Running Gag / The Annotated Series

The Annotated Series has mocked the entirety of several cartoon series, plus quite a few intermissions as well. It was fairly inevitable that a large amount of running gags would result.

Running Gags referencing specific annotated series

• Ctrl+Alt+Del jokes are common in general:
  • One of the very earliest was WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS.
  • Whenever the cartoon uses copyright-infringing materials, someone adds a particular quote from Tim Buckley:
    "The thing about copyrights that I guess you don't quite grasp is that whether you're doing it just for fun, or for profit, using someone else's work without their permission is against the law."
  • Making a crack about Lilah's miscarriage occasionally pops up.
  • On the subject of miscarriage: "[X] is not a joke and I have no intention of making light of it."
  • Changing the credits of other annotated videos as if they're also produced by Blind Ferret Entertainment.
  • Ethan ends an episode asking Lilah "I still get laid tonight, right?" Up until sometime during Captain N, most episodes/series end with a male character repeating the question.
  • "HORSE CUM!" — originally just a mondegreen — appears whenever something liquid splashes around, typically "water" colored unusually white. The annotation is guaranteed when that something gets on a character's face.
  • Annotators create labeled "buckleyboxes" with overly long explanations of a joke's setup and punchline.
• Gags starting in Super Mario World:
  • "I fell for hours!" whenever someone is falling for a long time, especially after a Commercial Break Cliffhanger. It's also occasionally subverted with very short falls, where the annotation is along the lines of "I fell for— oh, never mind."
  • "I am the [Title] of [Alliterating Action Or Adjective]!" Most often used whenever Cheatsy is in a scene (launched by his infamous "Emperor of Eavesdropping" line), gradually declining after the initial run of Super Mario cartoons but still appearing infrequently.
  • "Don't try [verb]ing (it) in Brooklyn!" Since the original line is from Luigi, adding "*WHEEZE*" to the end is optional. It can pop up just about anywhere to describe anything that characters are doing or discussing.
  • "The joke is Yoshi eats everything." — a variant on "The joke is..." from the general gags list below.
• Originating from The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3:
  • The audience booing and throwing rotten food as the curtain comes down at the end of an episode. It gets a callback during Mortal Kombat when the characters explore an empty theatre.
  • Whenever a mummy appears or someone gets wrapped up like one: "WHERE'S MY SON?!" Heck, when the setting is just a desert or contains pyramid-shaped structures, the line is attributed to the mummy queen off-screen. Groups of mummies may call out for several different family members.
  • "Are We There Yet?" "How many times are you going to ask that, missy?" These two often appear in tandem during any traveling scene. The second question also sometimes appears as a response to other questions, particularly fellow gag "I still get laid tonight, right?"
  • As soon as Kootie Pie gets noisy, a "Kootie Pie tolerance meter" appears. It doesn't take long to max out.
  • Cargo nets deployed to capture characters are labeled "Nasty Nets".
  • GIRL YOU KNOW ITS GIRL YOU KNOW ITS GIRL YOU KNOW ITS GIRL YOU KNOW ITS
• Gags originating from/mainly used in Street Fighter:
  • Bathing in ice cream, which was originally an off-hand joke from Cammy. It got discredited pretty quickly.
  • Because of reused music, one particular cue spurs a "YESSSH!" every time.
  • Escher is the subject of remarks about constantly relocating his offices, as well as responding to any quip from Guile with "This is where I pull out my gun."
  • Annotators take notice of vertical pan shots and infer that all subjects are female, due to the frequency of introducing female characters into a scene with full-body pans.
  • Any close-up or zoom-in on a character's face leads to "No [character], not the head bite!"
  • During Audience Murmurs, annotations point out what sounds like the word "wire."
  • Annotators literally interpret rhetorical remarks like "What's the matter?" or "Tell me about it!" with a paragraph of exposition as if reciting a Wikipedia article. ^Example "What's the rush?" and describing the rock band Rush.
  • Any time someone mentions Satin Hammer, an annotation pops up to misspell her name as other words. ("Sudden Hammer", "Satan Hammer", etc.)
• Gags from Captain N: The Game Master:
  • The purportedly unlikable Simon Belmont frequently suffers for comic relief. When he doesn't deserve it, some variation of "Haha, that'll teach you to [innocent or helpful action]!" will appear. invoked
  • Whenever a pop culture reference is made, a "Topical" label appears.
  • Kevin's dog Duke often quotes Duke Nukem.
  • "Hoops" in the context of a bad pun/bad writing in general, from the serious level of Smurfing in Season 3, Episode 2.
  • Referencing Kevin's lack of desire to clean his room.
  • Any electronic console will have a button labeled "Peach Hookers", in tribute to Season 2, Episode 9 (the scene in question is actually the thumbnail for the third part's video!)
  • The narrator often introduces scenes with "On the [adjective] world of [video game]...", so this gets extended to pretending that expository shots are depicting other video games or visual works.
  • When the show uses Super Mario Bros. sounds but nothing in the scene warrants an audio cue, annotators assume Mario and Luigi are doing something just off-screen.
• Started by Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm:
  • "Haha, shocking" whenever a character is thrown into liquid, after an incredibly lame and nonsensical one-liner from Sonya.
  • Blaming Night-Wolf or Raiden for any problems or false leads.
• Started by Sonic Underground:
  • Episodes open with narration from Queen Aleena foreshadowing the plot/moral of the episode. This is typically made into a Hard Truth Aesop by mocking her Annotated interpretation.
  Queen Aleena: "We all feel proud of our special abilities and accomplishments."
  Annotator: "My special ability is deadbeat mothering!" (and variants thereof)
  • Referring to Queen Aleena as "Weiner Leader".
  • Mocking the SWAT-bots for their incompetence and fragility.
  • Providing unit conversions to and from "Mobius minutes", "Sonic seconds" and similar things.
  • Giving Robotnik dialog making him out to be an annotator, mainly to use him as a vehicle for Self-Deprecation.
  • Adding "Hahaha, cemetery!" to the end of Robotnik's lines, based on his threat "Sanctuary will become Cemetery!" — a rare case where annotators liked the writing and delivery.
  • Annotators getting irritated when Sonic uses what looks like a new ability, and calling him OP.
  • Each instance of the show's sole Idiosyncratic Wipe garners an ALL CAPS EXCLAMATION! commenting on the last scene.
  • When an expository shot holds on a background with no characters, annotators fill the space with a label pretending the environment is a Sonic game map (e.g. "Green Hill Zone, Act 1").
  • "That's a big YUPPERS!" — one of Sonic's lines that sounds especially forced.
• Debuting in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!:
  • King Koopa asks for someone to lick his feet whenever he has a moment of self-satisfaction or his feet are prominently in frame.
  • Every few episodes annotators complain on the title card about new film releases they could have been watching instead of annotating, such as The Dark Knight Rises and Dredd.
  • "Uh-oh." "Uh-oh?" "UH-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH" (Mario and Luigi have had this exchange a couple of times.)
  • Pre-empting Koopa's "why thank you, Princess" whenever she calls him conniving, cruel, etc.
  • During the abridged preview for The Legend of Zelda, the title card gets rewritten to focus on notable quotes or actions from that one scene.
  Zelda: (takes three steps back)
  (title card appears)
  Annotations: THE TAKING OF THREE STEPS BACK
• Hatched from Savage Dragon:
  • In one of Mako's earliest appearances he mocks Dragon with "Savage Squirrel." Since then, anytime Mako laughs it's because that one insult still amuses him. Sometimes he swaps in another animal and thinks it's newly-minted comedy gold.
  • The source videos have a nasty tendency to glitch or lag, so when the episode is running smoothly and then starts glitching without warning, the Annotators will claim that something in the show caused it. ^Examples Barbarian punching Dragon so hard that their reality glitches, or a destroyed dam allows the glitches to flood out.
• Coming out in Donkey Kong Country:
  • Whenever Eddie The Mean Old Yeti appears, there is a reference to either his musical number from Episode 4 or the "Squeezey Freezy" (a children's product whose bizarre commercial also involves a yeti).
    • Everytime characters are at the White Mountains and Eddie doesn't appear, annotators either make him say something off-screen or voice their exasperation for Eddie's absence.
  • DK constantly tormenting Diddy as a "Second Banana" whenever Diddy calls himself sidekick.
  • King K. Rool makes constant remarks about wanting to be a playable character in Super Smash Bros.
  • One of King K. Rool's most popular phrases is about his newest scheme being his "finest hour", so annotators reuse it at dramatic moments.
  • Referencing the banana-based scene transitions as if they're diegetic to the episode.
  Annotation: That was when the realisation hit him like a ton of bananas.
  • When a character ends up inside of a barrel, an annotation puts the character's initials on the front to mimic the "DK Barrel" design.
  • Season 2, Episode 9 had a successor to "hoops" as shorthand for puns after an entire "song" full of wordplay with "head".
  • "______'S MAKING A MOVIE?!", whenever someone laughs abruptly.
  • "DK YOU BIG GOOFUS DOOFUS!!". A particularly memorable line from Cranky, said whenever a gorilla appears.
• Spawned from Mega Man (Ruby-Spears):
  • References to Dr. Light's Guidance System are quite frequent.
  • "NOW I'VE GOT YOUR POWER!" — as well as comments on scenes where Mega Man defeats or touches a robot that isn't a Robot Master and annotators pretend it gives him a new special weapon.
• Spun off from Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM):
  • Robotnik is referred to as Tails' mother due to Tails spontaneously saying "Hi, Mom!" to Robotnik's surveillance camera in the pilot episode.
  • Cluck is given Scratch's classic "Bwa-ha-Bwa-haaaaaa!" laugh whenever he's annotated as saying anything.
  • Due to the show's reputation as the "serious" Sonic cartoon, cartoony and ridiculous plot resolutions are greeted with the annotators wondering if they're accidentally watching Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog instead.
    • When Sonic himself started to throw "Serious!" around, it became a minor gag in of itself.
  • Whenever Sonic calls Tails "big guy", expect a Bane quote to come up.
  Sonic: What's the matter, big guy?
  Annotation: FOR YOU
  • Everyone wants to know the color of Robotnick's heart.
  • Dulcy immediately inspires a negative reaction whenever she shows up. Especially when she spouts her irritating "Crash into something and mumble for her Ma," catchphrase.
  • Whenever something dumb happens, expect annotations reminding the viewer that this show was Doug Walker's favorite Sonic cartoon.
    • More recently, the annotators frequently voice their bewilderment that the show was popularly considered the best Sonic cartoon, or at least better than AoStH.
  • After an episode mentioned the SwatBOTs' "Priority 1" is hunting Sonic, riffs on it immediately began popping up and turned "Priority 1" into the SwatBOTs catchphrase.
  • One odd musical cue prompts a reference to Irish jigs every time (usually in the form of "*does a [insert emotion here] Irish jig*]").
• Scored from ProStars:
  • Live Action Wayne Gretzky's first line was just "YEAH". It became both his and his animated version's catchphrase.
  • There are constant references to Space Jam.
  • Jokes about how Michael Jordon is too good to be in the show, due to him being the only Pro-Star who doesn't participate in the live action wraparound segments.
  • Jokes about Mom being bigoted against Palestinians.
• Learned from Double Dragon (1993):
  • Referring to Billy as "Bimmy", a typo from the intro to the NES version of Double Dragon III.
  • The constant mockery of the Shadow Warriors main battlecry "THE SHADOW FAAAAALLS!".
  • After Jimmy pronounced "trying" as "tryan" in Episode 7, the annotators are expecting a new Dragon Warrior named Dryan to pop up.
  • Supporting character Michael is constantly referred to as Skate from the Streets of Rage series. Both are black kids featured alongside adult-aged protagonists, and both franchises are well-known in the beat-em-up genre.
  • Season 2 introduces Danny as another kid character, whose defining trait is playing video games and competing in tournaments. This inevitably brings up John Numbers, winner of the Nintendo World Championships 2015 during that year's E3.
  • Appearances from Daj and the Undertown Mutants usually lead to jokes about them being furries and having extremely nauseating fetishes.
  • Making fun of The Code of the Dragon and "What you see is what you get" is also frequent.
• Handled from Speed Racer
  • The Counters return this time in form of Body Count, which is joked about a lot in the riff. Another one counting all the times "AUGH!" is uttered exists alongside it.
  • Shots towards Fiat Uno as the worst car ever are frequent.
  • Whenever the narrator brings up Racer X/Rex's backstory, an additional bit of information gets added onto the backstory.
  • The fact that the buttons on the Mach Five's steering wheel kind of spell out "fag" gets brought up at various points, with the characters commenting on it.
  • Trixie constantly talking about how much money she saved on her car insurance, referencing a humorous Geico commercial featured in one episode.
  • Dollars are referred to as clams.
  • Cracks about Racer X having to save Speed all the time, referred to as the "Racer X Machina".
• From Archie's Weird Mysteries
  • Archie's car is continually referred to as Betsy and talked about as if it's alive, in reference to the events of the second episode.
  • After an episode ends with Reggie about to get beaten up by Chuck Dobkins, a recurring storyline starts up in the annotations about Dobkins getting arrested and Reggie fleeing Riverdale.
    • Generally, if one of the "Fab Five" do not appear in the episode, there's a joke about them suffering a horrible injury after the events of previous episode and thus couldn't appear.
  • "Prinicpal Weatherbee is Dr. Arachnid!". A half-joking theory the Annotators thought up based on the fact that the two characters share a voice actor.
  • Jokes about Jughead's obsessive love of Pop Tate's hamburgers.
  • "Eat a fucking burger."
• From Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars!:
  • Jokes about Bucky and his crew being violently racist towards toads.
  • "AHHHH!! BETELGUESEAN BERSERKER BABOON!!!". Mocking an Over Used Running Gag in the show involving the toads always freaking out and running away from the baboons in question.
  • Inevitably, Deadeye is the subject of a number of references to Daffy Duck.
  • Willy's status of being a human is remarked upon by several animals, who are ultimately underwhelmed and/or uninterested by his appearance.
• From Spectreman:
  • Puns and jokes about character actor Mel Welles, who directed and performed in the dub.
  • Karas obsessing over his jacket, referencing how the plot of the fourth and fifth episode gets kicked off by him flipping out over water getting on it.
  • "SPECTREMAN" gets shouted dramatically during particularly obvious Padding moments.
  • Derisively comparing Spectreman to other, more well-known tokusatu heroes like Ultraman.
• From Kirby: Right Back at Ya!
  • Kirby has an Erotic Dream about Ribbon whenever he is asleep.
  • Making up grim, medieval backstories for the locations and characters in Cappytown.
  • Storm clouds are declared to be Kracko trying to get revenge for the Annotators skipping the episode he appeared in.
  • "He has become (X) Kirby!". A snowclone parodying Meta Knight's Once per Episode descriptions of new powers/transformations Kirby gains.
  • "I WANNA MAKE AN OMELETTE OUT OF IT BTW". Referencing Chef Kawasaki's weird insistence on making an omelette out of the egg from episode 14.
  • Minor character Doron is "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, who's usually after his wife Debra based on jokes created by newLEGACYinc.
  • Tiff is the resident fun police, and takes joy of other characters having as minimum fun as possible.
  • Everytime character Ebrums' (Tiff and Tuff's father) name is mentioned, there is a potshot towards J. J. Abrams.
  • Scenes that were removed from the English dub are shown in Japanese, and usually one of these three things happen:
    • Excuses are made up to explain why totally innocent scenes were cut.
    • Characters just wonder why they suddenly began speaking Japanese for a few seconds.
    • If there are no subs in the scene, fake subs filled with Intentional Engrish for Funny are added.
• From The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang:

  • Joking that the Fonz is a god and that his trademark finger-snap wipes out half the universe, ala Thanos.
  • The Mr. Cool/Cupcake does something useful counter, which only shows up Once per Episode.
  • Jokes about the films by Ron Howard are common, as are Arrested Development-styled contradictions to dialogue by the characters.

• Captured from Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?:

  • Carmen is a public flasher and the player is a pervert.

• Sumosized from Super Duper Sumos:

  • The annotators blocking the overly long transformation sequences with walls of text.
  • Gushing over the minor character that only is relevant for that episode.
  • The twerk counter.
  • #JusticeForDrStinger
  • Referring to the frizzy-haired referee as Danny.

• Rescued from Danger Rangers:

  • Wondering if safety will be discussed in the episode when it starts.
  • Burble intimidating kids often leading into him outright threatening to either maim or eat them.
  • Pointing out the recurring female rabbit extra.

• Resurfaced from Street Sharks:
  • Jokes about the titular characters being bloodthirsty Threatening Sharks who do more harm than good.
  • Making fun of the wooden voice acting.

Running Gags from non-serial annotated shows

• "TINGLY FEELINGS" from the first Dr. D video will pop up if a character has some sort of a rape face.
  • It evolved into "MUSHY AND TINGLY FEELINGS" thanks to Mega Man episode 2.
• The refrain "Tricky people / Tricky, tricky people" appears when an antagonist menaces another character in a way that could be construed as sexual harassment.
• Whenever a scene hinting at certain doom plays, expect a "What Could Possibly Go Wrong?" from the Bubsy pilot to pop up.
• In Ratatoing, Greg's catchphrase "Precisely!" is so prolific in the source material that it's easy to squeeze in anytime someone finishes talking. He's also voiced by Mike Pollock, creating opportunities for Actor Allusions.
  • "Precisely!" is guaranteed to appear whenever a mouse or rat appears on-screen.
• Establishing shots on cave entrances or animated tunnel sequences inevitably bring up cracks at Beauty and Warrior.
• From an anti-drug PSA by Captain Lou Albano, "(Do X and you'll) go to hell before you die." ^note Please?
• Notable quotes from Foodfight!:
  • Anything from Mr. Clipboard, particularly "SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST LEONARRRRRRD".
  • "The secret's inside!"
  • "Never opened... never enjoyed..." or a snowclone replacing the verbs.
• The video of the Nickelodeon time capsule burial spawned "There will be no Gak in 2042!"
• If there is an extended amount of black screen in material, "I'm done" pops up as a reference to Dinosaur Adventure, when a voice actor whispered the line as a scene blacked out.
• Our Friend Martin:
  • Mrs. Clark's "I suggest you get your grades in shape" was the inspiration for dozens of backhanded insults that incorporated failing grades.
• Felix the Cat Saves Christmas:
  • Anchormen and other newspeople are often annotated yelling "EY, STEVE!" in reference to a running gag involving the News Anchor constantly yelling for the reporter.
  • "Leave the jokes to me HA HA HA." Parodying an incredibly bad attempt the film made at meta humor.
• Whenever an annotator puts forth random trivia, whether real or made up for a joke, they'll often preface it with "Animal Fun Fact:" taken from their Let's Jab of the PSX Zoboomafoo game.
• "We forgot to get a gift for Splinter!" and variants of that phrase, referencing the Excuse Plot of We Wish You A Turtle Christmas.
• From the Professor G videos:
  • ComicCat12, the fake username Willard uses to trick Nermal in the first video, is stated to be behind anything bad that happens on the internet.
  • Jokes about the longplayer being too incompetent to finish, due to how much time they take to answer the quizzes.
  • Since the Hong Kong Fighting Robo-Vehicles intermission, Doppleganger and team-up plotlines have "Something strange has happened. Now there are two [X]es."

Running Gags that are also Shout-Outs

• When a full moon appears in a shot, it will often be given a face to resemble the moon from Majora's Mask, with an accompanying caption like "Dawn of the Final Day, 24 Hours Remain".
  • Around the time Darkstalkers and Savage Dragon finished, this changed to characters or the moon itself remarking "the moon is high."
• Exclamation quotes and other HUD elements from the Metal Gear franchise are borrowed wherever a stealth attempt is thwarted. Iconic quotes from the series are also common.
  • Also inverted; the prominent appearance of an exclamation mark may prompt something along the lines of "BUBSY ALERT." ^note At least once, a prominent question mark has led to YSBUB ALERT
• When a character complains, annotators might append "And the prom's tomorrow!" from the Harry Partridge short "The American Akira".
• "DIS IS IT, LUIGI" from the Hotel Mario cutscenes often appears at the start of the final episode of a series.
• When a cartoon shows a man with a white dress shirt and brown hair as an extra, annotators put in a profanity-laced rant in the vein of the Angry Video Game Nerd.
• "THIS HOLE, IT WAS MADE FOR ME!" whenever a conveniently sized hole is used by characters.
• "I WARNED YOU ABOUT STAIRS BRO" is always quoted whenever stairs figure into an action scene.
• "DOI SHOU" (with vowels elongated to varying lengths) is one of the more popular nonsense sounds made by Robotnik from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, used when any version of Robotnik shows frustration.
• "It was me Barry!", for major plot twists about a villain's identity.
  • "IT WAS ME ALL ALONG, AUSTIN!" comes up as often.
• Whenever someone says "We had a deal!", someone else says "I am altering the deal. Pray I do not alter it further."
• Numerous nods to Getter Robo, Mazinger Z, Gundam, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, and other Humongous Mecha.
• 'What's wrong with your FACE!?' whenever a character has a weird face.
• On occasion, someone will have a character say "A(n) [X]! I'll steal it! NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW!"
• Rick and Morty pop up in annotations, be it the characters themselves or references to their series.
• Most videos in the later half of 2015 have an increased usage of The Simpsons references in them. To the point where the first commercial compilation even made fun of a promo of the show.
• When someone (usually the villain) is being swung around in circles, an annotation says "So long, gay [villain]!" referencing Mario's fights with Bowser in Super Mario 64.
• If the show's soundtrack hits a piece that sounds like moog synthesizers or just signals, quips about Emerson, Lake & Palmer show up.

Other Running Gags

• One gag from the beeupyou days is simulating a TV station's watermark with an annotation in the lower-right corner of the video. Similarly, joke content ratings occasionally appear in the upper-left corner.
  • Returns after a fashion in Savage Dragon — the source videos have USA Network watermarks which turn into other place names, including references to other annotated shows. It's also similar in spirit to the next gag on the list.
• Annotators love to deface title cards and other screens that have prominent logos.
  • For series that include Eye Catches or Ad Bumpers, annotators reference cliffhangers in the outro bumpers and commercials in the intro bumpers.
• Gags involving use of file formats for audio or video, in the vein of "laugh_track.wav not found" and "reused_animation.gif".
• Deliberately misinterpreting song lyrics or adding them to an instrumental track.
• Annotators maintain running tallies of catchphrases or Stock Footage that happen at least Once an Episode and/or are already Memetic Mutation — such as Link's "Excuse me, princess!" or Mega Man's power-copying sequence.
• If a character has a memorable one-liner, the annotators make it a catchphrase (sometimes mildly misquoting it). ^Examples "Haha! Shocking!" from Street Fighter, "You could use a fencing lesson!" from Captain N, and "Going out with a bang!" from Sonic Underground (the latter two earning bonus points for not even making sense in context).
• "The joke is [obvious statement]." See the Ctrl+Alt+Del and Super Mario World sections for specific variations.
• Every time a character looks stoned (i.e. with droopy eyelids), someone adds some variation on "420 smoke weed everyday". If the character is also smiling or frowning, it may be "feels good/bad man" instead.
• URLs to various tropes on This Very Wiki.
• Any time a character appears to twitch due to jumpy animation causes a comment to the effect of "Oops, I'm having a seizure".
• "I am pleased by this turn of events" when a character has a happy or content expression in circumstances where it looks out of place and they really should be showing at least some concern.
  • Similarly, "Somehow I don't care" when character addresses something noteworthy in a very bored voice or expression.
• "Paused" or "Loading" annotations when the flow of events is disrupted by slow character responses or other lack of onscreen activity.
  • When a character's face is paused in this fashion, he will sometimes be made to say (in an Speech Bubble annotation) a sentence which is abruptly cut off, invoking the "I JUST" YouTube Poop fad. Other annotators might complain about "mabe_village.midi not found" afterwards.
• THE UNBREAKABLE ANNOTATION. Which always ends up broken. It finally does its job successfully by surviving Kevin's Zapper in the Captain N Season 3 Intro.
• But quite possibly the grandest, most continuing, most unabated, most returning, most tantalizingly reoccurring, most unstoppable, most—(AW SHADDUP! We'll never get started!) dynamic juggernaut of all running gags is "PULL. MY. FINGER." whenever someone points.
• "PHYSICS" — not even Video Game Physics can excuse some of the animation oddities that crop up.
• "Weapon Dickery" counts for when someone engages in Weapon Twirling and similar flourishes. Variants have included "key dickery" and "horse dickery".
• A No Fourth Wall line annotated into a character that spontaneously looks at the camera, lampshading the background events, which invariably ends addressed to the "viewers at home".
• Fake notes from the production staff point out glaring omissions, only for the staff to shirk their assignments to go drink, have sex, take drugs, or do some other leisure activity.
• When animation/script inconsistencies cause one character's mouth to move during another's lines, annotations will make the second character call out the first one.
• Fake YouTube notifications for videos removed due to copyright claims during deliberate Shout Outs. ^Example "This video has been removed due to a copyright claim by the Marx Brothers" when Sonia imitates the Mirror Routine from Duck Soup.
• Characters' anguished groans and disapproving remarks become the reactions of the annotators or a hypothetical test audience watching the show.
• Body counts show up when the heroes take out mooks. If buildings or vehicles get totaled, expect the numbers to suddenly skyrocket.
• When a vehicle crashes and explodes, the viewers are reminded to "NEVER FORGET".
• "Space for rent" on a background tapering off to a large section of solid-colored empty space. Small spaces like car interiors make good targets for this.
• "[X] makes me cross-eyed every [expletive] time!" where [X] is whatever just happened or is happening in a shot with a character's face drawn cross-eyed.
• Generally rare, but if something gets too self-aware, the annotators will claim that the show is annotating itself.
• When a character is Thinking Out Loud while hiding from someone within earshot, an annotation pops up as if that someone overheard the speaker.
• If a character stands in place to quip during immediate danger, annotations simulate the character getting hit by whatever is threatening them, or just crossing out the eyes and writing "DEAD" on the screen.
  • Similarly, every time a character is crushed by something or just collapses, an annotation displays "R.I.P [character] [year of birth]-[year of death]". It went out of bounds with Mega Man getting crushed every episode (sometimes twice).
• When a scene changes abruptly, annotators write "But enough of that", usually in large font. Sometimes this happens as a result of imperfect splicing showing only a split second of something, like with some of the commercials inserted into the main content.
• As of June 2015, stingers featuring ear rape appear to becoming one of these (with both Our Friend, Martin and SatAM Season 2 featuring them).
• When a character has a nonplussed or skeptical look in reaction to someone else, an annotation might add "dis nigga srs?"
• Faces with empty eyes (such as masks or statues) or pairs of lights that resemble eyes have pupils added through annotations, usually to make them appear cross-eyed or similarly goofy-looking.
• Since 2016, characters have become self-aware that they're being annotated and sometimes rant about the "coloured boxes" ruining their lives.
• If a scene is suggestive enough to constitute it, porn tag annotations will pop up.

Running Gags in Annowatch

• Posting dance emotes whenever music videos play.
• "Hey he said it Lois!" whenever a memetic scene plays, often followed by emotes of Peter Griffin.
• "WATCH ME SWOOCE RIGHT IN"
• "A sea monster ate me ice icream!". From a memorable rant by Scrooge McDuck that was absolutely hilarious when taken out of context.