Strange Minds Think Alike / Western Animation

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• The Amazing World of Gumball: In an episode , Richard and Mr. Robinson get each other placed under house arrest. This leads to them both seeming like they're doing a Two Scenes, One Dialogue explanation of what happened, but it was then shown that they were both too busy plotting their revenge to use full sentences.
• American Dad!:
  • In one episode, Stan is offered a helicopter as a reward for completing a mission. Bullock mentions offhandedly that Leonardo Da Vinci, in his early diagrams referred to his hypothetical device as an "aerial screw". Later, Stan is talking to Roger and shows him a picture of his helicopter, to which Roger says, "An aerial screw?"
  • In another episode, Stan gets past the security checkpoint on the Fox studio lot by claiming to be Kristen Johnson. Later, when he breaks into the set of Francine's sitcom, the director asks who he is and Roger responds "I dunno, Kristen Johnson."
  • In "A Smith in the Hand," Francine goes to get plastic surgery done. The surgeon offers a number of weird procedures, including one where he would combine both of her breasts into a single huge one. When she refuses, he sighs and says no one goes for "The Superboob." Later when she goes home with Botox injections, Klaus says "Why didn't you tell me you were getting work done? I'd gladly have gone halfsies on the Superboob!"
  • In "Camp Refoogee", Francine is growing a garden. Klaus says she should plant some...whatever they're called in English...Hitlermelons? Later, Stan is in a refugee camp (which he is trying to treat as a summer camp)
    Villager: Is it food?
    Stan: Better.
    Villager: Malaria pills?
    Stan: Better. [opens a box of tetherballs]
    Villager: They look like fruit.
    Woman: Are they Hitlermelons?
  • In "Black Mystery Month", Stan tells Steve that when little boys don't get enough sleep, their groins emit a sweet berry scent that attracts pedophiles. Later, Steve runs into a security guard who sniffs the air and says "Mmm, sweet berries...hey champ, did you get enough sleep last night?"
• Animaniacs: There was an episode where Dr. Scratchansniff is on a date at the movies when Yakko, Wakko, and Dot end up tagging along. Scratchansniff is sent to buy popcorn, and the guy at the counter asks "Would you like fries with that?" The doctor's response is to boggle at this question because no one orders french fries with popcorn. Of course, the Warners and Scratchansniff's date all ask if he got fries with the popcorn.
• Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Shake tries to get the rights to re-make The Granite Family and, through a long series of barely-related events, ends up starting a nuclear war with Russia. As Ignignokt watches the missiles detonate from the moon, he says:
  Ignignokt: Look, Err, they're re-making the Granite Family.
  Sam: Oh my god, is that a monkey thought translator?
• Archer:
  • In the pilot, Malory is lecturing Sterling on his irresponsible use of company expense accounts:
    Malory: ISIS isn't your personal travel agency! It doesn't exist just so you can jet off to...Whore Island!
    Archer: That's...not really a place.
    [In "Job Offer", eight episodes later]
    Malory: Did you freeze all his accounts?
    Cheryl: Yes, including the one in the Isle of Man. Oh my God, is that like Whore Island but for women?
    Pam: No.
  • Further proving how much Archer loves its Call-Back and Brick Joke humor, later in the pilot, Malory hits Archer over the head with her purse, and he exclaims "What do you keep in there, buckles?" In Season 2, Episode 11 Gilette disguises himself as Malory as part of a plan. He ends up knocking someone unconscious with her purse and says, "What does she keep in here, buckles?"
  • Also in "Jeu Monegasque," Gilette and Archer are talking about how Archer doesn't generally gamble. Archer mentions he had a bad experience...cut to Archer at about eight years old, playing blackjack with Malory for Halloween candy and losing. He's dressed as Charlie Chaplin, but when it cuts back to the present Archer mutters, "...why was I dressed as Hitler?" Later, Lana and Malory show up and Lana mentions that she's never seen Archer "drunk drunk," to which Malory replies that she has and remembers the same Halloween (Archer is throwing up because he, as an eight year old child, obviously couldn't hold his liquor). Malory then wonders "...why was he dressed as Hitler?"
  • Everyone on the show is equally concerned with the danger of getting ants in the office.
  • In one mission, Archer's cell phone (complete with obnoxious ringtone) goes off in the middle of a mission, risking alerting the guards. But it turns out it's okay because one of the guards has the exact same ringtone and just answers his own phone without realizing anything is amiss.
  • "Lo Scandalo" has the running gag of characters thinking that Italy "uses" a king.
  • In "Space Race," one of the mutineers is trying to break into the shuttle but can't, remarking that the door is "apparently some kind of alloy between adamantium and mithril" and when asked what's taking so long, replies "dwarven technology." Later, Barry tries to break through the same door, but can't because "Who built this? Space dwarves?"
  • From "Live and Let Dine": Lana: "What is this, Spain?" Cheryl: "What is this, Spain? I mean, the 1930s?" Malory: "What is this, Spain in the 1930s?"
• Arthur:
  • In the episode "The Chips are Down", after DW ate a green potato chip which Arthur and Buster were sorting out, the two try to trick her into confessing by saying the green chip is poisonous. Later, DW asks Timmy and Tommy what they know about green potato chips and they respond, "you mean the poison ones?" She faints before knowing Binky ate one too. This is based in truth, however. The green spots on a potato contain solanine and chaconine, both glycoalkaloid toxins. Deep frying tends to leach these toxins out of the potato, and it would take a fairly excessive number of green chips to make one ill.
  • In "The Blizzard" episode, Brain and his family are staying at Prunella's house due to the storm. Using an Ouija Board, Prunella predicts that "there will be much more snow, and you'll meet a tall, dark stranger". The Brain thinks she's being absolutely ridiculous and turns on the radio for an "expert" opinion. Cue the weatherman saying the exact same thing (also using an Ouija Board), to Brain's disbelief and Prunella's smug delight.
• Batman: The Animated Series: In "Almost Got 'im", Croc's master plan to defeat Batman was to throw a rock at him. A big rock. Later on, in "Trial" this is his suggestion for Batman's sentence, which would be a case of The All-Solving Hammer, except it wasn't really Croc in Almost Got 'Im, but Batman in disguise. Batman might have been recalling the events of "Sideshow", though that episode was aired much later than Almost Got 'Im.
• Big Hero 6: The Series: Fred and Krei both describe the monster that attacks them in "Big Problem" in this manner (which all the other characters agree is an accurate description, somehow):
  Fred/Krei: It was like if you put a whale and a dinosaur and some hair into a blender, then poured that into a human-shaped ice tray and froze it, then let it thaw a little.
• Bob's Burgers: In "Bob And Deliver", Gene is surprised at how quickly Zeke picks up on his made-up Hash House Lingo, even when Gene practically admits he was making it up as he goes along.
  Gene: Gimme a bald Kelly Ripa in a canoe with a brick!
  Zeke: Chicken taco, no sour cream, plus a brownie. You got it!
  Gene: Really? I didn't even know what I meant.
• The Boondocks: In an episode, Granddad has gotten inadvertently beaten by a blind man. Riley jokingly comments that he could rent Granddad out for Mexican birthday parties, under the name "Señor Pinata". Later, when Granddad is watching the news, shocked to find out that the blind man (Cl. Stinkmeaner) beating him has managed to become a news story, a Spanish-language news station covering the story dubs him "Señor Pinata".
• Captain Planet and the Planeteers: In "Bug Off", we see Verminous Skumm working in his lab, humming "I've Been Working on the Railroad" to himself. Later on in the episode, Captain Planet is singing his own version of the song — while tearing apart Skumm's lab, no less!
• Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers: In the pilot, Monty takes Chip and Dale to meet with Geegaw Hackwrench, and they encounter a series of deadly booby traps. Monty assures them (rather weakly) that they're not intended for him ("He couldn't still be holding a grudge, could he?") and are probably for something else: "Maybe he has a thing about door-to-door salesmen." When they actually meet with Geegaw's daughter Gadget, her first response (with pencil crossbow to their heads) is "You're not door-to-door salesmen, are you? That's why I set up all these traps in the first place."
• Chowder: In the episode "Brain Grub", Chowder stops paying attention at one point while Mung is lecturing him and has a daydream about filling the kitchen with chocolate pudding and swimming around in it. After Mung snaps him out of his fantasy and asks him to repeat what he was telling him about, Chowder pitches the idea to Mung, who responds with "...lucky guess."
• Clerks: The Animated Series: Randal is afraid a monkey is going to spread a fatal disease, and threatens it. The monkey's response is to start masturbating, which Randal claims is out of fear. Shortly after, someone walks in and says "Oh dear, something scared that monkey!" In the same episode, Dante tries to convince two different people that the Motaba virus was just a figment of Randal's imagination. He says the rumors are the result of "an overactive imagination of a pop culture junkie loudmouth." Both people he says this to respond with "You mean Quentin Tarantino?"
• Codename: Kids Next Door: Two examples. The first one, which plays it straight, starts when Numbuh 1 and Numbuh 2 suspect bras to be deadly weapons named Battle Ready Armor, which Cree and Numbuh 5 deny. Later in the episode, it turns out to be exactly what Numbuh 1 and Numbuh 2 thought it would be. Now, the second example is a LITERAL example — the DCFDTL literally think alike.
  • In both promotional videos for the Galactic Kids Next Door sequel, both Numbuh 74.239 and Numbuh Vine/Lizzie remark that their human disguises were malfunctioning, independently asking if "Numbuh Moron" was in charge of the tech department while they were on Earth.
• The Critic: In an episode, during a Scrabble Babble moment, Duke invents the word "Quzybuk" (meaning, "a big problem") which he pays Webster to add that word in the dictionary. Later, a research scientist uses that newly invented word.
• Dan Vs.: In "Elise's Parents," Dan tries to get Elise's parents arrested by editing a conversation with them to make it sound like they're in the mafia, ending with Don threatening to "cupcake" the local crime syndicate. Dan explains to the cops that "cupcake" is mafia slang for "kill." Later in the episode, Dan overhears the actual mafia boss use the term in exactly that way.
• Darkstalkers: Several characters see Rikuo the merman and say, "You're strangely attractive for a fishman" or some permutation thereof.
• Darkwing Duck:
  • In "Time and Punishment", Future Launchpad says to Gosalyn upon meeting her again, "D.W. always said junk food would stunt your growth, but I thought you'd be a little taller". Later, when Gosalyn tells Darkwarrior Duck that he never asked why she hasn't grown, he replies "I assumed it was the junk food".
  • In "Just Us Justice Ducks" whenever a non-verbal animal tried to tell the talking characters something, no matter what the animal was trying to say, the talking character thought it was saying "Someone fell into Devil's Gorge and has a compound fracture of the lower mandible."
• Drawn Together: In the episode "A Very Special Drawn Together Afterschool Special", Xandir's first attempt to roleplay his coming-out to his parents goes wrong when Captain Hero and Toot, roleplaying as his parents, respond to his confession with a sarcastic "Duh!" At the end of the episode, when he confesses to his real parents that he's gay, they respond with the same sarcastic "Duh!" that Captain Hero and Toot made.
• DC Super Hero Girls (2019): When Jessica is in a tribunal, she submits a report the size of a small novel, and asks if Kilowog and the Guardians of the Universe ever read it. They hesitantly reply that they did, and found it "very... wordy".
• DuckTales (2017):
  • As a Take That! to the way their previous incarnations were portrayed as Single-Minded Triplets, Lena sarcastically asks if Huey, Dewie, and Louie Speak in Unison. They deny it... by saying exactly the same thing. They then remark about how weird that was... by saying exactly the same thing. Frustrated, they try to break it. Even when the result being as expected is already strange (and funny) enough, what really hits the nail on the head is the fact the word all three choose happens to literally be one of the longest and most complicated in the English language!
    Huey, Dewie, and Louie, simultaneously: Antidisestablishmentarianism! Seriously?! GAH!
  • Sky Pirate Don Karnage puts on a Paper-Thin Disguise consisting of a white lab coat over his regular outfit and a caterpillar as a mustache and introduces himself as a "plant scientist," fooling only Cloud Cuckoo Lander Launchpad. When he comes across the other sky pirates, one of them immediately asks "Who be you, some sort of plant scientist?"
• Ed, Edd n Eddy:
  • In "Dueling Eds", Eddy accidentally offends Rolf, and while Edd tries to convince Eddy to apologize, Ed randomly suggests, "Why don't you bake cupcakes?". Later, Eddy further provokes Rolf, to the point that Rolf challenges him to a fish-slapping duel, and after getting slapped around a bit Eddy finally admits he's sorry, to which Rolf responds "If this is true, have you brought the Cupcakes of Sorriness?"
  • Rolf is apparently ripe for these kinds of moments. In "Cry Ed", Ed fabricates an impromptu account of Eddy's fake injuries to back up his Wounded Gazelle Gambit, wherein Eddy is attacked by "a giant Swedish meatball with a bloodcurdling scream". Rolf then states he has seen this meatball, as it apparently stalks his pig Wilfred in the dead of night.
  • In "Ed O-Eleven", when Edd is having trouble figuring out the meaning to a treasure map left by Eddy's older brother, Ed is the one to figure out that Eddy's head is the missing key with his ear as the X. When asked how he knew what Eddy's brother was thinking, Ed answers that it's because they're both brothers.
• The Emperor's New School: An episode had an ancient scroll from Kuzco's great-great-grandfather, which could only be deciphered by "removing the most and least important letters in the alphabet". Kuzco egotistically insists that "the most important letter is 'I', as in me, and the least important is 'U', as in not me"... which is actually the answer!
• The Fairly OddParents!: Done constantly, especially by Timmy's Dad.
  Timmy: Mom, don't ask why, but I have to stick this butterfly net up Dad's leg!
  Timmy's Mom: Oh! Is it Father's Day already?
  [later]
  Timmy's Dad: Let's go celebrate Father's Day at home, son! [notices net] Ooh, goody! You've got the net!
  • From the same episode, when Timmy also puts his school's principal in a butterfly net, she asks if it's Teacher Day already.
  • The show pretty much relies on this trope as one of the ways to hit its jokes on the head with a hammer over and over. In one episode when Timmy is writing a love letter to Trixie, Cosmo advises Timmy to write if Trixie wants to see her parents again....shortly after that, Timmy's parents arrive and fondly remember using that line to have their first date together.
  • In that same episode the parents of the kids have a certain way of entering their kids' rooms ("<Name>, I'm respecting your privacy by knocking but asserting my authority as parent by coming in anyway!"), and Timmy and Veronica each separately says his/her love "burns with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns".
• Family Guy:
  • Subverted when the Griffins go on Family Feud, and Peter has to name "something you'd like to receive as a gift". The other Griffins all agree that "money" is the best answer that hasn't already been given, but...
    Peter: Well, Richard, my family seems to think "money" is the way to go, so I'm going to go with "the flute Captain Picard played first in his imagination and then in real life in the episode 'The Inner Light' from Star Trek: The Next Generation."
    Lois: What?! No! You idiot, we said "money"!
    Richard: Show me Picard's flute!
    ["Picard's Flute" appears on the board]
    Lois: Peter, how did you—
    Peter: I was in the survey.

  However, in the actual Family Feud, a response won't show up on the board unless at least two people in the survey had given it, so unless Peter stuffed the ballot box, this might be a Double Subversion.

  • Invoked in another episode: Peter has taken over his father-in-law's company and refuses to give it back. When Lois and her father plot to oust him, she says "To beat an idiot, you have to think like an idiot!" They both conclude that they need to scare him with a swamp monster costume. Not only does it work perfectly, but Dr. House had the exact same idea.
  • There's also the episode where Lois drags the family into spring cleaning, which brings simultaneous remarks of annoyance from Peter, Brian, Chris, and Meg where they repeatedly say the exact same thing. Up to and including "Ruth Bader Ginsberg!"
  • In "Burning Down the Bayit", Peter gets the idea to have a camel wearing his clothes fill in for him at home while he, Quagmire and Mort burn down Mort's pharmacy to collect on his insurance. As it turns out Lois had the same idea and had a donkey fill in for her while she went out clubbing.
• Futurama:
  • In one episode Fry inadvertently brings back the common cold, which, due to people losing their immunity, creates a plague throughout New New York. At a meeting with President Nixon, Zapp Brannigan suggests Protocol 62, which Nixon shoots down, saying "Impossible, we don't have nearly enough piranhas!". Brannigan instead decides on Protocol 63, which involves sealing all of Manhattan in a dome, pulling it off the planet, and launching it towards the sun. When he realizes what's happening, Zoidberg remarks, "They must have been out of piranhas!"
  • From "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings:"
    Hedonismbot: Ah Fry, congratulations. Your latest performance was as delectable as dipping my bottom over and over into a bath of the silkiest oils and creams!
    Fry: Thank you, sir. That's exactly what I was going for!
  • In "Bendin' In the Wind," Bender, confronted with a Hippie Van, asks, "What's that? One of those Led Zeppelins I’ve heard so much about?" Fry acquires the van and brings it to work, prompting Leela to repeat the phrase nearly verbatim, instead wondering if it's one of those "Jefferson Starships."
  • In The Beast With a Billion Backs, Farnsworth informs Bender that Yivo, who uses "shklee/shkler" pronouns, would "shkluffocate" if shklee entered our universe. Later in the film, Yivo uses the word "shkluffocate" to describe the exact same thing.
  • Into the Wild Green Yonder has Bender asking Fry if he can borrow his "cell phone telephone" to make a "cell phone telephone call." A few scenes later, Leela is informed that Fry has started working for the people she and her feminist group are protesting against behind her back.
    Leela: The Fry I know wouldn't do that. I'm gonna call his cell phone telephone and prove you wrong!
  • In "A Farewell to Arms" Bender has been out looting and asks Fry if he'd like a Torah, to which Fry says, "No thanks, I'm not hungry." A deleted line of dialogue from the animatic makes it clear that Bender was in fact assuming he would eat it.
  • In "Murder on the Planet Express" after the crew pulls a Let's Split Up, Gang!, this becomes a Running Gag:
    Fry: Fry and Bender: a winning combination!

Bender: Let's call ourselves "Frender"!
...
Leela: Leela and Amy: a winning combination!
Amy: Yay Lamy!
...
Zoidberg: This is a job for Hermberg!

• In "I, Roommate", Farnsworth is looking around for his 29-million-year-old mummy of an alien emperor when Fry walks in cheerfully eating what he thinks is a stick of jerky.
  Farnsworth: My God, this is an outrage! I was going to eat that mummy!

• Gravity Falls: In "Irrational Treasure", Mabel works with her brother Dipper to solve a conspiracy, only for her repeated goofiness to reveal each clue's meaning. It ultimately turns out that this is because the person who set the clues is just as much of a Cloud Cuckoolander as she is.
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: In "Sister Grim", when trying to shoo away a gaggle of acolyte nuns following him thanks to a Coincidental Accidental Disguise, Grim describes himself as "The exact opposite of a nun." Later, once he's decided to live with the nuns, and Billy and Mandy come looking for him, Billy says that Grim's "The exact opposite of a nun."
• Hey Arnold!: Used a lot.
  • In "Downtown as Fruits", Arnold and Gerald say "Boy, people downtown sure are friendly" when they receive a bag full of cash. They later give the rest to a family stranded with a broken-down car, who then say the same thing. And of course, the fact that the bank robbers the heisted money was actually meant for had also dressed as a banana and strawberry.
  • In another episode, Harold fears that someone will call him a "fruitcup" and a "sissy-boned fatboy." Arnold thinks this is ridiculous, but later in the episode, Wolfgang calls Harold those same two incredibly specific insults.
• House of Mouse: At the beginning of the short "Mickey's Remedy", Donald's nephews play "space probe" on their uncle with an egg beater. When Donald goes to Mickey about the incident, Donald takes out the egg beater and Mickey says "Oh, space probe."
• Invader Zim: In the Halloween episode, Zim can only watch in frustration as the nightmare version of Membrane hauls Dib back to headquarters. "Oh, come on! I break free and now I have to go back to rescue that little rat that left Zim to rot? Why must it be?" Later after doing just that, Dib remarks at the angry expression on Zim's face: "Oh, come on! You're not mad about the whole 'leaving you to rot' thing, are you?"
• Invincible: In the second episode, both Eve and Allen, completely independent of each other, react to Mark's superhero name Invincible by saying that it's "Being optimistic."
• Jimmy Two-Shoes:
  • In one episode, when a ghost wakes Beezy up, he mutters "I've got to stop falling asleep to Ghoul FM." Later, his father is woken up the same manner, and he mutters the same line.
  • In another, when Beezy dresses up in a chicken suit, Lucius complains that he's not causing misery like he told him. Beezy replies "Misery? You told me to cause anguish." "Anguish? That's barely worse than worry". Later, when Grandpa Heinous is unfrozen, he complains about how his son isn't causing any real misery. Lucius points out the anguish on his worker's faces, but Grandpa replies with "Anguish? That's barely worse than worry!".
• Kim Possible: Happens occasionally with Kim with Ron and Shego with Drakken:
  Shego: I don't get it. If you're such an evil genius, shouldn't you invent your own stuff? I mean, what's up with the stealing?
  Drakken: It's called outsourcing, Shego. Besides, why reinvent the wheel? Or in this case...the electron magneto accelerator! With this, I can increase the power of any electrical device to evil proportions!
  [enter Kim and Ron]
  Kim: Stealing again, Drakken?
  Ron: Whatever happened to inventing your own stuff?
  Drakken: It's called outsour...oh, just get on with it.
  • In another episode:
    Kim: Wait...you have cable? Your dad finally gave in?
    Ron: He thought it was just a fad.
    [later]
    Shego: Dr. D, I can't believe you're just now getting cable.
    Drakken: I thought it was just a fad.
  • Also in the Christmas episode, where it turns out that both Ron and Drakken are obsessed with the cartoon "Snowman Hank" and know the text by heart.
  • The Internet Search for "really valuable" and "heavily guarded". The discussion of outsourcing.
• King of the Hill In an early episode, Bobby accidentally hits Willie Nelson in the head with a golf club. When Hank asks if he's okay, Nelson says "Am I bleeding from the ears?"; when Hank says no, he responds "Then I'm probably alright". In the next scene, Hank is telling Peggy about the incident and the first thing she says is "Was he bleeding from the ears? Well he must be okay then." Actually, bleeding from the ears, mixed with a clear fluid, following a head trauma is a severe warning sign that the injury is far more severe than a simple knock on the head, as it indicates the leakage of cerebrospinal fluid. Therefore, it could actually just be a case of both of them knowing that, with no ear-bleeding, there's a good chance he would be "fine".
• The Looney Tunes Show: This trope has actually been used as a Running Gag several times, mostly with Daffy and Lola.
  • In the episode "Eligible Bachelors", Daffy and Lola both think "literacy" has something to do with litter.
  • In "Itsy Bitsy Gopher", Daffy tries to play the word "darvog" in Scrabble, and insists that it's a word because he can use it in the sentence "darvog is a word". He then makes himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, mistaking it for a new combination. After telling Lola about his "creation", she mentions a sandwich that she invented that she calls a darvog. It also winds up being the name of an anti-bacterial cream that Bugs has to use after being bitten by a venomous spider.
  • In "The Shell Game", Daffy is outraged by the new recliner that Bugs buys him after the old one breaks, and he thinks it looks and feels terrible. While Bugs and Porky like the recliner, Lola shows up and calls it hideous.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • In "Applebuck Season", when the first warning sign that Applejack needs to get some sleep comes when AJ and Pinkie are both looking at their reflections in AJ's trophy and making "Woo! Woo! Woo!" noises.
  • In "Party of One", Pinkie invites the others to Gummy's after-Birthday party that afternoon. Twilight, Applejack and Rarity all have the same response: "This afternoon? As in, 'This afternoon' this afternoon?" Pinkie lampshades it for Applejack and Rarity ("It's so strange. Everypony keeps saying that.") and interrupts Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, saying "Yes! As in 'This afternoon,' this afternoon!"
• The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper: After Private runs off, Skipper tells his men to think about the Penguin Credo. Kowalski thinks that he is referring to "Never bathe in hot oil and bisquick." Later, when the penguins find Private again, Skipper tells him to remember the Penguin Credo, and he replies "What does swimming in bisquick have to do with anything?"
• Phineas and Ferb: Everyone seems in on the Running Gag.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998): In "Bubblevicious", Professor Utonium and Mojo Jojo both have an up to eleven setting on their devices, the former for his Danger Room and the latter for a Death Ray.
• Rugrats (1991):
  • In "Party Animals", the adults have a costume party at Drew's house. Stu and Drew have an argument over who's king of the jungle— Tarzan (Stu's costume of choice) or King Kong (Drew), which leads to Drew locking Stu out of his house, and later Stu getting arrested when he tries to get back in. On their way to the station, the police are in a coffee shop, talking about Stu, who thinks he's Tarzan, King of the Jungle. The Waitress who serves them coffee tells them that she always thought King Kong was King of the Jungle.
  • In "Sour Pickles", Stu and Drew (in a flashback) are grounded by their dad, and are not allowed to watch Blocky and Oxwinkle. When Stu plans to break out, he boasts that not even President Weisenheimer can stop him. When they accidentally turn on the TV's built-in radio trying to find the TV function, the news announcer on the other end is doing a report on Eisenhower, but slips up with "Weisenheimer" at first.
  • In "The Odd Couple", Tommy spends the weekend at Chuckie's house while his parents attend a cheese-tasting tour. When the two spend their first night together, all Chuckie wants to do is go to sleep, but Tommy keeps him up by asking him how Jell-O is made green. When Chuckie tries to go back to sleep, he ends up wondering how Jell-O is made green himself.
• Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: In "Go Away, Ghost Ship," an automated pirate skull in a treasure chest demands a password. The gang try a few standard pirate catchphrases, such as "Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum," until Shaggy suggests "Yum yum yum and a liverwurst a la mode," opening the secret entrance.
  Shaggy: Wow, some password!
• Shrek the Halls: At the beginning, Donkey tells Shrek that sweet potatoes are nothing without marshmallows. Later, Shrek sees some frantic last-minute Christmas shoppers, one of whom says the same thing.
• The Simpsons:
  • In "The Cartridge Family", this happens with references to the "King of England". When the episode first aired England hadn't even had a king in over 40 years. Also, Krusty has met Queen Elizabeth II at least once.
    Homer: But I have to have a gun. It's in the Constitution.
    Lisa: Dad, the 2nd Amendment is just a remnant from revolutionary days. It has no meaning today.
    Homer: You couldn't be more wrong, Lisa. If I didn't have this gun, the King of England could just walk in here any time he wants and start shoving you around. [shoving her repeatedly] Do you want that? Huh? Do ya!?
    [later on, at the NRA meeting]
    Krusty: Guns aren't toys! They're for family protection, hunting dangerous or delicious animals, and keeping the King of England out of your face!
  • In "Two Dozen and One Greyhounds," Mr. Burns takes to a puppy that can stand on its hind legs because it reminds him of a famous person. Smithers struggles to understand who he's talking about, but when given the prompt "the person who's always standing and walking," correctly guesses that Burns is thinking of '50s actor Rory Calhoun.
  • In "Deep Space Homer", when the director of NASA, searching for 'normal Joes' to become astronauts asks perpetual drunk Barney Gumble if he'd like be higher than he's ever been before. Barney replies, "Become an astronaut? You bet!"
  • And of course, this little gem:
    Homer: [after being questioned about liking ballet] Marjorie, please. I enjoy all the meats of our cultural stew. Ah, ballet.
    Homer's Mind: [pictures a scene at the circus, where a bear is driving a tiny car]
    [at the nuclear plant...]
    Carl: Wanna get a beer with us?
    Homer: [angrily] Can't. I have to take my wife to the ballet.
    Lenny: Ah, going to see the bear in the little car, huh?
  • In the episode parodying The Beatles, Barney gets a weird Japanese girlfriend. This exchange occurs:
    Moe: Hey, Barney! What'll it be?
    Barney: I'd like a beer, Moe!
    Yoko: I'd like a single plum floating in perfume served in a man's hat.
    Moe: [immediately pulling both out from under the counter] Here you go.
  • When Homer asks Professor Frink for invention ideas, Frink explains that he can find a new use for an existing item. Homer suggests hamburger earmuffs with Frink humoring the idea. After Homer leaves, Frink then pulls that invention out and says he will have it in stores first.
  • "Simpson and Delilah":
    • Lenny convinces Homer to use his medical insurance to pay for hair tonic, sarcastically saying that Mr. Burns wouldn't miss the money since for him it would just mean "one less ivory backscratcher". When Mr. Burns later finds out about the charges, he's furious because he was planning on buying an ivory backscratcher.
    • When Homer first saw the effects of the hair tonic on him, he went out of house wearing his pajamas and ran through several parts of town. At some point, he met a man doing the same. Each one pointed at the other and mentioned the hair tonic's name.
  • In the episode where Homer gets a new assistant who turns on him and takes his job, he uses a secret Flanders told him to turn the tables. When asked by the assistant where he learnt the secret, he declines to say, but states the initials are S.F. She immediately recognizes this as Stupid Flanders.
  • While Halloween episodes aren't canon, there's this exchange from when the school cafeteria suddenly starts serving delicious food:
    Principal Skinner: Mmm, well perhaps I ought to let you folks in on a secret! Do you remember me telling Jimbo Jones that I would "make something of him" one day?
    Mrs. Krabappel: [gasps] Are you saying you killed Jimbo, processed his carcass and served him for lunch?!
    [Skinner points at his nose]
    Mrs. Krabappel: Ha!
    [Everyone continues eating]
  • When Homer teaches a class on building a successful marriage, he tries to bluff that him eating an orange and not paying attention to the class was really a metaphor for a successful marriage. No one buys it. Groundskeeper Willie says if he'd wanted to watch someone eat an orange, he'd have taken the orange-eating class. Cue Gilligan Cut to Moleman teaching an orange-eating class, stating that eating an orange is a lot like a good marriage.
  • "Marge in Chains" has an infomercial where Troy McClure, advertising a juicing machine, crushes an orange against his forehead and then announces "Until now, this was the only way to get juice from an orange." Homer looks up, in the process of crushing an orange against his own forehead over a glass, and blurts "You mean there's a better way?"
  • This happens between Homer and Bart a lot.
    Bart: (watching pro wrestling) Two titans at the height of their careers. If you ask me, this is gonna be one hell of a match.
    Lisa: Oh, Bart, I hope you're not taking this seriously. Even a five-year-old knows this is as choreographed as any ballet.
    (Cut to Moe's Tavern where the same fight is on.)
    Homer: Rasputin's got the reach, but on the other hand, The Professor's got his patented coma lock. If you ask me, this is gonna be one hell of a match.
• South Park:
  • The CIA makes an unpleasant discovery:
    Agent Thompson: We have reason to believe that Mrs. Clinton may have a nuclear device up her snatch. ...A snatch. It's the technical term for vagina.
    Agent Waters: It's a suitcase nuke, designed to fit in a woman's snizz. It's called a snuke.

    Later, Cartman is contacted.

    Mr. Thompson: Well, we've just arrived in your town.
    Cartman: Why? Did you find something?
    Mr. Thompson: Yes. There's a suitcase nuke in Ms. Clinton's snizz.
    Cartman: [beat] A snuke?
  • In "It Hits the Fan", Cartman gets upset that the word "shit" is no longer offensive, and starts using "meekrob" as a swear word. Later on, Cartman sees a list of all of the "cursed words", and one of them actually is "meekrob".
  • And then there's "Pinkeye", where Stan and Wendy planned to come to school on Halloween both dressed as Raggedy Anne and Andy (which was apparently supposed to be romantic somehow), but Wendy decided it was lame and changed her costume to Chewbacca without telling him (she assumed he'd decide the same). When Stan gets to school, he is disgusted to find that everyone else in the class except two of his friends and Mr. Garrison came dressed as Chewbacca (everyone even included Garrison's hand puppet, Mr. Hat).
  • Or the episode "Here Comes the Neighborhood" where the town is set upon by rich people (who just so happen to be black), and the rank-and-file residents try to get rid of them. Mr. Garrison proposes two plans that look terribly racist: burning "lower-case Ts", for "Time to leave", on their lawns, and dressing up like ghosts (that look like Klansmen). In both cases, the rich people see these displays as exactly what Garrison intended them to be. Truth in Television: The original Ku Klux Klan was based in Pulaski, Tennessee and organized by Civil War veterans, who sometimes dressed up as Bedsheet Ghosts in a jokey attempt to scare blacks.
  • When Stan and Kyle figured out a man at the rodeo was conning them, they called "shenanigans". In reaction, several people got their brooms and started chasing the conman away. Later on, the Mayoress showed up and asked what was going on, a passerby told her someone called "shenanigans" and she hurried for her broom.
  • When the main characters asked Doctor Mephisto to create a genetic combination of an elephant and a pig, Mephisto claimed it to be impossible and mentioned a Loverboy song stating it to justify his claim. Later on, when they told Chef about their desire to make a pig-elephant, Chef also brought up the song.
  • In the second episode Wendy writes an environmental report on dolphins, and Cartman comments that if dolphins were so smart, they wouldn't live in igloos. When Wendy gets her paper back, she's annoyed to see the grader left the same comment.
  • In "Insecurity" Kyle thinks that his mom is having an affair with the UPS man, a rumor which spreads to his friends and the town's adults. Both Cartman and Mr. Stotch suggest that the UPS man must be some sort of weird pervert, since apparently no normal man would want to sleep with Mrs. Broflovski.
  • In "Crack Baby Athletic Association", Cartman dresses and talks like a Southern slave owner as part of a satirization of the NCAA controversies of them not paying their players. Later, the president of Electronic Arts, who yanks the rights for crack baby basketball away from the boys, is also depicted as a slave owner.
  • In "Major Boobage," apparently everyone sees the same hallucination after huffing cat urine. Kenny and Gerald end up getting in a fight over the mysterious woman from the Heavy Metal pastiche, and when Gerald gives a speech at the end about how she isn't real, Randy remarks that "You never get a good look at her naked boobs anyway."
• Spliced: In an episode, Peri and Entree are sent flying in the air and are about to fall. Peri points out that Entree has wings, to which Entree objects "But these are chicken wings! Chickens live underwater!" Then, at the end of the episode:
  Peri: He'll be fine. He's got chicken wings.
  Mr. Smarty Smarts: But don't chickens live underwater?
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • In the episode "Dying for Pie", this exchange takes place after Squidward thinks that SpongeBob had eaten an immensely powerful bomb (shaped like a pie).
    Squidward: We've got to do something!
    Mr. Krabs: It won't do any good; I've seen this before. When that pie goes up to bat, I mean, hits his lower intestine, BOOM.
    Squidward: You've seen this before!?
    Mr. Krabs: Eleven times as a matter of fact.
    [Squidward rushes off screen to a telephone]
    Squidward: Yes, hello? Doctor? Hospital? ...Won't do any good!? ...Eleven times!?
  • From the same episode, Squidward asks the pirates what flavor pie it is, and three different pirates say "cherry" "apple" and "raspberry". Later, when the "pie" reaches SpongeBob's lower intestine, SpongeBob says "Something just hit my lower intestine. Tastes like...cherry...no, maybe grape...blueberry?". Though possibly subverted in that he never ate the pie bomb at all.
  • Also done in the episode where SpongeBob runs rampant with Mermaid Man's shrink ray.
    Patrick: You had it set to M for Mini, [turns the M upside-down] when it should be set to W for Wumbo!
    SpongeBob: Patrick, I don't think Wumbo is a real word...
    Patrick: Come on... you know! I wumbo. You wumbo. He— she— me... wumbo. Wumbo. Wumboing. We'll have the wumbo. Wumborama. Wumbology, the study of Wumbo. It's first grade, SpongeBob!
    Squidward: [in between Patrick's rant] I wonder if a fall from this height will be enough to kill me.
    SpongeBob: Patrick, I'm sorry I doubted you.
    [later, SpongeBob asks Mermaid Man]
    Mermaid Man: Did you try setting it to wumbo?
• Squirrel Boy: Used frequently, including Rodney and Andy coming up with the analogy regarding three people having fun:
  "When 'three' sees 'fun' walking down the street, three grabs fun's face and—"
• Storm Hawks: In "Sky's End", Radarr uses charades to communicate to the others, "Eyeball saw the dragons." Finn guesses "seesaw" multiple times, and Stork guesses "the death throes of a three-armed swamp gobbler" for Radarr's sawing motion. This is followed by a scene with the Murk Raiders in which Eyeball is using charades to communicate his find to Scabulous, apparently just for fun. Scabulous' guesses include "seesaw" for a sawing motion, and "swamp gobbler" for something meant to indicate "dragons".
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003):
  • In "Secret Origins Part 1", the Turtles and Splinter are put in a virtual reality history of the Utroms. When he hears the Utrom villain Ch'rell making threats, Raph says, "Big talk, little slime ball!" Later, the virtual Mortu says the same thing to Ch'rell.
  • In "The Shredder Strikes Back, Part 2", Michelangelo says to the Foot Elite ninjas "nice hats!". Seconds later, Donatello says the same thing. Then another minute later, Raphael shows up and says the same thing.
    Raph: [to the ninjas] Nice hats.
    Mikey: Yeah. We thought so too.
• Time Squad: In "Orphan Substitute", Otto and Tuddrussell have an argument and Tuddrussell decides to get another orphan under the expressed belief that "one orphan genius is as good as another". At the end of the episode, Larry and Tuddrussell take Otto back and leave the last applicant in his place. Upon seeing the new orphan, Sister Thornly just shrugs and says "one orphan genius is as good as another".
• Total Drama Action: In an episode, Duncan, who didn't get any sleep, wishes that this week's theme was "Guy in a Coma" movies. Later on in the confessional, Chris said that it was either Animal Buddy movies or "Guy in a Coma" movies (Chris picked the first one).
• Wander over Yonder: In "The Toddler", Wander is trying to find a lost toddler's parents. He nicknames the kid "Huckleberry Knucklehead" on the grounds that he "looks like a Huckleberry Knucklehead," to which Sylvia objects, "That's definitely not his, or anyone's, name!" When they find his parents, though, they discover that that really is his name.
• Xiaolin Showdown: In the first episode, Dojo tells the ghostly hag Wuya, whom he knew back when she was a Hot Witch, "Whoa, Wuya! The years have not been kind." In the second season episode "Citadel of Doom", Grandmaster Dashi's ghost tells her the exact same thing.
• Young Justice (2010): In the first season, Robin has a habit of dissecting words, to the point that "whelmed" (mid-point between underwhelmed and overwhelmed) and "aster" (opposite of a disaster) eventually become common parlance amongst the team. During his first few interactions with Zatanna, however, Robin (who clearly has a bit of a crush and is apologizing for having potentially come on a bit too strong) says that he's trying to act nonchalant, and she's the one who replies playfully that he can be "chalant" if he wants.

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