in another language (Italian).
- He also tends to say "Molto Bene" when a situation is, well, good.
- "What? What?? WHAT?!?" — Often with a falsetto on the final word. An expression of disbelief spoken by the Tenth Doctor in the Cliff Hangers leading to the second and third Christmas Episodes. And by Tenth and Fifth in a charity special. The first two "Whats" appear at the end of "The Poison Sky". The opening scene of the fourth Christmas Episode has it as well. He also says it when he gets a new companion against his will in the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip.
- "Brilliant!"
- When anyone sees the inside of the TARDIS for the first time, they'll almost always say, "It's bigger on the inside." Lampshaded on one occasion, with the ever-Genre Savvy Doctor mouthing it along with them.
- And subverted when UNIT Sergeant Benton sees the interior for the first time: "Well, Sergeant, aren't you going to say it's bigger on the inside? Everyone else does." "...It's obvious, isn't it?
- The Daleks have "Exterminate!" and "What is happening?", older Daleks have "I obey!" and the matching "You will obey the Daleks! Obey! Obey!"; the new Cybermen are very fond of "You are compatible," and "Delete! Delete! Delete!". Another phrase associated with the Cybermen (although it doesn't appear that much) is "Excellent", delivered in a somewhat camp manner.
- The Cybermen also have "You will be deleted." This appears on birthday cards for four-year-old. Similarly, there is a talking Dalek alarm clock including "Exterminate!", "You are an enemy of the Dalek!" and "You would make a good Dalek". It is the awesome, and everyone must worship it.
- A former Dalek catchphrase was "My vision is impaired! I cannot see!" when their eyestalks get comprimised. Which didn't do wonders for their air of menace. In the new series a Dalek with paint over its eyestalk announces "My vision is not impaired!"
- The Master has the phrase "I am the Master", often followed by "and you will obey me" when he's trying to hypnotize someone.
- Which led to Peri's one and only Crowning Moment Of Awesome: "Well, I'm Perpugilliam Brown, and I can shout just as loud as you can!"
- Harriet Jones always introducing herself while showing her ID, and stating her position "MP for Flydale North, Prime Minister and finally Former Prime Minister" This is always replied to with "Yes, I know who you are." or "Yes, we know who you are," and had a truly awesome payoff in "Journey's End".
- Spin Off The Sarah Jane Adventures has the phrase "Mr Smith, I need you!" whenever Sarah Jane needs to access her Magical Computer Mr Smith. Other characters occasionally use the phrase, including one instance where Maria's dad Alan struggled to remember how to activate Mr Smith.
- Clyde Langer has used the phrase "Clyde Langer, [occupation]" on numerous occasions (eg "Clyde Langer, secret agent", or "Clyde Langer, alien hunter".
- Upon meeting anyone, Captain Jack Harkness will say, "Hellooo," followed by the Doctor telling him to stop flirting which is in turn followed by the object of Jack's attentions saying "I don't mind."
- Pete Tyler has "Trust me on this". It comes from his ads, but he uses it at least twice in person.
- Lady Cassandra uses "Moisturise me" so many times that it becomes a habit, saying it even when she gains her own limbs and, moreover, it becomes unneccessary.
- Diffrent Strokes's Arnold: "Whatchyou talkin' 'bout, Willis?", though this is sometimes said to characters other than Willis.
- And by characters other than Arnold.
- In Avenue Q, Gary Coleman (the actor who portrayed Arnold, who is a character in The Musical) complains about people saying his Catch Phrase to him on the street, then uses it himself later.
- This Troper saw a local ad which starred Gary Coleman in the '90s, in which this trope was attempted-averted. "When people tell me [X Insurance or whatever] is great, I say to them, What Are You Talking About?"
- The A Team's Hannibal: "I love it when a plan comes together."
- While we're on the subject of The A Team, let's not forget those four words Mr. T came to be known for. I pity the fool who doesn't know what those words are.
- What do you mean? 'Treat your mother right'? See here for further information.
- No, the four words that don't make people want to cringe in shame.
- Mr. T said those famous four words in Rocky III - Memetic Mutation was in effect even back then, bringing the phrase onto The A-Team.
- The various Star Treks have a lot of these, having been around a while:
- Each captain, starting with Picard, has his/her own favorite drink that s/he's constantly ordering from the replicator in any ready room scene: "Tea, Earl Grey, hot" for Picard, "Raktajino" for Sisko, and "Coffee, black" for Janeway.
- Because of this, a magazine's interview with Patrick Stewart was captioned "Stop sending him tea-bags."
- Played with in non-canon novel Ship of the Line where Picard muses to Riker that maybe he should order a "Hot grey tea earl," and give the computer a stroke.
- Various Applied Phlebotinum commands, such as "Engage," "Energize," "Hailing frequencies open," "Raise shields," or "Warp factor [number]." Janeway adds "Compensate" when someone tells her that something's interfering with the Phlebotinum in question.
- Taking place before the days of shields, Enterprise replaces "Raise shields" with "Polarize the hull plating."
- Contrary to popular belief, no permutation of "Beam Me Up Scotty" was a catch phrase. As the chief engineer, Scotty wasn't a frequent transporter operator, and was only asked to beam someone up once or twice. For some reason, he can Never Live It Down. The actual usual transporter commands are "[Number] to beam up" (and sometimes "[number] to beam directly to sickbay") and "Energize."
- "Bones" McCoy started a tradition of "I'm a doctor, not a..." phrases. Voyager's EMH ran with it. It's a rare chief medical officer who hasn't done it at least once.
- Let's not forget Spock's "Fascinating," followed by Data's "Interesting" and Tuvok's "Impressive."
- "We are the Borg. You Will Be Assimilated. Resistance Is Futile." It's actually pared down from a much longer 'greeting.' Expect to hear "Resistance is futile" at least once during any Borg encounter.
- Also, "[noun] is irrelevant."
- The Klingons frequently say "Q'apla" ("Victory.") Less frequently than you think (though not so rare as to become a beam-me-up case) is "It is a good day to die."
- Any Ferengi Rule of Acquisition.
- "Live long and prosper." — various Vulcans.
- "Get us out of here!" — various captains. Usually answered with "Warp drive / Thrusters / Propulsion off-line."
- Picard: "Make it so." and "Engage." Janeway: "Do it." and "Onscreen!" (which is almost always stated in the exact same tone, regardless of the situation).
- The Doctor, and any other Emergency Medical Hologram: "Please state the nature of the medical emergency."
- A catch-gesture; 'The Picard Maneuver', that way Patrick Stewart tugs his tunic down when he stands up. An actual in-joke among the cast and crew.
- "Engage" also comes with a particular gesture.
- The original series had catch dialogue between Kirk and Scotty:
Kirk: I need X now/in Y number of minutes/hours!
Scotty: That's not long enough, Cap'n!
Kirk: Work faster!
*cue Scotty pulling a miracle out of... somewhere*
- That Seventies Show has a few, though not every character has one.
"Good day."
"But Fez..."
"I said 'Good day!'"
- Red: "Dumbass!" and increasingly extreme threats to put his foot in someone's ass.
- Kelso: "BURN!"
- The Prisoner repeately uses the phrase "Be seeing you", with a characteristic hand gesture of making a circle around one eye, referencing the surveillance in The Village.
- And there's the ultimate question "Why did you resign?"
- Bester from Babylon Five also says "Be seeing you" as a Shout Out to The Prisoner, but his hand gesture puts the circle on his forehead to represent the third eye of telepathy.
- Other B5 catchphrases included
- "What do you want?"
- "Who are you?"
- "Isil'zha veni" and its English translation: "In Valen's name"
- "We live for the One, we die for the One."
- In late 2006, the TV Land cable network compiled a list of the 100 greatest TV Catch Phrases, and broadcast them in a special miniseries, "The 100 Greatest TV Quotes & Catch Phrases," over five days in December of that year. A link to the article can be found here.
- House MD has three. House will often remark "Everybody lies" in how patients hamper the diagnosis by lying about their personal history, like drug use or extra-marital affairs. "I hate sports metaphors" belongs to Dr. Cameron, in response to House's use of them. Last but not least, most of the doctors in the hospital tend to utter "House was right" more often than they get to say they were right. There's also "It's not lupus," although that's more of a Running Gag.
- Hugh Laurie seems to have a catch phrase/Actor Allusion: "Lesbotic".
- On Bones, Dr. Brennan says "I don't know what that means..." when she doesn't understand a pop culture reference.
- The new Robin Hood loves these.
- The Sheriff has "A clue: no" (the name of an episode), as well as the sarcastic "Oh, la-de-dah-de-dah." Allan-A-Dale gets "I'm not trying to be funny, but...", and Little John has "We go to (insert place)" and "(Insert name or item) I like/do not like."
- In the second season, the whole gang adopts "We Are Robin Hood", which also becomes an episode title.
- In Life On Mars Sam frequently says. 'We have no evidence!', mostly because the other coppers in the CID are willing to put someone away with flimsy and/or planted evidence. Gene does a Shout Out to that in episode 2x01 when he says. '..We have no flippin' evidence, and I can't believe I just said that!'
- Gene Hunt has said 'You are surrounded by Armed Bastards!' a grand total of twice in the whole series. And yet he says it so well, it's become a catch phrase.
- It even has a Shout Out in Ashes To Ashes when he says: 'Today my friend, you diary entry will read "Took a prozzie hostage and was shot by three Armed Bastards".'
- Ashes To Ashes has: 'Fire up the Quattro.'
- Lost: Hurley has said "dude" 259 times as of episode 13 of season 5. Yes, the fans have counted: http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/Dude
- John Locke: "Don't tell me what I can't do."
- Sawyer: "Son of a bitch."
- What?
- Michael: "WAAAAAAAALT!"
- Jack: "WE HAVE TO GO BACK!", which he only says in some form twice and in the same scene, but has since evolved to be his most well known saying (likely as it was the final sentence spoken at the end of the series' most famous cliffhanger). It is later revealed Locke first said this phrase to Jack.
- Jacob's "Help me" has become associated with his character... because it is the only line of dialogue he has ever spoken onscreen until the end of season 5. Where it's revealed that perhaps it wasn't Jacob who uttered that "Help me".
- Some fans joke about the amount of times characters say some variant of "why are you telling me this?" after being told a startling but seemingly irrelevant piece of information. Jack and Kate are the most common repeat offenders.
- "Live together, die alone" is one of the more thematic catchphrases of the show and sometimes used as the quote that defines the series. It is first used by Jack at the beginning of the series to make the survivors work together ("if we can't live together, we're going to die alone"), and characters like Kate have repeated it. The season 2 finale is named "Live Together, Die Alone." Parodied in the season 3 finale, when Rose tells Jack that if he says the phrase she'll punch him in the face.
- "What did one snowman say to the other snowman?" is a codephrase used by people in the Swan station to identify their replacement, the answer being "smells like carrots." "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" is a similar phrase used by several mysterious characters in season 5; its answer is "Ille qui nos omnes servabit" - "He who will save/protect us all.".
- "Whatever happened, happened" is the show's motto regarding time travel: whatever happened in the past always happened and always involved the time travelling characters; they just don't remember the events because they hadn't happened to them yet. Outside of Lost, this idea is called Novikov's Self Consistency Principle.
- The idea that a character has "work to do" is commonly stated by others; this "work" usually involves the island. Characters who have been said to have "work to do" include Jack, Locke, Michael, and Hurley. Upon completing his "work," Michael was told by Christian Shephard that he "can go now" and was promptly killed in the freighter explosion.
- Home Improvement's "More power!", "I don't think so, Tim," and of course Tim Allen's ever-present grunting.
- Would you believe... Get Smart was a virtual cottage industry of Catch Phrases.
- "Missed him by THIS much!", "Sorry about that, Chief", "This is KAOS! We don't (x) here!". Also, in the Latin American dub, Maxwell would try to shoehorn his aunt from Acapulco into every single conversation.
- The colour Emma Peel episodes of The Avengers would always begin with Steed delivering the phrase "Mrs. Peel — we're needed!" in an unusual or quirky way.
- It was also used in the movie.
- Parodied with Dr. Piers Crispin on My Hero, who is constantly saying "I am always here" in a desperate attempt to establish it as his Catch Phrase. It never sticks.
- Pretty much the entirety of Little Britain is Catch Phrases.
- Geoffrey in Slings And Arrows seems to go through one of these every season, to explain why he won't be directing whichever Shakespeare play the Story Arc is focusing on. The first season, he's "not mentally equipped for the task at this time." The second season, it's "extraordinarily difficult to stage effectively." Also, there's this recurring dialogue snippet:
Geoffrey: Get me a coffee. Black.
Anna: Cream and sugar?
Geoffrey: Yeah. Black.
- Anyone in Ghostwriter: "Let's rewind."
- Power Rangers: (Not including In The Name Of The Moon or By The Power Of Greyskull phrases, or attack/weapon names, which would make this section endless.)
- Rita: "I have a headache!"
- After Rita got purified by the Z-Wave and turned into the Mystic Mother, she retained the catchphrase.
- Alpha Five: "Ay-yi-yi!" (For particularly stressful situations, four or even six yi-s might be needed.)
- Alpha Six: "Yo, yo, yo!" (And then "Ay-yi-yi," once he becomes seen as The Scrappy, and so winds up damaged and repaired with speech circuits meant for Five.)
- Zordon: "My worst fear(s) has (have) been realized!" (For such a powerful and ancient sage, he's got a lot of worst fears.) An occasional variant was "the thing that I fear the most has happened."
- Zordon's also got "Report to the command center immediately" and "Observe the viewing globe."
- Jason: (and later others) "Back to action!"
- Nearly every Big Bad (or the minion whose job includes monster growth) has a unique monster-growth phrase. From the top:
- Rita: "Magic wand, make my monster... grow!"
- Rita and Zedd: "Make our monster grow!"
- Klank, spinning to throw Orbus: "Around and around and away we go!"
- Divatox: "Fire the torpedoes!"
- Astronema: "Fire the Satellasers!"
- Toxica: "Evil spirits of toil and strife, give this fallen Org new life!"
- Lothor or minions: "Scroll of empowerment, descend!"
- Mesogog or minions: "Activate/Engaging the Hydro-Regenerator."
- Koragg, user of Harry Potter-ish spell words: "Uthra Mejor!/Uthe Mejor!" (Uthra's proper. Uthe tends to start any spell that applies to Koragg himself.)
- Various: "Your brand of evil will never win!" (So another sort of evil might?)
- Various: "That's how it's done/we do it, [color] Ranger style!"
- Various: "Let's Ranger up!"
- Time Force team, post monster-finishing: "Your time's up!"
- SPD team, post monster-finishing: "You're going down!"
- Mystic Force team, post monster-finishing: "Checkmate!"
- Oddly enough, Tommy was said something along the lines of 'With the Power Rangers, there's always possibilities' as a throwaway line that was then used once or twice more by his character, once almost a decade after he first said it. Halfway between a catchphrase and a callback
- From Andromeda:
- Dylan: "Let's bring it" at the start of any battle plan. Also, "It's never easy".
- Trance: "There is one perfect possible future."
- British presenter Bruce Forsyth has a number of such phrases, usually requiring audience participation (the second part):
- "Nice to see you, to see you..." "Nice!" (his best known phrase, currently used on Strictly Come Dancing)
- "You don't get anything for a pair..." "Not in this game!" (Play Your Cards Right)
- "What do points make?" "Prizes!"
- On This Is Wonderland, Judge Malone gradually acquired "There must be something we can do to help this man/woman/child," as a Catch Phrase.
- Mocked in Extras with an appalling Show Within A Show When the Whistle Blows with Catch Phrase "Are you 'aving a laff?; Is he/she 'aving a laff?"
- Mystery Science Theater 3000: "We've got Movie Sign!"
- One introductory sketch featured Crow deciding out of the blue that his Catch Phrase would be, "You know you want me, baby!" And that he's been using this phrase for years, much to the delight of his fans. Crow then tries to help Mike choose a new Catch Phrase from the book of Catch Phrases, but Mike has really poor taste: "How about this one: 'We're all out of toner!'"
- "Lawgiver!" for Bobo, "Boobies!" for Doctor Forrester, "Bite me! It's fun!" for Crow, "CROW!" for Mike and/or Joel. Also, in MS Tings, "Intense (x) action!", "SUUUURGE!", "Sleeep!".
- For the first (cable) season, Larry would send each movie up with a cheerful "Enjoy!", and Dr. Forrester would cap off the episode by telling him to "File this". When Larry was replaced in the second season by TV's Frank, both lines were likewise replaced with Forrester's "Push the button, Frank". Frank himself had... that, uh, noise he made. Kind of a "Hyuck-a-goo!"
- Jimmy MacDonald's Canada had several:
- "Good evening, Canada. I'm Jimmy MacDonald, and I'm going to give it to you straight," would open every show.
- The first commercial break would be preceded by "Now let's hear a word from our sponsor: Provincial Cigarettes. If you're Canadian, you've got to be Provincial."
- Marg Margison's portion of the show ("A Woman's Advice") would end with "Let's build a great Canada. Back to you, Jimmy."
- And finally, Jimmy would close with "Goodnight, Canada. Hug your children."
- Pushing Daisies: Before the narrator lists the things that happened in the crime of the week, he says "The facts were these..."
- "Oh HELL no!"
- "At this very moment, in the town of Coueur d'Coueurs..."
- Mama's Family:
- Iola's "Knock, knock!"
- Vint's "Thanks a lot, Mama!"
- Mama's "I'll bet the neighbors are just lovin' this!" (actually only used a few times on the series, but very well-remembered)
- Several reality competition shows:
- Survivor: Host Jeff Probst's sendoff is "The tribe has spoken," said as he snuffs out the torch of the departing contestant. He also says, "Worth playing for?" after describing challenge prizes.
- Project Runway:
- Host Tim Gunn has "Make it work," as a way to encourage the contestants. He'll also say, "I'm concerned," when a designer's work isn't going well.
- Host Heidi Klum has a number of stock speeches she makes in each episode. She ends many with "...one of you will be out." Upon elimination, she bids the departer farewell with a kiss on the cheek and "Auf Wiedersehen." She does this with the designers and the models.
- Top Chef: Padma Lakshmi has the sendoff, "Pack your knives and go."
- The Apprentice: Alan Sugar (Donald Trump in the American version) seems to relish the chance to say or shout, "You're fired!" to the eliminated contestant. In the final episode of each season, he selects the winner with, "You're hired!"
- Shear Genius: The host says to each week's winner, "Congratulations, your work is sheer genius." To the loser he says, "I'm sorry, this was your final cut."
- The Amazing Race: In elimination legs, host Phil Keoghan tells the last team to arrive, "I'm sorry to tell you, you have been eliminated from The Amazing Race." Among fans this is known as "being Philiminated."
- Arrested Development was riddled with these. "I've made a huge mistake." "Her?" "Oh, come on!"
- Seinfeld has more than a few; Elaine's "Get out!" George's indignant "We're living in a SOCIETY" and frightened "Lupus? Is it lupus?!" are among the more memorable ones for the main characters, but many come from incidental characters such as the Soup Nazi's "No soup for you!" and Babu Bhatt's "You are a very bad man".
- "Not that there's anything wrong with that".
- "Hello, Newman."
- "Gold, Jerry! Gold!"
- "That's a shame." - Jerry, when something bad happens to others.
- "I'm kind of in the middle of something." - Jerry, when interrupted.
- In Fawlty Towers Basil says "He's from Barcelona" as an excuse for anything bad Manuel does.
- The ironic Catch Phrase of Sledge Hammer's title character is, "Trust me. I know what I'm doing." Disaster usually follows afterward.
- "...come on down! You're the next contestant on The Price Is Right!"
- Mythbusters: "Well there's your problem!"
- Not to mention all the great throwaway lines that become catchphrases via repetition in the opening credits, like: "I reject your reality and substitute my own!", "Jamie want big boom!", and "I just had one of those what-the-hell-are-we-doing moments."
- While the disclaimer changes now and then, the one that remains indelibly linked to the show is "Please, don't try this at home." "EVER!"
- The Red Green Show ended each episode according to a set formula, with Red assuring the camera that "if my wife is watching, I'll be coming straight home after the meeting and...[changes every episode]", then adding "And to the rest of you, thanks for watching. On behalf of myself and Harold and the whole gang up here at Possum Lodge... keep your stick on the ice."
- Also heard during the closing meeting is the Lodge motto: "Quando omni flunkus, moritati." Loose translation: "When all else fails, play dead."
- Then there's Red's snappy advice, usually given just before whipping out the duct tape: "If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy!" Also, each of his frequent pep talks to fellow middle-aged schlubs concluded thusly: "Remember, I'm pulling for you, 'cause we're all in this together."
- Don't forget the Man's Prayer: "I am a man... but I can change... if I have to... I guess."
- American Gothic, "Someone's at the door..."
- From Are You Being Served?:
- "I'm free!" (Mr. Humphries)
- "I think [states opinion], and I am unanimous in that." (Mrs. Slocombe)
- "You've all done very well." (Young Mr. Grace, usually while nearly keeling over)and the response was always "Thank you Mr. Grace."
- The Vicar Of Dibley: "No, no,no,no,no, no, no... Yes." (Monty Python fans will associate this phrase with the "Nudge-Nudge, Wink-Wink" sketch.)
- By the end of its run, most of the sketches on The Comedy Company consisted of nothing but characters spouting their catch phrases, especially Con the Fruiterer ("Good day gentleman and how are you today?", "Coupla days, bewdiful!").
- Survivorman's Les Stroud is fond of the mantra "I hate to kill any living thing, but in a survival situation, everything is fair game" whenever he dispatches and devours something cute and fuzzy. A mantra that is markedly absent whenever he scarfs down insects (usually still moving) or fish.
- On the second season of Extras, Ricky Gervais' character is given a starring role on a bad sitcom, in which his catchphrase is "Are you havin' a laugh?" And then, in falsetto, "Is he/she havin' a laugh?"
- That same line was also used by his character in Stardust (this Troper didn't get the reference until just now).
- Also used in TheOffice, although this was before Extras came out.
- "By your command." Cylon catchphrase on the old Battlestar Galactica, occasional mythology gag in the new Battlestar Galactica.
- Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?: Greg and the remaining contestant always closed the show with: "Do it, Rockapella!"
- Also, the Chief would frequently dismiss Greg with a simple, "Greg? Go away."
- Cyber Chase
- Inez:
- "Don't call me 'Nezzie'!" Used after Matt, well, does.
- "This is not good; this is not good at all!"
- Jackie:
- "Ew, Ew, and Double Ew!"
- "Make room; I've gotta pace."
-
Hacker: "That's The Hacker, to you!"
- Mork And Mindy: "Nanu nanu" and "Shazbot".
- "Mork calling Orson, Mork calling Orson, come in Orson..."
- Monty Python's Flying Circus: "And now for something completely different." This was used as the title of the compilation movie.
- How could you forget Jack O'Neill's catchphrase from Stargate SG-1 , for cryin' out loud?
- Plus Teal'c's: "Indeed", Mitchell's: "That's what I'm talking about!", Hammond's: "Open the iris" and the unforgettable: "Chevron seven, locked."
- And O'Neill's immortal responses to any technical problem: "Ai-ai-ai-ai-ai" or "Don't tell me, I know this... magnets!"
- And from any Goa'uld-affiliated character: "Jaffa, kree!" ("Jaffa" refers to any member of the Jaffa race, or any subordinate in general. Officially, "Kree" is a call to attention, though in practice, it's been used to mean pretty much anything and everything, though many situations could be summed up as "yoo-hoo!" and "Hello?! Pay attention, and respond to the situation as I trained you!")
- "Kree" is used in so many different contexts that O'Neill, of course, eventually lampshades it by asking Daniel, "All right, just what the heck does 'Kree' mean?"
- "Did you hear me? I said 'kree'!"
- Also Daniel's "I have no idea."
- Sam used to say "holy Hannah" a lot in the first few seasons, but that one faded fairly quickly.
- Jonas Quinn started out the series with "It's my first time *insert event here*," but he eventually quit.
- Supernatural isn't exactly a catchphrase-based show but Dean has said both "I'm tired" and "How am I supposed to live with that?" far too many times for them not to be noted as catchphrases.
- A slightly more adorable catchphrase is the ever-popular "Bitch"/"Jerk" call-and-refrain.
- "Son Of A Bitch" is easily the most common phrase to come out of Dean's mouth other than "Crap" or "Sammy, Bring me some pie". It has also worked it's way into said tropers vocabulary...stupid Dean...
- I Love Lucy has "Lucy, I'm home" and "Waaah!".
- Not to mention "Somebody's got a lotta 'splanin' to do!"
- or "I'm gonna teach (him/her) a lesson (he'll/she'll) never forget"
- The Honeymooners had Jackie Gleason's famous lines being..."One of these days, one of these days....Pow, right in the kisser!" "Har Har hardy har har" "To the moon, Alice!" "Baby, you're the greatest."
- Drake And Josh has a few including "Ah geez!" (Josh). In the earlier seasons though Josh would repeat words for emphasis... EMPHASIS!.
- The Sopranos has "fuhgeddaboutit" often said by Tony and a few other characters.
- It has also been claimed that Tony says "You've gotta be fuckin' kiddin' me," in every episode.
- Beetleborgs has a few, Flabber (who is a cross between Elvis and Jay Leno) has these ones: "Flabberific" "Flabtastic" "Flabout" and various spell incantations.
- The Tonight Show during the Johnny Carson era had "Heeeere's Johnny" and since it's in the Leno era now it has... "And now... Jaaaaaaaaaaay Leno!".
- Brainiac, when Richard Hammond was a presenter, occasionally opened dangerous segments with, "Stop! The experiment you're about to see is dangerous. Do not try this at home. No really...don't."
- The phrase "Great Caesar's Ghost" was common around the start of the 20th Century. Nowadays, it's exclusively associated with Perry White from The Adventures of Superman.
- Kenan And Kel had Kel's famous exchange. "Who loves orange soda?" "Kel loves orange soda!" "Is it true?" "Mm-hmm. I do, I do, I do-oo!"
- "I! DROPPED THE SCREEEEEW! IN THE TUNA!" Alright, it's only said once (well, several times in a row, but only once), but the internet cannot be reasoned with.
- Aaaaaaaaaaaw, here it goes!
- 'Allo, 'Allo!:
- Edith: "RENÉ! What are you doing with zat [servant] girl in your arms?" Upon finding René in a compromising position.
- René: "You stupid woman! Can you not see..." Response to the above, usually followed by a flimsy excuse, which Edith buys anyway.
- Madame Fanny La Fan: "Ze flashing knobs!" when the bedknobs flash, signaling an incoming transmission on the radio.
- Roger Leclerc: "It is I, Leclerc." To René, who always sees through his Paper Thin Disguise from a mile away.
- Alberto Bertorelli: "What a mistake-a to make-a!"
- Crabtree: "Good moaning!"
- Michelle of the Resistance: "Listen very carefully, I shall say zis only wence." Once, she had to say it twice, due to being interrupted.
- And on another occasion she had to whisper it from a stretcher as she had fallen off a drainpipe while trying to pass a message to Rene, who was taking a bath at the time.
- Black Hole High: Principal Durst: "There is nothing wrong with Blake Holsey High."
- Out Of This World: Donna: "Evie Ethel Garland!"
- Look Around You: "Write that down in your copybook now." and "Look around you. Look around you. Just look around you. Do you know what we're looking for?"
- Quantum Leap: After assessing his situation after each leap, Sam will declare (in various inflections) "Oh, boy."
- Martha Stewart closes every segment of her show with, "It's a good thing."
- "I'm Rick James, Bitch!" It bacame so annoying to Chappelle when fans would holler this out at his shows that he would walk off stage and probably contributed to his Creator Breakdown.
- He has indicated to enthusiastic fans in the wild, "I'd appreciate you not calling me 'bitch' in front of my kids."
- Beakmans World includes "Zaloom!" (which is actually Beakman's actor's last name), "Bada-bing!", and, whenever someone mentions a mileage, "Of course...your mileage may vary."
- In The Greatest American Hero, Ralph lets out an annoyed, "Damn!" every time he crash lands... which is nearly every time he tries to fly.
- Monk has 'here's what happened' (spoken just before The Summation), 'here's the thing', 'I don't know how he did it, but he did it', and 'he's the guy' (or, alternatively, for Red Herring characters 'he's not the guy').
- Taxi had "Dank you veddy much" ("Thank you very much") for Andy Kaufman's character Latka Gravas. The character and phrase - the whole mock language - originated in Kaufman's stage act when the persona was usually known as "Foreign Man".
- The Batman TV show with Adam West had Robin, who, upon discovering something, would exclaim "Holy (insert phrase regarding surprise here), Batman!"
- This has become the catchphrase of the Tim Drake Robin.
- Really? This troper can't think of any examples of him saying it, or anything like it. In one issue of Young Justice, someone else says it, and he comments that it's "reminiscent of an old, bad TV show".
- As well as the Riddler's "Riddle Me This!"
- This has also become the catchphrase of the comic book Riddler.
- Also, another comic book catchphrase that originated in the TV series is Penguin's "Nyej, nyej, nyej!" and "You damnable chyropters!" as well as Alfred's "Master Bruce..." and "Young Richard...".
- Batman The Animated Series used the concept to get meta: Baby-Doll, a washed-up former child star trapped in a child's body had the catchphrase "I didn't mean to..." which she repeated several times in her madness before finally breaking down and sobbing it to Batman.
- The cop show Hawaii Five-O concluded each episode with Steve McGarrett (Jack Lord) saying, "Book 'em Danno!".
- Married With Children had Al's occasional catchphrase, "Let's rock." When the show moved to Saturdays, they ran ads with him saying "Let's disco!"
- J.J. Evans had DYN ... NO ... MITE!!!! in Good Times''
- Judge Judy has a few. Her most popular one is "I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!". Her other ones include "If something doesn't make sense, it's not true", "Don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining", "I'M SPEAKING!" (said when someone interrupts her), "(S)he's a nut!" and "That falls under the category of 'Too bad'."
- Marcello Tinelli's "GOOOOD NIGHT AMERICA!" from Videomatch. Don't know if he still uses it in Showmatch, though.
- "What a good question, Mario!" in the classic episodes of Caiga Quien Caiga.
- "And you, WHAT SIDE ARE YOU ON?" in Fugitivos.
- "You are nominated/not nominated" in Gran Hermano.
- "Chu-chu-hua, chu-chu-hua, chu-chu-hua-hua-hua" from Pińón Fijo
- While not often actually said on the show, "Your response must be phrased in the form of a question" is the de facto catchphrase of Jeopardy.
- "I'll see what I can do." - Burn Notice
- Barney in How I Met Your Mother has "Suit up!", "It's gonna be legen - wait for it - dary!", and countless variations therein. As well as "What up?", often said as he offers a high-five for any ribald joke he makes.
- And let's not forget, "Haaaaave you met Ted?"
- Marshall has "Lawyered."
- In the first eight episodes of Fringe, Peter Bishop has developed the catch phrase, "You're not going to believe this, but I think this might actually work."
- Greys Anatomy has Seriously. Seriously? Seriously.
- The Wire:
- Jimmy McNulty: "What the fuck did I do?"
- Bunk Moreland: "Happy now, bitch?"
- Stringer Bell: "It's just business."
- Proposition Joe: "Got a proposition for you." Or, really, any time he ever uses the word "proposition" in a sentence.
- Drug runners on the streets of Baltimore when Omar Little is out in broad daylight: "Omar comin'!"
- Sen. Clay Davis: "Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-iiiiiiiiiiit!"
- That's So Raven has "Oh snap!".
- Dr. Drakken has also been known to use this one.
- Joy often uses this as well.
- Hannah Montana has "Sweet niblets!".
- TVtropeseditorsaywhat??
- Ya think?
- On the West Wing characters had a habit of saying "You know, not for nothing, but ..." before making an emphatic point. This became an Aaron Sorkin trademark that popped up in later projects; this troper realized Sorkin wrote Charlie Wilson's War when the phrase appeared in the closing scenes.
- There's also Jed Bartlet's infamous "What's next?"
- Mad Men:
- Pete Campbell: "A thing like that."
- Gossip Girl has two...Cyrus Rose's "Not enough!" and who could forget the infamous "...I'm Chuck Bass."
- The latter was lampshaded by Blair in the season 2 premiere. "Give me one good reason, and 'I'm Chuck Bass' doesn't count."
- Gossip Girl herself has a couple of her own: "You know you love me" and the "XOXO" sign-off
- "I am Artie! The strongest man...in the world!"
- Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia: Subverted in Season 2 when Frank starts saying "What's the Action" and Dennis questions him by saying, "What's that, your catchphrase?"
- "You stupid little skinny man!", "Aaaaaaw, YEAH!"
- "Yes, Minister." Said by Sir Humphrey at least once every episide in the series of the same name. Later it would become "Yes, Prime Minister".
- Roy Walker on the Game Show Catch Phrase has "Say what you see" and "It's good, but it's not right". This was lampshaded in one episode, where the phrase the contestants had to guess was in fact "Say what you see". They didn't get it.
- On The Daily Show: "Settle down!"
- Also "Go ooooooon!"
- "... or NAMBLA"
- Jon Stewart recently mentioned that he wanted "Keep fucking that chicken" to be his catchphrase, but Ernie Anastos stole it.
- "Did I fall asleep?" whenever
Echo any of the Actives wakes up after being wiped and infused with a new persona on Dollhouse.
- The proper response to this is, "For a little while." At this point, the Active will ask, "Shall I go now?", the response to which is "If you'd like". Failure to carry out the exchange in full after a wipe can have dire consequences.
- In the episode "Gray Hour", the safecracker persona used by Echo has "Blue skies". It is later used by Sierra to inform the audience that she has been imprinted with the same persona.
- "You dirty old man!" ~ Harold Steptoe, nearly every episode of Steptoe And Son
- Although Steptoe was rather lacking in Catch Phrases compared to most other sitcoms of it's time and place (1960s Britain), as it was aiming for a more Kitchen Sink approach to the sitcom and most real people don't tend to have a collection of stock phrases they repeat over and over.
- Denny Crane on Boston Legal - "Denny Crane!"
- From the long-running Kamen Rider franchise:
- Shinji Kido: "Usha!" (roughly, "Alright!")
- Souji Tendou: "Grandma said this..." and "Walking the path of heaven, ruling over all."
- Tsurugi Kamishiro: "The man who replaces the gods with a sword's slash!" "I will stand on top of (whatever he's attempting at the moment)." and "My best friend KaGAmi!"
- A signifigant portion of Den-O's cast:
- Momotaros: "Ore, sanjou!" ("I've arrived!") and "From start to finish, I'm always at a climax!"; both are also considered emblematic of the series as a whole. He also has "Let's go, let's go, LET'S GO!!", which gets less attention.
- Urataros: "Do you mind if I string you along?" and less often "Every word contains a thousand hooks."
- Kintaros: "My strength has made you cry. Wipe your tears with this", sometimes shortened to just "You'll cry!" or "You cried!".
- Ryutaros: "Mind if I (relevant action)? Not gonna hear your answer!". Most commonly "Mind if beat you?"
- Sieg: "Advent! At the top!" as well as "The world revolves for my sake", and "Bow your head!"
- Yuto: "Let me say this to start...", followed by a statement about how strong (or pissed off) he is; his partner Deneb shares the intro, but always messes it up by following it up with an honest statement that confuses and annoys everyone.
- Kai: "Does my face look it?", after saying how he feels.
- Nago Keisuke: "Please return that life to god."
- And, at first, the Aso family had "God has erred", referring to the Fangires.
- Otoya Kurenai: "All people are music" and "There are only two things that annoy me, marriage and (relevant annoyance)".
- Kivat-Bat the 3rd: "Kivatte ikuze!"
- Kivat-Bat the 2nd: "Rejoice, it's extinction time."
- As well as Tatsulot's "Tension Fortissimo!"
- Tsukasa Kadoya: "Just a passing-through Kamen Rider - remember that!"
- Also, for his Final Form Rides: "This might tickle a bit."
- And Kaitou has one for the same: "The pain will only last for an instant!"
- Lexx's Kai: "The dead do not _____."
- Nobuta wo Produce has several. One of the most iconic is used in almost every episode by Nobuta to try to up her confidence level: "Nobuta power, CHUU NYUU!", which comes with a Magic Girl-esque pose. Shuji has a couple too, the most common being "Bye Bye-cycle!" (accompanied by a mine of bicycle handles) and "Do~nichi~getsu~ka~sui~mo~kin~doOOoOoOoo!" But Akira has by far the most out of all the characters, due to his habit of exclaiming certain phrases when surprised. "Kon kon!" is the most recognized of all these among fans(as with the previous characters, it comes with a signiture move; a hand barking like a fox) Also, theres "Akira SHOCK!", "Akira DOWN~" and "Shu~u~ji-kun!"
- Al Roker wants you to know that's what's going on around the country. Now here's what's happening in your neck of the woods.
- Faith is five by five with that.
- Hiro, when achieving some goal, would often yell, "YATTA!" And upon meeting Nathan Petrelli, would often throw his arms in the air and exclaim, "FLYING MAN!"
- The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin was Catchphrase Heaven, with almost every single character having their own stock phrase "Great!", "Super!", "I didn't get where I am today by..", "Bit of a cock up on the old....front"
- When Chris, CJ's counterpart in The Remake Reggie Perrin, said "I didn't get where I am today by..." it got a huge laugh from the studio audience. Since this doesn't appear to be a catchphrase for Chris, its appearance may qualify as a Mythology Gag.
- The League Of Gentlemen has quite a few (listed on the show's page). They manage to avoid becoming the main source of the humour, and are mostly used for announcing the character's presence.
- "I'm Daisy; Daisy Adair."
- "Does that seem right to you?" --Jubal Early, about every other sentence
- Kaylee has "Shiny".
- Not quite - "shiny" is slang for "fine" in the Firefly universe. However, Kaylee is particularly fond of the word.
- Jayne has "I'll be in my bunk."
- The Mighty Boosh has several, some of which date back to the radio incarnation:
Howard: "I can't die...I've got so much to give!" and "I'll come at you like a ——"
Naboo: "I'm going to have to turn my back on you." (rotates 360 degrees while music plays)
Tony Harrison: "This is an outrage!"
Bollo: "I got a bad feeling about this."
- Deadwood "Cocksucker!" — Mr Wu. One of the few English words he can actually say.
- Red Dwarf: Someone saying "What a guy!" whenever Ace Rimmer, Arnold Rimmer's dashing action hero counterpart from another dimension shows up. And his own catchphrase: "Smoke me a kipper - I'll be back for breakfast".
- Does that really have to be covered up? there were two episodes about that and with no mystery.
- Sports Center, especially during the Keith Olbermann-Dan Patrick era, was a virtual catch phrase factory.
- Blackadder, anyone? Baldrick's line "I have a cunning plan", immediately followed by some of the most breathtakingly idiotic schemes in existance, definitely makes the list.
- Some variant of "a cunning plan" is uttered by Edmund, Baldrick, Percy, or George in nearly every espisode of all 4 series.
- Who Wants To Be A Millionaire: "Is that your final answer?"
- Good Eats: Alton Brown's exasperated "Oh bother!"
- Sanford And Son: "You big dummy!"
- I have many skills.
- Oscar Leroy from Corner Gas very frequently calls people Jackass. Lampshaded in the episode The J Word
Brent: Honestly, Dad, you gotta give that word a rest.
Oscar: What word?
Brent: Jackass. Davis is a jackass for getting locked in the trunk, yesterday the bread delivery guy was a jackass for wearing a digital watch, and apparently I'm a jackass just for sitting here. Everybody's a jackass.
Oscar: I know! That's why I use the word so often!
- Leverage Nate: "Let's go steal a ______" Miracle, school, hospital and movie have all been used.
- Also Eliot, whenever he's asked how he knows something, replies "I slept with a *insert relevant profession*".
- Another of Eliot's: It's a very distinctive _____ (fighting style, wound pattern, explosion sound etc.)
- The Todd from Scrubs: *insert event or statement* Five!
- Perceval in Kaamelott has been told to answer "C'est pas faux" ("That's quite right") whenever someone says something he doesn't understand. He gets to use that phrase quite a lot.
- It's the (Scientific Experiment)...''of Science!''
- More children's show examples:
Professional Wrestling
- Wrestling lives for these, and virtually every wrestler has Catch Phrase or two, from Hulk Hogan's "What'cha gonna do?" to Steve Austin's "Gimme a hell yeah!" to the Undertaker's "Rest In Peace!" to John Cena's "You can't see me!" (today used more often in his Entrance Music).
- One of the earliest examples, from a Heel, is "Superstar" Billy Graham's: "I'm the man of the hour, the man with the power, too sweet to be sour!"
- Ric Flair has built up quite a selection throughout his career, from a simple "Wooo!", to "Diamonds are forever... and so is Ric Flair" to ""kiss-stealing, wheeling, dealing, jet-flying, limousine-riding son of a gun" - and of course "To be The Man, you gotta beat The Man".
- The Rock, at one point, had 16-17 Catch Phrases; he would often cut a 5-minute interview consisting entirely of Catch Phrases. In fact, the WWE series SmackDown was derived from one of his trademark phrases, and as such he often referred to the program as "The Rock's Show."
- Raven is well known for ending every interview with "Quote the Raven, nevermore"
- And that's not even his only catchphrase. Other favorites include "so it is written, so it shall come to pass" and "the world is full of kings and queens, who'll blind your eyes and steal your dreams."
- More recently, Ron Simmons returned from Character Limbo to become a fan favorite, complete with merchandise, simply by uttering his old Catch Phrase, 'Damn!', at comically appropriate moments.
- Hi, I'm Dolph Ziggler.
- It's time to play the game!
- EXCUSE ME!!
- WASSUP!?
- Because I'm the Miz, and I'M.........AWESOME!
- Woo woo woo, you know it!
- How can we forget about the universal "After our fight at [insert PPV here] you no longer be [insert name of the championship here]champion anymore]"
- And even the announcers get in on it, which can be traced back to Gordon Solie's frequent comment that a wrestler was "wearing the crimson mask".
- Gorilla Monsoon frequently dealt with some of the more outlandish claims of Jesse Ventura and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan with "Will you stop?"
- Jim Ross's oft-parodied "[someone's] stompin' a mudhole", "[someone's getting beat] like a government mule", matches (or wrestlers) are "bowling-shoe ugly", and a really good, really vicious beating is a "slobberknocker".
- Joey Styles, meanwhile, has "OH MY GOD!" (or the lucha-related version, "AY DIOS MIO!"), a wrestler "getting introduced" to various hard-hitting objects, and referring to flying wrestlers as "Air _____".
- Jerry Lawler is happy to shout "Puppies!" at the slightest provocation.
- WCW's Tony Schiavone frequently felt that the particular PPV/Nitro/Thunder/Worldwide/whatever was "the greatest night in the history of our sport". This has occurred more than once a week, leading some to believe that Schiavone has severe memory problems.
- Given the volatility and cult following of his series of shoot interviews, the Iron Sheik has turned the list, "Suplex 'em, put 'em in the camel clutch, break his back, fuck his ass, and make him humble!" into a catch phrase.
Close Professional Wrestling
- Most classic radio comedies produced by The BBC had numerous catchphrases.
- The Goon Show had lots and lots. The best remembered include:
- Bluebottle: "Enter Bluebottle..."; "Harm can come to a growing lad like that"; "I don't like this game"; and "You rotten swine, you!" In that order.
- Neddy Seagoon: "No thanks, I'm trying to give them up" when offered something other than a cigarette.
- "Picture of Queen Victoria?"
- Subverted in one show, when the object on offer is a tree, "No thanks, I'm trying to cut them down" followed by hysterical laughter...
- Eccles: "Shut up, Eccles!"
- Grytpype-Thynne: "You silly, twisted boy, you!"
- Little Jim: "He's fallen in the water!" This catchphrase was the character's only purpose.
- Also "Yuckabakakakoo", "Needle-nardle-noo", and of course "Ying Tong Iddle I Po", which was the basis for their hit record "The Ying Tong Song".
- ITMA has been described by an aquaintance of this troper who was old enough to remember it as "consisting entirely of Catch Phrases. And no actual jokes." The one remembered today is Mrs Mopp, the charlady's "Can I do you now, sir?"
- Others included the perpetually inebriated Colonel Chinstrap's "I don't mind if I do" in reply to any remark which sounded the least bit like one homophone or another for the offer of a drink ("Is this the first-class refreshment room?" "A first glass of refreshing rum? I don't mind if I do!"), the Middle Eastern postcard seller Ali Oop's departing "I go...I come back", the overweight character Atlas' "What, me? In my state of 'ealth?!" and the perpetually glum Mona Lott's ironic "It's being so cheerful as keeps me going", among many, many others.
- This was parodied in a 1970s Burkiss Way sketch, followed by a phone call from a listener complaining about the parody because ITMA was the one thing that gave his troops the morale to carry on fighting during the war. No prizes for guessing that the caller is Adolf Hitler.
- Julian and Sandy, the Camp Gay double act on Round The Horne had "Ooh, isn't he bold?" (on the rare occasions Kenneth Horne made a Double Entendre before they did) and various phrases in Polari.
- DJs Mark and Lard created loads of Catch Phrases during their run on Radio 1. ("Get to Bed!" "Fancy a Brew?" "Whhhhhoooo?" "Stop!...Carry on." etc.) Many were Running Gags from sketches they did, which often became unattached when the sketches ended and were borrowed by other DJs or requested by listeners.
- Comedy team Bob & Ray had a couple: inept reporter Wally Ballou's sign-on, "-ly Ballou here!" and the duo's closing signature. "This is Ray Goulding reminding you to write if you get work/And Bob Elliott reminding you to hang by your thumbs." Also possibly their habit of referring to their fictional staff as 'our Bob & Ray Organization', which by the end of their forty-year career in media parody ran to an empire AOL Time Warner might envy.
- The intro to each episode of The Shadow would begin with the The Shadow dramatically intoning "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?... The Shadow Knows." The series also included the catchphrase "The weed of crime bears bitter fruit." Both were used in the 1994 movie as well.
- Most of Superman's best known catch prases actually originated in the highly popular radio show that lasted the entire decade of the 1940s, including the openings: "Faster than a speeding bullet!" and "Look! Up in the sky!", etc. Two of the best known are actually audio cues that helped listeners fill in the blanks of their own imaginations. "This looks like a job for Superman!" let the listener know that Clark Kent had just turned into Superman. "Up, up, and awaaaaaayyyyy!!!!" let the listener know that Superman was now flying.
- The Howard Stern Show has spawned a number of catchphrases over the years. Some develop naturally on the show, while others come from the repetition of sound clips from other shows. Most are short-lived, but a few end up enduring. Examples of the latter include: "Baba-Booey" and "Hey Now!"(which itself was a catch phrase from The Larry Sanders Show).
- "Baba Booey" is the nickname of Howard's producer. Whenever Stern fans prank-call other shows, they will usually chant "Baba Booey, Baba Booey!" as a sort of "gotcha!" to the victims.
- Fibber Mc Gee And Molly had a few- among others, Fibber's Incredibly Lame Puns were often followed either by Molly's "Tain't funny, McGee" or The Old Timer's "That's pretty good, Johnny, but that ain't the way I heared it!", Horatio K. Boomer's attempts to search through his pockets for a given object almost always ended with "And a check for a short beer- well, well, imagine that, no [object]!", and the Swedish Elk's Club janitor Ole was always "yust doo-natin' my time."
- The Jack Benny Program had whichever character Frank Nelson was playing almost always come in with "Yeeeeeeeeessss?" as a response to another character's query. Also famous was the introduction exchange between Benny and Eddie Anderson:
"Oh, ROCH-ester..."
"YES, Boss?"
- The Simpsons features a parody of the Frank Nelson character, voiced by Dan Castenella. In one episode Homer asks him why he talks like that, and is told "I've had a strooooooooooke."
- "Well, honestly."
- Jack's signature "Well!"
- The two hosts of NPR's Car Talk end each show with "Don't drive like my brother!" "Don't drive like MY brother!"
- In The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy radio series, as well as other incarnations: Marvin's "Life! Don't talk to me about life!"
- From Radio City in Midtown Manhattan, third most listened to show in all of America. Hello, you sick twisted freak. Welcome to the Glenn Beck program.
- (From the TV show) But here's the one thing:
- The "sick twisted freak" part is a Shout Out to another conservative talker named Bob Grant.
- How could anyone have not heard "the latest news from Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average."? Well, I guess "now you know . . the rest of the story."
- Hard to believe the list has gotten this long without someone shouting "MAKEUP!"
Tabletop Games
- Every faction of Warhammer 40000 has their own:
- Imperium of Man: For the Emperor!/The Emperor Protects!
- Let's not forget that every Space Marine Legion has its own Pre Ass Kicking One Liner, but the Dark Angels' "Repent! For tomorrow you die!" seems pretty popular (But an amusing point made by a forum poster once has a Chaos Space Marine note that for them to follow their battlecry, they would have to come back to attack them tomorrow. Naturally, if they kept saying it, they'd never get a chance to attack. The Dark Angels were reasonably upset that their centuries-old battlecry just got ruined).
- Chaos: Death to the false Emperor!/For the Dark Gods!
- Khorne: Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!
- Kharn The Betrayer: KILL MAIM BURN! KILL MAIM BURN!
- Orks: WAAAAAAGH!
- 'Ere we go! 'ere we go! 'ere we go!
- Let's stomp some 'umies!
- Eldar: For the Craftworld!
- Tau: For the Greater Good!
- Necron: ...
- Tyranid: For the Swarm!
- ZANGLER- Only you'll have to stop using that word. It's stupid.
- MELCHIOR- There's nothing stupid about the word. it's just the way some people use it without discrimination.
- ZANGLER- Do they?
- MELCHIOR- Oh, yes. It's absolutely classic.
Video Games
- Spoofed a few times on Homestar Runner. In Strong Bad's "crazy cartoon" "Sweet Cuppin' Cakes", the character of Eh! Steve seems to exist only to say his Catch Phrase, which is also his name ("Eh! Steve!"). At the end of the Strong Bad Email "the facts", Homestar says he's decided to change his Catch Phrase from "Seriously" to "That's bupkis!" Strong Bad used to say "Holy Crap!" with some regularity, as well, but due to inverse-Flanderization, he's been weaned off that aspect of his personality, and now groans whenever the word 'crap' comes up in an email.
- Parodied again with the Cheat Commandos, whose original Catch Phrase was "Cheat Commandos... rock rock on!"
Gunhaver: "Cheat Commandos... riggidy-roll!"
Silent Rip: "Uh... that's not what we usually say —"
Gunhaver: "Yeah, whatever, it's riggidy-roll from now on."
- Parodied again with "Limozeen ...But They're In Space!", in which manager Teeg Dougland starts every sentence with "I'm afraid I have some bad news, boys."
- And who could forget Teen Girl Squad's "Soooooooooooooooo good!", as well as Tompkin's characteristic Unusual Euphemism, "Awwww, peas!"
- Bubs' alter ego, "The Thnikkaman," has several that either he says or are associated with him.
Kids: "Can we have some?"
The Thnikkaman: "Yeah, shut up, kid!"
Or:
Singers: "Here comes the Thnikkaman!" (When he leaves, it's "There goes the Thnikkaman!")
- According to Homestar, Coach Z uses "You can't always rush into the score zone!" as a metaphor for everything.
- Also, a standard call-and-response for private eye, crooked cop, secret agent, and celebrity pharmacist Dangeresque:
Reynaldo: Sounds pretty dangerous!
Dangeresque: No, sounds... Dangeresque!
- "Looks like I'm gonna have to jump!"
- One Over Zero: Junior has "bite me".
- Spoofed/subverted early on in Wigu, when the title character learns that he must be careful not to utter the catchphrase ("Spring into action!") of his cartoon hero Topato Potato, lest he be hunted down by the Catchphrase Killer.
- In the webtoon Geo Weasel the character Mitri once claimed to be "Pretty much everywhere and nowhere, like a ghost or something." In later episodes, his brother would pressure him into saying it again, and then laugh like an idiot and proclaim it to be the funniest line in the world. This was probably a parody or a Take That aimed at several of the toon's fans who thought the line was so funny that they pressured the creator into adding it again.
- Jimbob also had the Catch Phrase "Fix my saxophone", but it was parodied to the point that it became very irritating to everyone in the cartoon whenever he asked. Weas questioned whether the line was actually supposed to be amusing at all just by repeating it over and over and if it was leading up to anything (to which Jimbob replied cryptically "episode 15"). Later uses of the phrase either had someone stop Jimbob before he could say the whole thing or even ask or he would receive punishment for it (such as Weas shooting him dead in the first episode and stabbing him in the face in the long-awaited episode 15).
- One of Fred The Monkey's favorite tropes. Fred's, "Eee? Pah!", Sceb's "What the biscuit?" and, of course, Clydex's "I'm a platypus."
- Riff, the uber-cool mad scientist in the long running comic Sluggy Freelance always says "Let me check my notes..." whenever an invention fails disasterously.
- Za?
- Nazi science sneers at catchphrases!
- Crikey! This catchphrase is a bit stroppy!
- You have been promoted to catchphrased at by a giant frog.
- Spoofed in this PBF cartoon◊
- Order Of The Stick wouldn't be complete without these, though the Catch Phrases do seem to diminish with the Cerebus Syndrome.
- Haley delights in declaring, in the least sneaky way possible, "Sneak attack, bitch!"
- Vaarsuvius never actually says this, but beware of any paper that reads "I prepared Explosive Runes this morning." They explode.
- Elan's bardic songs and occasional prayers to Banjo are his catchphrase.
- "I am a sexy, shoeless god of war!"
- Dunh Dunh DUNNNNH!
- While oddly none of the main characters seem to have a catch phrase in Cwen's Quest it almost seems to be a requirement for the minor characters causing fans of the series to repeat them whenever a minor character show up.
- Zergarem: Your Mother
- Edwin: H Ea RT!
- Sabril: Magic (followed my malevolent laughter)
- Trel: Hats! (Followed by screaming)
- Vorg: Here at Team Vorg.....
- In pictures for sad children, sentences and titles of comics are often formed based on the sentence "character, who is description". Used most famously for paul, who is a ghost.
- Several in Sluggy Freelance:
- Riff: "Let me check my notes."
- Kiki: "Stay good, (name of person behaving immorally here)! Stay good!"
- Sam: "Sam's da man!"
- Dimension of Pain Demons: "How evil."
- "Torg Potter" Wizards: "Mysteeeeeerious!" (wiggles fingers)
- Torg: "Run away!"
- Bun-Bun: Ka-Click!
- Bert: "My world is a crotch!" Later, when he shows up again as a ghost (for a short time), it is confirmed to Torg that it's him when he says, "My afterlife is a crotch!"
- "FOR PONY!" - Richard, Looking For Group
- "Why, hello there!" and "Oh my." - Flying Man, of Flying Man and Friends.
- Igor from Dork Tower has "It must be mine!" (not really related to the trope). this strip and those after it hang quite a lampshade on it.
- Rayne from Least I Could Do: " ... and that's when I tried to buy the horse a prostitute."
Web Original
Western Animation
- Homer Simpson's "D'oh!" and Bart Simpson's "Eat My Shorts!" are just two of the dozens of catchphrases in The Simpsons. Nearly every character who has appeared more than ten times has at least one, with the notable exception of Lisa. The writers and producers of The Simpsons deliberately changed Bart's catchphrase on a regular basis, even going so far as to do a Lampshade Hanging about it in one episode (where Bart becomes famous for his catchphrase "I didn't do it", and that ends with a long sequence of characters spouting their catchphrase, ending with all of them staring expectantly at Lisa, who has no catchphrase and goes to her room in a huff.
- Also, parodied in The Simpsons' "Homer to the Max" episode, in which a TV cop, also named Homer Simpson, has the catch phrase "And that's the end of that chapter." When he was reworked to be a clumsy oaf, his catchphrase became "Uh-oh, Spaghetti-o!"
- The changing of Bart's catchphrases was lampshaded a couple of times - in "The Summer of 4' 2" Bart complains to Marge that Lisa became popular by copying him, just as she says "Don't have a cow, man". Marge replies "You haven't said that in four years. Let Lisa have it." And in "Skinner's Sense of Snow", Bart reads "Underachiever and proud of it" in his permenant record and asks "How old is this thing?"
- Lenny's frequent "Ow, my eye! I'm not supposed to get (insert substance) in it!" has become a running catch phrase for him.
- South Park makes heavy use of catchphrases, frequently playing with and subverting them in surreal ways:
- Stan and Kyle: have a few:
- Whenever Kenny is killed, Stan and Kyle share the exchange: "Oh my god, they killed Kenny!" "You bastards!" In one episode, the two characters used this exchange to locate each other. Many episodes subvert the exchange in other ways.
- "You know what? I learned something today!" Usually said by one of them to begin summarizing the episode's Anvilicious Aesop. Subverted in "Chinpokomon" when Stan makes up a new moral to stop Kyle from bombing Pearl Harbor. "You know what? I learned something... just now."
- Stan often says "Dude, this is pretty fucked up right here!"
- Eric Cartman has a number of catchphrases, including,
- "I want cheesy poofs!" was popular in early seasons.
- "I'm not fat, I'm big-boned!" was also popular in the early seasons.
- "Screw you guys, I'm going home!" Parodied in the Phonics Monkey episode, when he says, "Screw you guy, I'm going home-school."
- "I hate you guys."
- "I hate you Kenny."
- "You black asshole!"
- "You guys! Seriously!" In fact, whenever Cartman would normally say "serious", he says "seriously" instead, such as "Stop it! I'm seriously!"
- Chef: "Hello, children!" Like the Cartman quote above, Chef always says "children" even if he is talking to or about a single child.
- Mr. Macky: "Mmmkay?" Made the subject of a song in the movie.
- Butters: "Awww, hamburgers!"
- Jimmy: "Wow, what a terrific audience!" as well as ending many sentences with "very much."
- Timmy: "Timmah!" As well as meaningless grunts that often sound like, "Livin' a lie!"
- Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo: "Howdy ho!"
- Towlie: "Always remember to bring your towel!" and "You wanna get high?"
- Saddam Houssein: "Relax, guy! Take a rest!"
- Al Gore: "I'm cereal," and "Excelsior!"
- A number of one-shot characters make heavy use of a catchphrase during their episode:
- The Hardly Boys: "I'm getting a clue..." in the episode "Mystery of the Urinal Deuce."
- Mr. Big Record Producer: "I am above the law!" in the episode "Chef Aide."
- Travis Mayfield: "I've got to save mah baybeh!" in the episode "Lice Capades."
- Yennifer Lopez: "I like tacos y burritos!" in the episode "Fat Butt and Pancake Head."
- Sexual Harassment Panda: "That makes me a sad panda," in the episode "Sexual Harassment Panda."
- "Appa! Yip yip!"
- Spoofed, of course, in the Abridged Series: "Come on, Appa. 'Yip Yip' means 'Fly.' It's our catchphrase!"
- Interestingly, Hey Arnold!'s Stinky Peterson has a catchphrase ("This really bites!"), but it's curiously absent from his two A Day In The Limelight episodes, "Stinky Goes Hollywood" and "Stinky's Pumpkin".
- Tweenies: If interjections count, Jake likes to say "Wow-ee!", while Milo likes to say "Milo, away!" (or variants where applicable).
- Almost every version of Optimus Prime leads with the command Autobots, transform and roll out!
- Futurama has a few as well.
- The Professor: "Good news, everyone!", "Sweet zombie Jesus!"
- Bender: "Bite my shiny metal ass!", "we're boned", and "meatbag/meatsack"; The first being lampshaded in episode 4.6 "Bender Should Not Be Allowed on TV".
- Amy: "Spluh!" (or any one of many variations on the word 'Duh'). Her identical scream every time she slips and falls could be considered a catchphrase too.
- Hermes: "Sweet [something] of [someplace]!" Also, something involving green snakes and sugarcane.
- And, of course, Kiff's trademark sigh.
- "I am Lrr! RULER OF THE PLANET OMICRON PERSEI 8!"
- "I'm Scruffy... the janitor." It's a Crowning Moment Of Funny when Leela doesn't know who he is when she sees him during the fourth movie and she has to wait for him to introduce himself with his catch phrase.
- Firehouse Tales: "The sirens say, help's on the way!"
- Almost every major character on Kim Possible has one:
- Kim: "What's the sitch?", "So not the drama," "You rock", "Please and thank you", "No big"...
- Ron: "Boo-yah!" "That is SICK and WRONG!" "That would be so cool if it wasn't going to hurt us!"
- Dr. Drakken: "You think you're all that, but you're not!", and variations.
- The Tweebs: "Hikka-bikka-boo?" "Hoo-sha."
- Motor Ed: "Seriously." "Oooooooh yeah!" (with Air Guitar)
- Shego: Doy. (Her take on "duh")
- Yori: "Always with the American-style jokes, Stoppable-san."
- The Possible family: "Anything's possible . . . for a Possible."
- Multiple Teen Titans characters have them. Robin's is "Teen Titans Go!" (other characters have said this as well) and also seems to enjoy saying Slade's name with a snarl, Cyborg's is "Boo ya!" (parodied several times, in the origin episode "Go" he says "Okay, I'm only gonna say this once" before saying it, and when disguised as a cow in "Employee of the Month" he says "MOO YA!" and in "Deception" they had a robot copy of Cyborg that primarily said his catchphrase) Raven says "whatever" occasionally. Starfire often says "Glorious!" And Beast Boy tends to say "Dude" a lot, it was revealed in "Go!" he learned the word from Cyborg, his catchphrase before then appears to have been "Wowser". Mas y Menos had the catchphrase "Mas y Menos, si podemos!"
- Almost every Looney Tunes character. The more famous ones include:
Bugs Bunny: "What's up, Doc?", "Of Course You Realize This Means War!", "What A Maroon!", and "You know, I knew I should've taken that left toin at Albacoikie"
Daffy Duck: "You're despicable!" (with trademark lisp)
Sylvester: "Sufferin' Succotash!" (also with trademark lisp)
Tweety: "I tawt I taw a puddy tat!" (after seeing said "puddy tat") "I did! I did taw a puddy tat!", "The poor puddy tat he fall down and go BOOM!", and "He Cwushed His Widdle Head"
Porky Pig: "Th-th-th-th-that's all, folks!"
Elmer Fudd: "Shh. Be vewwy, vewwy quiet. I'm hunting wabbits." and "You Wascally Wabbit"
Foghorn Leghorn: "That's a joke, son!" (This Catch Phrase was one of many character traits borrowed from "Senator Claghorn," a character on Fred Allen's radio show played by Kenny Delmar.)
- Spoofed in "Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers", in which some of Bugs Bunny's nemeses (Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, and Daffy Duck) were kidnapped by aliens and replaced by badly-animated duplicates who primarily communicated by saying their catch phrases over and over.
- Almost every character on Histeria has one.
- Charity Bazaar: "I'm not happy."
- Miss Information: "And we're walking. We're walking. We're walking..."
- Loud Kiddington: "WHAT A JERK!"
- Father Time: "The date? <insert year here>. The place? <insert place here>."
- Kimber Benton of Jem became well-known because of her yell of "totally outrageous". She's not alone — Jerrica uses two Catch Phrases to activate Synergy's holograms ("Showtime, Synergy" and "Show's over, Synergy")
- Aladdin: The Return of Jafar: A genie can't kill, but "You'd be surprised what you can live through." Used comedically and not-so-comedically by multiple characters.
- Chef!: "Give me strength!" Everton would also append "sorta fing" onto the end of most sentences. When he didn't, other characters looked at him funny until he did. Sometimes, just to be safe, you'd hear "sorta fing sorta fing".
- The Boondocks: Has Grandad's signature line: "Yeaaah... boy!"
- More of a catchphrase of the actor who voiced him: it was his catchphrase in Friday too.
- Or Riley's use of "gay", that's lampshaded by Huey of all people.
- Gin Rummy: "The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence"; "That was an unknown unknown!"
- Ed Wucler III: "The f**k y'all looking at!"
- "My name is Uncle Ruckus; no relation."
- In the Chicken Boo segments from Animaniacs, the Only Sane Man will shout, "He's a chicken, I tell you! A giant chicken!"
- Link (a Heroic Mime in the video games) used some variation of "Well, excuuuuse me, princess!" almost twice an episode in the animated version of The Legend Of Zelda.
- Even though the series was cancelled after only thirteen episodes, he still manages to say it twenty nine times in the whole series.
- Fireman Sam has quite a few including Sam's catchphrase "Great fires of london!" Elvis's "Great balls of fire!" , Bella's "Mama mia!", Dilys's line "Norman!" which is followed by Norman's moan of "Oh mam!", Basil Steele has two..."Who needs the fire service?" and "Action stations men!".
- Biker Mice From Mars has "Ride Free Citizens"(all three of the Biker Mice) "Aowwww!"(Vinnie), "My dear old grey furred moma used to say.." (Modo), "Greasepit my dear dear boy" and "Karbunkle!"(Limburger), "Yes your supreme cheesiness" (Karbunkle, although it sometimes varies)
- WordGirl: Wooooord UP!
- Tek Jansen of The Colbert Report animated segments uses "Solar plexus" and "Pa-rum-pum" quite a bit. And, of course, "Oooh, Tek. You've obviously had hundreds of girlfriends."
- The latter is unusual in that it's said in almost every episode, but never by the same woman twice.
- Pinky and the Brain.
- There's the titular characters' standard exchange at the start of the opening credits:
Pinky: Gee, Brain, what are we going to do tonight? Brain: The same thing we do every night: try to take over the world!
- A similar exchange (the above with "tonight" replaced by "tomorrow night") appeared at the end of each episode, after their plan had failed.
- Pinky has a small collection of odd words he'll use all of a sudden. The three most common being "Narf!", "Poit", and "Zort!".
- For one episode, he continually said "Troz!" When Brain asked him about it, he truthfully replied that it was "zort" backwards.
- The exact line was: "It's zort in the mirror! Troz!"
- He's also been known to pick up other words that sound silly and start verbally ticking with them, for example "Fjord!" and "Hark!"
- And who could forget Brain asking Pinky "Are you pondering what I'm pondering?", to which Pinky's reply almost never has anything to do with the actual plot of the episode.
- The Brain is also fond of exclaiming "YES!" at any given opportunity.
- The Secret Show: "Victor, are you still alive?" "YES,I'm still alive!" "My name is changed daily." "Untested and highly dangerous!" ...And so on.
- Jackie Chan Adventures gave the titular hero "Bad day, bad day, bad day!" There's also Uncle's "One more thing!"
- "SORRYI'LLBRINGTHISBACKLATER, THAAAAAANK YOUUUUUUUUU"
- "That's crazy, Jade. You're crazy!"
- From the show of the same name: "BIIIIIIIIRD-MAN!"
- Snidely Whiplash from Dudley Do Right: "Curses! Foiled again!"
- Chip And Dale Rescue Rangers has a couple.
- "Rescue Rangers Away!" as the heroes' battle cry.
- Gadget Hackwrench has two: "Should" and "No problems", to which the others almost always respond with by immediately seeking shelter.
- Fans combined the two into "Should work with no problems", which actually works at least as well as the original phrases, especially in text.
- She also has "Golly!".
- Johnny Test - "Whoa...Didn't see that coming." A meta-catch phrase, since practically every character's used it at some point.
- Maryoku Yummy's catch phrase is "Wishy Wish,Wishy Woo, Another wish is coming true!"
- Family Guy:
- "Victory is mine!"
- "Whose leg do I have to hump to get a dry martini around here?"
- "Giggity Giggity Goo! Oh, alright!"
- "Chris, that's a terrible word."
- Metalocalypse has several:
- Dr. Rockzo: "I'm Dr. Rockzo - the rock n' roll clown!" "I DO COCAINE!!!" "K-K-K-YEAH!!!"
- Nathan: "Brutal." "That's awesome!" "We are here to make (fill-in-the-blank) metal." Big No.
- Skwisgaar: "Dis is dildos."
- Toki: "Wowee!"
- Pickles: "Ya douchebags!"
- Murderface: "Piss"
- Charles: "Gentlemen." "You wanted to see me?"
- The Doctor: "Fine. Whatever."
- Various Tribunal Members: "I'm afraid that's all we know."
- Various characters in Gargoyles have been known to say, "Jalapeńa!" when astonished or overwhelmed.
- Other catch phrases included "What sorcery is this?" and "You'll have to do better than that!"
- The titular characters in The Venture Brothers have, "Go Team Venture!"
- IGNORE ME!!!
- ...and 'zis is my magic murder bag.
- "...'Kay."
- Wilbur of Meet the Robinsons is fond of catch phrases, including "That is an excellent question," and "Wilbur Robinson never fails." Possibly even "I've got it under control," though he may only be trying to convince himself with that one.
- And of, course, the film's mantra, "Keep moving forward."
- Anybody who ever watched more than a few episodes of Thundercats will have Mumm-Ra's transformation incantation burned into their mind for life.
- You mean: "ANCIENT SPIRITS OF EVIL!!!! TRANSFORM THIS DECAYED FORM!!! INTO MUMM-RA THE EVER-LIVING!!!"
- Then there's minor-but-memorable villain Safari Joe, and his dependable "Safari Joe does it AGAIN!!"
- Then there was Mumm-Ra's In Space counterpart on Silver Hawks:
"Moonstar of Limbo... give me, the might... the muscle... the MENACE... OF MON...STAAAAAARRRR!
- To infinity... AND BEYOND!
- The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have had several. The first cartoon's most notable ones were "Cowabunga" and "Turtle power!", while the second toon had "It's ninja time" for its sixth season, and several for its supporting characters, such as Casey Jones' "Goongala!", The Shredder's "None of you will leave here alive," and Hun's "Oh, Crud".
- Quite a lot in the classic Disney shorts:
Mickey: "Swell!" "Hotdog!" "Gosh!" "Oh, boy!" "Gee..." "Hiya, pal!" "See ya real soon!" "Y-y-y-yes, ma'am!" (in the black and white shorts).
Donald: "Hiya, toots!" "SO!" "Awww, fooey." "Aww, nuts." "What's the big idea?" "You can't do that to me!" "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!" "Why, you...(incoherent muttering/squawking)..." "WAAAAAAAAAAAK!!" "Uh-oh!" (uses this even when he happily notices something)
Goofy: "Gawrsh!" "Ahyuck!" "AHHHHHHHH-HOO-HOO-HOOEY!" "Somethin' wrong here..." "Ohhh, the world owes me a livin'...deedle-deedle didle-didle dum..."
Minnie: "Oh, my!" "Isn't that sweet!" "Oh, Mickey..."
- The Magic School Bus: Many of the characters had catchphrases:
- Phoebe: "At my old school, we never _____..." In one episode, when they visited her old school, one of the kids pointed out this fact after she delivered this line. When the parents visit, her father says "At Phoebe's old school, we never had field trips."
- Wanda:
- "What'rewegonnadoWhat'rewegonnadoWhat'rewegonnadooo?" or "WhatamIgonnadoWhatamIgonnadoWhatamIgonnadooo?" Used in times of distress.
- "Come on, you weasly wimps!" Charging boldly into the situation at hand...
- Keesha: "Oh, bad! Oh, bad! Oh, bad, bad, bad!"
- Ralphie: "Is it just me, or ______?"
- Arnold: "I knew I should have stayed home today..."
- Janet: "Prove it!"
- Dorothy Ann: "According to my research, _____." In one episode, she was stopped because there wasn't time for research, only time to...
- Ms. Frizzle: "Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!" Occasionally, another adjective is substituted for "messy".
- Ensemble Catchphrase: "CARLOS!" Used after he delivers one of his puns. (In the parents episode, "MR. RAMONE!" is used instead, due to sharing his son's habit)
- The Ren And Stimpy Show has several:
- Ren:
- "Ju eediot!" and the variant "Ju fat, bloated eediot!", the latter taken, like Ren's accent, from Peter Lorre's character in The Maltese Falcon.
- (saying his bedtime prayers) "...and geeve me a meellion dollars, and...oh yeah, heh...huge pectoral muscles!"
- Stimpy: "Oh, Joy!"
- Mr. Horse: "No sir, I don't like it."
- Kowalski: "MEAT!"
- Various characters: "Happy, happy, joy, joy." (Either spoken or sung.)
- Various characters, signs, etc.: "What are ya?"
- Wow! Wow! Wubbzy is full of them. Widget says "That wasn't supposed to happen" and "no problemo!", Walden says "very interesting" and "yes, yes, yes!", Wubbzy says "wow, wow, wow!", and Daizy says "lavender lollipops" at least once an episode.
- "I'LL take the case!"
- "Backoff! Shrrrrink ray!"
- "Ha HA! MULTIPLE entendre!"
- "...in his pants."
- "CrestonBirdman'shelmet!"
- "...for I am Mentok! The Mind-Taker! Oooooooh weeeeeeeeeeee woooooo..."
- "Did you get that thing I sentcha?"
- "And now...we make party!"
- And the bear's whimper/snicker/whatever noise.
- "Scooby-dooby-doo!" "Zoinks!" and "Jinkies!" in Scooby Doo
- "And I would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for you meddling kids!"
- "You know what? That makes me mad." in Droopy
- "I'm strong to the finnich cause I eat me spinach, I'm Popeye the Sailor Man! Toot, too!" and "Blow me down!" in Popeye
- "Dee-Dee! Get out of my lab!" and "Justice Friends, ASSAMBLE!" in Dexters Laboratory
- "FAIRY GODPARENTS!" (Crocker while spazzing out) and "Worm!" in The Fairly Odd Parents
- "I'm ready!" and "Hello, Team Krab!" in Spongebob Squarepants
- "Why me?" in American Dragon: Jake Long
- This trope—particularly Robin's exclamations— was parodied on Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends in "Challenge of the Superfriends," when Mac becomes sidekick to a Super Hero imaginary-friend. He draws up a long list of potential Catch Phrases: After "Holy Haberdashery" gets shot down, he tries every single lame one on the list at various crime-fighting incidents in a quick-cut montage.
- The Super Mario Bros Super Show!'s animated segments had Mario's "Pasta Power!" While the live-action segments had "Uh-oh!"
- Mr. Hollywood from 2 Stupid Dogs: "Ain't that cute? BUT IT'S WROOOOOONNNNNG!!!"
- Subverted once when he says the first half of it then continues talking about what was being discussed earlier before finally turning to the screen and telling the viewer, "I'll bet you were expecting me to say 'but it's wrong.' wern't you?"
- Celebrity Deathmatch has "Good fight, good night" for Johnny Gomez at the end of every show. Meanwhile, Mills Lane's catchphrase in regards to just about any moral or ethical quandry in the midst of a match, is "I'll allow it!"
- The animated film Igor has "PULL THE SWITCH!"
- In Wonderpets All three characters have their own catchphrases, Linny has "This calls for some celery" , Tuck's one is "Can I have a hug?" and Ming Ming's is "This is sewrious!".
- Thomas The Tank Engine: "Cinders and ashes!", "Really Useful Engine(s)", "Confusion and delay", "Bother!".
- Powerpuff Girls: "So Once Again The Day Is Saved…", "The City Of Townsville!" The creators poke fun at this:
(Opening shot: the city skyline in the afternoon.)
Narrator: The city of Townsville! (Shot of the exterior of Townsville Hall.) The setting of Townsville! (Shot of a couch in the Mayor’s office.) The settee of Townsville! (The Mayor walks into view, hops onto the couch, and pulls out a compact disc.) The CD of Townsville! (Close-up of a record player turntable. The disc is set on this, and the needle is lowered. Pull back to show the player as an old victrola, the needle screeching and squeaking against the plastic. Pull back across the office; the Mayor snaps his fingers to the “beat.”) The pity of Townsville! (Ms. Bellum steps into view, her back to the camera; cut to in front of her, at the office door, and tilt up from her feet. She has one hand on her hip.) The pretty of Townsville!
(The city skyline.)
Narrator: The city of Townsville! (Pull back to bring the subdivision into view.) Pokey Oaks County! A sleepy suburb of the city of Townsville. (Pull back again to bring Pokey Oaks Kindergarten into view.) Pokey Oaks Kindergarten! A school in Pokey Oaks County, a sleepy suburb of the city of Townsville. (Zoom in and dissolve quickly to Ms. Keane in the classroom.) Ms. Keane! The teacher of Pokey Oaks Kindergarten, a school in the sleepy suburbs of— (She glares at the camera.) I’m—oh, I’m sorry.
- Bob of Re Boot is infamous for making catchphrases out of several things he says, and the series even has a running gag of other characters using some of his more common ones.
- Enzo's a repeat offender as well (Alphanumeric!), and Andr A Ia's got "Stay Frosty."
- "Stay Frosty" starts off as Bob's, though. Andr A Ia doesn't really start using it until after Bob is shot into the Web and the following PlotRelevantAgeUp for her and Matrix.
- Another one that starts off as Bob's and then spreads to most of the cast is "This is bad. This is very bad.". At one point, it gets Lampshaded:
Phong: This is bad.
Bob: Is it very bad?
- Xavier Renegade Angel actually reuses sound clips of some of its catch phrases.
- Take that!
- Taste the pain!
- Rockos Modern Life for the following characters
- Rocko: "Heh Heh, Oh My!", "(fill in the blank) Day Is A Very Dangerous Day"
- Heffer: "Woo That Was A Hoot!", "I Love Chicken!"
- Filburt: "I'm Nauseous!", "Oh, Fish Sticks!", and "Turn The Page And Wash Your Hands"
- Dr. Hutchinson: "Kay?"
- Ed Bighead: "I Hate My Live"
- Wilt from Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends: "Sorry, is that OK?" and "I`m sorry, but that definantly NOT OK!" Also, there`s Bloo`s "Cooom` ooooooooooooon!". And everybody who hasn`t noticed yet that Cheese "likes Chocolate Milk!!!" has to be deaf.
- The following characters from Ed Edd N Eddy
- Ed: "Gravy!", "I Love Chickens", "Buttered Toast!"
- Edd: "Oh, Dear!" (when spotting something that needs cleaning) "Messy, Messy, Messy!"
- Eddy: "Welcome To (fill in the blank)", "Time Is Money And I Love Money"
- Kevin: "Dorks!"
- Johnny: "What's That Plank?"
- There are several in Spongebob Squarepants
- Spongebob: "I'm Ready!"
- Squidward: "Too Bad That Didn't Kill Me"
- Mr. Krabs: "I Love Money"
- Plankton: "Yes!" "I'm Off To Steal The Krabby Patty Secret Formula" "I win! I win!"
- The early 90's cartoon of Sonic the Hedgehog gave Sonic the catchphrase "WAY past cool!" This carried over into Archies' comic version.
- Spoofed in the first episode of Sit Down Shut Up, which introduced each character with a dosier that included their catch phrase. One character even had "I need a catch phrase!" as his catch phrase.
- In Inspector Gadget the title character had several "Go Go Gadget (fill in the blank)", "Wowzers!", and after seeing Brain in a disguise "Say Haven't I Seen You Somewhere Before?"
- "I'll get you next time, Gadget! NEXT TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME...!"
- In KingoftheHill for the following characters
- Hank: Dang It!, What in the Hell?, Bwahhh!, I'll Tell You What, I'm Going to Kick Your Ass!, That Boy Ain't Right!, I Sell Propane and Propane Accessories, and Damnit (usually Bill or Dale).
- Peggy: Hooyah!, and (after thinking of something she thinks is clever) Oh Peggy
- Dale: Shi-shi-sha!, S'go, s'go (combining let's go), Have You Ever Tried (fill in the blank) Geh! (when frightened), Ah Ha! (when thinking of an idea), and Wingo! (after accomplishing something)
- Boomhauer: This is more of a verbal tic he tends to say stuff like "Dang ol'", "Yo", and "Man" a lot in his sentences
- In The Thief And The Cobbler, Zig-Zag seems incapable of entering the throne room without saying "Have no fear! I, Zig-Zag, your Grand Vizier, am here!"
- Butt Monkey Peter in the Jumanji cartoon series would be found saying "Cool beans!" every episode.
- Tino in The Weekenders had "Later days!"
- Every character in The Mr. Men Show has their own Catch Phrase. For example, Mr. Grumpy's is "Crooked Cucumbers!"
- Ducky from The Land Before Time had "Yep, Yep, Yep!" It was carved on Judith Barsi's headstone.
- From Phineas And Ferb:
- Phineas: "I know what we're going to do today!" "Hey! Where's Perry?" "Oh there you are, Perry!"
- Candace: "Oooo! Those two are so busted!" "Mom! Mom! Mom! Phineas and Ferb are _____!"
- Isabella: "Whatcha doin'?"
- Dr. Doofenshmirtz: "Perry the Platypus?!" "Curse you, Perry the Platypus!"
- What the hell are YOU starin' at? - Duckman
Real Life
- Hello Project examples:
- Niigaki Risa: USOOOO!
- Michishige Sayumi: Usa-chan Peace!
- Tanaka Reina: Otsukareina!
- Linlin: Bacchiri desu~
- Umeda Erika: Tsukatta towel! (Used towel!)
- Hagiwara Mai: Check it out!
- W: W desu!
- Ishikwa Rika: Happy~♥!
- Humor columnist Dave Barry: "I am not making this up" and "(Silly phrase) would be a good name for a rock band."
- Walter Cronkite [CBS Evening News, 1962 - 1981] ended almost every broadcast with "...And that's the way it is". He even carried it over to when he voiced a character in We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story.
- Parodied BTW in Bruce Almighty with "...and that's the way the cookie crumbles."
- And that's the way, uh-huh uh-huh, I like it, uh huh, uh huh.
- Edward R. Murrow ended his broadcasts with "Good night, and good luck."
- Legendary play-by-play man Keith Jackson has had "Whoa Nelly!" tagged as his catchphrase - despite his own estimation that he's only said it three or four times in his four-decade career.
- Spurred on by Chris "He COULD! GO! ALL! THE! WAY!" Berman, Dan "En Fuego" Patrick, and Keith "He pulled a groin. His own, we hope" Olberman, catchphrases seem to be a requirement to be Sportcenter anchor - particularly the flagship 11PM EST broadcast.
- Berman spoofed himself with his appearance in Hootie & the Blowfish's music video for "Only Wanna Be With You", where he shouts despairingly "They do not! Go! All! The! Way!"
- Dave Niehaus, "My, oh my!"; and "Swung on and belted...!"
- It seems that most sportscasters have a catchphrase assigned to them by their network or the team that they broadcast for along with the keys to the broadcast booth. Of course, baseball announcers are noted (notorious?) for specific catchphrases they use when a player hits a home run (known in the jargon as "home run calls"). Entire books could be (and probably have been) written about noted broadcasters' home run calls. Subverted/spoofed in a Bud Light commercial when it's suggested to Bud Light pitchman (and broadcaster) Joe Buck that he needs a home run call. The one they come up with? "Slam-a-lam-a-ding-dong."
- Olbermann's newscast is awash with catchphrases, from the opener ("Which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow?") to the signoff ("That's Countdown for this the xxxxth day since President Bush declared 'Mission Accomplished' in Iraq. Good night, and good luck"), the last in Homage to Edward R. Murrow. In between there is "Worst Person in the world!!!"
- As long as we're on ESPN sportscasters, we have to mention Stuart Scott, and his prolific use of "Booyah!"
- John Madden: "Boom!"
- Harry Carey, the Cubs' announcer: "There's a drive! Waaaay back! It might be ... it could be ... it is! A home run! Holy cow!"
- Also used "Cubs win! Cubs win!" after the final out (assuming they did in fact win, of course).
- The White Sox' Ken "Hawk" Harrelson not only has one of the most
outlandish recognizable home run calls in the business ("You can put it on the booooard...YES!"), he also has one for when a White sox pitcher strikes out an opposing batter: "He gone!"
- Emeril Lagasse: "Bam!" and "Kick it up a notch."
- Rodney Dangerfield: "I get no respect, no respect at all." As subverted in an episode of The Simpsons that he guest starred in.
- The great radio broadcaster Walter Winchell (1897-1972) began every radio broadcast with "Good evening Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea. Let's go to press." He would then proceed to talk at 197 words PER MINUTE.
- Glenn "Instapundit" Reynolds: "Heh. Indeed." This phrase is required to appear in any of the many mockeries of him, his blog and his politics.
- Paris Hilton famously overuses, "That's hot."
- "AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!"
- OI! OI! OI! (Interestingly, a Catch Phrase is mentioned on this page, but it has nothing to do with that little bit of responsive cheering.)
- "And they same I'm boring", Fernando De la Rua
- "Follow me, I'm not gonna let you down." and "To the triumph!", Carlos Menem
- "The people united will never be defeated!", Juan Peron
- "My vote is not positive", Julio Cobos
- "I'm the father of defeat" and "We are condemned to sucess", Eduardo Duhalde.
- P.T Barnum's catchphrase was often said to be "There's a sucker born every minute" when it was really "There's a customer born every minute".
- In popular culture Elvis's catchphrase was often said to be "Thank you, thank you very much".
- HI, BILLY MAYS HERE!
- Pittsburgh Penguins color-commentator Mike Lange is thought to have coined the phrase "Elvis has left the building!" Other catchphrases include:
- "Scratch my back with a hacksaw!"
- "Buy Sam a drink and his dog one, too!"
- "Get in the fast lane, grandma: The bingo game's ready to roll!"
- "Beat him like a rented mule!"
- Toronto Maple Leafs announcer Joe Bowen is known just for: "Holy mackinaw!"
- Barack Obama's "YES! We can!"
- The late Paul Harvey: "And now you know the rest of the story."
- "Hello. I'm Johnny Cash."
- George H. W. Bush: "Read my lips: no new taxes!"
- Toy critic Michael Mozart has a couple "Really!" and "What were they thinking!"
- Difficult to categorize is Andy Kaufmann's Foreign Man character, who didn't understand comedy but was so enthusiastically inept that one couldn't help but feel bad for him. Anyway, his catchphrase was "Tannk You Veddy Much."
- Glenn Beck:
- "Hello, you sick, twisted freak."
- "But here's The One Thing"
- The historian Robert Caro's epic Crowning Moment of Awesome, The Years of Lyndon Johnson has two that are used as themes throughout the books. The first, said by Lyndon himself is, "If you take care of everything -everything- you'll win." The second, said by one of Lyndon's childhood friends is, "He just had to win. Had to!"
- This blogger ends the first paragraph of several articles with "He's wrong, here's why." Recently lampshaded.
- "God Bless America" was a popular speech closer among U.S. politicians. It's dropped off in popularity over the past several years, though.
- "Hello everybody, I'm Don Newman, welcome to the brooaaadcast." Longtime CBC political correspondent Don Newman.
- GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!!!!!!
- Michael Caine: "Not many people know that" and "My name is Michael Caine". Madness turned the latter into a hit record.
- The newsgroup comp.sys.sinclair has many Catch Phrases amongst long-term regulars. From The Fast Show they
nicked borrowed "I'll get my coat" (usually rendered as "IGMC") as a way to abruptly end a post. An even more abrupt (and usually euphemistic) ending is [NO CARRIER] or some variant. Then there's replying to "name this game" requests with "it's definitely not Stonkers", and responding to sundry remarks with "you said that yesterday"... The list goes on.
- Joe Elliott says "Don't forget us, and we won't forget you" at the end of every live gig.
- In Light And Dark The Adventures Of Dark Yagami, characters often declare that they will do something, "OR MY NAME ISN'T (full name)". Amusingly subverted when Sayu says “I WILL HAVE TO FIGHT (Dark) OR MY NAME ISNT SAYU YAGAMI WHICH ITS NOT ANYMORE BECAUSE NOW ITS sA~y’U ANIME AFTER I MARRED MISA IN MASACHEWSETS.”
- Thomas Babington Macaulay (who was very intelligent) was wont when he was a child to refer to some item of knowledge as "what every schoolboy knows".
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