Chalkboard gag

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Bart writes The Pledge of Allegiance does not end with Hail Satan

The chalkboard gag is a running visual joke that occurs during the opening credits of many episodes of The Simpsons. In this gag, Bart Simpson is frowning while he writes a unique phrase on the chalkboard repeatedly; when the school bell rings, he immediately becomes glad, stops writing and runs out of the classroom. The phrase is usually in the form of an admonishment, implying that Bart has been assigned this task as punishment in detention for some misbehavior left partly to the viewer's imagination.

The chalkboard gags are usually written in upper case (with the exception of the word "eBay," in which Bart included a lower case "e".)

While running visual jokes in The Simpsons are rarely referred to by the content of the show itself, in the episode "Skinner's Sense of Snow", Bart says that he had written on the chalkboard so many times that his hands sound like a cement mixer. In another episode, Bart asks for a detention but Ms. Krabapple said they all got tired of that years ago, referencing the dropping number of gags in the openings.

Lisa has been punished with the chalkboard on the episode "Lisa's Date with Density".

In the early days of the series, a chalkboard gag was used in almost every episode, but, as commercial time has increased, they have gradually disappeared. They are now shown as rarely as twice per season. The show's producers have said that they may soon disappear altogether. However, they seem to be making a comeback as there were eight blackboard gags during season 17 including three in a row during the last three episodes of the season.

[edit] Chalkboard gags outside The Simpsons

The chalkboard gag on South Park

This chalkboard gag appeared in an episode of South Park entitled "Cartoon Wars Part II". It reads I Hate Family Guy.
In a parody of the Simpsons intro on Histeria!, Loud Kiddington is shown writing I do not need a megaphone.
In Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets, Mr. Krupp punishes George and Harold by making them spend two hours a day after school from now on filling the chalkboards with the following sentence: I will never do anything which angers my handsome and charming principal, Mr. Krupp, ever, ever again. (The boys manage to speed up the process by placing twelve chalk sticks in wooden poles.) At the end of the book, when George and Harold are made Principals for a Day, they make Mr. Krupp and the teachers (as well as the class tattletale Melvin Sneedly) write the following sentences on chalkboards:
- Ms. Ribble: I will stop being such a crab.
- Mr. Meaner: I will chill out.
- Ms. Anthrope: I will get a life.
- Melvin: I will not be a tattle-tale.
- Mr. Krupp: I will be very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very nice to "George the Great" and "The Amazing Harold".
Jason Fox of FoxTrot is sometimes shown having to do chalkboard punishments. One Sunday strip from 1994 has him using the school's computer to print the phrase I will not shoot paper clips in class and then taping it to the chalkboard (to which his teacher replies, "Jason, I meant write it by hand"). Another Sunday strip includes a For loop repeating the required phrase 500 times. This results in Jason's teacher becoming upset with him.
In the pilot episode of Invader Zim, after a foodfight, Dib is forced to write on the chalkboard 100 times, "Zim is not an alien". Other phrases such as "yes he is", "Zim is an alien", "Zim kidnaps and discects livestock", and "My hand hurts" are visible.
On the ESPN show Around The Horn, panelist Woody Paige is featured with a chalkboard who's message is changing with each segment.
In The Fairly OddParents movie Channel Chasers Timmy Turner is seen looking like Bart Simpson writing on a chalkboard (a bell then rings and he skateboards away).
In each episode of the ABC sitcom George Lopez, a different inspirational saying is written on a chalkboard on the side of the Lopezes' refrigerator. [1]