Duplicate Trope: Delayed Reaction

Groo the Wanderer

• Groo the Wanderer.
  "What did he mean, "slow of mind?"
  • In one extreme case, he utters this phrase in response to a childhood flashback.

• Used as a Running Gag in Groo the Wanderer
  Someone: Groo, you can not understand this, since you are slow of mind.
  Groo: [pages later] ...What he mean "slow of mind"?

Calvin And Hobbes

• Calvin and Hobbes featured a couple of these:
  Calvin: [looking through some playing cards] What the...?? I'm not playing with a full deck!
  Hobbes: That's what people say.
  Calvin: Really? Then why didn't somebody buy some new cards?!
  [That night, in bed]
  Calvin: Hey!!
  • Another strip that's very similar to the above as well.
  Calvin: [looking under a chair] I've lost my marbles!
  Hobbes: Everyone suspected as much.
  Calvin: Well I sure hope somebody finds them.
  [That night, in bed]
  Calvin: Hey!

• In two consecutive strips of Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin remarks that he's "Not playing with a full deck [of cards]" and that he's "Lost his marbles [and hopes someone finds them]," to which Hobbes replies, "Everyone suspected as much." It is at night, in bed, when Calvin sits up and yells "HEY!"

Mystery Team

• Taken to the limit in Mystery Team. One character states that their sign reads "Lost kitten finding purrrrrfessionals", in which Charlie exclaims he finally gets the joke... Eleven years later.

• Charlie in Mystery Team. He is the last person to connect the dots, attacks Jason ten seconds after realizing it was him, and understands a pun the group made eleven years prior.

Star Trek Generations

• In the Star Trek: Generations movie, Data had recently gotten upgraded to feel more realistic human emotions and starts laughing almost hysterically out of nowhere.
  Data: I get it!
  Geordi La Forge: You get what?
  Data: When you said to Commander Riker, "The clown can stay, but the Ferengi in the gorilla suit has to go." Ha ha ha!
  Geordi La Forge: What are you talking about?
  Data: During the Farpoint mission. We were on the bridge. You told a joke. That was the punch line.
  Geordi La Forge: The Farpoint— Data, that was seven years ago.
  Data: I know. I just got it. Ha ha ha! Very funny.

• Also from TNG, Star Trek: Generations has Data first use his emotion chip, which sets off the galaxy's biggest delayed reaction ever as he finally understands a joke Geordi made seven years earlier.

Monty Pythons Flying Circus

• In a Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch a police inspector introduces himself as "Lookout of the Yard" (as in Scotland Yard), to which another character replies by asking what they would see. Lookout is completely baffled by the comment and the sketch continues. A few lines later, he begins laughing inexplicably and it soon becomes apparent that he has got the joke.

• Appears in a Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch involving a series of police inspectors with strange names. When one introduces himself as "Lookout, of the Yard," one of the other characters asks "What will we see?" The inspector starts laughing about 30 seconds later, as he finally gets the joke, when he's in the middle of talking about the murder case.

Father Ted

• Father Ted: usually Dougal being very, very slow to get a joke, naturally enough.
  • The best example doesn't use an actual joke at all, but a highly noticeable recurring event...
    Dougal: Those women were in the nip!

• Father Ted has several examples.
  • From "Speed 3", Dougal has taken over as milkman after Ted gets Kavorka Man Pat Mustard sacked. The housewives on Mustard's route, still expecting Mustard, answer the door nude when Dougal comes knocking, but Dougal seems completely oblivious to this as he delivers the milk. At the very end of the episode, he suddenly sits bolt upright in bed and shouts, "THOSE WOMEN WERE IN THE NIP!!!"

Friends

• Also a common trope in Friends, often played out by Joey, frequently accompanied by Chandler making a witty one-liner at Joey's expense.

• Friends: This is almost a Running Gag with Joey, who has several of these throughout the series.

  [Joey, in deep thought, can't yet put together that the sex tape in Richard's apartment labeled "Monica" is probably referring to their friend]
  Chandler: GET THERE FASTER!

F Troop

• One of the many Running Gags in F Troop involved Cpl. Agarn making a snide comment about their current situation, like "It's a shame we can't get someone to sing in his place." The other person, realizing that this is actually a good idea, says "Agarn, I don't know why everyone says you're so dumb!" Later, usually after the next scene change, Agarn suddenly shouts "Who says I'm dumb?"

• Done more than once on F Troop, with O'Rourke's comment to Agarn "I don't know why people say you're so dumb", followed up several minutes/scenes later with Agarn's "Who says I'm dumb?!"

Arthur King Of Time And Space

• Arthur, King of Time and Space: Arthur doesn't get this gag until the next strip.

• Seen in this Arthur, King of Time and Space strip. No, sorry, this one.

Schlock Mercenary

• At one point in Schlock Mercenary, the audience see's Doyt's thoughts right after the Doctor insults him, along with a footnote that explains he's only just getting the insult from yesterday's comic.

• Doyt in Schlock Mercenary does this to a dig at his intelligence.
  Doyt: Severe [brain damage] as in stupid? Or severe as in dead?
  Haban: Doyt, considering the fact it would be hard for a copy of you to get any stupider, I'd have to say "dead".
  Doyt: [later that night] Hey...

George Of The Jungle

• George of the Jungle
  • In the "Dr. Chicago" episode, George announces to the Commissioner that ants on a railroad, "Steal track!" The Commissioner, misunderstanding, answers: "Yes, George — steel track. That's what makes the train run so smoothly." Shortly before the end of the episode, George bursts out laughing, and the Commissioner asks, irritably: "What's so funny?" George answers: "Steal track! Steel track!"
  • In another episode he's been caught in a snare by poachers who mean to leave him there. He comments "It pretty chicken thing to do to King of Jungle!" A poacher replies "If there be one thing I like, it be 'Chicken a la King'!" A few scenes later, back home, George starts laughing "Ho ho! Chicken a la King!"

• George of the Jungle: More than once, George would suddenly laugh at a joke he'd heard minutes, maybe hours, before.

The Simpsons

• "I am not slow!" That line was from when Homer and his friends were reunited for a night of poker. At some point, one of them told another one not to yell at Homer just because Homer was slow. Homer's brain then stopped to process the fact something mean was said about him. At first, he recalled the "don't yell at Homer" part but figured out that was nice. By the time Homer figured out he was called slow, the other guests had already left and the host was helping himself to a midnight snack.

• Homer's workmates call him "a little slow" on poker night in one episode. By the time Homer responds "How dare you call me that?!", it's hours later, and Lenny is in his nightshirt and cap when Homer finally asks about it, prompting him to say "Boy, you are slow!" Which then causes Homer to go through the exact same thought process again until Lenny tells him to leave.

  Homer: [thinking] Something said. Not good.
  Lenny: Get the hell out of here!