List of running gags

In the interest of making this wiki the final authority on all things Young Justice, we hereby painstakingly list here all the recurring motifs we can get our grubby little mitts on.

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:

A bridge accident pushed the bus over the brink. The combined efforts of Superboy and Superman saved the bus denizens from impending doom.

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.

The driver-less bus was rescued from falling off a bridge in the child dimension by Rocket.

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 describes 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 repeats 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 describes the Team's first year as "All aster. No dis."
 * (In) Filtrate: After shutting down the Fog in "Infiltrator", Robin happily declares 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 agrees, and goes on a panic attack before he bluntly tells 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".

Laughter
As Robin, Dick Grayson was prone to moving out on his own, and engage the enemies while laughing. Incidents include:
 * "Independence Day":
 * Robin's laughter can be heard before he jumps Mr. Freeze.
 * "Hack and You Shall Find": Robin laughed while moving to intercept the assassins moving toward 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.

"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 Morse: 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! TV 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. '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 Morse: "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)

Love-hate relationship with monkeys
Superboy hates monkeys and doesn't hesitate to remind everyone of that fact whenever he encounters a simian.
 * In "Monkey Business (Issue 2)", 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 "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 "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 encounters a playful green monkey, who proceeded to steal Kid Flash's energy bar and fling it in Superboy's face. He mutters his monkey-hating phrase here.
 * 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 causes 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 reacts negatively to the teaser for the next issue ("Monkey Business (Issue 18)").
 * In "Monkey Business (Issue 18)", Superboy notes that the Bwundan jungle "reeks of monkey" before reminding the Team of his distaste for them.
 * In "Gorilla Warfare", Superboy reiterates his hatred for monkeys while fighting Monsieur Mallah, but is chastised by Solovar; gorillas are not monkeys.

Zapped in the eyes by lasers

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

"Neptune's Beard"
Lagoon Boy uses the facial hair of his patron god as an expletive.

"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.


 * In "Happy New Year", after losing a sparring match, he vows to one day defeat Nightwing, calling him "chum". After rescuing the Kroloteans' playthings from their spacecraft in New Orleans, UN Secretary Tseng apologized at their reaction at Lagoon Boy's alien-looking appearance. He brushed it off, saying he got that (reaction from) a lot (of people), chum.

Beast Boy's "Noted"
Beast Boy, eager to please, continually uses the term "noted" when he receives useful information

Reach
Although Impulse was the first in a chronological order of Young Justice to use these terms, members of the Reach have used it on several occasions. It can be assumed that Impulse adopted the term from his time spent during the Reach apocalypse.

"Crash"
A term used to express when something or someone is 'cool'. Is often used by Impulse to express joy. Inversely used by Reach for when something has interfered with their prospects.

"Mode"
An experience that has an unpleasant connotation from humans from Impulse's time. When used by the Reach however it appears to mean 'on schedule' or within their control.

"Crash the Mode"
A combination of the terms, an expression meaning to avoid a negative experience when used by Impulse. Also used by the Reach to indicate failure.

"Meat"
Referring to humans.

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 faces Robin, he is called away before the fight can begin. When the Team makes their move against Kobra's forces, Robin snares her in a bola.
 * In "Usual Suspects", Shimmer watches the ongoing battle by Riddler's side, until Robin tangles her in a bola and knocks her out.
 * In "Beneath", Shimmer is telepathically probed and knocked out by Miss Martian before the Team is discovered trying to rescue Batgirl and the abducted teens.
 * In "Uncommon Dominators", Artemis ties Shimmer up with a rope arrow early in the Team's battle with Kobra.
 * In "Before the Dawn", Shimmer initially bucks this trend; she disarms an abductee when he takes a Manta Troopers weapon, and engages Batgirl in combat for a time, though is eventually defeated. When she regains consciousness, however, she accidentally creates a hole in the Reach ship's hull which begins to flood the ship and ends up as Blue Beetle's exit point.

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 they were 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.