Couch gag
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The couch gag is a running visual joke in the opening credits of the animated television series The Simpsons. The couch gag changes from episode to episode, and usually features the Simpson family's living room couch. A typical gag features the Simpson family running into the living room, only to find some abnormality with the couch; be it a bizarre and unexpected occupant, an odd placement of the couch, such as the ceiling, or any number of other situations. In more recent seasons, the couch gags have tended to be more outlandish and absurd.
Generally, between one-half and two-thirds of the couch gags used in a season are new, while the remaining couch gags are repeats. Most couch gags are used at least twice, with a second occurrence in the same season as the first. In all, thirteen episodes do not feature couch gags. Most of these are Halloween episodes.
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[edit] Memorable couch gags
The first episode of the series to air, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" (episode 7G08), did not feature a couch gag. The second episode (aired and produced), "Bart the Genius," features the first couch gag to be aired. When the family sits down on the couch, Bart is squeezed off the couch and pops up into the air. During the shot of the television set following the couch shot Bart is seen falling back down in front of the TV. This is the only couch gag that continues into the closing shot of the TV.
The most-used couch gag in first-run primetime airings, first used in "Lisa's First Word," involves the family forming a chorus line with a group of dancers. The living room background makes way to reveal unicyclists and elephants in a large production number. Used a total of eight times to date, this extra-long couch gag has mostly been used when episodes were in danger of being too short. The extra length of the gag would compensate for the shorter episode. This has become less common in more recent seasons, as the required length for each episode has been reduced.
However, in syndication, the most used couch gag has the Simpson family unable to sit because an identical family is already sitting on the couch. Like most shows, The Simpsons is shortened in syndication to make time for more commercials. Thirty-three episodes, which had their openings shortened for syndication, also had their original couch gags replaced with this couch gag. Why this couch gag in particular is used so often in syndication is unknown, as it is no shorter than most of the couch gags it replaced. Oddly enough, in first-run primetime airings, this couch gag was only used once, in episode 1F01, "Rosebud."
One of the longer couch gags to date is "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner"'s 45-second spoof of the short film Powers of Ten. After the family runs in and sits on the couch, the camera pulls up through the roof and continues pulling back - past Springfield, the United States, Earth, the Solar System, Kang and Kodos outside their broken spaceship, and finally the entire Milky Way galaxy. As the scene continues receding, the galaxies turn into atoms, which become molecules, which become strands of DNA, which become skin cells, which become Homer's head. Homer then says "woooow" (later changed to "cool" in subsequent airings.) The early part of the sequence is accompanied by Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra on the music track, until Kang and Kodos are encountered, followed by a generally eerie and suspenseful underscoring until Homer's scalp is finally revealed.
Originally airing on March 25, 2007 the episode "Homerazzi" used a prolonged couch gag where Homer is the basis of about a dozen organisms depicting the mankind's evolution. When he walks upright, Homer walks through a few period scenes before walking through the Simpsons' front door to sit down on the couch (Marge asks 'What took you so long?'). By the time this episode had aired on the East Coast, the show's message board at the Internet Movie Database had several threads declaring this the best, or greatest, or most innovative couch gag in the series' history.
Another extra-long couch gag debuted in "Marge's Son Poisoning," where the family went to sit on the couch, but it came to life, sprouted teeth and proceeded to attack and attempt to eat them. The family runs outside to discover that everybody's couches and chairs are doing the same thing. We then see shots of various people being attacked by couches: Sherri and Terri get swallowed by theirs, Eddie and Lou get trapped in their police car by them, Professor Frink has lasers shot at him by his The War of the Worlds-style couch, and Moe uses a shotgun to fight off the booths and barstools in his tavern. It then cut to Homer running up the street, deciding to take shelter in a local store. Unfortunately, the store turns out to be "Couch World", and several couches attack Homer. Viewers got the impression that this was meant to have been part of the previous week's Treehouse of Horror episode, as during the shot of the TV afterwards there was Halloween-esque music playing.
One of the more memorable couch gags involves the Simpsons arriving to find The Flintstones sitting on the couch — a nod to The Simpsons' antecedent. A reference to another show by Matt Groening, Futurama, was made when every family member except Bart slid through tubes (often used in Futurama) and onto the couch. Phillip J. Fry occupied Bart's usual place, but Fry was shot up the tube a second later and replaced by Bart.
Another of the more self-referential couch gags includes the family's usual rushing in to sit on the couch, though the underscoring has suddenly stopped. Nothing happens. Lisa addresses the camera: "What. . .? Can't we sit on the couch without something happening?" Homer is suddenly impaled by a long spear, followed by the inevitable "D'oh!" The opening music then resumes.
[edit] Couch gags in other series
By extension, a running gag in other series can also be called a couch gag when it occurs during the opening sequence and changes between episodes.
- In the animated series Futurama, also created by Matt Groening, the opening title contains a humorous subtitle. For example, the episode The Day the Earth Stood Stupid uses the subtitle "80% Entertainment by Volume." Also, later in the opening sequence, a billboard briefly shows a vintage animated cartoon before the credits "Created By Matt Groening" and "Developed By Matt Groening and David X. Cohen" appear and the Planet Express Ship crashes into it. In one episode, the 'vintage' cartoon shown is a shot of one of The Simpsons couch gag variations.
- In the animated series American Dad!, Stan Smith picks up a paper during the opening theme song, whose headline changes between episodes. For example, in the episode "Lincoln Lover", the headline reads: 'Bush to Voters: "Votes for Dems Kill Angels"'.
- In the animated series The Critic, Jay Sherman wakes up to his alarm clock, which plays varying audio gags. Later in the opening, Jay is at a taping of his show where a lampoon movie clip is played before he says his catch phrase, "It stinks!"
- In the later seasons of the show, the radio gag was replaced with a gag where Jay is woken up by a phone call, usually from one of the other series regulars, and often personally insulting to Jay.
- In the opening of The Fairly OddParents, Cosmo and Wanda always turn Vicky's head into something different. Sometimes it is relevant to the episode, sometimes it is not.
- In Animaniacs, one or more of the Warner siblings would say something ending in "aney"; for example, "Here's the show's namey"
- In The Proud Family, Oscar would find someone at the door who is going to be in the episode and then closes it.
- In The Buzz on Maggie, Maggie gets up to spin into three costumes that are relevant.
- In The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, after the theme song ends Mandy would say something sinister on a black background.
- In The Emperor's New School, Kuzco would say something on a sky background at the beginning the main theme song.
- In Pepper Ann's theme song, after receiving a detention for being late to class, Pepper Ann will find a different trinket under her desk, such as "five bucks", a mood ring, etc.
[edit] Predecessors
The Simpsons is far from the first show to use a running gag during its opening sequence in this way. Famous earlier examples include the live-action It's Man from Monty Python's Flying Circus.
