Whenever Letter Writing is played, Tim and his guest will almost certainly end up having to pause because they're laughing so hard.
Humph's "tributes" to Lionel Blair while introducing Sound Charades often cause panelists to corpse — Sandi Toksvig's helpless laughter in an early 2002 episode led to one full minute of uninterrupted audience laughter going out over the air. In 2001, another Sound Charades intro left Phill Jupitus plaintively asking for Humph and the others to wait while he composed himself.
Even Humph himself was not always immune; he was unable to keep a straight face when announcing that Jeremy Hardy was going to have to accompany Morrissey and the Smiths (singing "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now") in a round of Pick-up Song.
Willie Rushton, one of the four regulars on the show since the 1970s, passed away in December 1996 due to complications from heart surgery. Since then, his spot has been filled by a guest for each episode.
Humphrey Lyttleton sadly passed away in early 2008. The show was very nearly cancelled afterwards until they went with a series of guest hosts, then settled with Jack Dee as host.
Tim Brooke-Taylor passed away from the Coronavirus in 2020 and Barry Cryer passed away in 2022.
Flip-Flop of God: There have been several different explanations for how they came up with Mornington Crescent. Humph once claimed that the panellists invented it in order to annoy a producer they disliked, former producer Geoffrey Perkins has been credited with it, whilst Barry Cryer said it was not an original idea to the show and it had been around since the sixties. (Barry's account is probably right, because a similar non-game called "Finchley Central" is described in mathematical magazine Manifold in 1969.)
Willie Rushton died in December 1996, only a week after his final recording of the show. His final episode was aired three days after his death, and was prefaced with an introduction from his friend Ned Sherrin.
Humphrey Lyttelton passed away on 25 April 2008. A repeat of a classic episode was inserted in tribute two days later, and Radio 4 later dedicated an entire day of programming to him on 15 June 2008, followed by a further run of classic repeats over the summer.
Tim Brooke-Taylor died during the coronavirus pandemic in April 2020. Two episodes of the series originally planned to be broadcast in May and June of that year had already been recorded, and were postponed until November out of respect for him; they were replaced with a tribute programme presented by Graeme Garden and classic compilation shows. The Autumn 2020 series was made up of the two aforementioned episodes (the first preceded by an introduction from Jack Dee dedicating the broadcast to Tim and thanking his widow, Christine, for giving permission for the shows to be aired) and four remotely recorded episodes with all the panellists contributing from home.
Owing to the nature of the programme's CD releases (each release contains four compilations rather than whole episodes), the only episodes that are commercially available in their entirety are the two Christmas specials. Some attempt seems to be made at rectifying this with the new "Live" range, which does release uncut recordings.
In a case of literalKeep Circulating the Tapes, whole episodes (but still without Pick-Up Song) were released on audio tape in the '90s.
Humphrey was initially a rotating chairman with Barry Cryer, he took over sole duties in the second series whilst Barry became a team member.
After serving as a rotating host with Humph in series one,note Humph was the first and only choice for chairman, but was unable to make all the recording dates for the first series Barry Cryer replaced Bill Oddie as Graeme's teammate from series two onwards.
After being a guest host when Humph passed away, Jack Dee was eventually made the full-time host in 2009.
Recycled Script: There are several cases of identical versions of One Songs to the Tune of Another appearing several years apart (Barry Cryer sang the Bob the Builder theme to the tune of "The Girl from Ipanema" in episodes from 2005 and 2016, and Marcus Brigstocke and John Finnemore sang "Common People" to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It" in 2011 and 2018), the same songs being used for Pick-Up Song and Swanee-Kazoo, and Sound Charades being reused word-for-word.
Screwed by the Lawyers: The "Pick-Up Song" round was excluded from any of the CD releases due to the cost of licensing the recordings for a long time. It finally appeared for the first time on the second Live release, and has since made its way into some of the compilation releases. (This trope also appears to have resulted in the round being temporarily rested for the episodes produced during the COVID-19 pandemic with virtual audiences, as it would involve playing the songs on a live-streamed event.)
Humph would occasionally misread something, and the improvisation by the panellists in response to this would usually be thrown in.
In another episode, Jack misread "Tobacconist's Film Club" as "Tobogganist's Film Club", before Graeme pointed out his mistake. The round turned into a mix of smoking puns and winter sports puns.
The sound once dropped significantly in the middle of a joke. Jack asked "Did the sound just drop then, on that?", and got answers of "Yes" from the panel and some of the audience.
During a round of Sound Charades in one of the 2020 lockdown episodes, Rachel Parris' computer crashes in the middle of her, Marcus Brigstocke and Miles Jupp performing a charade. The entire back and forth between the panel and producer Jon Naismith as they try to troubleshoot the problem is kept in.
[A long silence where Rachel's line should be, followed by murmurs from some of the panellists as they realise something's gone wrong]
Marcus: ...Have we lost Rachel?
Rory Bremner: I thought Rachel was next to you!note Rachel and Marcus are married to each other
Marcus: Yes, but we're not sharing a microphone!
Miles: I'm going to stay in character whilst you find her!
Marcus: Hold on a minute... [shouting away from his microphone] Rach! Where've you gone?
Jack Dee: I think I've guessed it, is it I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue?
Marcus: So, the news is, erm, her laptop's crapped out... no, no, no, it's alright, she's just putting some petrol in it and turning the crank, hopefully it'll start up again...
Jon: Marcus, do you think you and Miles could complete this, with you doing both lines?
Marcus: Yes, I would think so! Yep.
Jon: Erm, you can take it from the top, maybe...
Miles: Oh, I think we should carry on, and halfway through one of the characters unexplainedly dies.
In another lockdown episode, Harry Hill's round in "One Song to the Tune of Another" is interrupted by his daughter trying to text him.
What Could Have Been: Due to Humph's unfortunate death, the regular trio of Graeme, Barry and Tim were unsure if they wanted to continue, as were the producers. They eventually agreed to return for a series of guest hosts, then signed on again when Jack Dee was chosen as host over Stephen Fry and Rob Brydon.
is an attempt to construct an actual, playable version of "Mornington Crescent".