Bits & Running Gags

Bits & Running Gags are prominent throughout the show, with some lasting through multiple arcs. Below are some notable examples of bits and running gags in the show.

But What About In The Game?
When the characters are gathered to banter around a video game, they will all frequently reply to the player's remarks about the game (e.g. "I'm going to shoot you") with the phrase, "but what about in the game?" It is not remotely funny but somehow continually works its way into the episodes.

Capitalism
The show's universe continually alludes to the idea that a capitalist society was able to survive long enough to be the setting for the show, which presumably takes place in a capitalist society that somehow did not collapse under the weight of its own failures; this gag makes heavy use of irony.

Cram It, Nerd.
A personal favorite of Tyler's and Jupiter's, characters will frequently respond to intelligent conversation with "cram it, nerd" and suggest shoving the aforementioned nerd into a locker.

I Hardly Even Know Her!
A variation on the classic joke of the same name, the characters in the show will frequently interject with "I hardly even know her!" in reply to words that end in -er, but otherwise make absolutely no sense for this joke (e.g. "helicopter? I hardly even know her!"). As with "but what about in the game," it is not remotely funny but somehow still makes it into the scripts, perhaps as a post-modernist, ironic critique of the show itself.

Laugh Tracks
The show makes heavy, ironic usage of canned laughter to emphasize jokes with awkward, unsettling timing, or to get into the viewer's head by initiating laughter when in fact no jokes were made.

Racism
Many of the characters on the show are horrible racists, from which humor is frequently derived; Tyler, for example, refers to himself as "Tyler with a hard r," a reference to the n-word.

"Vines"
The show's universe contains a fictional social media network called Vine, which is used to upload short six-second videos, often comedic in nature. The group is able to recite many of these "vines" by heart, serving as a two-fronted joke; one, because the vines themselves make heavy use of absurdist humor, and two, because the show alludes to an ironic dystopia where human memory is restricted to the ability to perfectly recall short, humorous videos.