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Unsung
Since: Jun, 2016
2019-11-14 19:55:05
Continuity Nod, Call-Back if it becomes plot-relevant again, and a notable aversion of Negative Continuity as a Running Gag. The Olmec head gets a pretty lengthy paragraph on ContinuityNod.Western Animation.

In an early season episode of The Simpsons, Mr. Burns gives Homer a bizarre stone totem. The family can't sell it or use it, so they leave it in the basement.
Thus, now it's been over two decades, and every time we see the basement, the totem's there...
Is there a trope for that? A thing is used as a joke once, and keeps showing up to reminds us of its uselessness?