10 Best Running Gags From Malcolm In The Middle | Screen Rant
The best sitcoms reward longstanding viewers with subtle callbacks and jokes, and Malcolm in the Middle does not disappoint. The series is filled with many gags through its large run time, and they make for some amazing comedy and cheeky references to earlier episodes.
While there is one gag that towers above the rest in Malcolm in the Middle lore, there are plenty of other noteworthy jokes and premises that contributed to the hilarity of the series, and they only get better with time.
Malcolm's grandmother Ida constantly refers to her homeland throughout the series. Though the Croatian flag in "Ida's Dance" may imply she's from Croatia, the references are always vague and fictional, and they help fill out her character and provide some long-running comedy for the show.
Nothing is ever good enough for her, as Ida is one of the least likable Malcolm in the Middle characters, and the joke is that she often laments about the (poor, but not terrible) condition of Lois' life by comparing it to her violent culture back home. Episodes like "Bride of Ida," where she makes Reese and Malcolm fight to marry her maid, and "Ida's Dance," where Lois is forced to bake a giant tart, truly illuminate how bizarre and terrible her customs are, but there are enough jokes and humor to Cloris Leachman's performance that it stands as a strong running gag.
Everyone in the family has a weird daydream at some point. In "If Boys Were Girls," the whole episode is a series of Lois' imagination, and there are countless other times as well, like when Dewey has six hands in "Minibike" or Hal has gravity boots in "Experiment."
It's part of the charm of the series, and while the daydreams are a very funny gag, they also help unite all of the different characters. There's not a lot to bond them all aside from being related to one another, so it's a humorous shared quirk the audience gets to witness.
Although in "Ida Loses a Leg," Dewey doesn't appear to have the same animal affinity he used to, a running joke about his character is all the weird creatures he befriends. In "Tutoring Reese," he has a strange friendship with Tony the fly, and in "Dewey's Dog" he brings home a large pup he finds on the street.
While this attribute contributes to Dewey's characterization, it's also humorous to imagine all the animals that Dewey found that weren't shown on screen. Clearly, as Lois points out in the episode, he's had more than one Tony the fly, and it's fun to think of all the possibilities and other potential candidates for the best side characters in Malcolm in the Middle.
Malcolm's financial status was the source of a lot of material, both good and bad. Though the family certainly went through a lot of the "bad," like when Lois lost her job in "Lois vs. Evil," it also became something of a running joke as the series went on.
There are small references here and there that play on the more comical side of the serious financial ruin they were in, and one of the best is in "Baby, Part 1" when Hal breaks into hysterical laughter after Malcolm asks about their savings. Though it's expected of a sitcom to make these situations lighter, Malcolm in the Middle was especially good at toeing the line, and humorizing this dire problem was a nice way to ease the tension and create another gag.
Even though the red dress is only mentioned twice, the episode "Red Dress" was so memorable to the fandom that it technically counts as a subtle running joke. Lois never finds out who burned it in season 1, and it wasn't until years later in the season 6 episode "Stilts" that Hal admits he did it.
It's such a long time for the suspense to build that it was quite a surprise and a joy that the secret is finally revealed to Lois, and the hints where Hal accidentally burns things like the vacuum in "Tutoring Reese" help build up the joke until the climax in the later season.
Malcolm in the Middle loved to leave people in the dark, such as where exactly Ida was from and what Malcolm's last name was, and Hal's position at his company was no different. Even the episode "Company Picnic" never revealed exactly what he does, and it's become a running joke over the years.
The episode "Softball" also played on the mystery of Hal's job when he interviews for a strange company that is described as possibly "recruiting secret agents," and it's a nod to the viewers who understand that they will never know what Hal does.
The conflict between Francis and Lois is complicated, personal, and above all, one of the funniest parts of the series. There's always a new argument, a new pointless squabble, and the series often plays on Francis' arbitrary anger with Lois, such as in the episode "Bowling" when he gets upset with Lois and not with Hal.
And while it is something of a running joke, their relationship is also a keystone of Malcolm in the Middle, and their disagreements would often provide just as much emotion and drama as they did comedy.
One of the strangest parts of the series was the writer's unwillingness to give Malcolm's last name. Luckily, they didn't have the same reservations in the pilot, and Francis's military nametag gave the fandom "Wilkerson" inadvertently. However, this is the only time it's ever shown directly in the series.
The finale plays off the gag in the best way. As Malcolm's name is announced for graduation, instead of giving the less eagle-eyed fans the answer to his mysterious last name, the microphone gives off feedback when his turn is announced. It's a great way to end the joke, and though fans may have initially been disappointed, the comedy ages well.
Malcolm talks to the camera every episode. It begins as more of a film style, similar to the comedy utilized by workplace comedies The Office or Parks and Recreation in their fictional docuseries, but even early on, the filmmakers would often play around with the format as a running "inside" joke. As in, "inside" Malcolm's head.
For instance, in "Water Park," Malcolm's traditional inner dialogue is disrupted when he screams directly at the camera, and he could have just said something or yelled in real-time. It's a funny part of the series, though the joke only works for longtime viewers who know what his talking heads should sound like.
This one is perhaps the most famous and well-known joke of them all. In "Health Scare," Dewey is given the class pet to take care of for the week, a hamster named Bernard. He then decides to let him go free in a hamster ball filled with cheerios when a bully threatens to harm Bernard. Little did the fandom know that this would set off one of the best running gags of the entire series.
The hamster ball came back for four separate episodes, and it was neither mentioned nor explained. To get the joke, viewers had to have seen the original episode, but for those who did, it was extremely funny and rewarding to see Bernard's signature orange ball roll in the background. Given that Dewey has been proclaimed the smartest Malcolm in the Middle character, he must have done something right with those cheerios, and it allowed for this obvious winner of Malcolm in the Middle gags.