10 Long TV Running Gags You Never Even Noticed
5. The Secret McBain Movie Hidden Throughout The Show - The Simpsons
The Simpsons is of course jam-packed with running gags both blatant and subtle, from Bart (Nancy Cartwright) prank-calling Moe's Tavern to the recurring crow that always caws distinctively during any establishing shot of Springfield Nuclear Power Plant.
But an altogether more ingenious running joke occurs between the second and fourth seasons, where five separate episodes show clips of the fake movie McBain, starring Austrian action hero Ranier Wolfcastle (very clearly intended to be an Arnold Schwarzenegger parody).
Viewed across three years the clips seem simple enough, but more recently as more fans began to binge The Simpons, they started to realise that these McBain clips all form part of a continuous narrative and are, in effect, a truncated version of the McBain movie.
The four minutes of footage are effectively a McBain short film, showing McBain's best pal and partner Scoey being killed by corrupt senator Mendoza, and McBain's blood-soaked quest to avenge his fallen friend.
We all remember McBain, but these excerpts are by themselves such typical parodies of corny action movies that most fans wouldn't ever realise they were connected as a coherent(ish) story. Incredible.