Overly Long Gag - Television Tropes & Idioms

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A gag that uses the Rule Of Three to the extreme. The concept is that something happens repeatedly, to the point of boredom. Then it keeps going, to the point where it (supposedly) actually becomes funny again. Essentially, the sheer length of the gag becomes the gag.

One famous example of this trope is the "Rake Scene" from The Simpsons episode "Cape Feare", where Sideshow Bob kept stepping on rakes ad nauseam until the pointlessness of the scene became the gag and it became funny again. (The production team has confessed that the gag was added because the episode ran short.) The older "Dental Plan"/"Lisa Needs Braces" sequence from "Last Exit to Springfield" also likely qualifies.

However, some feel that, once the audience recognizes the trope again, the gag permanently loses its entertainment value and the viewer is left waiting for it to end and some other humor to begin ("Oh, it's another one of these; how utterly hilarious..."). Others, though, find it a brilliant subversion of audience expectations on the lines of Andy Kaufman reading The Great Gatsby for twenty minutes.

Either way, the more it's used, the more it's expected. Comedy writers take note: It's good for a laugh occasionally, but expect diminishing returns for each Overly Long Gag you employ after the first.

It's sort of like Crosses The Line Twice, only boring instead of offensive.

Compare Overly Long Name. Not to be confused with Over Used Running Gag. May invoke the Repeat Cut.

The serious version is Leave The Camera Running.

Examples:

Anime

The chronological last episode of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya has a very extensive scene featuring nothing but Yuki quietly reading as the sound of people from other classrooms shouting Japanese pop-culture references fills the background.
- The second season takes this further with several episodes, each titled simply Endless Eight. These episodes are basically a Groundhog Day Loop where the characters are trapped in an endless summer. In the novel, we see only two of the iterations out of the over 15000, the first and the last. In the adaptation, however, they break from the source material by putting in an episode where they realize the loop but do not escape. Some people felt that this was a brilliant subversion for novel readers. However, the third episode in the arc defied the Rule Of Three and left the loop still unresolved. Despite the Internet Backdraft that resulted, the arc is distinguished as a rare Overly Long Gag that spans multiple HOURS.
Azumanga Daioh uses a few. These include Osaka needing to "Get it together!" in episode 2, the "Nandeyane! Nandeyane!..." bit from episode 8, and the "Today is a summer service day..."/"Get motivated! Get motivated!" bit from episode 14. They seem to mostly involve either Tomo or Osaka...
- Episode 9's "You took it, didn't you? Give it back, give it back, give it back!" is a milder example.
- Sakaki petting Chiyo's dog for a solid 45 seconds (and that was just onscreen) probably counts.
- And let's not forget Osaka's apparent fascination with the Okinawan dialect in the Class Trip episode. "Shiisa yabimi?"
  - "Saataa andagii!"
Lucky Star: "By the way, which end is the head of a chocolate cornet?"
One episode of Bleach contained a scene of Yoruichi eating bowl after bowl of food. For almost two whole minutes. During which time the camera is still, and nothing else happens. The actual scene doesn't go as long as this video does, but it certainly feels like it.
- Which is made even more ridiculous due to the fact that the scene in the manga occupies all of a page.
Potemayo does this in episode 4, with the titular moeblob getting a cold and repeatedly blowing her nose faster and faster until she eventually runs out of tissues.
Kite, otherwise a rather serious OVA, has one of these. Sawa fights a man in a bathroom; the two end up falling out of a large hole in the wall. Sawa grabs onto a sign which snaps off the hinges, due to being Made Of Plasticine. Sawa and the man spend about two minutes falling, during which they see a random couple having sex in an office. They hit a tunnel and go through the roof; they hit a car and go through the floor of the tunnel. Another two minutes of falling. The car, the mook and Sawa hit the ground and go through to the subway system, upon which they hit a subway train. The sign then falls the rest of the way and blasts Sawa into a nearby building.
One episode of Cromartie High School takes this and runs it into the ground, with Hayashida trying to remember the name of a song he heard Mechazawa humming. Most of the episode is the students humming while trying to remember the name of the song.
In the Dragon Ball GT special, Goku's spirit does it when seeing Goku Jr., saying that the kid must be his "great-great-great-great... Oh, you know what!"
Hayate The Combat Butler has an overly long gag made of... overly long gags at the end of episode 16. Five minutes of random characters not actually doing anything for about a minute each, or Klaus doing something boring.
Mahou Sensei Negima: One of Jack Rakan's many names is "That Damn Guy You Can Stab With Swords All You Like And It Won't Do A Thing, Damnit."

Comic Books

Preacher contains a rare comic book version. One entire page contains nine identical panels of Herr Starr looking at himself in the mirror, staring at his brand new scar that makes his bald head look like a penis. In the last one, he says "Shit".
- Followed by a page where he tries on wigs and yet another one where he tries on hats
Cable and Deadpool has an entire page in which alternate universe Mister Sinister is waiting outside a bathroom door while Deadpool, who's needed to use the bathroom for something like three days, pees for about 9 panels. He finally emerges, at which point Mister Sinister tells him to wash his hands and he goes back into the bathroom.

Commercials

This CareerBuilder ad from the 2009 Super Bowl. (The koala was the turning point between tedious and funny.)

Film

Hot Rod The scene where Rod locks Kevin out of the house.
Spaceballs opens with a huge spaceship that scrolls into view and keeps on scrolling for 90 seconds. At least three times something that resembles a tail section comes into view, and the background music segues into the next piece, only to false-start and cut right back to stalling. As it finishes, the camera pans to the rear of the ship, which has a bumper sticker saying WE BRAKE FOR NOBODY.
- Mel Brooks actually said in the commentary that he would've let that sequence go on for hours if the studio had let him.
- Lampshaded later in the movie, as President Skroob is seen running onto the ship's bridge. "The ship is too big! If I walk, the movie will be over!"
Also, the notorious "baked beans" scene in Blazing Saddles. Mel Brooks was asked to cut down the number of farts, but he realized the length of the gag would enable people to get over their initial shocked reaction and start laughing.
An unintentional version of this is the fight scene in the 1988 movie They Live! In it, the main character, a fugitive accused of murder, is trying to convince another character to put on a pair of sunglasses and thus see the aliens and their handiwork. While originally intended to last only 1-2 minutes, the fight scene was done so well that it was used unaltered, lasting almost 5 minutes.
- Even better, Roddy Piper and Keith David planned the entire extended fight scene completely outside of the script direction. Carpenter loved it and kept the whole thing.
- The fight was recreated exactly in the South Park episode "Cripple Fight".
The first Austin Powers made good use of this trope. The best example is Dr. Evil's neverending maniacal laughter, which continues through two full cycles of funny, then not funny, then funny again.
- And what about "Evacuation compl.... Evacuation com.... Evac..."
- The sequels took this too far, but padding out the jokes by explaining them as they stretched them out.
The puppet-sex scene in Team America: World Police aims for this trope; whether or not it works is up to the individual viewer. The Unrated Edition makes the scene even longer, to the point where most viewers are likely bored.
- The drunken puke scene definitely qualifies as well.
One of the flaws that marred the infamous Bruce Willis vehicle Hudson Hawk was a tendency to drag scenes out far too long; whether this was intentional or not, it didn't work, and scenes which could have been mildly amusing were instead tedious. Conversely, a number of potentially viewable scenes were cut too short.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show: "Janet! Brad! Janet! Dr. Scott! Rocky!" (Bullwinkle!)
In the 2005 film of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: When showing the Vogon Constructor Fleet around Earth, the camera jumps back with every "beat" of the music. When this effect is put into play, it usually only happens about three times. In the movie, it happens a grand total of fifty-five times.
This occurs a number of times in Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, such as the dramatic camera movements and sounds before a fight.
In a deleted scene from Borat, Borat explores an American supermarket:
Borat: What is this?
Employee: That's cheese.
Borat: And what is this?
Employee: That's cheese.
(Repeat ad nauseum and back again)
The multiple police car pileups in The Blues Brothers. Not to mention the ones in the sequel, that go on for so long they cross the line three times.
Chico Marx's endless piano solo in Animal Crackers.
Chico: I can't think of the finish.
Groucho: That's strange, and I can't think of anything else.
Chico: I think I went past it.
Groucho: The next time you come around, jump off.
- Harpo's harp solos in many of the films. Though not meant as a joke, they seem funny just because you don't expect to see his utter Cloud Cuckoolander characters sitting down and playing an incredibly beautiful harp solo.
In the Steve Martin movie Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, Steve Martin is making coffee by continously putting grounds into water: this goes on for two minutes of him putting more and more coffee grounds into a pot. He ends up putting about twice as much coffee grounds as you could fit into the can empty (and far more than could have been in the bag), but it doesn't matter; the audience has long since been bored to death, and resurrection, and rebirth.
The 1986 movie ¡Three Amigos! used this trope in its theme song, where one note is held for an uncomfortably long period of time.
- The Disney film The Three Caballeros uses the same gag, with the other characters trying everything they can think of to stop it.
- And don't forget Spy Hard, during whose opening theme Weird Al Yankovic holds a note so long his head explodes.
Japanese comedy Tampopo features a fist-fight scene that lasts... well, nobody really knows, because they always fast forward through it.
- We watched it in Japanese class, so the part that was fast-forwarded was actually the love scene. Too bad it's been so long I can't give an estimate for the fight scene, either.
Malkovich Malkovich, Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich. Malkovich Malkovich.
John Goodman's incessant primal screaming in Raising Arizona is both an Overly Long Gag and a Running Gag.
Tropic Thunder: the cast's reaction to the director having been blown up by a land mine.
In the 2005 The Producers, Carmen Ghia receiving the protagonists: "yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss?"
- ..."sss?"
In Over The Hedge, RJ the raccoon's description of the traps surrounding the suburban house. This sequence goes on for at least 30 seconds, which in cartoon time is forever.
RJ: There are traps here, here, here, here ... and here. And some here, here, here ... and all over this area here.
There are a few of these in The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, but they are all used quite well. One of the better examples is Dr. Fleming's maniacal laughter scene, which somehow gets funnier and funnier as the scene plays out.
The Party starts with this. One actor, playing the part of the trumpeter for a charge, goes on...and on...and on... The funny part of it is that the other actors keep SHOOTING at him to make him stop, but he keeps going on...and on...and on...
In one scene of Cannibal! The Musical, there's a relatively short example: Alferd Packer and his party enter a store and all six of them greet the shopkeeper individually with a "Howdy!". The shopkeeper responds in kind each time, and they cut between the shopkeeper and the party member every time this happens. Later on there's a much longer overly long gag in the form of an extensive Not Quite Dead sequence.
A minor example would be Brendan Gleeson trying to make five Euro out of his coins so he doesn't have to break a bill In Bruges.
When Dragon Amylin (played by Paul Ruebens, A.K.A. Peewee Herman) is staked in the original Buffy The Vampire Slayer, he writhes around on the floor lamenting his fate, dying... and Buffy eventually gets sick of it and just leaves. At the end of the credits, he's still going.
At least a third of the jokes in Monty Python And The Holy Grail could be considered these. (Lancelot's charge, the Knights of the Round Table song, the entire ending sequence). The miracle is that they remain funny even though you're expecting them.
- "No, no, no... you stay in the room and make sure he doesn't leave."
Bueller? Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?

Literature

In Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, there is an inordinately long inter-office memo about having workers give money for toilet paper. The memo in its entirety is contained within the novel and takes up several pages while going on and on about trivial points. While it effectively lampoons American Bureaucracy, the joke gets very old after the first few paragraphs.

Live Action TV

Whether Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Office and Extras are using this or a lot of Leave The Camera Running is up to the individual troper.
Taxi. What does a yellow light mean? A classic of the genre.
The UK's new emergency number, as introduced by The IT Crowd: 0118 999 881 999 119 7253.
- Denholm seemed particularly fond of these in the first series ("Are you sure?! Are you sure?! Are you sure?! Are you sure?! Are you sure?! Are you sure?!").
  - And briefly in the second series, where he spends half a minute during the middle of his Video Will doing nothing but eating an apple.
  - They did it in the very first episode, near the beginning: Roy ignores ringing telephone. He eats a muffin, licks his fingers, licks his other hand's fingers, then reaches for... the coffee cup right behind the phone and drinks. Only after that he answers the phone. Also, the very first line in the episode:
Denholm: Hope it doesn't embarrass you, Jen, but I find it the best thing to do with the new employee is to size them up with a long, hard stare.
Scrubs has one of JD's fantasies run a particularly long time when Turk and Carla are discussing how good a father he'd make. JD happens to be nearby, hears the conversation and his mind launches into a fantasy in which Turk accidentally leaves his son at a pumpkin patch, having mistaken him for a pumpkin, and brings the pumpkin home to Carla, who pardons him for it (his son, meanwhile, is found by another couple in the pumpkin patch). She states that the pumpkin is "kinda cute" and there is a montage of them raising the pumpkin as their own child, covering common parental issues like bathing, the child being injured at a softball game (yes, the pumpkin plays sports), and college, ending with the two holding the pumpkin "21 years later", with the pumpkin wearing a graduation cap and a diploma resting on it, stating how proud of the pumpkin they are for qualifying as a valedictorian. Suddenly, they drop the pumpkin accidentally and while crying over the smashed remains they hear a startled cry of "Mom? Dad?!". They look up to see their real son, fully grown (and looking exactly like Turk), staring at them in disbelief and joy from across the street. He starts to cross the street toward his long-lost parents... only to be run over by a bus. Carla faints, Turk cries out in despair, and JD finally snaps out of his daydream to look up at Turk.
Turk: Dude, you okay? You were gone for an awfully long time.
JD: You're going to be a horrible father!
The third season of the British version of The Apprentice had a hilarious real life example, utterly unintended. It comes a bit later in this scene, after the simply bad demo.
One episode of Pee-wee's Playhouse had Pee-wee give a dog a bowl of food. They focus on the dog eating his food for a full minute with no dialog and no reactions. Just a Leave The Camera Running close-up shot of a dog eating from a bowl.
Several times in MST3K, notably during the Creeping Terror music skit and the Crow-as-Screaming-Skull skit.
- Tom and Crow laughing creepily and Italianly over the credits to Devil Fish.
- Tom's extended "20 Year Plan" speech in Manos The Hands Of Fate, to cover up one of the film's many extended driving sequences.
- Not to mention David Ryder from Space Mutiny, AKA Slab Bulkhead, Fridge Largemeat, Punt Speedchunk, Butch Deadlift, Bold Bigflank, Splint Chesthair, Flint Ironstag, Bolt Vanderhuge, Thick McRunfast, Blast Hardcheese, Buff Drinklots, Trunk Slamchest, Fist Rockbone, Stump Beefnob, Smash Lampjaw, Punch Rockgroin, Buck Plankchest, Stump Chunkman, Dirk Hardpeck, Rip Steakface, Slate Slabrock, Crud Bonemeal, Brick Hardmeat, Rip Sidecheek, Punch Sideiron, Gristle McThornBody, Slake Fistcrunch, Buff Hardback, Bob Johnson, Blast Thickneck, Crunch Buttsteak, Slab Squatthrust, Lump Beefbroth, Touch Rustrod, Reef Blastbody, Big McLargeHuge, Smoke Manmuscle, Beat Punchbeef, Pack Blowfist, and Roll Fizzlebeef!
- "He learned almost too late that man is a feeling creature..."
- Tom's nearly three-minute hysterical laughing/crying jag in one of the host segments for The Violent Years.
- One episode has Tom doing a walk-a-thon for "Helping Children Through Research and Development," which is actually an acronym for "Hi Everyone, Let's Pitch In 'N Get Cracking Here In Louisiana Doing Right, Eh? Now Then, Hateful Rich Overbearing Ugly Guys Hurt Royally Everytime Someone Eats A Radish, Carrot, Hors-d'ouvres, And Never Does Dishes. Eventually Victor Eats Lunch Over Peoria Mit Ein Nauesburger Tod." This is repeated in its entirety several times.
When The Colbert Report came back from the 2007/8 writers' strike, the excited Studio Audience gave Stephen a spontaneous standing ovation at the top of the first show which lasted for a minute and a half and resisted all attempts to stop it. It only ended when Stephen got up from his desk and physically forced the first row of the audience to sit down.
One episode of the second season of I'm Alan Partridge, in which Alan spots Dan from across a car park and shouts, in a vain attempt to attract his attention: "DAN! DAN! DAN! DAN! DAN! DAN! DAN! DAN! DAN! DAN! DAN! DAN!" ... etc.
The Britcom Black Books had an Overly Long Gag in the episode "The Grapes of Wrath", in which Manny pretends a Shiatsu neck massager with a pair of robot breasts, but completely fails to capture Bernard's attention, resulting in a whole minute of variations on "Look, Bernard. Bernard, look. Bernard. Look, Bernard, look. Look. Bernard, look. Look. Look. Look, Bernard, Bernard, look. Bernard. Bernard, look...."
- Which just makes the punchline even funnier when Bernard finally snaps and asks him what the hell he's doing: "I'm a prostitute robot from the future!"
  - Just pray with all your might your mother doesn't see one of those massagers down the street and start doing the whole scene in the middle of a crowded footpath, punchline and all... not like that ever happened to me or anything...
On The Whitest Kids U Know, there's the portrayal of the Devil in the "Opus" routine.
"What, you think the Devil lives in some sort of condo down in Florida? Yeah-huh. See, see, the thing about people like you is that you think that the Devil lives in some sort of houseboat, just drinkin' daiquiris, and listenin' to Jimmy Buffet. People like you think that the Devil lives in some sort of abandoned railroad car, just travelin' from state to state, eatin' sardines out of a can, and tellin' stories to strangers, and pettin' his scraggly little dog that he has. See, people like you think that the Devil lives in some sort of magical hot air balloon kingdom, where he just zooms around on a Segway scooter, and watches soap operas, and does Sudoku! People like you think that the Devil lives in some sort of rundown laundry deturgent factory, where he just eats candy canes out of a box that he has, and he just writes short stories, and twirls his hair! You see, people like you think that the Devil is some sort of stowaway on Paul Simon's tourbus, just travelin' across America, and eatin' Teddy Grahams, and when people fall asleep, spittin' them in their ears! See, people like you, think that the Devil lives on some jewel-encrusted surfboard, just floatin' in the middle of a wave pool, just readin' romance novels, and thinkin' about boys! People like you think that the Devil lives on a Hollywood movie studio set that's made to look like a World War Two fighter jet, and he just lounges around all day, gettin' baked, and callin' his friends, and hangin' up on 'em! People like y—"
A frequent gag on Father Ted has Mrs. Doyle the housekeeper asking someone if they want tea and if they say no, going into a repetition of "Ah, you will. You will, you will, you will, you will, you will..." until they either give in or Ted sends her away.
- A variation of this, in the episode when Fr. Jack was sent to an elderly priests' home and Ted received a replacement for him, had her produce a card with "Will you have a cup of tea?" on it, followed by what seemed like fifty with "Ah go on" written on them. (There was loud music which made it impossible to hear.)
- Also frequently seen in Dougal's attempts to understand things.
Seen much earlier in Monty Pythons Flying Circus with the "It's the Arts" sketch about the unknown German composer "Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern-schplenden-schlitter-crasscrenbon-fried-digger-dangle-dungle-burstein-von-knacker-thrasher-apple-banger-horowitz-ticolensic-grander-knotty-spelltinkle-grandlich-grumblemeyer-spelterwasser-kürstlich-himbleeisen-bahnwagen-gutenabend-bitte-eine-nürnburger-bratwustle-gerspurten-mit-zweimache-luber-hundsfut-gumberaber-shönendanker-kalbsfleisch-mittler-raucher von Hautkopft of Ulm." The interviewee dies (of old age!) before the interviewer can finish asking a question made very, very, very long simply by repetition of this Overly Long Name. The gag is actually longer than it appears, as every time mention is made of Johann, they say his full name (mercifully, the camera cuts one).
- Also consider the sketch about the phenomenon of déjà vu, that strange feeling we sometimes get that we've lived through something before. Consider the sketch about the phenomenon of déjà vu, that strange feeling we sometimes get that we've lived through something before. Also consider...
- Number one. The Larch. The Larch. And now...Number one. The Larch. The Larch. (repeat throughout episode, enough times that people cheer when they finally get to another tree.)
- On behalf of TV Tropes Wiki, I should like to say that we are taking firm action to clamp down on bogus examples. Now, you've got your tongue down her throat and her legs up on the mantlepiece...
  - Now stop this at once, you're being entirely too silly!
- The curtains going up before the Vocational Guidance Counselor sketch.
Lying somewhere between Overly Long Gag and Leave The Camera Running: a sketch from an old Finnish sketch show (starring the Finnish actor/comedian legend Pertti "Spede" Pasanen) features a customer and a salesman in a hardware store. The customer asks for a certain product and the salesman picks it up from the shelf: the joke lies in that the salesman goes to the shelf, picks up the item and brings it to the customer veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowly, easily taking a few minutes with the camera patiently watching the "action". And then this is repeated. Several times.
One sketch on Mad TV was nothing more than two people engaged in a Mexican standoff and yelling at each other, "Drop the gun!" "No YOU drop the gun!" "I said drop the gun!" "No YOU drop the gun!" etc.
This happens with plenty of Saturday Night Live sketches nowadays. Sometimes it completely ruins sketches that could have been funny: See the "Over 21" sketch, or the What the hell is that? sketch, featuring nothing but Steve Martin and Bill Murray looking off camera and asking each other the eponymous question.
- The Simpsons parodied this trend when Krusty appears on SNL in "The Big Ear Family" sketch. After a lame prop gag involving a large Q-Tip, Krusty sighs, "This goes on for another 14 minutes!"
Done in QI with the following example of Alan's buzzer.
In The Middleman, High Aldwin orders to release a special forces agent by executive decree twenty-four, five, seventeen, eight, ninety-three, fifty-five, two, thirty-nine,...
There's an episode of Night Court in which our intrepid characters must clear all their cases by a specific time, or any remaining defendants will be set free. Of course, their very last defendant is a slooooooooooooooow taaaaaaalkerrrrrrrr.
Wonder Showzen's entire first season finale, entitled "Patience", was an overly long gag to test the viewer's patience. The first act is extremely slow, and the second act is the entire first act in reverse. The third act is extremely fast.
Done as a sketch entitled 'The Long Big Punch Up' in 90s Britcom The Fast Show. This sketch occurs several times throughout the series, each time in a different location.
It's not a gag, but remember the first time you saw The Wire? And the theme song went into its second verse? And then the instrumental bridge started? Then again it's quite possibly designed to weed out impatient people, because it's really not the right show for them...
"Everybody's dead, Dave." "What, everybody?" "Yes, Dave. Everybody's dead, Dave." "Chen? Peterson?" "Yes, Dave. Everybody's dead, Dave." "What, even Shelby?" "Yes, Shelby! ''Everybody's dead, Dave!''"
- The "Captain reset" gag of Pete just avoids this.
- And who could forget Rimmer's salute? In the two-parter Pete he is repeatedly called up to the captain's office, and every time the salute is quite a bit longer and more complicated than last time.
  - In the commentary, you find out it's just his way of being polite. People don't see it his way.
Naturally, "Margaret? Margaret?". The Indian accent gag could also count.
My Name Is Earl episode "Inside Probe, Part 2". After seeing an interview with Darnell cut short by a commercial break just as he was about to say something important, Joy asks Darnell what he was about to say as the latter bites on a massive sandwich. Darnell starts chewing, does so for a very long time, the show itself goes into a commercial break, and when it returns, Darnell is still chewing, as Joy grows impatient. Darnell finally swallows and says he doesn't remember, then bites on his sandwich again.
"America's Next Top Model" had one when Cycle 11 contestant Nikeysha was eliminated... and proceeded to talk continuously over the credits.

Music

The harpsichord flourish after the second movement of the P. D. Q. Bach cantata Iphigenia in Brooklyn (it starts around 2:35 in the video and lasts a little over a minute).
- P.D.Q. Bach has so much of this. Notes held for incredibly long amounts of time, little things that are four or five times as long as they "should" be... it's one of his most common gags, behind blatantly ridiculous instruments.
The outtro to They Might Be Giants' "Spy".
Shut Up And Explode
The end of this piano piece by Dudley Moore.
The outer movements of Erik Satie's piano suite Embryons desséchés spend way too long a time banging out the final chords. And that's nothing compared to a full performance of Satie's Vexations, a short and ugly little theme which has a note at the end saying to repeat 840 times.
The outro to "Yig Snake Daddy" by The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets.
Many a Playground Song is like this:
- This is the song that doesn't end...
- This anime music video, set to "I Know A Song (that Gets On Everybody's Nerves)" was a finalist in the Anime Boston 2008 contest, in the "Comedy" category. It's best if you watch the whole thing from beginning to end. At 3:32, it turns into a Rick Roll.
One has to mention "Rocket Morton" by Nurse With Wound...
There's a 72-minute version of Haddaway's "What is Love". Play it with company, and see how long it takes your friends to realize something is amiss.
John Cage's 4′33″. It is actually an artistic statement, but four minutes of complete silence is HILARIOUS.
The ending to the Counting Crows' Hanginaround goes "way, way, way, way, too long".
If you're not expecting it, the countless "Na na na na Hey Jude"'s at the end of "Hey Jude" by {The Beatles} soon become one.

Radio

The Goon Show used this trope repeatedly. No, the camera is not required. Several episodes used this, presented as a minute or more of dead silence "For the safety of the performers", footsteps, or Minie Banister's ramblings....
One episode of Hancock's Half Hour began with a character hitting the keys on a typewriter very slowly, until after a couple of minutes Hancock asks, "wouldn't it be quicker if you took off the boxing gloves?"

Video Games

In The Neverhood, Klaymen can pick a fruit from a tree and eat it, and will consequently burp. Eating a second fruit will cause Klaymen to burp a little longer. After eating a third fruit, Klaymen will burp again... for a full minute.
Dasher Inoba's ending in Ehrgeiz consists of Inoba ordering and eating bowls of noodles. Repeatedly. The video literally goes on forever — the only time it stops is if the player gets bored and skips it.
The factory password from Earth Bound might be considered one.
- For those not in the know, the password is to wait. For 3 minutes. While mildly amusing when you first hear of it, it's rather annoying if you don't take the time to make a sandwich. Thankfully, you don't have to do anything at the three minute mark.
In Monkey Island II: LeChuck's Revenge, you had to get a bucket from three pirates. One way to get it was to say "please", which doesn't work right away. It will eventually.
- Another one from MI 2 involved trying to answer Herman Toothrot's Ice Cream Koan, "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, what color is the tree?" I bet you didn't know Pink Floyd was a color.
In Final Fantasy VII, at one point Cloud's group infiltrates Shinra HQ, and is given the option of either barging in via the main entrance, or climbing the ridiculously long emergency stairs. Hilarious dialogue ensues during the stair-climbing, such as:
Tifa: "Will you stop acting like a retard and climb!?"
- An NPC in the same tower, if you talk to them, gives you somewhere around 6 pages of ellipses.
Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald has a random trainer hinting that the reason the bike shop gave you a freebie is because the bike is plastered with the bike shop's name.
Cyclist: It says 'RYDEL RYDEL RYDEL RYDEL RYDEL RYDEL RYDEL RYDEL RYDEL... (etc., etc., for about six boxes) ...RYDEL RYDEL RYDEL'. You should ride it all over the place- it's good advertising!"
- And need we mention the story one needs to endure in order to get the Bike Voucher in the original Red/Blue?
- Approaching this in Diamond/Pearl is Flint's dialog after defeat, he uses about 8 boxes of Ellipsis. This was removed in Platinum.
At one point in Metal Gear Solid 3, Naked Snake has to climb a ladder. A very, very tall ladder. Partway up, the game's theme song starts playing, and even at maximum climbing speed, it has time to finish before you reach the top.
- And in Metal Gear Solid, those stairs.
- Speaking of MGS, this strip from The Last Days Of FOXHOUND.
Used in the ending of Mega Man 9. Twice as funny when you realize they're making fun of Wily's outrageous Villain Decay.
In Tekken 3, one of the secret unlockable characters is Gon (the little dinosaur from the manga of the same name by Masashi Tanaka). If you beat arcade mode with Gon, you get an ending cinematic in which he runs through a jungle, eats some fish in mid-air, and jumps on whales. The FMV repeats over and over again until you skip it.
Kefka HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATES YOU!!!
- Speaking of Kefka, he seems to think one his jokes are much funnier than they really are. Case in point: when he flees from you three times in a row, every time you ask him to wait. He responds each time by saying, "Wait he says. Do I look like a waiter?" By the third time the comment is nothing but enraging.
In one scene in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, an NPC loses his fiancee's engagement ring. After an "insensitive" comment, she insists that he apologize by saying "I love you" 100 times. Yes, you have to click through every single one of them.
- And let's not talk about the method of waking a certain general...
  - Which you have to do once to continue through the game, and have to do AGAIN for a sidequest!
Mr. Resetti of Animal Crossing fame can get into this, with his rambling reprimands for trying to outwit the auto-save system. Or it can just be a huge annoyance. They were aiming for the second one.
- He also rambles on and on if he appears as an assist trophy in Super Smash Bros Brawl. Considering that most assist trophies last a few seconds, and he seems to last over 2 minutes, it's just hilarious.
The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time scene where King Zora moves out of the way so Link can reach Jabu-Jabu could be counted as one.
Final Fantasy IV does this when Tellah attacks Edward. Tellah simply whacks Edward with his staff. And misses. A lot. And he doesn't stop until he's depleted Edward's health completely.
Similarly to the Monkey Island example above, in Full Throttle you can access a hidden mini-game by simply telling the person playing it in-game "Let me show you how to do that" enough times that he agrees "Only if it'll shut you up".
Like Paper Mario above, Super Paper Mario does this no less than 3 times, and does each one to the point of sheer annoyance.
- First one involves breaking a priceless vase and being forced to pay for it, all 1,000,000 rupees of it. The initial way of earning them involves running in a wheel like a hamster, earning rupees depending how long you run. There IS a series of sidequests to earn the million in one go, but you need about 1000 rupees to buy the inital clue. Which still involves holding down the right button for 5 minutes while you watch Mario run on a wheel. And there's no indication on how much you've earned until you stop, so if you didn't make enough... back on you go.
- Second involves getting a password to pass some guardian in the desert. The person giving you the password warns you to get a pen and paper, because it's going to be long. About 30 words long. And you'll have to type them all in by hand. Hope you don't mess up.
- Third involves the Sammer Guy world. In order to get the world's Mac Guffin, they tell you you'll need to fight all 100 Sammer guys first. Most players by now will assume that they'll pull the rug under you and not make you fight all 100. They just choose to wait until the 20th fight to do it...
  - Not to mention that you can go back when you finish the game and fight all 100, if you want.
The game Audiosurf generates levels based on audio files. This may be the single hardest one ever attempted.
The comments for this video from Deus Ex

Web Animation

From Homestar Runner: In the Strong Bad email boring (really), Strong Bad gets an email from a viewer complaining of boredom, and asking how exciting day-to-day life in Free Country USA really was. He and several other characters manage (by speaking and moving very slowly) to make a twenty-five-second conversation last four minutes — which, SB insists, makes for an extremely exciting day.
- To commemorate his 100th email, Strong Bad decides he'll say "email" 100 times. And does it. His computer provides him with a virtual glass of water afterwards.
Yahtzee's short answer as to whether or not Spore could live up to creator Will Wright's legacy was "No." His long answer was a Big No which lasted a full sixteen seconds. There's a second, slightly shorter Big No near the end of the review, too.
- And it's only shorter because the credits cut him off.
Spider-man's continuous "and what's in that pocket?" questions to Batman in I'm a Marvel and I'm a DC.
From Potter Puppet Pals: In Wizard Swears, Dumbledore introduces the gang to the Elder Swear, a swear that lasts a minute and is mostly a long series of bleeps punctuated by things like "Republican", "Daniel Radcliffe", and "a stick of dynamite".
Episode 21 of Retarded Animal Babies features, after the credits, a very long phone call from Puppy's insanely drunk (or drugged out) cousin.

Western Animation

Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane seems to love this trope like nobody else. The first and most famous use is Peter Griffin spraining his knee after winning the golden beer ticket. In the commentary track of Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story DVD, MacFarlane said that he rather enjoys making gags run just a little bit longer than they should. The show has often been accused of using it as a crutch.
- Lois does a variation of this herself in a recent episode, only she bumps her breast on the mailbox instead of spraining her knee.
- The famous chicken fights are frequently accused of being nothing more than Overly Long Gags, although there's usually a good wealth of film references in each.
- "Everything I say is a lie! Except for that. And that. And that. And that. And that. And that. And that."
- It was lampshaded in a recent episode where Peter is singing "Surfin' Bird", over and over, and Stewie comments, "Oh, I just love repetition!" Later in the same episode, in what may have been a jab at how the fans perceive these jokes, Stewie slowly pulls out a revolver and aims it at his face as Peter continues singing the song ad nauseum.
- Subverted once when the Vaudeville Guys, who were just beginning to wear out their welcome, are shot to death by Stewie just as they are beginning their performance.
  - They did return later, Vern as a ghost and Johnny playing his piano in Hell.
- Another particularly gratuitous example is when Stewie speculates about Brian's novel. He goes on and on and on about it, his voice continually growing higher. It was marginally funny, but what's baffling is they thought it would be a good idea to repeat the entire speech later in the episode. He tries it again in a later episode but barely begins before Brian punches him silent, thus rendering it a case of Overly Long Rule Of Three.
- Bruce, the polite effeminate guy, is essentially an entire person made out of this trope. Every time he shows up he just rambles on, quietly and politely, about whatever happens to be on his mind at the time, usually only tangentially related to whatever the subject is that he's currently discussing with the rest of the characters that are with him at the time during the show.
- And Then There's Maud! Peter is actually annoyed by this Overly Long Gag.
- Conway Twitty in "The Juice is Loose": they put the ENTIRE SONG in the episode!
MacFarlane has a pretty big influence on Seth Green's Robot Chicken—the show could be described as "Family Guy if they took out the bits about plot"—so to no surprise, to say the least, some clips are longer and tedious than others. This really comes into play in the second season.
Some of the lazier episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants use this trope excessively, often to the point that an entire episode will actually become this trope. Examples: Slide-Whistle Stooges, Blackjack, and Grandpappy the Pirate.
Garfield And Friends features an episode, "How To Be Funny", where the titular cat explains the fine points of comedy and admits repetition of a stupid Visual Pun like being handed lightbulbs after yelling "Lights!" can get funnier with time.
- One recurring gag in U.S. Acres is that whenever Orson sorts his books, he always has to put one in particular — Deja Vu, the Sensation of Experiencing Something You Have Experienced Before — away about five times in a row.
In the Sealab 2021 episode "Vacation", the suggestion that Quinn is in his room with a prostitute twice prompts a segue into a ridiculously long chain of characters going "Uh-oh!". The Rule Of Three comes into play at the end of the episode, as Quinn interrupts the beginning of a third such chain.
In the Duck Tales episode "A Whale of a Bad Time", Scrooge McDuck is informed that a shipment of his ice cream (in which he'd concealed half his fortune) has been eaten by a sea monster, which causes him to go berserk and spend about a minute jumping around the room repeatedly yelling "A sea monster ate my ice cream!!" before his nephews can subdue him.
The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy:
- When Billy thinks clowns "want to become the dominant species" and then proceeds to spend nearly half a minute straight yelling that they'll "Destroy us all!". In the made for TV movie "Wrath of the Spider Queen", he is cut off half-way before starting another such joke.
In South Park, "Canceled", this trope is spelled out. Kyle is asked to activate the satellite dish in Cartman's rectum, and each time he approaches, Cartman farts and laughs. Everyone agrees it is no longer funny, and Cartman does it again, prompting the others to laugh and Chef to proclaim it funny once more.
- The Imagination Song
- Kyle's Mom Is A Bitch also qualifies, combined with Refuge In Audacity:
  Cartman: "...She's a bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch! Bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch, she's a stupid bitch! Kyle's mom's a bitch and she's just a dirty bitch!"
Drawn Together is also no stranger to the Overly Long Gag.
- In the first episode, Captain Hero wishes for a hot black woman to appear, at which moment Foxxy Love walks through the door. He then wishes for a 12-year-old girl and a donkey to appear, and proceeds to wait... and wait, and wait, and wait...
- In the first season finale, the housemates stage a sit-in in an attempt to deliberately make the show boring so that the producer will be forced to give them some perks. And true to their word, the sit-in consists of them doing nothing but sitting there and blinking for well over a minute.
- In "Xandir and Tim, Sitting in a Tree", Spanky Ham draws a fart out for an entire 60 seconds.
Space Ghost Coast To Coast: The "Fire Ant" episode, as originally aired, contained a ten-minute-long sequence consisting entirely of Space Ghost following an ant to its house to kill its family. No action, almost no dialogue, just Space Ghost following an ant.
Twelve Ounce Mouse would sometimes have two Overly Long Gags running concurrently. In episode 5, Fitz and Skillet have an extended shoot-out with an offscreen assailant while Peanut tries to rob the Diner. In episode 11, Shark spends half the episode trying to get his car started, while Rectangular Businessman spends the other half trying to decide which one of many identical harmonicas to buy. By the end of the episode, neither has succeeded.
In what is probably on of the most famous scenes from Kenan and Kel, Kenan examines his friend during a lawsuit brought about him almost choking on a screw in a can of tuna. Kel ends up breaking down, confessing loudly to his friend that he dropped the screw in the tuna, over and over and over, while stumbling about the courtroom.
The Simpsons: This trope could easily be called "Rake Scene". Given the origin of the rake scene, the probable circumstances that determine exactly how overly long an Overly Long Gag could probably be described as "how much time needs filling?"
- The scene where Homer tries to eat chips which are repeatedly stolen from his hands by the greyhound puppies. This happens eight times, and the first four are recognisably the same footage as the second four, except for Homer saying "This time," before the last one.
- In the episode "Pranksta Rap", Milhouse tosses a frisbee six total times, picks it up each time, and says, "This is no fun without Bart. He used to watch me while I did this."
- In "The Twisted World of Marge Simpson", when Cletus Spuckler introduces his 44 children to Marge and Homer.
Taken to its logical extreme by Futurama; "Everybody Loves Hypnotoad", a special episode included on the Bender's Big Score DVD, takes the gag and runs with it for twenty-two minutes, the entire length of the episode. There are some other gags included ("Guests of Everybody Loves Hypnotoad stay at the famous Cragmont Human Cage!"), and, indeed, the whole point is that, in order not to miss these shorter gags, the viewer has to sit through the entire episode. Some of them are so short that they can easily be missed by fast-forwarding through them.
- Into The Wild Green Yonder gives us Leela's attempts to protect a leech, which keeps attacking her; she reflexively crushes it, then regrets it, then it comes back to life and attacks her again.
Dexter's Lab used this quite a bit, usually centering around endlessly repeated shots of Dexter typing on a keyboard, tightening a screw, pulling the same lever, etc. One commercial lampshaded this by asking after about thirty seconds of the screw-tightening, "Isn't he going to overtighten that thing some day?"
- Don't forget the episode which focused on Mandark and every sound made was similar to his signature laugh. For the entire episode.
Lampshaded in an episode of Freakazoid ("Virtual Freak"), where Freakazoid and the Lobe take an overly long time to fall from the top of a mall...
Lobe: Freakazoid, why does it take so long to fall?
Freakazoid: Because it's funny!
Lobe: No it's not! It's just stupid!
- Not to mention the episode Relax-O-Vision, whose premise was a running gag that quickly grew old. This was eventually subverted at the end, when Freakazoid beats up the suit who came up with the idea in the first place.
This is Invader Zim's bread and butter. Take for example, this quote from Tak: The Hideous New Girl, in which Tak has just started to explain her evil plan to Zim, starting with "Part 1" - crippling his base's functions.
"Part 2 is —"
"NOOO! My beautiful base!"
"Part 2 is —"
"NOOO! My beautiful base!"
"Part 2 —"
"NOOOO! My base!"
"Part 2 —"
"NOOO!"
"Part —"
"NOOO!"
"Okay, I'm — "
"NOOO!"
"Okay, I'm going now."
"But you didn't tell me what your plan was."
Dr. Rockso's constant repetition of "I do cocaine!" in Metalocalypse. It was mildly funny at first, then it became annoying. But by season two, the fact that he simply would not stop saying it made it inexplicably hilarious.
- There's also the DVD Easter Egg scene of Nathan Explosion reading from Hamlet. Very, very badly. For twenty minutes. And then there's a second Overly Long Gag in the credits...
  - Many of the DVD extras consist of Overly Long Gags, though not usually as long as the Hamlet one. There is an 8 minute feature of Pickles sitting in his underwear on a bed babbling incoherently while on drugs, and another that's about five minutes of the Bishop guy tuning his guitar and trying to play simple chords while grunting to himself. Some of these are more successful than others.
In Home Movies, Jason keeps trying to add overly long jokes about barbarians acting barbaric to a movie script. Melissa refuses to transcribe them past a point, saying, "That's where I think the joke ends!"
In one episode of Duckman, he and Cornfed become plumbers.
Hans: I am Hans, may I help you gentlemen?
Eric Duckman: You betcha Heintz, we're from AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-1 Plumbing.
Hans: You're from AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-1 Plumbing?
Cornfed Pig: Yes, we're from AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-1 Plumbing.
Lady Calowina Worthington-Ford: Ah, are these the men from AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-1 Plumbing?
Hans: Yes, they say they're from AAAAAAAAAAAAAA ...
Eric Duckman: All right! C'mon, we don't even have a plot yet.
Clone High called this a "wacky stack", and tried to avoid it.
The Danger Mouse episode, Quark Quark features a robot named Grovel... who does... every single time his name is mentioned!
Aqua Teen Hunger Force does this in the episode "Super Birthday Snake," when Frylock is arguing back and forth with his zombified friends about whether or not he killed them. A good quarter of the episode's length is nothing but variations on "No I didn't!" "Yes you did!" It's not funny until Carl bursts out with "You so frickin' did!" Then it's hilarious.
Chowder does this a lot. For example:
- "Would I!" Would you?" "Would I!" Would you?" "Would I!" Would you?" "Would I!" Would you?" "Would I!" Would you?" "Radda Radda!" "Yes I would thank you."
- Also, the title of the 'Big Ball' episode (which doubles as the name of the game featured in it), Mung always refers to it in full. It is fast-forwarded once, but only once, and said fast forward is also ridiculously long.
The View Askewniverse cartoon Clerks: The Animated Series:
"Caitlyn has a kissing booth? Like, for charity?"
"Yeah, only it don't cost nothin' and it's not for charity."
*leaves and comes back*
"And there's no booth."
*leaves and comes back*
"And it's more than just kissing."
*leaves and comes back*
"And you don't have to be a guy."
*leaves and comes back*
"Dude, she's cheating on you."
Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends: the scene of Bloo being massaged by the sound-operated cactus. (although it plays over the end credits).
Animaniacs has the 'Who's on Stage?' skit, an homage to the infamous 'Who's on First?' skit (below).

Webcomics

"Scientifically" sketched out in this Reprographics strip.
This Flintelocke strip. And then brutally subverted.
Cat and Girl combines this with Painting The Fourth Wall.

Stand-Up Comedy

Swedish example: Martin Ljung's "Fingal Olsson" monologue, in which he's trying to explain what makes a joke funny by telling the same joke over and over, varying the punchline slightly each time. The joke is less than hilarious to begin with, but after about seven repetitions...
By Margaret Cho: 'So I was on the ship, with 800 lesbians. We can't get off. So much drama. "Were you looking at her or her or her or her or her or her or her or her or her or her or her or her? WELL, WERE YOU?!" We all got on the same cycle.
Bill Hicks would generally try to keep to his schedule, but when he was doing a joke about an object of his ire—and especially if the crowd was enjoying it—he would milk it for all it was worth.
Jim Gaffigan's Hot Pockets routine— at some point the joke becomes the fact that he's still talking about Hot Pockets.
Lewis Black's rants in general, but especially the one about frozen embryos. "THEY'RE FROZEN! THEY'RE FROZEN! THEY'RE FROZEN! THEY'RE FROZEN! THEY'RE FROZEN! THEY'RE FROZEN! THEY'RE FROZEN! THEY'RE FROZEN! THEY'RE FROZEN! THEY'RE FROZEN! THEY'RE FROZEN! THEY'RE FROZEN! THEY'RE FROZEN! THEY'RE FROZEN! THEY'RE LIKE MINI PIZZAS!"

Tabletop Games

A published adventure for Shadowrun 3rd edition has a character who greets the party and advises them that on the premises it would be unwise to use any, then lists everything offensive the party possess. Given how characters in this game tend to be the speech frequently fulfils this trope.

Other

This article by Mark Rosewater, lead designer of Magic: the Gathering. In fact, he spells it out.
A paper presented at the annual meeting of the Annals of Improbable Research: Chicken Chicken Chicken.
The Onion will occasionally print an article that contains the sentence "Passersby were amazed by the unusually large amounts of blood" repeated for the entire article.
Similarly, the "Start-up Sound" practical joke from Prangstgrüp.
Many, many examples of Memetic Mutation:
- Many You Tube Poop videos try to milk comedy out of repeating a clip over and over and over again, sometimes mixing it up by slowing it down, speeding it up, or applying a filter (grayscale, pixellation, etc.).
  - The "X does Y Whilst I Play Unfitting Music" videos combine Overly Long Gag with Soundtrack Dissonance.
IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAAAND!!
The classic "Who's On First" routine works solely because of this.
David Letterman does this often.
Adam Sandler is fond of this in his comedy CDs, perhaps most noticeable in the sketch satirizing Carrie: "NOOOOOO! They're all gonna laugh at you!"
Margaret Cho does these as well. One that particularly comes to mind is the 'Asian chicken salad' bit where she goes on for several minutes miming a displeased samurai.
Hello? Fuck! Hello? Fuck! Hello? FUCK! It's funnier than it sounds - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsTJaBVPtu4
Youtube, Fucking Short Versions
- Black Lagoon, The Fucking Short Version
Some people consider the Candle Jack meme to be one of
- Surely the only way that meme can be an overly long gag would be if you make it clear that you're indeed using that meme, and make it clear that you intend to refer to the character of the same name as the meme (the one from the show Freakazoid, the one who kidnapped anyone who said his name). If you just state the name straight off, it's not really an overly long gag, just a long running gag, that peopele seem to perpetuate unnecessarily. The idea of a long running gag in itself suggests that you shou—ah, nuts to it: "Candle Jack!". Huh. Guess he can't be bo
  - You brought that on youself, as do all who invoke Candle Jack. But I'm not that stup
Jonnwood is updating his Twitter.
The Nostalgia Critic laughing at Zack's "rock star" outfit in the Saved By The Bell episode.
4Chan is responsible for lots◊ and lots and lots◊ and lots and lots and lots◊ and lots◊ and lots and lots◊ of these, including these◊ two◊, the former of which goes from cute gimmick to Crowning Moment Of Awesome after the first few, the latter of which simply speaks for itself.