Top Five Jokes

This one is in a similar vein to Top Five Foods. These are the jokes that you don't mind hearing over again and even look forward to. For the purposes of gaining a wider audience, inside jokes don't count; the joke must be somewhat popularized.

The nature of this Top Five necessitates a lot of thought. So I'm giving you 2 of the Top Five Jokes. Naturally, I don't know where these land on the list, so I'm not numbering them.

- On Mad About You, the TV series, Paul Buchman's father has a recurring bit that I really like. Whenever he's knocking on Paul and Jamie's door or leaving a message on the answering machine, he says (in a charming soft New York Jewish accent), "Paul? Paul, are you there? It's me, [pause] your father. [pause] Burt. Burt Buchman." This was a running gag that I loved hearing every time.

- "Morning, Ralph." "Morning, Sam." I'm not sure where it first came from but I first saw it on Saturday morning cartoons on Looney Tunes. What's more, I really enjoy seeing that bit homaged in other shows. Of course, my favorite, and the only one I can really remember is on an episode ("Twins" episode) of Newsradio, between Jimmy James (Stephen Root) and Bill McNeal (Phil Hartman). Here's the Wikipedia entry, which is much more informative.

Joyce Millman apparently really like the Morning-Sam,Morning-Ralph bit from Newsradio as well and put some more thought into it than I did. Read her review.

- Sex and the City, episode 1, "The Baby Shower":
Charlotte has just found out that her ex-friend Lanie has stolen Charlotte's secret baby name.
SAMANTHA: What's going on?
CHARLOTTE: She stole my baby name!
SAMANTHA: You BITCH.
Of course, all the punctuation in the world doesn't do justice to how Samantha says this. Just go watch it. I'll try to find it.
(She takes Charlotte in arm protectively and storms out with her)