Running Gags in this series.
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Total Drama
In General
First Generation
- Courtney repeatedly bringing up her CIT training.
- DJ accidentally injuring animals.
- Duncan having trouble hiding his secret nice side which is taken to the extreme in All-Stars where he can't stop being nice.
- Eva and her anger management outbursts.
- Harold getting pranked.
- Justin taking off his shirt.
- Izzy doing something weird or crazy and departing from the show using an improper method.
- Lindsay forgetting or mispronouncing other people's names and misunderstanding the voting process.
- Noah experiencing odd events whenever he sleeps. This includes his infamous incident with Cody, a rat falling into his mouth and Owen crushing him while asleep.
- Owen's farting and eating anything that can fit in his mouth (which is later passed on to Sugar and Ripper).
- Harold hitting himself on the head with his nun-chucks.
- Sierra's stalker-ish behavior towards Cody which is then amped up to eleven in All-Stars where he is not competing and so she starts hallucinating Cameron as Cody.
Second Generation
- Anne Maria's hair being rock-solid due to her excessive use of hairspray.
- Cameron being excited when doing something for the first time without his bubble.
- Dawn's scarily accurate aura reading and appearing out of nowhere which creeps other people out.
- Lightning's lack of intelligence, namely by struggling to spell words or to count, mistaking Jo for a boy and Cameron for a girl in Revenge of the Island, and of course adding "SHA-" in front of sentences.
- Scott having a rivalry and getting attacked by his Animal Nemesis Fang.
Third Generation
- Ella singing at inopportune times and hypnotising the local wildlife with her voice.
- Max pathetically failing at being an evil supervillain.
- Rodney falling in love with one of his female teammates after only talking to them once.
- Scarlett giving a lengthy, technical explanation of something, before having to dumb it down when others don't understand.
- Shawn being paranoid and mistaking other characters and things for zombies.
Fourth Generation
- Chase trying to catch Emma's attention in the middle of a challenge, only to end with him getting hurt either by her or his own fault.
- Damien has two: noting how unnecessarily dangerous the show's challenges are and randomly stating scientific facts regarding said challenges.
- Emma has two: Going out of her way to target and injure Chase during challenges and randomly breaking into a Happy Dance.
- Julia having one of her many phones at hand, only to either lose, throw or destroy them during challenges.
- MK stealing other contestants' belongings.
- Ripper farting and trying to break the world record for longest fart.
- Scary Girl freaking everyone out with her weird, macabre behavior and laughing.
- Zee drinking cans of orange soda which appear out of nowhere.
Island (2007)
- Bridgette and Tyler being klutzy, the former to the others' detriment and the latter to his own detriment.
- Courtney denying liking Duncan.
- Katie and Sadie being in-sync and doing everything together.
- Owen either falling off of the cliff or being pushed off after annoying other campers as well as narrating himself in the third person.
- A character mentioning a geographical inconsistency on the island, such as the presence of alligators or coconut trees.
Action
- Beth mentioning her boyfriend Brady and the other contestants thinking she made him up (Until the finale where it is proven wrong).
- Bridgette and Geoff having extremely long make-out sessions.
- Chef cross-dressing for the elimination ceremony and challenges.
- Chris has two: interrupting the show to remind the audience that Total Drama is family-friendly and reminding the contestants of the season's cash prize to motivate them to complete a challenge.
- Courtney calling her lawyers to get what she wants and have a better chance at winning the million.
- Geoff failing to impress Bridgette.
- Gwen's privacy being interrupted by either Cody, Owen, or the camera.
- Harold getting repetitively injured and also showing off a new skill that he had learned from a camp owned by a man named Steve.
- Heather desperately attempting to cover her bald head.
- Justin dramatically thinking that he became ugly every time he gets injured no matter how minor.
- Katie and Sadie fighting over Trent.
- Lindsay still thinking that Tyler is still in the game and calls out to him.
- Trent's strange and inexplicable obsession with the number 9.
- The contestants being relocated to a different location while they are asleep or knocked out when they are in the trailers.
- Truth or _______ getting renamed.
- Other contestants, especially Trent, thinking Gwen and Duncan are a couple.
- The Reunion Special has its own Running Gags
- DJ's mother slapping people.
- Ezekiel trying to rap or speaking in slang in attempt to kickstart his rapping kickstart.
- Gwen getting teased for having feelings for Duncan.
- The janitor having problems trying to fix the Drama Machine.
- Josh's interest in catfights.
- Sierra having trouble interviewing the contestants.
World Tour
- Chris making the contestants sing at inconvenient times and declaring a non or fake elimination episode on his own terms.
- Chris stating wrong or mispronounced information on the current area. He also speaks the national language of the country they are in either wrong or in a bad accent.
- DJ accidentally hurting animals thanks to an Egyptian curse as well as trying to get himself voted off because of said curse.
- Heather and Alejandro denying their attraction for each other.
- Lindsay failing to remember Tyler at all despite competing this time, contrasting Action, until "Slap Slap Revolution".
- Owen hurting Noah on accident.
- Sierra has four: stalking Cody, stealing his personal belongings, telling the other contestants personal information about him and Chris and fighting with animals, often over Cody or to protect him.
- Tyler getting injured in almost every episode he appears in.
- A contestant suffering a certain form of mishap (Usually being pushed or thrown out of the plane) while taking the Drop of Shame. The only one to perform the Drop of Shame correctly is Noah.
- A contestant barging into the confessional while another is using it.
Revenge of the Island
- Anne Maria's hair being solid and indestructible to the point of becoming a Human Shield.
- Cameron gets a twofer: Being excited to do something for the first time and struggling to carry heavy items.
- Dakota's paid paparazzi entourage appearing to take her picture and then promptly shooed out by Chris.
- Dawn reading other contestants' auras to reveal their sensitive information and popping out of nowhere without warning, both scaring the heck out of them.
- Lightning thinking Jo and Cameron are the opposite gender.
- Sam's addiction to gaming and trying to implement these skills to challenges.
- Scott getting hurt in the confessionals.
- Staci's constant lying about her ancestors.
- Zoey worrying that she didn't make a good impression on others.
All-Stars
- Alejandrohand walking to pretend his legs are still asleep and to lower everyone's guard.
- Chris being a bad roommate during his stay at the McLean Spa Hotel.
- Duncan unable to stop acting as a nice person and is frequently mistaken for a hero. He denies it once he realizes what he is doing.
- Gwen accidentally injuring Courtney while trying to apologize to her, making other people such as Chris commending her for being "evil" or thinking she is doing this on purpose.
- Sam getting attacked by animals.
- Scott being unimpressed with challenges which causes Chris to make them more dangerous and painful and therefore exciting.
- Sierra constantly mentioning Cody who isn't competing in the season to the point she starts hallucinating and calling Cameron as Cody or "Cam-ody".
- Chris catapulting people away on the "Hurl of Shame" before they can finish what they want to say.
Pahkitew Island
- Chris producing some kind of disgusting fast food as a reward.
- Dave's germaphobic behavior and later obsession with Sky slowly making him go insane.
- Ella spontaneously singing at inappropriate times. This actually got her into trouble and eventually caused her elimination when Chris banned her from singing.
- Jasmine's height and strength intimidating others or giving them problems.
- Leonard believing he is a real wizard with magic powers.
- Max trying to prove how evil he is to little or no success.
- Rodney falling in love with his female teammates and them being completely unaware of his attraction due to him Cannot Spit It Out.
- Scarlett explaining something with excessive scientific language before giving a summarized version when others don't understand her.
- Shawn's paranoia and mistaking of others for zombies.
- Sugar's disgusting eating habits.
- Topher fawning over Chris and/or making comments to Chris about his age or being old.
- Scuba Bear changing his gimmick and the contestants pointing out the new additions to his look.
- Someone realizing something is odd about Pahkitew Island, such as the disappearances of some geographical landmarks.
Island (2023) Part 1
- Chase desperately wooing and failing to win Emma back.
- Emma obsessively trying to and sometimes successfully injuring Chase.
- Millie writing in her notebook whenever somebody does something weird or idiotic in front of her.
- Priya accidentally hurting Millie while trying to train her.
- Wayne subtly encouraging Raj to come out and has several miscalls due to the latter's obliviousness.
- Zee mysteriously having a can of orange soda at hand, often in between cuts as well telling tall tales about how he "lost" his leg.
Island (2023) Part 2
- Priya swooning all over Caleb,
- Bowie being torn between cheating or his relationship with Raj.
- Nichelle bragging about how good she is or how things would be in a movie.
- Millie bringing up how she never read the guide book.
- Zee trying not to slip out Priya's crush on Caleb, doubling how much soda he drinks.
- Ripper and Axel making out.
- Priya and Caleb's relationship.
- The alliance and friendship between MK and Julia.
