Incredibly Lazy Pun - Television Tropes & Idioms

"Not a joke, but an incredible simulation!"

—Crow T. Robot, Mystery Science Theater 3000

The writers put in a joke (almost always a pun), then omit the punch line. Some percentage of the audience will "get" the joke, but the rest will know it was there and be going, "What? Why didn't you say it?" There can be several reasons.

It's naughty/ecchi and not appropriate for this timeslot, in which case this serves the same purpose as a Last Second Word Swap.
It's a really bad pun and is only remotely funny when realized later; using it in story would grind everything to a halt.
Telling the punch line would keep our lawyers busy for months, so we'll just leave a blank here and let you do the copyright infringement.

Note that despite most of the "examples" on other pages that link you here, this trope is only for puns where the punch line is completely omitted. It is NOT' for puns that are just groaners. Only you can stop the scourge. The page Incredibly Lame Pun has been set up as a trap to help fix this.

Examples:

In Kim Possible, when we are first introduced to Team Go, Ron asks why Mego wears a purple costume. Team leader Hego replies, "He's a shrinker" and drops the subject. He's a shrinking violet; Warner/DC would not be amused.
- No, I don't think there's a copyright/trademark problem here: the term "shrinking violet", used for one who is very far from outgoing, was in common use throughout the Nineteenth Century.
- This is also the reason for Violet's Meaningful Name in The Incredibles (she's painfully shy, with her superpower being invisibility, or rather controlling "ultraviolet" light).
  - And of Austin's fur color.
In the middle of Honey I Shrunk The Kids, Nick asks Russ where he learned artificial respiration after he delivers it to Amy. Russ replies, "In French class." Nick doesn't get it and the build-up is left unfinished...then, at the very end of the movie, right after the Fade To Black, Nick suddenly gets it and laughs hysterically.
In the The Fairly Oddparents book-jumping episode "Shelf Life":
Wanda: Egad, he turned the Three Musketeers into the three Mouse—
Timmy then swiftly covers her mouth and teleports them out.
- I don't get it...
  - Didn't want to refer to Mickey's fan-club.
This Irregular Webcomic strip. Also, comparing "hobbit" and "habit" is so common that the author promised to only do it once every 100 strips. Mostly averted, though... The author is abnormally fond of puns. Somehow, he makes it work.
- Not to mention this strip. In which he mentions this very article.
  - I don't get it.
  - "Don't make a hobbit out of it!"
- Another example: in this strip, Lambert's hobbit-pun is ruined by a (rather ominous, but that's not the point) cough.
The first Veggie Tales movie contained—without comment—a bunch of city guards whose weapons were long poles with fish on the ends of them.
It took years to register with this contributor that those Charmin commercials were about bears shitting in the woods.
- They use the same in Quebec, but we don't use the expression...
- This troper's mother still makes fun of her for asking "Why bears?" years after the fact.
In The Incredibles, the name of Syndrome's island is only mentioned once: a passing reference to "perfect weather on Nomanisan" during Mr. Incredible's second visit.
- Likewise, in Star Trek The Original Series, Kirk claims to be from the island of Noman at one point.
  - This may in fact be a nod to the Odyssey, whose Kirk-copying alien- (all right, foreigner-, sorceress-, and nymph-)bedding captain Odysseus told the Cyclops Polyphemus he was blinding that his name was "Noman", so that when Polyphemus called to the other Cyclops for aid, they rejected him, believing from his shouts of "No man has blinded me!" that he was suffering the judgement of the gods.
- George Frankly, of Math Net on Square One Television, also visited this island. (Back when Kate Monday was still his partner, and he was still with the LAPD.) He explained the name as being of Native American origin.
- In The Mysterious Benedict Society, the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened is on Nomansan Island.
One episode of Tiny Toon Adventures has a Credits Gag explaining that Plucky Duck was "inadvertently omitted from 'The Name Game.'" (Why, what would "Plucky" rhyme with?)
- Same reason if they perform that song, you can't use someone whose name is "Chuck."
- In fact, Wikipedia reports you can't use: Alice, Tucker, Chuck, Buck, Huck, Bart, Art, Mitch, Rich or Richie or you get profanity.
  - ... Fart is a profanity?
The Geneon dub of Lupin III once had Jigen describe a house-fly that turned out to be a listening device as "a flying pun".
The Rugrats movie had Charlotte say towards the beginning of the movie, when referring to the soon-to-be-born Dil, "You know what they say - born under Venus, look for a—" which is then interrupted by her cellphone ringing.
The Father Ted episode "Chirpy Burpy Cheap Sheep" is about a sheep who is being driven neurotic. I Am Not Making This Up. There's a concealed pun implicit in this concept (and revealed in The Other Wiki's relevant episode entry) but it is something of a subversion since neither the pun nor the punchline are actually spoken.
- Wow, that's obscure.
  - No kidding. Especially since sheep worrying is pretty much unknown as a term in America.
In Half Life 2, Dr. Kleiner's pet headcrab is named Lamarr, and later confirms the pun when he can't find it.
Alyx: We'll get you a new headcrab.
Dr. Kleiner: There's only one Heddy!
- Not to mention Alyx's part in naming the Zombines in Episode 1.
In this episode of the webcomic Striptease, in a flashback to high school, Max and Em are squirted with red paint by another student, who is then caught by the teacher ...
Robot Chicken once had a shot of the Fourth Doctor standing on the first base of a baseball diamond. After waiting a second, the Doctor says "Do ya get it?"
In case 2 of Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations, a valuable jewel is called the "Tear of Emanon". If you don't get it, read it backwards.
The Simpsons did it a couple times with the limerick about the man from Nantucket. For the record, "There once was a man from Nantucket/Whose cock was so long he could suck it/And he said, with a grin/As he wiped off his chin/"If my ear were a cunt I would fuck it!."
- Once:
  Barney: (doing handsprings) I am the very model of a modern major general!
  Homer: That's nothing! (doing cartwheels) There once was a man from Nantucket, who... D'oh! (runs into wall)
- And again:
  Homer: You know, I once knew a man from Nantucket.
  Bart: And?
  Homer: Let's just say the stories about him are greatly exaggerated.
  - Another instance not using the man from Nantucket limerick, maybe even being a parody of its usage, comes in an episode where Krusty the Clown is giving Homer an old trampoline of his and talks about dirty limericks ("There once was a man named Enis...").
  - So WHO had the most limericks written about them - was it the man named Enis, or the woman from Regina?
The same Nantucket limerick shows up in the pilot of Babylon 5. Delenn has heard it, and thinks it's a typical example of Earth poetry....
A variant appears in the Star Trek The Next Generation episode The Naked Now. As the Enterprise crew succumb to an inebriation-inducing virus, Data reports picking up numerous disturbances on internal sensors, including a crewman singing a limerick:
Data: There once was a woman from Venus, whose body was shaped like a—
Picard: Security!
In The Wee Free Men, a talking toad is introduced as a guide for Tiffany Aching. Although it was explained that said toad's yellow colour was caused by his being unwell, nobody ever actually told her to "follow the yellow sick toad". As the author said:
Terry Pratchett: I just happened to note a toad had a skin which had had unfortunately gone a bit yellow because it had been ill. Far be it from me to make a pun. You did that.
- Similarly, in Jingo, when Carrot is investigating an attempted political killing with strong similarities to the Kennedy assassination, he interviews a gnoll. In addition to being an informant, the creature has plants growing on it. That's two possible routes to the phrase "grassy gnoll", but it never happens.
In Europa Universalis, guess which colour is used to represent Burgundy on the world map.
- This troper seems to remember that that's who the color's named for.
  - No points for guessing which animal is featured on the coat of arms of Aswan in the game Crusader Kings by the same developer.
In Evan Almighty, Evan's wife is called Joan. And the movie is about building an ark. Thankfully, they never mention it in the movie.
David Letterman did something along these lines when he gave a list of the top ten Bill Clinton jokes. He never actually got to the punchline, he just would trail off and look at the audience, who could figure it out for themselves and were hysterical by that point.
In this episode of Adventures in ASCII (a strip where the characters are letters and other printables), Miss B reacts with a stony silence upon learning that Bold H is take the guest Miss Delta (she's from @hens) down the river to see the estuary.
Miss B: ...
Bold H: What?
Miss B: I didn't say anything.
Bold H: It was the way you didn't say it.
One from the Pushing Daisies episode 'Dummy':
Chuck: But where are the real dummies?
Emerson starts sniggering
Narrator: Before Emerson Cod could reply with a clever, if slightly insulting remark, something moving caught his eye.
The single-player campaign of Starcraft featured a backstabbing lieutenant named Duran. If you click on him enough times, he will say things such as:
Duran: I already told you my name, it's Duran! Duran!
Duran: What's so funny?
Duran: Please, please, tell me now!
Duran: Is there something I should know?
One of the creatures in The Phantom Tollbooth is the Everpresent Wordsnatcher, a bird who comes from a place named Context and likes to take words from other people's mouths and twist them. The phrase "out of Context" is never used.
A literal "incredibly lazy pun" occurs in Antihero For Hire. Shadehawk kicks a garbage can at an opponent while shouting "Garbage Pun!"
In The Wizard Of Id a visitor to the King's castle notices that the King's flag consists of a pair of black X's on a white background. The visitor asks for the name of this emblem. (If you don't understand this, consider that the King is an untrustworthy person who is likely to betray his allies)
A somewhat well-known joke concerns a pair of hikers who die while rock-climbing. As their souls ascend to heaven, they see a pair of eagles and exclaim, "Ah, eagles!" The eagles, to be polite, say nothing.
- "Ah, souls!" (Say it out loud. Works best with a British accent.)
Already known for its moments of Hurricane Of Puns, the webcomic Dominic Deegan has no problem throwing in puns which are incredibly lazy; to their credit, though, they are always accompanied by either a visual reference, a character looking at the reader with an absolutely disgusted look on their face, or both.
This Penny Arcade strip. "But why would it have been AO?" Gabriel is apparently blissfully unaware of Tycho's fetishes.
In the third case of Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations, the murder victim was a computer programmer working for a company called Blue Screens. The phrase "blue screen of death" is never used.
- The final case features two characters using false names with the surname "Deauxnim". Considering the series' love of Punny Names, it's quite surprising that neither is called "Sue".
Lampshaded in Mystery Science Theater 3000. One episode has Tom and Crow teaching the audience how to make an Incredibly Lazy Pun about the Mad Max movies using the phrase "Can't we get beyond Thunderdome?"; in order to keep him from stopping them, they've bound and gagged Mike, who struggles furiously as the pair continues on.
One of these days, this troper swears he's going to travel to Japan, create an anime called B.O.S.T.O.N. (standing for "Battle of Saving The Other Nation", in the way only Gratuitous English can), wait for it to build up a sizable TV Tropes fanbase, then get 4Kids to dub it. You do the math.
- ... I don't get it.
In a book by Ben Bova called The Rock Rats
Fuchs: So, Mr. Ripley, will your crew be able to assemble the latest additions on schedule?
Mr. Ripley: Believe it or not, they will.
In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Nanoha is pursuing Jewel Seeds, which grant wishes. One such Jewel Seed had possessed a tree that was near a couple's confession of love, and it responded by turning into a massive maurdering monster, trapping them inside itself and trying to consume everything. The pun comes when you realise what the guy must have been wishing for: wood.
In the Corpse Bride, this◊ is the Head Waiter.

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