10 Long TV Running Gags You Never Even Noticed

Community is unquestionably one of the most meta and self-aware TV shows of all time, and though eagle-eyed fans are committed to catching every last split-second gag, there's one hiding in plain sight throughout the series that you may well have missed.

This is in large part because it's not something that can be seen, so scouring every last inch of every single shot won't actually help you.

Michael Haggins' instrumental jazz tune "Daybreak" can be heard on no less than a dozen different Community episodes between seasons three and six.

Troy (Donald Glover), Abed (Danny Pudi), Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown), and Annie (Alison Brie) are all heard humming it in separate episodes, and it's also heard playing on a radio and in an elevator in others.

According to creator Dan Harmon, the reason for this is that the production spent so much money securing licensing rights to play The Police's "Roxanne" in the legendary season three episode "Remedial Chaos Theory" that the season's music budget had been mostly eaten up.

And so, Daybreak was used to fill the gaps for the season, with Harmon ultimately deciding to run with the ball and turn it into a wider Community gag you probably had no idea about.