A gag that goes excessively far and beyond a tolerable length. The concept is that something happens repeatedly, to the point of boredom. Then it keeps going , to the point where it, in theory, actually becomes funny again. Essentially, the sheer length of the gag becomes the gag. This is inconceivably tricky - there has to be the sense that the characters are themselves helpless to end the gag, and as exasperated as the audience. One famous example of this trope is the "Rake Scene" from The Simpsons episode "Cape Feare", where Sideshow Bob kept stepping on rakes ad nauseam until the pointlessness of the scene became the gag and it became funny again.
The production team has confessed that the gag was added because the episode ran short. However, some feel that, once the audience recognizes the trope again, the gag permanently loses its entertainment value and the viewer is left waiting for it to end and some other humor to begin "Oh, it's another one of these ; how utterly hi lar ious Others, though, find it a brilliant subversion of audience expectations on the lines of Andy Kaufman reading the entire text of The Great Gatsby to an audience expecting a comedy routine.
Not that that was actually brilliant, but you get the idea. Either way, the more it's used, the more it's expected. Comedy writers take note: It's good for a laugh occasionally, but expect diminishing returns for each Overly Long Gag you employ after the first. Even a moron can tell the difference between you toying with their expectations and you stretching fifteen minutes of jokes into a thirty-minute timeslot. Most uses of Broken Record might end up becoming this.
It's sort of like Crosses the Line Twice , only boring instead of offensive. Compare Overly Long Name. Not to be confused with Overused Running Gag. May invoke the Repeat Cut. May be invoked by Rhyming List. The serious version is Leave the Camera Running or Ending Fatigue , if the prolongated section is the closure.
When Incredibly Long Note is played for laughs, it might reach this. If the gag itself isn't overly long, but the distance between the setup and the payoff is, it's an Overly Prepared Gag or Brick Joke.
