A day may come when the creativity of our writers fails, when we forsake our gag and break all bonds of fandom, but it is not this day.
"After seven seasons, we've pretty much said everything you can say in this spot."
— Garfield, Garfield and Friends, "Arbuckle the Invincible/The Monster Who Couldn't Scare Anybody/The Ocean Blue"
A trope throughout a series by which a part of the opening or ending credits is interchangeably switched, and the content can be different every show. Some of the same shows also have couch gags at the end as a Credits Gag. Alternatively, this gag may occur at the end of The Teaser, just before the credits start.
Named for one of its best-known incarnations, the family scrambling to gather on the couch during the opening sequence of The Simpsons.
Note that it need not be a "gag"; TV dramas such as Mission: Impossible and Justice League Unlimited will sometimes have clips from later in the episode.
Compare to Different in Every Episode. Not to be confused with the other type of couch and gag.
Randomized Title Screen is a Video Game only Sub-Trope, applying only to the Start Screen and chosen by the Random Number God.
Example subpages
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- Live-Action TV
- Video Games
- Web Video
- Oddity Archive
- Western Animation
- Bob's Burgers
- The Simpsons
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Other examples
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Comic Books
- The comic book The Maxx included a different short sentence in its credits.
- Keith Giffen's comics usually have some sort of credit gag, eg: Keith (angry old man) Giffen.
- Transmetropolitan at the end of each issue, the three eyed smiley face would be shown in a way somehow related to the content of the issue (walking in the rain, smoking a cigarette, etc.)
- Very frequently in old-school Marvel books, especially The Amazing Spider Man and Fantastic Four, Stan Lee would "fancy up" the credit box on the first page. The gags would range from simple nicknames ("by Stan "the Man" Lee and Jack "King" Kirby!") to brutal Self-Deprecation ("written by Stan Lee... because we couldn't afford Mickey Spillane!")
- A Running Gag in these would be Stan denigrating some Butt-Monkey staffer, most commonly letterer Artie Simek; when Simek grew annoyed with this, it was changed to the fictional Irving Forbush (the "hero" of Marvel's gag series Not Brand Echh).
- The French comic book Asterix in general ends its adventures with the villagers of Asterix's home having a celebratory banquet, where they have to tie up their bard Cacofonix so that he doesn't give a song. This changes on a few occasions.
- In stories where Cacofonix has given a hand he is untied and given a seat at the banquet (Asterix and the Normans, The Mansions of the Gods). In "Asterix and Caesar's Gift" and "Asterix and the Secret Weapon" he is having a chat with a girl. In "Asterix and the Magic Carpet" he is far away in India, while his rival Fulliautomatix is sadly awaiting his arrival.
- The exception to this case is "Asterix the Gladiator" (the first story with Cacofonix having a major role).
- In "Asterix and the Soothsayer" he is content, having dreams of eventual renown to keep him satisfied.
- In "Asterix in Spain" he is laughing at Obelix imitating Spanish dancing.
- In "Asterix and the Laurel Wreath" and "Asterix and the Picts" he is chatting with someone.
- In "Asterix in Corsica" he is surprised to find Dogmatix keeping him some company.
- In "Asterix and the Roman Agent" thanks to the slander that divides the village, one banquet features Cacofonix (the only one not caught up in the arguments) having an Imagine Spot where everyone else in the village is tied up, in a tragic reversal of the norm. Thankfully, another banquet is held at the end where all is set right and he is tied up.
- In "Obelix and Co" he is held down by a menhir.
- In stories where Cacofonix has given a hand he is untied and given a seat at the banquet (Asterix and the Normans, The Mansions of the Gods). In "Asterix and Caesar's Gift" and "Asterix and the Secret Weapon" he is having a chat with a girl. In "Asterix and the Magic Carpet" he is far away in India, while his rival Fulliautomatix is sadly awaiting his arrival.
- Each of the longer comics carries a title gag in the form of "Based on the [Media Type], [Silly Title]", such as Based on the famed Beat-generation novel, "Sam and Max Drive Around in a Car" by Bucky Kerouac. This tradition is carried over to Season 2 and 3 of Telltale's series of adventure games. The episode "Chariot of the Dogs", for example, is "Based on the best-selling addled-brained musings of noted aliens-made-all-our-stuff theorist Erich von Dannyohday"
- Bongo Comics' The Simpsons usually credits Matt Groening with a different title in every issue.
- The Wicked + The Divine: Every chapter begins and ends with the icon wheel, showing representations of each god as well as their status.
- Some sections of the wheel are empty, representing gods not yet known by the media.
- Dead gods have their icons replaced by skulls.
- Once Luci is arrested, her icon has bars over it.
- When Baphomet bursts onto the scene, his icon appears for the first time in the wheel while wreathed in fire.
- Likewise, when Dionysus is introduced, his symbol appears in color, to highlight the imagery of pills hanging from the vine instead of grapes.
- The first panel of DC Thomson strip Oor Wullie always has Wullie sitting on an upturned bucket. If he's not there, we see the abandoned bucket with narration wondering or explaining where Wullie is.
- Around the 1980s, Marvel Comics started using a standard cover design that included a small box at the top left corner. That corner box would often have unique art that varied with each cover. Here is an article explaining a sample of them.
- Groo the Wanderer: The title page typically listed Sergio Aragonés as "Artist" and Stan Sakai as "letterer", but writer Mark Evanier was given a different oddball title for each issue, often an obscure reference to the story.
Comic Strips
- In many newspaper comics, the title panel of Sunday strips are often different in some way. Some strips, such as Foxtrot, simply have the logo a different color. Others, such as Garfield, have an entirely different piece of artwork for each strip. It is often mandatory to waste the first panel on a couch gag for syndication, so that newspapers can cut them for space.
Fan Works
- Most fan fiction starts with a standard disclaimer about not owning the source material. Humorous fan fiction loves to play with this disclaimer.
- The splash screen in each episode of Doki Doki Club Meetings is written by whoever is currently club president.
- It is a tradition among Friday Night Funkin' mods to hide a secret message in the opening credits before the logo comes on. Some are nonsense, some thank the fans who helped get it off the ground, and some offer opinions on the piece of media the mod is referencing. Loading screens for individual mods may also contain gags, oftentimes advocating for the engine they use.
- The Simpsons: Team L.A.S.H.: Imitating its source material, each chapter of this fic has two of them: the "to-do list gag" (basically the equivalent of the source material's "chalkboard gag"; Simon writes something down on his to-do list as he and his dad head off to school), and the "desk gag" (basically the equivalent of the source material's trope-naming "couch gag"; the four of them rush to their desks in Mrs. Gunderson's class, and Mrs. Gunderson turns on the projector).
Literature
- After the recap of his origins and before the plot starts, every Captain Underpants book starts with George and Harold rearranging the letters on a different sign to say something silly.
- Happens In-Universe in the Harry Potter books. Each year, the Sorting Hat sings a different song at the start of the sorting ceremony.
- Starting around 2001, the Star Trek novels began to include a planet (often one involved in the story) in the list of Simon & Schuster offices on the title page.
Music
- The late Wesley Willis, an extremely prolific (and diagnosed schizophrenic) singer-songwriter, ended virtually every song he ever recorded by first saying "Rock over London, rock on Chicago..." after which he would then spout a random commercial jingle or product slogan, which generally had nothing to do with the subject matter of the song.
- In a Couch Gag that encompassed the entire work, the band Yes shot 17 versions of their video for 1983's "Leave It". The first featured the five band members standing side by side, singing the song, in black suits. The other 16 each incorporated some variation on this setup, often quite subtle (e.g. one band member wearing a different-colored tie), as a visual Running Gag.
Podcasts
- Doctor Who Target Book Club Podcast uses a different adjective in each opening narration to describe just how BIG their project of reading the Target novelizations in story order actually is: "massive" and "YUGE!" have already made appearances. As of March 2017, the YouTube videos of the podcast also feature a Morphoton brain from Keys of Marinus with a different caption directed to the readers.
- I Was There Too employs this trope by replacing the final bars of the theme song with music from the scores of famous movies.
- Kingdom Smarts: As part of their Signing-Off Catchphrase, each episode ends with Shannon saying "we still haven't ____ yet", with the blank spot foreshadowing what they'll get to next week.
"We still haven't gotten to the part where a villain legit calls you a 'chicken-wuss'."
- In Less is Morgue, the intro music is always poorly edited in so it cuts off one of the characters mid-sentence.
- Random Assault: Different secret sounds at the end of each episode, also done on the landing pages with silly plugs and credits for that episode's hosts.
- The Red vs. Blue podcast RvB Rewind always starts with the series' famed "Do you ever wonder why we're here?" followed by a snappy response related to the discussed episode.
- The Scathing Atheist opens their podcast on slightly different variations each week.
- Every show begins with Lucinda giving a different content warning that the following hour will be absolutely fucking obscene.
- Heath will then give a different fake sponsorship for the episode, usually in the form of a play on words of a religious phrase or product.
- There will then be a member of the atheist/secular community to quote Dr. Farnsworth's "we did in fact evolve from filthy monkey men." or some variation.
- Welcome to Night Vale: Cecil says a creepy non-sequiter before the pre-intro music Title Drop.
Magazines
- The print edition of David Langford's fanzine Ansible is "Available for SAE, whim, or [obscure sf concept]."
- Doctor Who Magazine always includes a joke or odd statement buried in the print indicia. This is a tradition that has come and gone over the years depending on editorial whim. (On one occasion, after it had lain fallow for some time, it suddenly said "I don't know why you're looking down here, we haven't had a joke here for ages".)
- For a while, the Australian printing of White Dwarf (Games Workshop's magazine) would finish the list of contributors on the first page with something odd, like "Sean Bean" or "that guy on SOF 2 who did not believe me". Sadly, this appears to have fallen by the wayside.
Pro Wrestling
- When pro wrestler Bryan Danielson was Ring Of Honor World Heavyweight Champion, he had a Couch Gag of coercing the ring announcer to give him a different flattering title before every match, usually some sort of Cheap Heat relating to his opponent or where he was wrestling. Said titles included "the best wrestler in the entire world, with an emphasis on entire world," "the best wrestler to ever step foot in the ECW Arena," "even better than The Beatles," "the best champion in ROH history," and "really too good to wrestle in front of all these pricks."
- Similar to the Bryan Danielson example above, starting in the latter months of 2020, Kenny Omega began having AEW's ring announcer Justin Roberts rattling off a Long List of Omega-related trivia, which always included something that would relate to "NOOORTH CAROLIIINAAA!" (emphasis important) before concluding his introduction.
- This was done to an even greater extent earlier on in Ring of Honor, during Steve Corino's run in 2003. Prior to every match he would have personal ring announcer Bobby Cruise announce a ridiculously, painfully long list of something that usually served as a means of mocking his opponents. For example, when facing the notoriously straight-edge CM Punk, Corino's list consisted of famous wrestlers with histories with drugs and alcohol that Corino aspired to be like.
- In TNA, the Rock and Rave Infection's entrance to the ring was composed of the following three steps:
- Christy Hemme screaming an introduction for the team.
- Jimmy Rave saying "We love you, (any city except the one they were in)".
- Lance Rock finishing off with a complete Non Sequitur before handing the mic back to Christy.
Puppet Shows
- Sometimes, before leaving, a child on will double back and thank the big purple guy for his help, or just share their love with him. They may find that he has reverted already.
- Igloo-Gloo ends with Snowball Sleepwalking while holding his bunny to someplace not too far away during bedtime, with Snowflake always having to bring him back to bed, followed by the Moon with the item that was dropped from the sky at the beginning if the episode.
- The Muppet Show has three of these:
- What Statler and Waldorf say during the opening sequence. The third season had this intersped with a joke taking place backstage.
- Gonzo blowing a bugle at the end of the opening, with something funny happening, like smoke blowing from it or weird music resulting. The first season had Gonzo striking the "O" in the show's logo like a gong with humorous results. The gong bit is an homage to the animated opening sequence for The Mickey Mouse Club, which ended with Donald Duck striking a gong with humorous results.
- What Statler and Waldorf say after the end credits.
- The first season had a fourth one. During the opening, Fozzie would tell a different joke each time, and usually get cut off.
- Teletubbies begins and ends with the Teletubbies emerging and reentering their dome in a random order, respectively.
Radio
- Car Talk has the credits that make fun of the various people that work on the show, occasionally changing when a new in-joke or gag presents itself, such as Doug the "Subway Fugitive" Berman. The one credit that changed every week was for John "Bugsy" Lawlor, their "Technical, Spiritual, and Menu Advisor", who they would always claim was just back from some made-up, rhyming event involving food (for instance, the "Seneca Lake Rump Steak Spongecake Milkshake Bran Flake Shake 'n' Bake".)
- Each episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978) has a different short, humorous quip stuck onto the end of the credits, occasionally tangentially related to the episode that had just played.
- A Prairie Home Companion has the line "I smell the _____, I look around for you" in its theme song; the blank is filled by an object related to the city they're currently in, such as "cheesesteaks" for Philadelphia.
- This American Life ends every episode with Ira Glass stating that "Management oversight is provided by our boss, Mr. Torey Malatia, who..." with the elipses filled in by a statement introducing a sound bite from that week's episode taken out of context.
- Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me has Carl Kasell giving a line from the "Who's Carl This Time" game, which sounds completely odd out of context.
Softwares
- In the versions of Microsoft Office from 97 to 2003, the Microsoft Assistant would give a "Tip of the Day" every time one of the programs opened. Of course, the tip is for the program in question.
- There is a program by Microsoft called Bing Desktop. Similar to Bing itself, one of the features changes the user's desktop wallpaper everyday (granted that the user has internet access).
Sports
- From 1989 to 2011, every Monday Night Football game started with Hank Williams Jr. singing "Are You Ready For Some Football", with the lyrics changing every week to reflect the teams playing that week.
Web Animation
- Unforgotten Realms begins every episode with a black screen with a message about "the following episode", which is accompanied by an announcer-type voice not-quite reading the message word-for-word. The white text has deviated further and further from what the voice says in later episodes. Variations have included "The following episode may or may not contain the word 'tiddly wank'", "The following episode did not care for the new Batman movie", and "The following episode will not have one of those 'the following episode' announcements at the start of it." Episode Nine actually doesn't have one, cutting immediately into the recap and title theme. But at the end, the familiar screen shows up to inform you that "the following episode is over"
- Strong Bad Email frequently changes the menu's mini-song about scroll buttons, the opening mini-song about email checking and the 'So until next time...' ending.
- Homestar Runner in general has a great many loading screens throughout the site. There were so much that one cartoon was all the loading screens at the time.
- Bonus Stage started having one consistently after its 75th episode, with variations on the crowd shot near the end of the opening.
- Zero Punctuation has a five-frame "comic" in every end credits sequence. Before getting an official title song, Yahtzee used music with a title or theme that was related to the game reviewed.
- The opening for each video in Profound Moments In Left 4 Dead 2 changes slightly depending on which season the video is a part of. The poster shown at the very start, the music played during it, and the images of the Survivors the players are controlling for that season all change, the former two being the poster and intro music for the campaign in question and the latter just being the Survivors doing silly things.
- In Deadly Space Action!, early episodes begin with "In the future, space consists of eight hexagons..." and a witty ending. This stopped about halfway through season one. Season two has an ending gag: an On the Next screen with the next episode's title and a blatantly false description of it.
- On some YouTube Poops that use the "When there's smoke, they pinch back!" slogan, the words "smoke" and/or "pinch" will replaced with something else, like "volcano".
- The intro of SMG4 videos during 2015 had SMG4 get knocked aside by the SMG4 logo, followed by either Mario appearing and saying a random quote, or a random character appearing in place of Mario.
- The title card of Metal Family involves a member of the titular family putting their personal key on the family key-holder in a way that demonstrates their personality.
- Most episodes of The Misadventures of R2 and Miku use a standard disclaimer about the series' content, which is always accompanied by a random (often vulgar) soundbite.
- Every episode of Hades' Misguidance opens with a skit of some sort, some more elaborate than others.
- Every episode of Zombie College begins with a random zombie emerging from a grave.
Webcomics
- Questionable Content
- The specials board at Coffee of Doom, which always shows ridiculous things like "Cup o' Bees", "Mocha with a hair in it", and "We murder you". Faye has commented that no one ever orders the specials, which is fine with her because then she doesn't have to make them. When no-nonsense Penelope was left in charge, the specials were ordinary drinks, pastries, and a request to not chat with her, which of course was ignored. Recently Jeph expolred a third way with "Banana Latte, Banana Bread, Banana Brownies, We got way too many bananas!" Truth in Television if you've ever dealt with having over-ordered a perishable item.
- There are also some recurring jokes on the main menu board, including a drink size "WTF" and a beverage sold as "Frappuccino Ripoff".
- Each Mulberry story begins with an old comic cover that looks nonsensical taken out of context.
- Princess Pi has randomly selected images and quotes in lieu of cover pages and synopses. Also, the first panel of each comic credits a different celebrity with Pi's creation.
- There is no standard title drawing for Bob the Angry Flower, with examples ranging from illegible scrawls to a carefully laid out title box announcing "Robert: The very angriest of flowers"
- Times Like This: The title graphic in the comic itself is usually themed after a reference in the strip or the general gist of the story.
- From Secret of Mana Theater: At the beginning of every episode Marle casts a spell with often different results.
- Since the beginning of the series, she's been crushed, fried, crushed some more, set on fire, mocked, hanged herself, been replaced a few times, been electrocuted, crushed some more, shrunk, exploded, atomized, chased, run over, been eaten, and has been stripped naked.
- When not being mutiliated beyond recognition, Marle has also engaged in riding the title card like a horse or walking on a giant ball, circus-style.
- Lucca and Magus from the same game have also appeared in openings.
- For most of its original run, The Adventures of Joe the Circle had a different, alliterative byline in every episode. Examples include "Raptly 'Ritten by Mike Shapiro" and "Webfully Woven by Mike Shapiro." Eventually lampshaded with "Adverbly Verbed by Mike Shapiro."
- Every Philler Space comic has different text before the title.
- Thinking Too Much to Think Positively: The colours in the comic's logo change in each strip, as well as the portrait of Xanthippe Hutcheon next to it.
Websites
- The search engine "Bing" has a different background image on its homepage everyday. Its desktop app, Bing Desktop, has an option to change the user's wallpaper to this image, provided the user has internet access.
- Often, the Google logo will be changed (officially known as a "Google Doodle"). There are two reasons for the logo to be changed; either for a holiday or if the date celebrates a milestone of something. As of 2011, clicking on a Doodle will bring up a search for what its celebrating.
- For example, on May 21, 2010, the logo was replaced by a javascript Pac-Man game in the shape of the Google logo for the rest of the week. It was so popular that it even got its own permanent URL.
- If the user is signed in to their Google account and it's their birthday, a special Doodle replaces the logo.
- Nobody Here's home page will feature one of eight randomly-chosen animations of Jogchem at his computer. They are: typing normally, typing in a very enthusiastic manner, leaning back on his chair, leaning forward towards the screen, typing with his fists, typing with just one finger, standing on his chair, and falling asleep on the keyboard.
- TV Tropes:
- The link back to the unabridged version on the Laconic pages of This Very Wiki.
- Many work pages have a pun in the heading for the trope list.
- The wiki signs: Wikipedia has signs that tell users a page needs information, lacks it, is not objective, etc. Other wikis take advantage and use their themes in their pages. For example: in the Harry Potter wiki, they have "'Homenum Revelio!' [S]poilers will be present within the article. Please take care when reading this article if you do not wish to be spoiled." for spoiler alert.