The Simpsons is full of Running Gags, including but by no means limited to the following.
- Probably the most famous one, Homer strangling Bart.
- Springfield's exact location is never given, or even hinted at too closely.
- Sideshow Bob's appearances always include him stepping on a rake at some point, since his scene with the infamous many rakes in the episode "Cape Feare".
- Bart's prank phonecalls to Moe's Tavern.
- Someone says he or she needs to do something quick but will be back shortly and runs offscreen, with the sounds of running footsteps, doors opening and slamming, and a car starting up and speeding away.
- Krusty takes this to an extreme in "Homie the Clown", with the sound of a jet plane flying overhead following the car sound effect.
- Nelson pointing and laughing at other peoples' unfortunate mishaps.
- Homer referring to something as his lifelong dream, often only to have all his previous "lifelong dreams" listed to him.
- Mr. Burns never remembering Homer's name, Smithers responding with "Homer Simpson sir, one of your *derogatory nouns* from Sector 7-G.", and Burns continuing/ending with "Simpson, eh?".
- Helen Lovejoy saying "Won't somebody please Think of the Children!?"
- The ever changing couch gag.
- On the same vein, Bart Writing Lines on the blackboard.
- "Mmmmmmmmm, (food!...)" which changes depending on what food Homer notices at the time. It doesn't even have to be food.
- "Hi, I'm Troy McClure. You Might Remember Me from...... "
- Tragically, this gag has been forced into retirement with the passing of Phil Hartman.
- “Hi, everybody!”, "Hi, Dr. Nick!"
- All the times the show has made fun of FOX.
- Characters (primarily Homer) constantly stealing or "borrowing" things from Ned Flanders.
- Characters talking to their own brains and getting into arguments. Usually done with Homer, but the other Simpsons family members have done this, too.
- Marge once took the gag further by not just talking to her own brain, but talking to her hair as if she had multiple brains.
- If a Simpson shows kindness toward an animal, it WILL be eaten by another animal.
- If an elephant shows up in a scene, it's probably going to stick someone's head in it's mouth.
- Maggie never talks. Even in stories set in the future, some contrivance will prevent her from speaking.
- As a part of the latter, Maggie is usually depicted as being a chatterbox (IE every scene in "Lisa's Wedding" has her tying up the phone, but when we cut to Maggie we only see her roll her eyes when taken to task).
- "Treehouse of Horror V" has a gag where Groundskeeper Willie attempts to save the heroes, only to get an axe in the back. In every story. He acknowledges this in the third story as he's killed."OHH, I'm bad at this..."
- Lenny's eye being injured, followed by him exclaiming "Ow, my eye! I'm not supposed to get *object* in it!"
- Every time there is an Establishing Shot of the Power Plant, there is no music, but the sound of a distant crow cawing.
