Things that only work once that you see used repeatedly

[Zontar]

I think you're missing the bigger point here: it's not that it only works once, it's that it only works for you once. The fact that you have heard a joke/heard a story/experienced a plot element to the point that it lost its value doesn't mean anyone else has; you are not the center of the universe. I know it has always been fashionable to decry anything lacking novelty as "cliche", but c'mon. Would you have complained about the introduction of Sherlock Holmes when Doyle was just redoing what Poe had done forty years earlier?

Things loose impact when repeated, and there are some things which are put through this repetition which only had enough of a punch to work once. Sure, there are some things that work beyond that, these typically turn into running gags (though weather it works or not is very hit or miss). It's a case-by-case situation, and though it's true that enjoying comedy or drama is subjective, there is a difference between something being enjoyable and something being good. A good indication that something is not good is if the target demographic is overwhelmingly negative in its reaction to something. My example in the OP, for instance, was one which I have yet to see a single person say something positive about. It was a pretty good example of the "only works once" type of joke, as it is completely reliant on it never having been done as the basis of its humour. By having it ever episode or two, the core of what made the joke work is lost, which is why nobody laughs at it anymore and are generally annoyed instead. Given how the writers have shown themselves to be aware enough of the rules of comedy to know this, this is one of the very long list of reasons why it's a wildly held belief that the writer of Family Guy are trying to sabotage the series, or push it a far as they can to see how unfunny, disgusting and offensive they can make the series and get away with it.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

Threads about drowning/dating. They worked once, maybe twice, when posing a hypothetical question with a seemingly morally dubious outcome... but does this need to spark 300 poorly thought out copy cats, and the 'oh-so-hilarious' /) piss-take ones we get too?

It wouldn't be so bad if they were thought out, but they are not well constructed and just get as tiresome as watching a drunk friend frying to insert their key into their front door...

 

[Recusant]

I think you're missing the bigger point here: it's not that it only works once, it's that it only works for you once. The fact that you have heard a joke/heard a story/experienced a plot element to the point that it lost its value doesn't mean anyone else has; you are not the center of the universe. I know it has always been fashionable to decry anything lacking novelty as "cliche", but c'mon. Would you have complained about the introduction of Sherlock Holmes when Doyle was just redoing what Poe had done forty years earlier?

Things loose impact when repeated, and there are some things which are put through this repetition which only had enough of a punch to work once. Sure, there are some things that work beyond that, these typically turn into running gags (though weather it works or not is very hit or miss). It's a case-by-case situation, and though it's true that enjoying comedy or drama is subjective, there is a difference between something being enjoyable and something being good. A good indication that something is not good is if the target demographic is overwhelmingly negative in its reaction to something. My example in the OP, for instance, was one which I have yet to see a single person say something positive about. It was a pretty good example of the "only works once" type of joke, as it is completely reliant on it never having been done as the basis of its humour. By having it ever episode or two, the core of what made the joke work is lost, which is why nobody laughs at it anymore and are generally annoyed instead. Given how the writers have shown themselves to be aware enough of the rules of comedy to know this, this is one of the very long list of reasons why it's a wildly held belief that the writer of Family Guy are trying to sabotage the series, or push it a far as they can to see how unfunny, disgusting and offensive they can make the series and get away with it.

That makes your point a bit clearer, but I still disagree. The example you chose illustrates why "good" and "enjoyable" are inherently subjective: Family Guy has essentially been running the same premise of "extend the joke until it stops becoming funny, then until it becomes funny again, then even further until it ceases being funny a second time" for better than ten years now. It's still on the air because the ratings are high enough; that means enough people are still watching. You (and many others) may feel that the show was once brilliant but has outstayed its welcome; I'd point out that aside from ramping up the stupidity and courting controversy, it never did anything that The Critic didn't do, and it did them later and more poorly.

Even if you argue that humor isn't necessarily as subjective as I'm saying, though, you really can't argue that experience isn't. No matter how many times you hear a joke, there may be someone in the room for whom it's the first time.

 

[Zontar]

That makes your point a bit clearer, but I still disagree. The example you chose illustrates why "good" and "enjoyable" are inherently subjective: Family Guy has essentially been running the same premise of "extend the joke until it stops becoming funny, then until it becomes funny again, then even further until it ceases being funny a second time" for better than ten years now. It's still on the air because the ratings are high enough; that means enough people are still watching. You (and many others) may feel that the show was once brilliant but has outstayed its welcome; I'd point out that aside from ramping up the stupidity and courting controversy, it never did anything that The Critic didn't do, and it did them later and more poorly.

Even if you argue that humor isn't necessarily as subjective as I'm saying, though, you really can't argue that experience isn't. No matter how many times you hear a joke, there may be someone in the room for whom it's the first time.

If someone found that particular gag new, it's because they just got into Family Guy, which means they haven't had the set up of a few seasons of it not happening for it to be funny, so if it was something they had just come across they it isn't going to be funny, it's going to be head-scratching.

More over, Family Guy isn't even funny anymore, and it's not trying to be either. Where there where once jokes, now we have gross out moments, filler dialogue that is neither a joke nor relevant to any plot, cutaways taking up half the episodes (I'm not joking, they take up half of a whole episode's runtime these days, someone actually went to the trouble of seeing how long they where and found most episodes can't manage to reach 12 minutes without cutaways), moments that outright creepy that are put in place of comedy (creepy does not equal funny), inconsistent characterization in a series that once made whole episodes around one off jokes from previous ones (talk about continuity rot), and a main cast who has devolved into a shadow of their former selves. Chris makes every scene he's in worst by virtue of being there, Meg is just a punching bag, Lois is a *****, Peter had been flanderdized to high heaven, Brian deserves to have stayed dead with how downright evil he is and Stewie just sits around now being a stereotypical closet case. The only likeable character in the whole case is Quagmire, and that's because 50% of his role is him bitching to the cast, particularly Brian, when one of them needs to be brought down a peg, and the other 50% he's managed to keep his charm from the period of the series that made it popular in the first place before putting it in its current self-perpetuating state where its so popular it would take Seth dying for the show to end, because it can't do so through a drop in quality, and we know this because it hit rock bottom already.

***catches breath***

Alright, I think I'm done my Family Guy rant.

What a waste, not even the Simpsons had such a large fall from grace. Here's hoping that some day a new batch of writers will come in, and this era will be one we try to forget gave us anything other then the much better American Dad and the consistently watchable Cleveland Show.