Editing Fibber McGee and Molly (section)

==Running gags==
[[File:Fibber McGee and Molly at Victory Loan rally, Maple Leaf Gardens.jpg|thumb|250px|Jim and Marian Jordan as Fibber McGee and Molly, at a Victory Bond rally at [[Maple Leaf Gardens]] in [[Toronto]] in 1945. Note sound effects men and equipment at right.]]
Much of the show's humor relied on [[running gag|recurring gags]], unseen regulars and well-timed [[punch line]]s. The 30-minute show usually opened  with the audience in full laughter as announcer [[Harlow Wilcox (announcer)|Harlow Wilcox]] called out "The Johnson Wax Program with Fibber McGee and Molly!" To McGee's periodic bad jokes Molly often answered "T'ain't funny, McGee!",<ref name=Fib91NYT/> which became a familiar catchphrase during the 1940s.<ref>{{cite book
    |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e_mIk6UtWJMC&pg=PA202
   |title=Radio comedy diary |author=Gary Poole |year=2001 |page=202
  |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0786450640 }}</ref> Molly's Uncle Dennis, who lives with the couple, is apparently a dedicated alcoholic and a [[punch line]] for many Fibber jokes; at times he was the main subject of some shows in which he "disappeared".

Fibber's lack a regular job led to numerous references and jokes: Mayor La Trivia often offered McGee mundane jobs at City Hall using flowery descriptions such as "looking in on the higher-ups at City Hall" (a window-cleaning job). Another was for Fibber to work in disguise for days at a time as the Wistful Vista [[Santa Claus]].

"Fibber" McGee is overly proud of past misdeeds, sometimes recalling nicknames acquired; many involved a bad [[pun]].  An accusation of being a glib talker became "Ad Glib McGee". And making expressions with his eyes led to the nickname "Eyes-a-muggin' McGee" (a play on the popular [[Stuff Smith]] swing tune "I'se A-muggin{{'"}}). The opening involved much boastful [[alliteration]].

The couple's Peoria schoolmate (and Molly's earlier boyfriend) Otis Cadwallader is the subject of a longstanding one-sided grudge by Fibber. The "corner of 14th and Oak" in downtown Wistful Vista was routinely given as a location for various homes, places of business and government buildings throughout the show's run. Whenever someone asks the time it is always half-past.

McGee has a reputation for telling tall tales, and there are occasional jokes linking this propensity to his name "Fibber". In the episode "Fibber Changes His Name" (March 25, 1941), he goes so far as to claim that "Fibber" is his actual given name and not just a nickname. According to McGee, "I was named after my fourth cousin, Walpole J. Fimmer ... but the minister who christened me had a cold in his head."<ref name=FiBookMem2Good>{{cite book
  |title=Fibber McGee & Molly on the Air
  |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TupVDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA1458
  |page=1458
  |author=Clair Schulz
  | date=April 28, 2013 |quote=because the minister who christened him had a cold in his head
  |access-date=July 22, 2022
  |archive-date=October 13, 2022
  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221013042319/https://books.google.com/books?id=TupVDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA1458
  |url-status=live
  }}</ref>

===The Hall Closet===
[[File:Fibber McGee and Molly closet photo 1948.jpg|thumb|Photo of "the Closet"; the actual on-the-air sound was done by sound effects men.]]
None of the show's other [[running gag]]s was as memorable or enduring as the overstuffed<ref name=Fib91NYT/> hall closet. The gag involved McGee's frequently opening a cacophonous closet, with the bric-a-brac it contained clattering down and out and, often enough, over McGee's or Molly's heads.<ref>{{Cite web
|url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1633218/m1/#track/4
|title=Pop Chronicles 1940s Program #13
|access-date=October 23, 2020
|archive-date=February 4, 2021
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204101927/https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1633218/m1/#track/4
|url-status=live
}}</ref> "I gotta get that closet cleaned out one of these days" was the usual McGee observation once the racket subsided. Naturally, "one of these days" almost never arrived. A good thing, too: in one famous instance, when a burglar (played by Bob Bruce) tied up McGee, McGee informed him cannily that the family's silver was "right through that door, bud... just yank it open, bud!" Naturally, the burglar took the bait and naturally, he was buried in the inevitable avalanche, long enough for the police to apprehend him.

This gag appears to have begun with the March 5, 1940, show, "Cleaning the Closet". Molly opens the closet looking for the dictionary and is promptly buried in Fibber's "stuff" ("arranged in there just the way I want it"). Cleaning out the closet becomes the show's plot, inventorying much of the contents along the way: a photo album, a rusty horseshoe, a ten-foot pole. After repacking the closet, Fibber realizes the dictionary has been put away too—and he opens the closet again, causing an avalanche. This episode also features a cameo by [[Gracie Allen]], running for president on the Surprise Party ticket. Toward the end of the September 30, 1941 show, "Back from Vacation; Gildy Says Goodbye", next-door nemesis Gildersleeve—who has moved to Summerfield to finish raising his orphaned niece and nephew (and already begun his successful spin-off show ''[[The Great Gildersleeve]]'')—has come back to Wistful Vista to wind up his affairs there. In a farewell to the show that made him famous, Gildersleeve opens the closet to be buried in the usual avalanche.

On at least one occasion, the gag is flipped, and the closet is silent: in "Man's Untapped Energies" (broadcast March 11, 1947), visiting Dr. Gamble makes to leave. Molly warns, "No, Doctor, not through that door, that's the hall closet!" As the audience chuckles slightly in anticipation, Fibber explains: "Oh, I forgot to tell you, Molly, I straightened out the hall closet this morning!" This was certainly not the end of the gag, though, as the closet soon became cluttered once again, leading to many more disasters.

Like many such trademarks, the clattering closet began as a one-time stunt, but "the closet" was developed carefully, not being overused (it rarely appeared in more than two consecutive installments, though it never disappeared for the same length, either, at the height of its identification, and it rarely collapsed at exactly the same time from show to show), and it became the best-known running sound gag in American radio's classic period. [[Jack Benny]]'s basement vault alarm ran a distant second. Both of these classic sound effects were performed by Ed Ludes and Virgil Rhymer, the Hollywood-based NBC staff sound effects creators. Exactly ''what'' tumbled out of McGee's closet each time was never clear (except to these [[sound effects|sound-effects]] men), but what signaled the end of the avalanche was always the same sound: a clear, tiny, household hand bell and McGee's inevitable post-collapse lament.<ref name=Star/> "Fibber McGee's closet" entered the American vernacular as a catchphrase synonymous with household clutter.