A Catchphrase that is used in equal amounts by several characters.
If the catchphrase is usually said by one character, it's a Borrowed Catchphrase. If it's something one person said once, then someone else said later, it's an Ironic Echo or Meaningful Echo. If the catchphrase is directed at the same person in each instance, that person is a Phrase Catcher. If someone else's pet phrase or verbal tic 'infects' another character, it's Got Me Doing It. If it only lasts for one installment, that's an Episode Tagline. Such phrases can count as Shared Family Quirks if predominantly used by family members.
See Arc Words for when the phrase is a dramatic element of the story.
Examples:
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Advertising
- I Saw Your Willy has everyone Alex runs into say the title.
Anime & Manga
- Death Note's taskforce shares "Matsuda, you idiot!", though L is particularly fond of the phrase and its variations. Matsuda, of course, is the Phrase Catcher for it. Its use dies out about midway through the series, but is recalled in a Meaningful Echo by Light after Matsuda discovers he's Kira.
Light: Matsuda, you idiot! Who the hell do you think you're shooting at?!
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean: Ungalo's Stand, Bohemian Rhapsody, has the power to make fictional characters and artwork come to life all over the world. Characters created through this ability will force their story to happen, and use the catchphrase "That's how the story goes!" as these events unfold.
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM!?" for all of Team Gurren as well as a number of Kamina's other catch phrases. He's essentially an in-universe Fountain of Memes.
- The amount of characters in Yu-Gi-Oh! that have said "Sore wa do kana?" ("Is that so?") in the original Japanese version is far too many, and it's not as common a phrase and you'd like.
Comic Books
- The organization HYDRA, in Marvel Comics, has an oath members recite, often together. Parts of the oath are also used by individuals and groups, especially the simple, "Hail HYDRA!". They love to remind their enemies, "Cut off a limb, and two more shall take its place!" The longer oath:
Hail, HYDRA! Immortal HYDRA! We shall never be destroyed! Cut off a limb, and two more shall take its place! We serve none but the Master—as the world shall soon serve us! Hail HYDRA!
Comic Strips
Fan Works
- Bandit's Belt: Characters often tell one another to “piss off” when they’re in a state of high emotion.
- In The Keys Stand Alone, after John talks about teaching muggers not to fuck with Nine Thousands (not long before, he'd heard someone scream that three of the four scanned at Over Nine Thousand), all four end up using the phrase "Don't fuck with Nine Thousands" on multiple occasions.
- The Prayer Warriors: "How dare you" is a phrase that many characters use when angry regardless of what side they're on.
Films — Animated
- In KPop Demon Hunters, HUNTR/X share a few phrases among the trio.
- "Happy fans? Happy Hoooonmoon!"
- "Couch! Couch! Couch! Couch!"
- "Hi Bobby!" For their beloved manager.
Films — Live-Action
- In The Avengers (1998) the phrases "How real will it feel" and "I thought I was seeing double" are said by several characters.
- Donnie Brasco: "Fuhgeddaboudit!", which is a typical phrase that members of the Mafia use, with Lefty being the first notable character in the film to use it repeteadly when talking with Donnie. At one point, Joe explains to his FBI colleagues that it can be used for many different things, whether to express agreement, disagreement, as an insult, or just to literally say "forget about it":
""Fuhgeddaboudit" is, like, if you agree with someone, you know, like "Raquel Welch is one great piece of ass. Fuhgeddaboudit!" But then, if you disagree, like "A Lincoln is better than a Cadillac? Fuhgeddaboudit!" You know? But then, it's also like if something's the greatest thing in the world, like, "Minghia! Those peppers! Fuhgeddaboudit!" But it's also like saying "Go to hell!" too. Like, you know, like "Hey Paulie, you got a one-inch pecker?" and Paulie says "Fuhgeddaboudit!" Sometimes it just means "Forget about it.""
- Star Wars:
- "I have a bad feeling about this" makes an appearance in every Star Wars film, and most Expanded Universe stories, as does the Big "NO!". "I sense a disturbance in the Force" isn't too far behind, and neither is "The Force is strong" or "May the Force be with you".
Kyle Katarn: You always sense a disturbance in the Force.
- Any time Battle Droids appear, ever, one of them will end up saying "Roger, roger".
- "I have a bad feeling about this" makes an appearance in every Star Wars film, and most Expanded Universe stories, as does the Big "NO!". "I sense a disturbance in the Force" isn't too far behind, and neither is "The Force is strong" or "May the Force be with you".
Literature
- Flora And Ulysses: Characters exclaim with "Holy bagumba!" and "Holy unexpected occurrences!".
- Winnie the Pooh:
- The characters tend to favour the word "anxious" for some reason.
- Using the word "brain" as a synonym for "intelligence", e.g. Pooh's self-description as "a bear of very little brain".
- The Witch Family: Some phrases are coined by Amy or the witches, but then spread to the rest of the cast:
- "Banquish" — a portmanteau of "banish" and "vanquish".
- "Be" in the place of "is", similar to pirate talk, as a way of showing respect.
- "Representatiff" instead of "representative".
- Describing non-magical humans as "real, right, regular" humans.
- Referring to magical situations as "hurly-burlies".
Live-Action TV
- 31 Minutos: Many phrases used in the show don't belong to a specific character. Those are "Es verdad" note (That's right), ¡Ay, mamá! (Oh, momma!), "Lo recuerdo muy bien" (I remember it very well), and "disimula" ("pretend"), which they tell to each other when they need to keep a charade towards the audience, which happens very often.
- Arrested Development:
- Each character has said "That was a freebie" once.
- "I've made a huge mistake" started as one of Gob's, but by the end of the series everybody was saying it.
- Are You Afraid of the Dark?: Every time a story was told, after giving the premise the storyteller would say "Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society"
- Breaking Bad: "So there's that."
- Castle: "Shut the front door!"
- Chespirito's two most famous examples, where the Phrase Catcher's are El Chapulín Colorado and El Chavo del ocho. "Oh, ¿y ahora quién podrá defenderme/ayudarme?" and "¡Tenía que ser el Chavo del Ocho!".
- Doctor Who:
- Every time someone enters the TARDIS for the first time, the usual reaction is something like "It's Bigger on the Inside!"
- All Daleks say "Exterminate!", "Daleks are superior!", or "You will be exterminated!". Cybermen also have a habit of saying "Delete!", though not to the extent of the Daleks and their share phrases.
- Happy Days had virtually everyone say "Sit on it!" (a rude, though non-profane, way of silencing someone, akin to "shut up").
- Impractical Jokers:
- When the rules of a game are explained, one of the Jokers will often say, "If you refuse (to say or do what you're told), you lose."
- When one of the Jokers is asked for directions, his answer will most likely be "Up your ass and to the left."
- Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger: "Lets Make it Showy/Flashy."
- Kamen Rider Double: "Now, count up your crimes!"
- Laverne & Shirley: Everyone, but especially the title characters, say, "vodeo-dodo" as an Unusual Euphemism for sex.
- In Leverage, every member of the team has at one point said, "Seriously
?" in similar same tones. The producer says he enjoys the spin they each put on it.
- The Mandalorian:
- All Mandalorians intone, "This is the way."
- Ugnauts frequently say "I have spoken" when they commit to a decision. Din Djarin also uses this line when he negotiates with them to help secure their cooperation.
- Radio Enfer: The Teaser for the first five seasons always ends with one of the main characters saying "You're listening to Radio Enfer!", usually while hosting their radio show.
- Saturday Night Live: It would probably be easier to list the cast regulars and hosts who haven't gotten to deliver "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!" than those who have.
- Sesame Street: "Oh, hi/hello, welcome to Sesame Street" said at the beginning, and "Sesame Street was brought to you by the letter [letter] and the number [number]. Sesame Street is a production of the Children's Television Workshop" at the end.
- Star Trek: Some of them have to do with species.
- Vulcans say, "Live long and prosper". They also use words like "logical" and "therefore" a lot because their society is based on logic. They also refer to anything of interest as "Fascinating".
- Klingons say, "Today is a good day to die". ("Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam!") They also use the word "honor" a lot and use "petaQ" as an insult. They also tend to introduce themselves with the "I Am X, Son of Y" format. During their war with The Federation, their other Battle Cry was "tlhIngan maH! taHjaj!" ("Remain Klingon!" Also translated as "We are Klingons! Let it remain!")
- Members of the Qowat Milat (a sect of Romulan warrior nuns) warn off potential enemies by saying "Please, my friend, choose to live." (In Romulan: "Feldor stam torret.")
- Bajorans, especially their religious leaders, say, "Walk with the prophets" or "May the prophets guide you".
- Commanding officers, no matter what their species, tend to say, "Engage".
- Almost everybody says, "[Insert rank here]'s log."
- Many characters say, "I'm a/an [insert occupation here], not a/an [insert occupation that is not theirs here!]"
- Borg say, "We are Borg", "irrelevant", "You will be assimilated", "Resistance Is Futile", "Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own", and "Lower your shields and surrender your ships".
- Then there's a whole host of share phrases that have to do with technology:
- "[They're/he's/she's/description of people are] hailing (us)", "Incoming transmission", or "We're being hailed" whenever a message comes in. Usually, the captain responds with "Open a channel", "Onscreen!", or "Put it onscreen".
Professional Wrestling
- "Let me tell you something." Is the start of many a promo, or response to really any conversation between wrestlers.
- "There's no crying in wrestling!" From commentators or managers observing a match
- "There's no timeouts in wrestling!" From commentators or managers observing a match
- "Tonight in This Very Ring!" Another common way to start a promo, especially if one is or is working for Vince Junior
- "This ain't ballet!" Liable to be uttered by anyone who has been injured or anyone who thinks they may have observed an injury.
Radio
- Hello Cheeky had several, used equally by all the cast to categorize jokes. "Did you know...?" "This is a newsflash. (swoosh)" "Well, would you believe it!" Then there was "Your private life's your own concern!"
Video Games
- Dragon Age: Inquisition has many characters who are fond of the utterance "Well, shit." It's even the name of one of Varric's companion sidequests.
- In Eternal Darkness, every playable character snaps themselves out of Sanity Meter induced Interface Screw with "This isn't really happening!"
- Fire Emblem:
- In Fire Emblem Fates, the four leading family members of both the Hoshidan and Nohrian families have a Pre-Mortem One-Liner of four that is shared among their two retainers each (albeit some like to make some small variations, but still, they're mostly the same phrases as their lieges').
- Fire Emblem Engage repeats Fates' use of this trope with three of the four royal families of Elyos and their retainers. The exceptions to this are Elusian princesses Ivy and Hortensia; Ivy isn't as close with Zelkov and Kagetsu as the other royals are with their retainers, and Rosado and Goldmary aren't officially Hortensia's retainers(as Goldmary points out in her and Hortensia's supports).
- In The Last of Us Part II, members of the Washington Liberation Front use "May your survival be long/May your death be swift" as a common parting phrase and response. Sometimes the whole phrase is used, like at the end of a letter.
- Nuclear Throne: When almost all of the playable characters start a run, they say "Fläshyn!", which is Trashtalk for "Let's do this!"
Visual Novel
- In Ace Attorney, every lawyer uses the word "Objection!" liberally and bombastically.
Web Animation
- Dayum: “Ayo” is said a lot by the characters.
- Star Trek Logical Thinking: Characters who are not Spock often say, "I should reword my phrases/rethink what I'm trying to say.", "But I thought [name/pronoun] was making perfect sense!" and "The argument seemed to make sense."
Webcomics
- "HOORAY FOR POKEY!!" and "YES!!" are used constantly, and by just about everyone, in Pokey the Penguin.
Web Original
- Both shows of Decoder Ring Theatre, the Red Panda Adventures and Black Jack Justice, have several expressions and turns of phrase that several characters use in certain circumstances.
- "An interesting point" is used when one character makes a point whoever they're taking to can't dispute.
- "In a nutshell" is used after another character has accurately summarized the situation.
- "I have the nuances" is a character acknowledging they have a rough idea what's going on, if not the details.
- Dragon Ball Z Abridged: "Crapbaskets" is Gohan's catchphrase, but both Future Trunks (who was trained by him) and Cell (who has his DNA) picked it up from him. When Gohan overhears Trunks use it, he even remarks, "Oh, you say that, too." And in Episode of Bardock we see that Bardock also said it. Though that was a dream of Gohan's so it's likely just Gohan's subconscious making him say that.
- Dream: The hunters in Minecraft Manhunt can't go an episode without saying, "Oh, Dream!"
- Neopets:
- "Hi" is the catchphrase of two separate Poogles (a red one and a pink one) who appear by Random Event.
- "Ugga" and "Ugg" are common words in the fictional Tyrannian language. The translation is unknown, since there seem to be several meanings (a disease called "Ugga-ugga", but at the same time "a-ugga" seems to mean "to return to", etc.)
- Bruces can appear via random event and say, "Have you tried the slushies? I hear they are awfully good!", "Brr! I'm freezing! I'm going home!", "Apparently, there is something going on at the top of the mountain," "Tally ho!", "Hi there!", "The Ice Caves are great... but watch out for the Frost Beast!", "I used to be a game show host once," "Who is throwing snowballs at me?!?", and "You must be freezing!".
- Petpets will say, "Oi! Don't swear! This site is family-friendly!" if you trip the profanity filter. They also say, "Bloop!", "Brrflp", and "Plllrr" a lot. Meepits in particular say, "Meep".
- Protectors of the Plot Continuum:
- Agents will say, "Charge" if they observe something that's blatantly charge-worthy.
- When reciting the charge list, agents will often say, "[Name], you are charged with [list of charges]" and, if the person being spoken to is to be killed, they'll end it with "Your punishment is death. Any last words?". Common phrases said during charging are "being a (optional adjective such as "massive" or "serious") [Mary Sue/Gary Stu]", "[annoying/pissing off, etc] two PPC agents", "causing [object or character] to [action]", and "impersonating [character name]".
- The main two groups of SBI Rust have catchphrases that are mirrors of eachother.
"Anything for the dome."
"Anything for the meat."
Western Animation
- Buddy Thunderstruck: Several different characters will often yell out, "Fartnugget!" the same way a person would yell out an expletive.
- Miraculous Ladybug: Chloé's catchphrase of "Ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous!" is shown to be shared by her mother Audrey when the latter appears in season 2. The obvious implication is that Chloé learned it from Audrey.
- "Here comes Monkie kid/s!" From Monkie Kid is used by the Monkie kids with a couple variations throughout the show. There's also a punnier example with Le-go! (This is a LEGO show after all.)
- Peg + Cat: Different characters, but never Peg, sing the lyric "So everything is awesome" in the "Problem Solved" song.
- Phineas and Ferb:
- Someone, usually helping Phineas and Ferb with whatever their day's adventure is, will ask "Aren't you a little young/old/etc. to be [doing whatever]?" and the answer is either, "Yes, yes I am"/"No, no I'm not." It eventually becomes such a recognizable phrase it's used for events outside that recurring gag as well.
- In basically every episode, someone will ask "Hey, where's Perry?" before the show switches to what Perry is up to.
- Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja: Randy has a collection of strange euphemisms and odd lingo that he uses so often that almost everyone around him uses it as well. Such as "What the juice?!"(an exclamation of confusion)"that's the cheese" (that's the best), "so honkin' bruce" (that's freaking awesome), "shnasty" (extremely gross), "shoob" (bad or uncool person) and "so wonk" (so lame)
- In most incarnations of Scooby-Doo, after the Monster of the Week is unmasked, has their plan foiled, and are being hauled off to jail, they often exclaim to Mystery Inc. some variant of "I would've gotten away with it if it weren't for You Meddling Kids and that dog!"
- The Simpsons:
- "D'oh!", while associated with Homer Simpson, borders on this. It's often seen used by members of his family in a demonstration of Shared Family Quirks (in fact, the episode "Mother Simpson" implies that his mom Mona was the origin point), but gets scattered all over the cast according to Rule of Funny. Ditto "Woo-hoo!"
- Mr. Burns' catchphrase "Simpson, eh?," typically said when he's about to involve Homer or his family in the mayhem or the week, became something of a Mad Libs Catch Phrase used by other members of the cast to demonstrate a foreboding level of interest in a subject ("Strike, eh?", "Internet, eh?")
- Batman: Assault on Arkham:
- Catchphrase: Harley Quinn has one: "Yahtzee!" It's a Share Phrase with the Joker.