List of running gags

In the interest of making this wiki the leading authority on Young Justice, we list here all the running gags and catchphrases seen on the show.

Laughter
As Robin, Dick Grayson was prone to moving out on his own, and engage the enemies while laughing. Incidents include:
 * "Independence Day":
 * Robin laughted before he jumped Mr. Freeze.
 * Robin laughed before he went off to save Kid Flash from falling off the Cadmus building.
 * "Hack and You Shall Find" – Robin laughed while moving to intercept the assassins approaching Selena Gonzalez's office.
 * "By Hook or by Web" – Robin laughed as he disappeared after freeing himself, Aqualad and Kid Flash from Black Spider's web.

Back-formations
Dick Grayson was very fond of removing actual or supposed affixes from words, and using the resulting neologism as a pun.


 * (Over/Under) Whelmed: Robin twisted the words of Mister Freeze to form a word that means to be level-headed, or when an event neither falls below, nor rises above expectations.
 * In "Independence Day", he wondered why nobody's just whelmed after looking at the Hall of Justice.
 * In "Fireworks", he described Desmond as "not whelmed" after the sidekicks made their escape.
 * In "Schooled", Superboy was whelmed after laying his eyes on the real Professor Ivo.
 * In "Bereft", the amnesiac Robin repeated his statement on why nobody's ever just whelmed.
 * In "Misplaced", Zatanna was hesitant to replicate Zatara's magic locator spell. Robin told her to try to stay whelmed.
 * In "Performance", when the Team confronted the Parasite who had Miss Martian's powers, Robin told the Team to stay whelmed.
 * In "Auld Acquaintance", after taking down Superman with kryptonite, Superboy claimed it hurt a lot. Hence the reason Robin said it was stored in an overwhelmingly impenetrable vault in the Batcave. But since he hacked it, it was now "whelmingly penetrable".
 * In "Salvage", Red Arrow was whelmed by the attention he received at his intervention.
 * In "Before the Dawn", Nightwing counseled Barbara Gordon, who was in a containment pod, to stay whelmed.
 * (Dis) Turbed: In "Welcome to Happy Harbor", when Mr. Twister claimed he found the presence of the Team without adult supervision quite disturbing, Robin retorted that he wanted him to be more "turbed". After beating them, Mr. Twister found the experience "turbing". At the end, when Miss Martian was instrumental to defeating the android, Robin was "turbed" she was on the Team.
 * (Dis) Concerted: In "Drop-Zone", Robin confronted Kobra and found him disconcerted. The terrorist would later flip it around when beating Robin up, saying the boy wonder looked disconcerted. When Kobra was vexed after the destruction of the venom factory by Bane's bombs, Robin said he was mighty concerted over Kobra's pain.
 * (Dis) Aster:
 * While on a relaxing bike ride with Superboy in "Schooled", Robin made idle chatter about dislike being the opposite of like, and asking whether "disaster" was the opposite of "aster", when things go wrong. He noted that Superboy was not feeling the "aster". After the MONQIs abducted their half of Amazo, Robin muttered that the mission was a disaster, heavy on the "dis-". After the Team took down Amazo, Superboy was finally feeling the "aster".
 * In "Usual Suspects", after defeating Bane, his henchmen, Sportsmaster and Blockbuster, Robin happily told Zatanna that disaster was averted, and he was feeling the aster.
 * At the end of "Monkey Business", Nightwing described the Team's first year as "All aster. No dis."
 * (In) Filtrate: After shutting down the Fog in "Infiltrator", Robin happily declared that the infiltrators were "out-filtrated".
 * (Dis) Traught: In "Homefront", while on the run from Red Volcano and Red Torpedo, Robin observed that Artemis seemed distraught. She agreed, and began having a panic attack before he bluntly told her to get "traught" or get dead. After Artemis managed to set off an electromagnetic pulse and defeat the Reds, she resuscitated Robin, who praised her with "way to get traught".
 * (Non) Chalant:
 * In "Alpha Male", Kid Flash commented on the mind-link that he was irritated how Aqualad was so nonchalant about not telling them about the mole. Robin then chimed in saying Aqualad should be "chalant", "way chalant", "extremely chalant".
 * In "Humanity", after Zatanna caused Ivo to blurt out T.O. Morrow's location, Robin wanted to nonchalantly learn more about her powers. Zatanna told him he should be as "chalant" as he would like.
 * (Im) Penetrable: After taking down Superman with kryptonite, Superboy claimed it hurt a lot. Hence the reason Robin said it was stored in an overwhelmingly impenetrable vault in the Batcave. But since he hacked it, it was now "whelmingly penetrable".

Aliases
The codenames of several heroes have been the subject of confusion and derision.
 * "Independence Day":
 * Tourists at the Hall of Justice were confused over Kid Flash's name. One called him "Flash Junior", only to be told he is "Speedy", before a third tourist correctly stated that Speedy is Green Arrow's sidekick. Another tourist didn't think that made any sense.
 * At Cadmus, a firefighter called Kid Flash "Flash Boy". Kid Flash emphatically corrected him.
 * "What's the Story?" – When Kid Flash told the story of his origin and the Flash family history, he admitted that it would have been less confusing had his uncle chosen a different name rather than using that of the original Flash. He painfully overcompensated by explaining exactly which Flash he was talking about everytime one was mentioned.
 * "Beneath" – When Wonder Girl refused to identify herself, Devastation came up with several possible names for her clearly Wonder Woman-themed captive: "Wonder Baby", "Wonder Brat" and "The Blonde Wonder".
 * "Bloodlines" – A Central City police captain mistakenly called Kid Flash "Speedy". Impulse told him Speedy was "the other guy", noting that history books would be unclear why the confusing name was used.
 * "Satisfaction" – The original Speedy commented on the lack of originality of his clone's current alias.

Don't call them sidekicks
"Don't call them sidekicks" was the tagline first used to promote the show, and the young heroes' aversion to the term is well documented.
 * "Independence Day" – When Kid Flash pointed out that the four sidekicks were together for the first time at their induction to the Hall of Justice, Speedy quickly admonished him–"Don't call us sidekicks. Not after today."
 * "Insecurity" – Green Arrow suggested the original sidekicks should team up for a mission, but quickly corrected himself to "ex-sidekicks".
 * "Usual Suspects" – When Red Arrow was officially inducted to the Justice League, Robin happily said no-one will call him a sidekick anymore. Rocket was surprised by their dislike of the word.
 * "Satisfaction" – When Speedy referred to the sidekicks forming their own team, Red Arrow told him they tried to avoid calling themselves sidekicks.

"Hello, Megan!" and derivatives
Used as a catchphrase in the in-world show Hello, Megan!, the phrase has been adopted by Miss Martian, and her teammates to a lesser extent. Used primarily to express exasperation at themselves, similar to Homer Simpson's D'oh.
 * "Welcome to Happy Harbor":
 * M'gann: "Hello, Megan! I know what we can do"
 * Miss Martian: "Hello, Megan! Mister Twister is Red Tornado in disguise."
 * Red Tornado: "And my immunity to telepathy." Miss Martian: "Hello, Megan!"
 * "Drop Zone" – Miss Martian: "Hello, Megan! It's so obvious." (referring to Aqualad being leader.)
 * "Infiltrator" – M'gann: "Hello, Megan. We should hit the beach every day."
 * "Denial:"
 * Miss Martian: "Hello, Megan! We never truly answered the question." (asked by Doctor Fate's security system)
 * Wally: "Hello, Megan! Guess who bought us two tickets to a magic show."
 * "Downtime" – M'gann: "Too much at once! Too much at once! Hello, Megan! That's so me." (cleans the mess she made on Superboy)
 * "Bereft":
 * Miss Martian: "Hello, Megan. I'm on Earth!" (upon realizing she was not on Mars)
 * Miss Martian: "You know my Uncle J'onn? Hello, Megan! Of course you do." (upon meeting Robin and Kid Flash)
 * Megan Wheeler: "Hello, Megan!" (during her mind-meld with Superboy)
 * Miss Martian: "Hello, Megan! That's so me." (Mind-meld flashback)
 * "Hello, Megan. Aqualad's memories! I knew I forgot something." (Aqualad woke up, panicked by voices in his head)
 * "Fears" – Miss Martian: "Well, I'm from Mars. Ugn! Hello, Megan! ...You guys already knew that!" (while telling her teammates how she came to Earth)
 * "Targets" – Megan Morse: "Hello, Megan! That means I made the Team." (upon learning she was a Bumblebee)
 * "Revelation":
 * Artemis: "Hello, Wally! If the big guns are fighting plants, who do you think we'll be fighting?"
 * Miss Martian: "Hello, Megan! Of course" (when told to open hatch to escape from sinking Bio-Ship)
 * "Humanity" – Miss Martian: "Hello, Megan! You wanted to become more human." (upon realizing why Red Tornado volunteered to be den mother)
 * "Failsafe" – Kid Flash: "Hello, Wally, come on." (he thought the heroes were being teleported away instead of being disintegrated)
 * "Disordered" – M'gann: "It was all my fault. Hello, Megan."
 * "Image:"
 * Hello, Megan! theme song: Hello, Megan! Hello, Megan! School and boys and parents too, A whole lot to juggle from Miss You-Know-Who. Hello, Megan, Hello, Megan! This cheerleader knows the score, Center of attention and so much more, Hello, Megan, Hello, Megan... A little bit distractable, but never too intractable, She's really quite attractable, Okay, a lot distractable! Eventually, she'll get a clue-clue. [Megan Wheeler]: 'Hello, Megan!'  The girl for me, The girl for you... Hello, Megan, Hello, Megan! The girl for me, The girl for you, Hello, Megan! Hello, Megan! Hello, Megan!
 * Megan Wheeler: "Hello, Megan!" (realizing she made two dates at the same time)
 * Robin: Don't you have a souvenir to collect? Kid Flash: Hello, Megan!" (the Team confronts Miss Martian about the image she cultivated as Megan.)
 * "Performance" – Dawn Danger: "Hello, Megan! I'll read Haly's mind!"
 * "Alienated" – Miss Martian: "Hello, Megan! I knew we forgot something." (after Lagoon Boy stares in shock at having two 'Kroloteans' aboard the Bio-Ship)

Souvenir!
In 2010, Kid Flash is very fond of souvenirs. He almost never fails to snatch one, while gleefully yelling out "Souvenir". After he left the Team, Beast Boy has largely taken over as souvenir collector in 2016. Although similar to the list of mission souvenirs, this section mainly lists the number of times the word is mentioned.
 * At the end of "Bereft", Kid Flash was disappointed he forgot to take a souvenir. Miss Martian reassured him saying they have "it" covered.
 * In "Alpha Male", Kid Flash took Monsieur Mallah's beret, telling Artemis in one word: "Souvenir!". She shook him by saying two words: "Gorilla lice!"
 * In "Revelation", Kid Flash ripped part of Count Vertigo's cape as a souvenir, but after he broke his arm, Artemis took it so she could turn it into a sling. And at first Wally didn't know what was happening so he thought she was taking his souvenir.
 * In "Coldhearted", after Kid Flash had defeated Count Vertigo, he took Vertigo's sword and returned it to Perdita, who offered it to Kid as a souvenir. Back at the cave, Kid Flash placed on his souvenir wall the backpack that carried the heart he delivered, thinking it was the more fitting souvenir for the mission.
 * In "Insecurity", as Artemis and Cheshire were battling, Kid Flash arrived on the scene, knocked Cheshire down and took her sai as a souvenir. Back at The Cave, Kid Flash learned that Artemis had placed a tracer on a train to send he, Red Arrow and Aqualad on a wild goose chase and assumed she did so because she was insecure about Red Arrow joining The Team. Kid Flash tossed the sai at Artemis' feet, telling her she could keep it, then took the tracer and said, "This is the right souvenir for the mission."
 * In "Usual Suspects", after Artemis defeated Sportsmaster, she tossed his mask at the feet of Kid Flash and told him it was a souvenir.
 * In "Happy New Year", Beast Boy expressed disappointment that Clayface was defeated before he got a souvenir. Blue Beetle tells him the fragrance of the sewage sticking to his body definitely qualifies.
 * In "Earthlings", Miss Martian offered the sash of the Krolotean officer she mentally interrogated to Beast Boy as a souvenir. Beast Boy eagerly took it, and gleefully told Nightwing to check out his cool souvenir upon returning to earth in "Alienated".
 * In "Darkest", Impulse brought in Aqualad's alien tracer intending for it to be a souvenir, only for Blue Beetle to remind him it's Beast Boy's shtick now. After Mount Justice was blown to smithereens, Nightwing told Kid Flash he's sorry that all the souvenirs were destroyed, only for Kid Flash to angrily declare he doesn't care about them anymore.

Shimmer
Shimmer has faced the Team on numerous occcasions, but usually fails to aid her side in battle. Often, she finds herself tied up before she can join the fight.
 * In "Drop-Zone", when she first faced Robin, he was called away before the fight could begin. When the Team later made their move against Kobra's forces, Robin snared her in a bola.
 * In "Usual Suspects", Shimmer watched the ongoing battle by Riddler's side, until Robin tangled her in a bola and knocked her out.
 * In "Beneath", Shimmer was telepathically probed and knocked out by Miss Martian before the Team was discovered trying to rescue Batgirl and the abducted teens.
 * In "Uncommon Dominators", Artemis tied Shimmer up with a rope arrow early in the Team's battle with Kobra.
 * In "Before the Dawn", Shimmer initially bucked this trend; she disarmed an abductee when he took a Manta Troopers weapon, and engaged Batgirl in combat for a time, though was eventually defeated. When she regained consciousness, however, she accidentally created a hole in the Reach ship's hull which began to flood the ship and ended up as Blue Beetle's exit point.

School bus in distress
A school bus from Metropolis, with the same bus driver and twelve students every time, have been shown to have problems crossing bridges on top of water. Its appearances include:
 * In "Schooled", a bridge accident pushed the bus over the brink. The combined efforts of Superboy and Superman saved the bus denizens from impending doom.
 * In "Revelation", Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Red Arrow worked together to prevent the Joker-controlled giant plant from harming the bus on the Star City bridge. They were unsuccessful—the bus was thrown into the water, but Guy Gardner caught it in a ginormous baseball mitt.
 * In "Misplaced", the driver-less bus was rescued from falling off a bridge in the child dimension by Rocket.

Zapped in the eyes by lasers

 * In "Schooled", a MONQI blasted Superboy's eyes with a laser, vexing the Boy of Steel.
 * In "Agendas", Match's heat vision caught Superboy on his eyes, blinding him for a moment and setting off his temper.

Love-hate relationship with monkeys
Superboy hates monkeys and doesn't hesitate to remind everyone of that fact whenever he encounters a simian.
 * In "Schooled", Professor Ivo utilized androids in the form of monkeys to recover the Amazo parts being guarded by the Team. Superboy exclaimed that he hated monkeys, visibly saddening Ivo who had spent a lot of time looking for his MONQI acronym.
 * In "Monkey Business", Superboy was caught up in a psychic blast from the past when he relived Joker's invasion of Mount Justice with a horde of green exploding monkeys. Although this was a simulacrum by a wayward G-Gnome, this is where he acquired his hatred of monkeys.
 * In "Alpha Male", Monsieur Mallah was one of the antagonists faced by the Team. Superboy commented on his hatred upon fighting the giant ape.
 * In "Revelation", the Ultra-Humanite was one of the antagonists faced by the Team. Upon meeting the giant silverback, Superboy expressed his hatred of monkeys.
 * In "Image", the Team encountered a playful green monkey, who proceeded to steal Kid Flash's energy bar and fling it in Superboy's face. He muttered his monkey-hating phrase here. Kid Flash noted that Monkey seemed to hate Superboys.
 * In "Earthlings", Beast Boy shifted into the form of a giant gorilla as he and Superboy wreaked havoc on a Krolotean starship. The brutal efficiency caused Superboy to comment that he might yet rethink his opinion on monkeys.
 * In "Depths", Superboy donned Superman's costume to impersonate the Man of Steel in a press conference. Upon dropping the subterfuge, he told Miss Martian that he hated monkey suits.
 * In "Uncommon Dominators", Superboy reacted negatively to the teaser for the next issue.
 * In "Monkey Business", Superboy noted that the Bwundan jungle "reeks of monkey" before reminding the Team of his distaste for them.
 * In "Gorilla Warfare", Superboy reiterated his hatred for monkeys while fighting Monsieur Mallah, but was chastised by Solovar; gorillas are not monkeys.

Literal names
Superboy likes to name things for what they are.
 * In "Alpha Male", Superboy gave the Kobra-Venom enhanced wolf the name "Wolf".
 * In "Disordered", it was revealed Superboy had given the spherical alien pet he picked up in "Bereft" the name "Sphere".
 * In "Image", Superboy liked that Gar had named his pet green monkey "Monkey".

Lagoon Boy
Angelfish is Lagoon Boy's pet name for Miss Martian.

"Angelfish"

 * In "Happy New Year" he called Miss Martian "Angelfish" as he welcomed her home.
 * In "Alienated", Miss Martian surmised that the Kroloteans were trying to build a new ship, at which point Lagoon Boy chimed in and calls her "Angelfish".
 * In "Salvage", as he invited her to resume their movie night.
 * In "Depths":
 * He called it to M'gann as he explaind to her that he couldn't help himself from chomping down on cooked crabs.
 * He referred to Miss Martian so, as he told Nightwing he was eager to join her on her assignment.

"Chum"
Chum, a word that means "friend" as well as fish bait, is another favorite expression used by Lagoon Boy. He apparently picked it up from his classmate King Sha'ark.
 * "Happy New Year":
 * After losing a sparring match, he vowed to one day defeat Nightwing, calling him "chum".
 * After Lagoon Boy released the Kroloteans' captives from their holding cell, UN Secretary Tseng apologized for their reaction to Lagoon Boy's alien-looking appearance. He brushed it off, saying he got that reaction a lot, "chum."
 * In "Depths", he scornfully called Superboy "chum" after Miss Martin fed him some cooked crab.
 * In "Darkest", he called Aqualad "chum" all the while promising to get back at him for his betrayal.

"Neptune's beard"
Lagoon Boy uses the facial hair of his patron god as an expletive.
 * In "Alienated":
 * Lagoon Boy shouted "Neptune's beard" in anger at the betrayal of Aqualad.
 * Later on, he exclaimed it as he saw Miss Martian posing as a Krolotean.
 * In "Depths":
 * Lagoon Boy bemoaned that he was stereotyped as "the water guy" while Miss Martian was assigned to a mission with Superboy and exclaimed "Neptune's beard" in frustration.
 * He shouted it later in anger after Superboy called him a "rookie".

Beast Boy's "Noted"
Beast Boy, eager to please, continually uses the term "noted" when he receives useful information, even if he doesn't fully understand it.


 * In "Earthlings":
 * After Alanna warned him about the seemingly beautiful but deadly flora of Rann.
 * When Miss Martian repelled his attempt at reigniting the flame between her and Superboy.
 * When Miss Martian explained that she couldn't translate the Kroloteans' thoughts without them noticing.
 * In "Alienated", after Miss Martian stymied him from showing the Team his mission souvenir from Raan, pointing out that business came first.
 * In "Bloodlines":
 * When Nightwing was explaining what he found in the data files that Miss Martian and Martian Manhunter had recovered on Malina Island.
 * When Impulse claimd to be the grandson of Bart Allen.
 * While trying to make sense of Impulse's slang.

Reach
The Reach use a number of idiosyncratic terms. They have been adopted and adapted by Impulse and other humans from his time to form slang words.

"Crash the mode" and derivatives
To the Reach, "crashing the mode" refers to a loss of control or failure. Humans have inverted its meaning: "crashing the Mode" refers to success; to be "crash" is to be cool. In general, such terms are used to indicate happiness and positivity.


 * "Satisfaction":
 * Impulse wondered why the fallen Justice League and Team members didn't get the public statues—"big, crashing memorials"—he felt they deserved.
 * Impulse invited Jaime to hang out, saying it would be totally crash.

"Mode" and derivatives
To the Reach, "on-mode" means to be within their control or in line with their plans. Humans have inverted its meaning: to "feel the mode" is to fail or suffer; to be "moded" is to be doomed to failure. In general, such terms are used to indicate unhappiness and negativity.

"Meat"
The Reach use the word "meat" to refer to humans and other similar life-forms dismissively. Impulse also uses the term.