Editing You Can't Do That on Television (section)

== Trademarks ==
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The show's comedy centered around how kids are treated by adults and the rest of the world.  The show's skits gave satirical and exaggerated views of grown-ups as clueless, out of touch, and often using their status as adults to take advantage of kids. Les Lye portrayed several characters in the recurring skits, including "Ross", the technical producer and director of the show who constantly cheated and swindled money from everyone, especially the kid actors; "Barth", a cook at the fast-food burger place who cooked terrible food for the kids; and the father Lance Prevert, who tried to raise his kids but was utterly clueless about what his kids were doing. The younger characters, meanwhile, differed from other kids' TV shows in the way they often bickered and insulted one another (in their character roles), rather than getting along and enjoying their time together as seen on most other shows for children.  Hosts Christine and Alanis frequently insulted each other and each tried to outdo the other in their roles, reflecting the real-life rivalries and competition taking place among kids in everyday life.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Remembering Alanis Morissette's tween years on 'You Can't Do That On Television' |url=https://ontheaside.com/uncategorized/remembering-alanis-morissettes-tween-years-on-you-cant-do-that-on-television/ |access-date=2022-05-15 |website=ontheaside.com|date=September 14, 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmvouORzqAA | title=Christine's Water Collection | website=[[YouTube]] | date=August 17, 2016 }}</ref>

Episodes of ''YCDTOTV'' included recurring gimmicks and gags. The following is a partial list.

=== Opening animation: the Children's Television Sausage Factory ===
Originally created by Rand MacIvor (under art director John C. Galt), who was inspired by [[Terry Gilliam]]'s "gilliamations," the opening animation sequence was a sequence of surreal images set to [[Rossini]]'s "[[William Tell Overture]]" performed in a [[Dixieland]] jazz arrangement by the National Press Club and Allied Workers Jazz Band. Though the arrangement of the theme music stayed the same throughout the entire series run (although there are subtle differences between the themes in various seasons – especially the closing themes – and ''Whatever Turns You On'' used a completely different theme song), the opening animation itself changed in different ways.
* The [[Centre Block]] of the [[Parliament of Canada|Canadian Parliament]] complex was used in the first season and in the original hour-long versions of the 1981 season episodes. In this animation sequence, a person pulls the roof off one side of the building, releasing three balloons bearing the likenesses of the three party leaders at the time: [[Pierre Trudeau]] ([[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal]]), [[Joe Clark]] ([[Progressive Conservative Party of Canada|Progressive Conservative]]) and [[Ed Broadbent]] ([[New Democratic Party|NDP]]). A hand from off-screen then ignites the bottom of the [[Peace Tower]] with a match and it launches like a rocket. The start of the animation features a likeness of 1979 cast member David Helpin.
* There are two versions of the "Children's Television Sausage Factory" animation. In this sequence, children are "processed" in the "sausage factory" and deposited onto a [[school bus]] at the bottom of the [[factory]] that transports them to the [[TV studio]] (a likeness of the CJOH studios on Merivale Road in [[Nepean, Ontario]]). The first version was created for the half-hour, internationally syndicated versions of the 1981 episodes. The second version, which featured larger images and cleaner (albeit less fluid) scene animation than the first version, was introduced in the 1982 season and was used for both the U.S. and Canadian broadcasts of ''You Can't Do That on Television'' until the end of the show in 1990.
* Both versions of the "Children's Television Sausage Factory" animation feature likenesses of Jonothan Gebert, Kevin Somers, Marc Baillon and Christine McGlade exiting the school bus, as well as a likeness of Les Lye as the security guard at the door of the TV studio. This footage was reused from the opening sequence of 1979's short-lived ''Whatever Turns You On''.
* The ending of the introduction shows Lye's face with his mouth opening, and his face is stamped "You Can't Do That on Television." The screen is then cracked and splits, and the show begins.

=== Preempted show Intro ===
Starting in season two before the intro, there was usually a title card with a gag show that was "preempted" with the announcer Les Lye introducing it (ex: "Mr. T Thinks He's A Girl will not be seen today, so that we may present a show still trying to find itself."—Episode: "Identity Crisis"). A lot of 1980s cultural references were used at the time (The A-Team, General Hospital, Rambo, Mister Rogers Neighborhood etc.). Sometimes, the show ''itself'' was preempted (which happened three times). On the episode "Failure", they ''failed'' to come up with an intro. Another episode, titled "Inequalities," began with a disclaimer that read, "The following program contains certain scenes which may not be suitable for mature audiences, Juvenile discretion is advised" in lieu of a "pre-empted" show.

=== Opposites ===
Each episode had an "opposites" segment ("Opposite Skits, where the opposite of real life really happens"), introduced by a visual effect of the screen flipping upside down, shifting left to fade to the next sketch, and then righting itself. Typically, right before this happened, one or more cast members would be interrupted by another cast member saying the opposite of what the monologue (or dialogue) was about, at which the cast would say, "It must be the introduction to the opposites", and then the inversion fade would happen. The sketches that followed were a tongue-in-cheek reversal of the show's subject and of daily life, often featuring children having authority over adults or adults encouraging children to behave badly (for example, eating sweets instead of vegetables or wasting money on something frivolous rather than putting the money in the bank).

Some "opposites" features were reversals of the roles and gags related to the show's recurring characters (usually played by Les Lye or Abby Hagyard), such as the cast getting to execute El Captaino at the firing squad or torturing Nasti the dungeon keeper. Inverse tropes related to Mr. Schitdler in the classroom and the principal in detention were also frequent; however, very rarely would an opposite feature the kids getting their revenge on Barth.

A return to the show's daily subject was indicated by another inversion fade, sometimes accompanied by one of the cast members saying, "back to reality." These would occasionally occur in the middle of a sketch, resulting in the characters inverting whatever they were doing prior to the conclusion of the sketch.

Opposite sketches were used in the inaugural season of the show (the first one, in Episode 2, was submitted by a viewer), but it was not until ''Whatever Turns You On'' that they became an integral part of the show.

=== Firing squad ===
Most episodes, starting in 1981, included one or more [[Execution by firing squad|firing-squad]] sketches in which Lye played El Capitano, a Latin American military officer preparing to order a firing squad (whom he addressed as "the amigos") to execute one of the child actors tied up standing in front of a firing post. The kid would often trick El Capitano into being shot by the firing squad himself, and, as he keeled over, El Capitano would groan "That is one sneaky keed."

===Barth's Burgers===
Starting with the 1981 season, most episodes featured sketches with the kids eating at Barth's Burgery, a fast-food burger restaurant run by Barth (Lye), a chain-smoking, unpleasant, disgusting cook who uses unsanitary and questionable methods of cooking burgers. Most of the sketches involve Barth revealing the contents of the burgers to the kids' disgust and them remarking "Who(or What) do you think is in the burgers". Barth's trademark is "Duh, I heard that!" or on one episode "Duh, I heard thee.".

In the 1981 and 1982 seasons, Barth had a worker, Zilch (played by Darryll Lucas), whom he frequently insulted and abused, often by hitting him with a pan and knocking him out cold.

=== Locker jokes ===
During the "locker jokes" segment of each episode, cast members, standing inside school lockers with the words "You Can't Do That on Television" painted on them, told jokes to each other. The person telling the joke would open his or her locker and call another cast member, to whom he or she would tell the joke. For the duration of the joke, those cast members would be the only ones seen with open lockers. After each joke, the actors would close their lockers, allowing the process to start again with different people and a new joke. This was similar to the "joke wall" segment on ''[[Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In]].'' The "locker jokes" feature was introduced in the first season and continued until the end of the series. The lockers underwent minor makeovers during the show's early years, but mostly remained the same for the entire run of the show. In 2004, when fans and cast reunited for the show's 25th anniversary, the original lockers were auctioned.

=== Production bumper ===
Used in a few episodes in the first two seasons and by almost every episode in later seasons, the closing credits of ''You Can't Do That on Television'' are followed by an announcement of the "company" that produced the program, with the name generally tying in with the episode's main subject. These announcements are given in the form of "'You Can't Do That on Television' is a ______ production." Examples of the fictional production company include "Black Eye" ("Bullying"), "Can't Give It Away" ("Marketing"), "Split Down the Middle" ("Divorce"), "Hang Out to Dry" ("Malls") and "Blood Is Thicker Than Water" ("Families"). The production company's name was announced by Lye, who often included a joke about the show or its producers only to realize that the cameras were still rolling.

=== Post-credit scene ===
The post-credit production bumper was generally followed by one final sketch, also borrowing a concept from ''Laugh-In'', in which the jokes continued for a time after the credits finished rolling. The bumper frequently took place "backstage" and broke the [[fourth wall]] with remarks about the episode, usually featuring one final humiliation or comeuppance for that episode's main cast member. These scenes were often cut short or removed altogether, especially for airings on Nickelodeon.

=== Other ===
Other signature recurring bits on the show include:
* Fake commercials: Parodies of television commercials were part of the series as early as the first season and were the subject of one full episode in 1986, but the 1982 episodes contained commercial parodies that aired between the commercial bumpers where real commercials ordinarily fit. The products featured ranged from parodies of actual products (such as the Lotachi Lugman, a parody of the [[Walkman|Sony Walkman]]) to completely fictional products (such as a fragrance called "[[Peanut butter|Crème de Peanut]]"). These fake commercials were cut when Nickelodeon became advertiser-supported in 1983, although some were preserved for later ''Worst of YCDTOTV'' compilations.
* Blip's Arcade: Blip, owner of the local video arcade, would find inventive and devious ways to cheat his customers, such as rigging unwinnable video games or running "specials" in which, he would exchange only three quarters for a dollar.
* Nasti's Dungeon: A kid (most often either Kevin Kubusheskie, Alasdair Gillis, Adam Reid or Doug Ptolemy; occasionally Lisa Ruddy, Eugene Contreras, Vanessa Lindores or Adam Klabfleisch) shackled in a dungeon for unknown reasons would be approached by prison warden Nasti, who would make the prisoner falsely believe that he was to be set free. Rarely, a prisoner could convince Nasti to free him or trick Nasti into exchanging places.
* [[Benedict Arnold]] School: Strict Mr. Schidtler wages an eternal war with his unruly, ill-prepared students. The school sketches include those in which Mr. Schidtler prevails by embarrassing or punishing students and those in which the students trick him into looking foolish or dismissing class early.
* Detention: Kids are sent to detention by the principal about what they did and one kid is hanging in shackles like he was in a dungeon. The detention is like a part dungeon and part classroom run by the principal. 
* Various interiors of the Prevert home, including the front steps as Mom prepares to send the kids off to school.
* A bunk bed at summer camp where the kids discuss how uncomfortable and sadistic the camp activities are.
* A doctor's office, dentist's office and principal's office, all similarly evil or mischievous.
* There were also in-person interviews, during which Christine McGlade interviewed ordinary children about the show's topic and asked them about their opinions. The segment ran from 1981 until McGlade left the show in 1986.