Top 10 Recurring Jokes on Red Dwarf

#10: Rimmer’s Exam Scores

While Rimmer often presents himself as being highly organised and intelligent, in actuality he’s way more buffoonish than he lets on. One example of this is how he rarely passes exams. He does manage to pass the occasional one, like in the episode “Holoship.” He does cheat using a mind-patch, but it’s his opponent withdrawing early that saves him. If you read the novels, you’ll learn he’s so awful at them on account of his revision tactics. Rather than actually studying, he’d spend weeks creating exam timetables. After finishing, he’d realise he’d have only a week left to study, so he’d have to spend the next few days creating yet another timetable, until eventually getting nothing done.

#9: Cat & Women

Felis sapiens is the species of humanoid cats that evolved from Lister’s pet kitty. Cat is the most famous, and he’s also one of the most stylish and confident. Despite his unparalleled levels of charisma, he often can’t follow through when trying to attract a mate. This leads to years of the crew joking about him being a virgin, right up until series 11, when he meets Ankita. The pair make love, but then it turns out she was a shape-shifter all along. This ends with Cat giving birth to a litter of morphlings, whom he decides to kill on account of them being incredibly annoying.

#8: Lister’s Lack of Hygiene

Three million years in hibernation isn’t enough to make Lister appreciate personal hygiene. Throughout the series, he cares far more about comfort than cleanliness, making him one of the most famous space bums in sci-fi. This contrast between Lister’s messiness and Rimmer’s intense tidiness leads to a great deal of humour, especially in the smaller-scale early seasons. Outside of it being humorous, it also makes Lister easily relatable, a large factor in the success of “Red Dwarf.” At the time, sci-fi was often focused more on daring heroes, rather than korma addicted scousers.

#7: Two Minor Drawbacks

Out of the primary four characters, the two we can’t get enough of seeing together are Kryten and Cat. Kryten, being a mechanoid, is immeasurably more intelligent than Cat. He also seems to take things way more seriously than most people, leading him to put serious thought into his absurd suggestions. This is usually prefaced by him genuinely praising his idea, then letting him down by mentioning its two minor drawbacks. It’s sidesplitting how seriously he takes them, plus how much he downplays how severely flawed they are by saying they’re only “minor,” when they’re usually entirely nonsense.

#6: Silicon Heaven

Humans have their fair share of theories for what happens after death, but mechanoids have their own. It’s called Silicon Heaven, which is where AIs like Kryten will end up after death, assuming they’re not photocopiers, as they’ll all go to Silicon Hell. It was created simply to stop mechanoids from revolting against their human overlords, leading to all robots having a belief chip planted inside them. This includes Kryten, even though he denies it completely, despite Rimmer confirming it. This means it’s virtually impossible to convince a mechanoid that Silicon Heaven doesn’t exist, much to Lister’s dismay.

#5: Holly’s Senility

Holly is the whimsical ship’s computer, who is a regular for all series except three to five, when Hattie instead replaces him. Both are equally amusing, largely on account of how unhinged they are. Fans have long debated whether they truly are senile or if they’re secretly still a genius. The former theory is often favoured, largely on account of how buffoonish Holly is after taking back over from Hattie. Creator Rob Grant has commented on this topic, stating that he has his own definitive answer but will never share it. Regardless of the answer, it wouldn’t make Holly any less funny.

#4: Lister’s Dad

While Lister does indeed have an unnamed adoptive father, one of the greatest plotlines centres around Lister’s real dad. If you don’t know already, he is his own dad. It makes little sense, happening during the episode “Ouroboros” from series 7. Lister takes the baby version of himself, then creates a time travel loop after leaving infant Lister under an Earth pool table. In the later seasons, this leads to tons of sidesplitting moments, like when Lister gets sloshed and records himself a Father’s Day message. Don’t think too hard about the confusing time travel mechanics of it, or you may get a headache.

#3: Kryten Breaking His Programming

One of Kryten’s primary dreams is to someday gain flesh and become a human. This happens once, but he ends up disliking it and turns back. Still, he spends the majority of the show working against his programming, developing an increasingly human personality. Our favourite moment of this comes when he’s taught to lie by Lister. It’s the focus of one episode but comes back fairly often. Kryten ends up developing an abundance of flaws, a fact he becomes quite proud of. For instance, he becomes incredibly jealous of Lister and Kochanski’s potential romance.

#2: Duane Dibbley

One of Cat’s worst nightmares is losing all of his style and charisma, something that comes true when he becomes Duane Dibbley. The first time this happens is in “Back to Reality,” where it’s revealed they’ve been in a simulation the entire time. Turns out, Cat is a meek human with zero taste in fashion. Cat hates this alter ego so much that he came close to taking his own life to escape. It turned out to be a nightmare created by a Despair Squid, but Dibbley came back a few times. It never gets easier for Cat, though, as the only redeeming thing about Dibbley is his culinary talents.

#1: Talkie Toaster

Taking our top spot is easily the most amusing toaster in sci-fi history. Well, the crew don’t find him funny; they absolutely detest Talkie. He’s such a minor character that he’s only appeared in a handful of episodes total, but he’s way more important in the novels. His whole backstory is explained in “Better Than Life,” where we learn Lister bought him on Miranda. It has to be faulty because it gets absurdly aggressive if you’re not itching for toast. We also find out that before Lister woke up, Holly and Talkie played hundreds of chess games together, with Talkie winning 793 in a row.

Do you have a favourite recurring quip from the series? Let us know down in the comments below!