Strange Minds Think Alike - Television Tropes & Idioms

Cromartie High School — after Takenouchi lands in the US from an attempted plane hijacking:
Takenouchi: The stars sure are beautiful...I wonder if my friends back in Japan are looking at these same stars right now...Damn. This ain't like me, gettin' all sentimental and crap.

Cut to a conversation in Cromartie High about paying for the hijacked plane trip.

Hayashida: Not to change the subject, but there's a big time difference between Japan and America. Like, if it's nighttime in America, then it's the middle of the afternoon in Japan! So, if you were in America looking at the night sky, I'd be taking my afternoon nap here!

Kamiyama: Where did that come from?

Hayashida: Beats me. Guess I just wanted to show that I know a thing or two 'bout astronomy.

To Aru Majutsu No Index: When Touma returns home with MISAKA in tow, carrying a slew of cans, Index gets more than a bit jealous. Aisa Himegami suggests, "Perhaps that is his fate. He raises flags with other people and goes down their story routes." Later, after saving MISAKA from the insane psychic known as Accelerator, Touma wakes up with his hand on her chest:
Touma: "Why am I experiencing such a happy event? I don't remember raising any flags like this at all."
Azumanga Daioh: Yukari-sensei's 2nd-year students are discussing what to do for the Culture Fest, and Osaka suggests that they do a haunted house that's like a café, inverting an idea expressed earlier. Shortly, Kagura arrives and suggests the same thing, thinking it would be a "killer idea".
Osaka: Ooh, the same wavelength!
Kagura: Errr, same as what?
- Also, Sakaki and Osaka manage to independently imagine Chiyo's father in the exact same way. (As a giant, floating orange cat thing.)
  - This is, of course, assuming that they are imagining him...
  - Note, too, Osaka doesn't have her "Chiyo's dad" dream until after Chiyo's 11th birthday, when Osaka gave her a (stuffed) "orange cat thing," which Sakaki immediately identified as Chiyo's father (having seen him in her New Year's dream a few weeks or months prior).
Death Note — during their tennis match, Light and L have almost identical internal monologues, without communicating.
In one episode of Widget Series Ippatsu Kiki Musume, Kunyan wakes up with her hair caught in the drain of a bathtub filled with water, unable to free herself and facing imminent drowning. She "realizes" that since people take in air through their mouths and release it through their butts, she should be able to reverse the process (of course it doesn't work). Her friend Linda enters, realizes what's happening and...attempts CPR on Kunyan's butt, having come to the same conclusion. Soon after, their friend Naja enters and, you guessed it, comes to the exact same conclusion, running off to get an enema in order to help save Kunyan.
Toradora has, at the start of an episode, Ryuji having a Catapult Nightmare in which Taiga agrees to marry him. However, because Taiga refers to him as "her dog" much of the time, the dream features him getting a dog house, while his mother (dressed as a dog) shows off all of Taiga's puppies. Taiga, also dressed as a dog, tells Ryuji they're his, which is when he wakes up. Moments later, Taiga tells Ryuji "I had an unpleasant dream. You were a dog, and the dog was my husband. Anyway, it was the worst dream ever."

Close Anime and Manga

In the first issue of the second volume of Runaways, with supervillains starting to appear in Los Angeles after the death of the Pride, a friend of Victor Mancha's comments on how there are usually never any superhumans around there, adding, "Except Wonder Man, but he don't count." Later, supervillain team The Wrecking Crew are robbing a bank. Their leader, Piledriver, tells the rest of the crew that with the Pride gone, the city is ripe for the taking, since there had never previously been any superheroes with the Pride driving supervillains away — "Except Wonder Man, but he don't count."
In Cable & Deadpool, everyone who meets suave superthief the Cat immediately asks if they can see the tattoo on his stomach. How, exactly, any of them even knows that he has one is never really explained.
In the first arc of Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol, an imaginary world has taken over this dimension. Professor Caulder persuades the philosopher who created it to tell him the way to shut the world down: By confronting its leaders with a paradox that will prove they don't exist. Meanwhile, Rebis, who is trapped in the imaginary world with no outside contact, looks around and decides the only way to stop it from existing is to confront its leaders with that paradox.
In Marvel Adventures: The Avengers A.I.M.'s secret base were in the sewer, because that was the most secret place that existed. And The Leader also had a secret base, in the sewer, right next to A.I.M. Thank you Karl!
In She-Hulk, She-Hulk and four other female superheroines suddenly find themselves trapped in an alternate dimension by a mysterious entity:
Thundra: SHOW YOURSELF, COWARD! FACE THE UNFETTERED FISTS OF THUNDRA!
She-hulk: Too bad her name isn't "Fundra", because that would have sounded cool.
Sue Richards: I was just thinking that ... which scares me a little bit.

Close Comic Books

Grosse Pointe Blank:
"I'm in love with your daughter and I have a newfound respect for life."
cut to other car
"That punk is either in love with that guy's daughter, or he has a newfound respect for life."
Spaceballs: Upon discovering that the combination to the air shield is "1, 2, 3, 4, 5", Dark Helmet says "That's the stupidest combination I've ever heard in my life! That's the kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage!" President Skroob enters and, after he is told the combination, he says "That's amazing! I've got the same combination on my luggage!"
Repo Man: Just about every line. Either Lampshaded or Justified, depending on how coherent you find Miller's ramblings.
Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai does this (not always for comedy) with Ghost Dog and Remy — neither speak the other's language, but they are always talking about the same thing.
Used in Love Actually to show that the couple who don't speak the same language are well matched. After a book manuscript flies into the lake they are both swimming to collect the paper and he says "I hope there aren't any eels, I hate eels," and she says, "Don't splash too much, you'll disturb the eels". When they get out, she suggests he should name a character after her and give her 50% of the profits, while he suggests that he should name a character after her and give her 5% of the profits.
"It's the happiest part of my day, driving you."
"It's the saddest part of my day, leaving you."
In The Departed, Costigan orders a cranberry juice. Another guy sitting at the bar explains that cranberry juice helps his girlfriend when she's on her period, because it's a natural diuretic. Later, when Costigan tells Mr. French what he's drinking, French responds, "What is it, your period?"
Juno: When Paulie first is told about Juno's pregnancy, he at one point awkwardly sputters out a description of having a baby as something that happens "to our moms and teachers when they get pregnant". Later on, when a fellow jogger comes up to Paulie to talk to him about Juno's pregnancy, the other jogger also refers to her pregnant status as "like our moms and teachers".
- In the same film, there's the reiterated comment that having sex certainly wasn't Paulie's idea.
In Mallrats, Shannon remarks to Brodie that he only acts like a nice guy to girls so that they'll let their guard down and allow him to "screw [them] in a very uncomfortable place". Brodie, not getting the euphemism, remarks "What, like in the back of a Volkswagen?" Apparently, no one else gets it either, with everyone reaching the same conclusion as Brodie.
- Kevin Smith loves this trope. In Clerks 2, Jason Lee has a cameo as a character Randal refers to as "Picklefucker" due to an unfortunate incident in high school. Lee's character claims Randal "must be the only one who still remembers that". Lee's character then gives his food to Jay, who responds with, "Thanks, Picklefucker!" The audience thinks this is a subversion, until Jay then runs outside screaming, "Hey Lunchbox! Some picklefucker just gave us free eats!" indicating that he had absolutely no idea who the character was. Word Of God confirms this is intentional in the commentary.
Perhaps the best known film example is "You'll shoot your eye out" from A Christmas Story. First said by Ralphie's mother; then written on his school report (convincing Ralphie that mom and the teacher were in cahoots); and, to add insult to injury, spoken by Santa himself! "Was there no end to the conspiracy of irrational prejudice against Red Ryder and his peacemaker?"
- Arguably justified, since the story was told from Ralphie's perspective.
In The Ipcress File, secret agent Harry Palmer is being sent away on attachment to Major Dalby's unit by his dour boss Colonel Ross. Before he goes Ross warns "Be careful with Major Dalby. He doesn't have my sense of humour". When he arrives, Major Dalby warns "Be careful with me. I don't have Colonel Ross's sense of humour".
In Heathers psycho boy plants a bottle of mineral water with the two dead jocks to sugest they died in a gay suicide pact (our heroine thinks that's incredibly stupid). Three gueses what the cops say when they find the bottle.
In Back To The Future, the orange windbreaker that Marty is wearing shortly after arriving in 1955 is mistaken for a life preserver (which means he must be a sailor) by Doc, Biff, the soda parlour guy, and Lorraine's mom.
It's a good thing the castle guard at the beginning of Monty Python And The Holy Grail is very interested in the air-speed velocity of swallows, because so is the man at the bridge.

Close Film

In To Say Nothing Of The Dog, one character, prone to malapropisms, writes about a "firugeal urn". At another point, Ned makes reference to the same object, also calling it a "firugeal urn". All well and good, except that Ned thought the phrase instead of saying it, and he said it first. Casual readers assume that he was referring back to the letter, but that's impossible unless he were actually a time-traveling agent from further in the future, with deliberately implanted false memories.
In "Something Rotten", Jasper Fforde's fourth book in the Thursday Next series, this is anti-Troped with Thursday bending over at the front door and narrowly escaping a high-powered bullet which impacts on the door frame. She later goes inside and her mother asks what the noise was, which she explains as a car backfiring. Her mother says "I could have sworn it was a high-velocity bullet striking wood," and makes no more mention of it.
In The Science of Discworld 2: The Globe, Hex instructs Rincewind and Ponder Stibbons to disguise the Librarian (an ape) with a dress while standing on the Luggage (a chest) when going to Elizabethan England, because the English will think that he is a Spanish lady. When they find the wizards that had gotten stuck in England, the first question they ask is "Who is the Spanish lady?".
In Starclimber, the first time James Sanderson is mentioned, Matt says "Let me guess: the heir to the Sanderson fortune." Throughout the book, nearly every time Sanderson is mentioned, a different character will refer to him as "the heir to the Sanderson fortune".
At several points in the Jason X novelization characters think something along the lines of "And then I won't be the only one not getting laid".

Close Literature

Third Rock From The Sun was also quite fond of this. In one example, Tommy's PE teacher told him to climb a rope and Tommy asked what was at the top of the rope. Later on, the teacher complained about this to Tommy's father Dick, who replied by asking the same question.
- When told that the punishment for not climbing the rope was to sit with the girls, both also failed to see how this qualified as punishment, and questioned the sexuality of the gym teacher.
- Justified by the fact that Tommy and Dick are both secretly aliens studying humanity, so if one of them misunderstands Earth logic, there's a good chance the other would be similarly confused.
In an episode of ALF, ALF thinks the Tanners' neighbor, Mr Ochmonek, killed his wife. Naturally, the Tanners don't believe him, and say, "Remember the time you thought Mr. Litvak down the street was building an atomic bomb in his basement?" (It was actually a pool heater.) After a series of misunderstandings, the episode culminates with a police officer arriving and Mrs. Ochmonek being alive and well. A few clarifications later, as the policeman leaves, Mr. Ochmonek says, "By the way, as long as you're here, officer, there's something I want to report. There's this guy down the street called Litvak... I think he's building an A-bomb in his basement."
- Yet another ALF example: in one episode, ALF develops chronic ennui and, inspired by the Tanner's psychiatrist friend Larry praising the advice he gave regarding some of the family's issues, decides to study psychiatry as well. This ends up greatly annoying the Tanners, due to ALF suddenly spouting psycho babble at random intervals and at one point, bursting into Willie and Kate's bedroom shouting "Carl Jung was a big weenie head!" and claiming he has proved that Jung's theories are bogus. Eventually, the Tanners with the help of Larry manage to make him realize what he's been doing, and ALF shows this by claiming to now understand a Carl Jung quote relevant to the situation at hand. At which point, Larry says, "Huh. And I always thought Carl Jung was a big weenie head."
In the 38th season finale of Sesame Street, when Oscar visits María's bathroom as a reporter for Grouch News Network, he remarks that the only way to get the elephant out of her bathtub is to offer him peanuts. Seconds later, Bob shows up (in his only new appearance that season) with a sack of peanuts.
Arrested Development lives and breathes this trope. Sometimes it even stretches out the connected references several episodes or even seasons apart. Often you have to go back and re-watch old episodes to even realize that this trope is being used; Characters often say the exact same thing independently ("I've made a huge mistake", referring to sex as "pop-pop") or say things that are absurdly prophetic ("You won't be hand-fed any more!").
Happens all the time in The Middleman, and we do mean all the time. Lacey calling Wendy "Dub-Dub" and the Middleman giving her the nickname "Dubbie," "My plan is sheer elegance in its simplicity", "the icy waters of the North Atlantic", and of course:
"The pirate-themed sports bar with the scantily clad waitresses?"
Arrr.
In the Swedish show Kvarteret Skatan, two guys accidentally killed another guy. When they're trying to conceal the body, one of them comments: "Nobody's gonna believe this," to which the other responds, "Perhaps they'll think it's a dead badger." Later on, the guys and their girlfriends passes the body in a car, and one of the women says: "Oh, look there! It looks like a dead badger."
In an episode of Angel, Fred has made an ominous-looking machine that Wesley says looks "like a spring-loaded decapitation device," which Cordelia counters with, "Or it makes toast." When Wesley later speculates about the contraption to Fred's parents, Fred's father adds, "Or it makes toast." By the way... it is a spring-loaded decapitation device.
In a season two episode of NewsRadio, Beth tries to invent and popularize the phrase "bitchcakes". Later, when walking into a chaotic situation, Jimmy James claims, "Everyone's going totally bitchcakes today!"
- Another Beth/Jimmy example has Jimmy offering "Swiss cheese" as an example of an oxymoron, which completely baffles Dave. Later, Beth says that something is ironic, "like rain on your wedding day." Jimmy: "No, no, that's an oxymoron." Beth: "Oh, like Swiss cheese?" Jimmy: "Exactly."
In Seinfeld, resident Wacky Guy Kramer justifies his "reverse peep hole" with the fear of someone ambushing him from inside his apartment with a sock full of pennies. Cue the end of the episode, when Jerry discovers his and Kramer's Italian landlord has ambushed Joe Mayo in his apartment with... a sock full of pennies.
One episode of The Young Ones has multiple clones of Neil popping out of the ground, one of them says "Wow, anyone who saw that must have thought it was a multiple reality inversion". Cut to two random bystanders: "Wow, that looked just like a multiple reality inversion."
Occurs frequently on How I Met Your Mother. One of this troper's favorite examples is how all of the main characters seem to be buddies with a Korean Elvis impersonator, aptly named "Korean Elvis".
- The best example has to be the episode where a goat takes a dump on Ted's floor. Later, both Robin and Marshall are able to identify the droppings as coming from a goat. "How does everyone know it's a goat turd!?"
Occurs half a dozen times per episode on The West Wing. In one notable example, Sam spends an entire episode going around asking if people have heard about an Alabama town which just voted to replace all its laws with the Ten Commandments. Everybody he talks to wants to know how they're going to tell if you're coveting your neighbor's wife.
On Will And Grace, in the episode "It's a Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad, World", Grace's coffee has "Patrice" written on it- she claims it's her Coffee Name. Then Will says "Tyler" is his "my getting-out-of-going-to-your-parent's-house name". A few minutes later Jack enters, saying "Hey, Tyler. Hey, Patrice."
Men Behaving Badly: While Gary is having a one night stand and Tony is trying (as ever) to get laid, Dorothy phones them to ask how things are while she's gone. Tony panickedly tries to think up something that isn't the truth. After the phone call, Debbie asks her if something's wrong.
Dorothy: Well, either he's passed out on the sofa, or he's sleeping with another woman.
- Later in the episode, Dorothy finally comes back after the other girl has left. Dorothy asks him how the night went.
  Gary: Oh, Tony was sleeping with a girl he picked up and I was passed out on the sofa.
In an episode of Home Improvement, Wilson's house is broken into. The thing he's most upset about losing is his African mucus cup, much to Tim's bewilderment. When Tim later tells Al about the break-in, Al's first response is "Oh, no. Did they take his mucus cup?"
Red Dwarf, "Back to Reality". Kryten discovers that he's actually Cybernautics Division cop Jake Bullet.
Kryten: "Jake Bullet: Cybernautic Detective." I like that! That sounds like the kind of hard-living flatfoot who gets the job done by cutting corners and bucking authority, and if those pen pushers up at City Hall don't like it, well, they can park their overpaid fat asses on this mid digit and swivel — swivel 'til they squeal like pigs on a honeymoon!"
Rimmer: "On the other hand, 'Mr. Bullet', perhaps the Cybernautics division is in charge of traffic control, and you just happen to have a rather silly macho name."
(Later, when they encounter a murderous secret policeman)
Kryten (whips out his badge): "Bullet, Cybernautics!"
Secret Policeman: "That's traffic control."
- In "Back To Earth", the sci-fi shop owner is unphazed to have fictional characters walk into his shop, because reality incursions are very common this time of year (Rimmer: "Oh good, he's a nutter"). He phones the head of the Red Dwarf Fan Club for them and says "Yeah, reality incursion ... Yeah, that's what I said..."
30 Rock does this continually. In the episode "SeinfeldVision", Liz defends wearing a wedding dress saying "I don't need society's permission to buy a white dress. Who says this is a wedding dress anyway? In Korea they wear white to funerals." Later on, Tracy sees her in the dress and says "Oh, no! Did a Korean person die?"
- Justified in one episode, after Kenneth and Liz both independently mention The Pelican Brief as an example of dirty dealing:
  Jack: Why is everyone talking about that movie?
  Liz: It's been playing on Showtime.
- And used to brilliant, multiple episode-spanning effect with mind grapes.
- Apparently all celebrities are familiar with the rule of threes, and recognise the same obscure people as celebrities.
In the Police Squad! episode "Rendezvous at Big Gulch (Terror in the Neighborhood)", Detective Drebin asks Dr. Olsen if he can trace a rock that was thrown through a window, and Dr. Olsen proceeds to give a geology lesson. Drebin later confronts the criminals who threw the rock, asking them, "Oh yeah, where did this come from?" They start to give exactly the same geology spiel.
In an episode of Scrubs, Dr. Cox is irritated by Molly's relentlessly optimistic worldview. After she expresses it with an increasingly strained metaphor comparing people to chocolates, he responds that people are actually "bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling." Later, Dr. Cox mentions Molly's attitudes to Dr. Kelso; he doesn't bring up the chocolate metaphor, but Kelso still responds that "people are bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling."
This happened frequently on Green Acres, with Lisa spouting some nonsense early on in the episode (often involving a Perfectly Cromulent Word), and another character referencing it again later on, to Oliver's alarm. Just another typical day in Cloudcuckooland, but even Mr. Drucker, the only sane native, was known to get in on this one.
Obligatory Buffy The Vampire Slayer example: In "The Zeppo", Xander makes a sarcastic remark about feeling like Jimmy Olsen to Giles. Later, Cordelia mocks him by saying that, with everyone he knows having superpowers, he must feel like...Jimmy Olsen. Xander starts lampshading this, but then cuts himself off with "Mind your own business!"
In the Amazing Stories episode "The Family Dog", Ms. Lestrange promises to turn the dog into "a quivering, snarling, white-hot ball of canine terror." Later, when the dog attacks burglars, one exclaims, "He's turned into a quivering, snarling, white-hot ball of canine terror!"
From Bottom, when Richie and Eddie attempt to rub together their one brain cell each by solving a crossword puzzle.
Eddie: Erm... all right, two down... "Fish", four letters, now begins with "X".
Richie: "X"? —Xylophone, xylophone fish. (Beat)
Both simultaneously: Nah, it'd sink, wouldn't it.
From the first season of Black Adder, a messenger arrives with dire news:
King Richard: What?! Have the Swiss and French made sudden peace with each other at the mountain pass rendezvous, then forged a clandestine alliance with Spain, thus leaving us without friends in Europe unless, by chance, we make an immediate pact with Hungary?
Messenger: (checks the message) Yes.
King Richard: As I thought!

Close Live Action TV

Red Vs Blue has an example where Grif and the Blue team independently decide that the Warthog vehicle "looks like a puma".
- In another episode, Sarge makes fun of Grif for giving him mouth-to-mouth to cure a shot to the head. "What would you do if I got shot in the foot, rub Aloe Vera on my neck?" In a later episode, Doc treats Caboose, who was shot in the foot, by rubbing Aloe Vera on his neck.
- In the final episodes of Reconstruction, Washington explains that he's going to activate an EMP device to kill the Meta, but the Reds correct him, calling it an "emp," much to Washington's annoyance. When he does activate it, the machine says something to the effect of "Activating emp." Washington's last words are pure indignation.

Close Machinima

Used, and severely abused, in You'll Have Had Your Tea?: The Doings Of Hamish And Dougal. In "The Shooting Party" Dougal tells Hamish (in a whisper) what the strange buzzing thing he mistook for a novelty thermos was, and Hamish mishears it as "pie-grater". Shortly thereafter the Laird appears.
Laird: What are you doing with my Christmas present to Mrs Naughtie?
Dougal: No, it's a novelty thermos.
Laird: Pity. I've a pie here that badly needs grating.
- Later still, Mrs Naughtie herself serves up grated pie at a picnic.
- In "Inverurie Jones and the Thimble of Doom", Hamish sarcastically says "Brad bloody Pitt!" when Dougal asks who's at the door. For the rest of the episode, everyone mistakes Hamish for Brad Pitt, for no reason at all.
Lampshaded in a famous episode of the old Abbott & Costello show, vis-a-vis "the Feller that pitches for the Cleveland Indians."

Close Radio

In the third Ace Attorney game, Gumshoe makes a comment likening the witness' seeing the murder to him (hypothetically) watching Edgeworth stab Phoenix in the middle of the courtroom. The Judge later uses a near-identical comparison involving Franziska killing Edgeworth with her whip, and Edgeworth notes the similarity.
- Also in the 3rd game, Godot mentions in his first appearance that he kept key evidence in his pocket, being the safest place he knows. Latter Edgeworth, in his initial court debut claims he kept key evidence in his satchel, the safest place he knows.
  - Which makes that a bit of a subversion, as Godot was there when Edgeworth first used the phrase.
Fate Stay Night - In the prologue, when Rin reveals that she doesn't want have a wish for the Holy Grail (all she wants to do is win the war), Archer, shocked, fills in possibilities that she could try, like taking over the world. Later, in the Fate Route, when Shirou finds out what Saber's wish is, he's relieved that it's not something like what he expects Rin to try, like taking over the world. This is justifiable, as Archer is a Future Badass version of Shirou.
A variation occurs in one of the Telltale Sam And Max games. (Season 2, episode 4 in fact.) Sam, Max, and Flint are looking for the missing Bosco and theorize he may have hidden in his bunker. Sam finds the keypad to open the bunker and Max says "Ooh, let's make it say 'BOOBIES'!" Shortly, Sam finds the code and it turns out to be 5318008...or 'BOOBIES' upside-down. Sam even comments on the similarity.

Close Video Games

Homestar Runner lives and breathes this trope across the entire series of cartoons. One specific example:
Homestar: (Wearing a pair of shades covered in yellow paint) Oh, hello, Dripping Yellow Madness!
Strong Sad: What? I'm Strong Sad! Dripping Yellow Madness moved away after fifth grade!
later
Homestar:The sales representative I dealt with gave them to me... free of charge. I believe... his name was Stan.
Bubs: Stan?! I fired that guy after the fifth grade!
yet later
Strong Bad: Hey, The Cheat. We catch anything in the Death Hole today? ...What? There's no way he could've been in there. He moved away after fifth grade!
- The usage of "DNA Evidence" started out like this, but eventually became Arc Words.
- "Car Trip" and Homestar's usage of the phrase "jumbo/LARGE".

Close Web Animation

8-Bit Theater. Used straight frequently, and played with in the case of the "Cold Fusion Reactor". Set up here and here, with the punchline occurring here
- And then it's continued here and here
Penny Arcade teaches us about Claw Shrimp.
Least I Could Do has Rayne attempting to popularize the word "vagoo" as a more casual synonym for the vagina. When a co-worker uses it in a later storyline, he says "I knew that term would catch on."
- Note that the term originated in a Fate Stay Night doujin that censored "penis" to "ponos" and "vagina" to "vagooo". Image Boards latched onto it.
In A Modest Destiny, Gustav and Lucille agree that the same-sex marriage between Maureen and Lucille (which exists only to avoid a curse on Lucille; Maureen does not, at this point, identify as a lesbian) lacks mayonnaise, to Maureen's bewilderment. Maureen is frustrated when Fluffy repeats the same line later independently.
In WIGU, some church folk accuse Wigu of being a wizard, after which a policeman shows up to arrest him and have him buried up to the neck in the town square, due to a law that's been on the books since 1695. When Wigu's mother finds out her son has been arrested, her response is, "Charged with being a wizard? What is this, 1695?".
In El Goonish Shive, Tedd wonders why he's creeped out thinking about Grace becoming a guy at her Gender Bender-themed birthday party when he was fine with seeing her in his form before. He concludes that it's because he's either a narcissist or just that girly. Later, at the birthday party after everyone has changed gender, Grace asks Susan and Sarah why Tedd seems uncomfortable with her in male form when he's already seen her as himself. Susan theorizes that Tedd's a narcissist, and Sarah adds the "Or he's just that girly" comment.
- Later Grace reassures Tedd that it's okay for him to be more weirded out by a male version of her than by her transforming into him because "It feels different to be with one's own self ... and couples switching bodies is number thirty-seven on your list of weird things you like. It's also possible that you're just that girly, but I don't think you're a narcissist."
In User Friendly, a guy with what appears to be punk hair applies for a job here and says the hair was due to an accident with a soldering iron and a ceiling fan. Later, two of the techs say that this was their first assumption.
In The Wotch: Cheer!, there are the recurring set of Noodle Implements: Two geese, a roll of duct tape, 23 toothpicks, and some sodium benzoate. First used by Tamara, then later by Jo and Agent 32.
In Sluggy Freelance, when Queen Valerie asks Torg his name, thinking he's a random peasant, he goes for the really lame line of sight name Pheasant the Peasant. A short while later Zoe is about to be eaten by the demon K'Z'K, and in wild desperation she claims she's not Zoe but "her twin sister...um...Pheasant".
A Dominic Deegan comic has Donovan, whose Orkcsh translations are all of My Hovercraft Is Full Of Eels quality, say something about doing taxes in autumn, followed by the orc he's talking to saying "Close enough. Let's get moving." Meanwhile, an orc who's not too good with the Callanian language translates Dominic's rant as being something about taxes in autumn... prompting the same response. It turns out that Donovan and the orc had the same phrasebook.
In Yahtzee Takes on the World, multiple characters independently base their decisions on consulting magic 8-balls. When one asks about Yahtzee's odd behaviour, the ball answers "He's the Anti-Yahtzee, dumbass," so maybe they know something we don't.
"Randall, get out of my head!" is a frequently posted statement on the xkcd forums.

Close Web Comics

In the blog novel Fartago, Farta's wife Balchane tells him to stop looking at Tago's "porn" because it is "demeaning to females." Later, when Tago shows his porn to Artiste, Artiste says, "Eet ees poop. ... And eet demeaning to females."
Cass Cult has a number of mentions of Thor's severe hatred of trees. The authors swear they've never read Order Of The Stick.
In A Very Potter Musical, when Dumbledore is totally outed, he states that he would suck the snake-poison out of Snape, even it it was in his weiner. Later, after Dumbledore dies, Bellatrix casts an "attach-snake-to-weiner" spell on Snape, who comments that he wishes that Dumbledore was there.
Used in Avatar The Abridged Series to explain the Human Popsicle.
Sokka: In ancient times, people would put giant pieces of chocolate shaped like people in giant blocks of ice. And then, you'd take a funny stick and break it open, and eat the chocolate people like chocolate cannibals.
(...)
Aang: That's strange, how'd I end up in an iceberg pinata?
(...)
Zuko: That light! It can only be... someone opening an iceberg pinata, and not sharing it with me!

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In the Rescue Rangers pilot, Monty takes them to meet with Gadget (actually to meet with Gadget's father) and they encounter a series of deadly booby-traps. Monty assures them (rather weakly) that they're not intended for him ("He couldn't still be holding a grudge, could he?") and are probably for something else. "Maybe he has a thing about door-to-door salesmen." When they actually meet with Gadget her first response (with pencil crossbow to their heads), "You're not door-to-door salesmen, are you? That's why I set up all these traps in the first place."
When trying to shoo away a gaggle of tiny nuns following him, Grim of The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy describes himself as "The exact opposite of a nun." Later, once he's decided to live with the nuns, and Billy and Mandy come looking for him, Billy says that Grim's "The exact opposite of a nun."
In one South Park episode, the CIA makes an unpleasant discovery:
Agent Thompson: We have reason to believe that Mrs. Clinton may have a nuclear device up her snatch. ...A snatch. It's the technical term for vagina.
Agent Waters: It's a suitcase nuke, designed to fit in a woman's snizz. It's called a snuke.

Later, Cartman is contacted.

Mr. Thompson: Well, we've just arrived in your town.

Cartman: Why? Did you find something?

Mr. Thompson: Yes. There's a suitcase nuke in Ms. Clinton's snizz.

Cartman: (beat) A snuke?

In "It Hits the Fan", Cartman gets upset that the word "shit" is no longer offensive, and starts using "meekrob" as a swear word. Later on, Cartman sees a list of all of the "cursed words", and one of them actually is "meekrob".
Then there's "Weight Gain 4000," where Cartman wins an ecological essay contest. When Stan brings up Wendy's paper on dolphins, Cartman says, "Well, if dolphins are so smart, then why do they live in igloos?" Later, when Wendy breaks in to compare her paper to Cartman's entry, she finds the following written on hers in red pen: "If they're so smart, why do they live in igloos?"

In the Chowder episode "Brain Grub", Chowder stops paying attention at one point while Mung is lecturing him and has a daydream about filling the kitchen with chocolate pudding and swimming around in it. After Mung snaps him out of his fantasy and asks him to repeat what he was telling him about, Chowder pitches the idea to Mung, who responds with "...lucky guess."
In the Ed Edd N Eddy episode "Dueling Eds", Eddy accidentally offends Rolf, and while Edd tries to convince Eddy to apologize, Ed randomly suggests "Why don't you bake cupcakes?" Later, Eddy further provokes Rolf, to the point that Rolf challenges him to a fish-slapping duel, and after getting slapped around a bit Eddy finally admits he's sorry, to which Rolf responds "If this is true, have you brought the Cupcakes of Sorriness?"
In the Simpsons episode "The Cartridge Family", this happens with references to the King of England:
Homer: But I have to have a gun. It's in the Constitution.
Lisa: Dad, the 2nd Amendment is just a remnant from revolutionary days. It has no meaning today.
Homer: You couldn't be more wrong, Lisa. If I didn't have this gun, the King of England could just walk in here any time he wants and start shoving you around. Do you want that? Huh? Do ya!?
Later on, at the NRA meeting:
Krusty: Guns aren't toys! They're for family protection, hunting dangerous or delicious animals, and keeping the King of England out of your face!
- In "Deep Space Homer", when a military general searching for 'normal Joes' to become astronauts, he asks perpetual drunk Barney Gumbel if he'd like be higher than he's ever been before. Barney replies, "Become an astronaut? You bet!"
- And of course, this little gem:
  Homer: *after being questioned that he likes ballet* Please. I enjoy all the meats of our cultural stew.
  Homer's Mind: *pictures a scene at the circus, where a bear is driving a tiny car*
  At the nuclear plant...
  Homer: *angrily* Can't, guys. Marge is taking me to the ballet.
  Carl: Ah, going to see the bear in the car, huh?
In the Clerks animated series, Randal is afraid a monkey is going to spread a fatal disease, and threatens it. The monkey's response is to start masturbating, which Randal claims is out of fear. Shortly after, someone walks in and says "Oh my, someone has frightened that monkey!"
- In that same episode, Dante tries to convince two different people that the Motaba virus was just a figment of Randal's imagination. He says the rumors are coming from "a pop culture junkie loudmouth... with too much free time." Both people he says this to respond with "You mean Quentin Tarantino?"
In an episode of The Boondocks, Granddad has gotten inadvertently beaten by a blind man. Riley jokingly comments that he could rent Granddad out for Mexican birthday parties, under the name "Señor Pinata". Later, when Granddad is watching the news, shocked to find out that the blind man (Cl. Stinkmeaner) beating him has managed to become a news story, a Spanish-language news station covering the story dubs him "Señor Pinata".
In the Halloween episode of Invader Zim, Zim can only watch in frustration as the nightmare version of Membrane hauls Dib back to headquarters. "Oh, come on! I break free and now I have to go back to rescue that little rat that left Zim to rot? Why must it be?" Later after doing just that, Dib remarks at the angry expression on Zim's face: "Oh, come on! You're not mad about the whole 'leaving you to rot' thing, are you?"
Happens occasionally in Kim Possible with Kim with Ron and Shego with Drakken:
Shego: I don't get it. If you're such an evil genius, shouldn't you invent your own stuff? I mean, what's up with the stealing?
Drakken: It's called outsourcing, Shego. Besides, why reinvent the wheel? Or in this case... The electron magneto accelerator! With this, I can increase the power of any electrical device to evil proportions!
[Later]
Kim: Stealing again, Drakken?
Ron: Whatever happened to inventing your own stuff?
Drakken: It's called outsour... Oh, just get on with it.
- In another episode:
  Kim: Wait... You have cable? Your dad finally gave in?
  Ron: I thought it was just a fad? So many channels.
  [Later]
  Shego: Dr. D, I can’t believe you’re just now getting cable. Eh! Ah.
  Drakken: I thought it was just a fad.
In the Spongebob Squarepants episode Dying for pie, this exchange takes place concerning the fact that Spongebob has eaten an immensely powerful bomb (shaped like a pie).
Squidward: We've got to do something!
Mr. Krabs: It won't do any good; I've seen this before. The way I've seen it, he's got until sunset.
Squidward: You've seen this before!?
Mr. Krabs: Eleven times as a matter of fact.
*Squidward rushes off screen to a telephone*
Squidward: Hello? Doctor? Hospital? ...Won't do any good!? ...Eleven times!?
- Also done in the episode where Spongebob runs rampant with Mermaid Man's shrink ray.
Patrick: You had it set to M for Mini, [turns the M upside-down], when it should be set to W for Wumbo!
Spongebob: Patrick, I don't think Wumbo is a real word...
—>Patrick: Come on... you know! I wumbo. You wumbo. He- she- me... wumbo. Wumbo; Wumboing; We'll have the wumbo; Wumborama; Wumbology: the study of Wumbo. It's first grade, Spongebob!
Spongebob: Patrick, I'm sorry I doubted you.
*Later, Spongebob asks Mermaidman*
Mermaid Man: Did you try setting it to wumbo?
Done constantly in The Fairly OddParents, especially by Timmy's Dad.
There was an episode of Animaniacs where Dr. Scratchansnif is on a date at the movies when Yakko, Wakko, and Dot end up tagging along. Scratchansnif is sent to buy popcorn, and the guy at the counter asks "Would you like fries with that?" The doctor's response is to boggle at this question because no one orders french fries with popcorn. Of course, the Warners and Scratchansnif's date all ask if he got fries with the popcorn.
Many times on Phineas and Ferb, where everyone seems in on the Running Gag.
Darkstalkers, horrible as it was, had a few funny moments, some involving poor Rikuo the merman and the phrase "You're strangely attractive for a fishman" or some permutation thereof.
From The Critic:
Duke: "Noah, how much would it cost to make "Quzybuk" a word?...I dunno, how about "a big problem"?"
Later on...
Scientist: "Gentlemen, we're in a real quzybuk here."
- I think that was just demonstrating that Duke is loaded enough to even buy new words for the English language.
The Incredibles: Near the start of the movie, Elastigirl explains to Dash how everybody is special, to which he replies that that's just a way of saying that nobody is. Later on, the Big Bad goes on his monologue, detailing about how when he's old, he'll sell all his inventions so that everybody can be super, at which point, relatively speaking, nobody would be.
To be fair, this isn't exactly an illogical statement.
Bolt: At Hollywood, two pigeons pitch Bolt the idea of putting aliens on his show. At the end of the movie, Penny and Bolt are abducted by aliens in the show. Bear in mind that, as a dog, Bolt has no say on how his show is ran, and besides, this was after both Penny and Bolt quit and were replaced.
In an episode of Total Drama Action, Duncan, who didn't get any sleep, wishes that this week's theme was "Guy in a Coma" movies. Later on in the confessional, Chris said that it was either Animal Buddy movies or "Guy in a Coma" movies (Chris picked the first one.)

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An apparent real-life example is documented here at Overheard.
- My guess: George and Martha.
The authors of both The Adventures Of Dr Mc Ninja and Captain Britain deciding, apparently independently, that Dracula should have a moon base. On the moon.
Civilizations at about the same level of technology have a very good chance of coming up with innovations that either unknowingly anticipate each other or unintentionally copy each other. Newton and Leibniz both independently came up with modern calculus (and, in fact, other mathematicians were toying with the idea as well), resulting in Newton accusing Leibniz of plagiarizing his work.
- And Darwin and Wallace independently coming up with a theory of natural selection, for which Wallace would probably ave got the credit had he not sent a copy to Darwin, spurring him to publish his own work.
These Google search suggestions◊ show that some very odd questions have run through the minds of presumably thousands of people.
- At least one of those is not so odd- "Do Virgins Taste Better (Than Those Who Are Not)" is the name of a Bawdy Song, the lyrics to which they were apparently looking up.
- Also, Jesus does have a tattoo. On his thigh.

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