"Please Mr. Music, will you play?" Each episode of Series 3 and 4 ends with Stephen Fry preparing a ridiculously named and even more ridiculously concocted cocktail. Fry entreats Laurie to play the closing theme by saying, “Please Mr. Music, will you play?” He then shakes the cocktail while dancing eccentrically and serves it to Laurie (in Series 3) or the guest performers (in Series 4), while Laurie plays the piano and impersonates a muted trumpet.
Both in Series 3 and 4, Fry precedes the question with increasingly silly introductions:
"I say, as I like to on these occasions, those six refreshing words that unlock the door to sophisticated evening habits. I say:” (Series 4, episode 3)
“And now into the cocktail shaker of my mouth I throw these six words: You Please Music Mr Will Play. I give a brief shake ［he shakes his head and makes “brr” noises］, and I pour out this golden phrase:” (Series 4, episode 4)
“And as I prepare your Swinging Ballsacks, I ask this question, in accordance with known principles:” (Series 4, episode 5)
“While I mix these, I turn to the debonair doyen of the dance and I ask as askingly as I might this ask:” (Series 4, episode 6)
［Preparing a “Modern Britain”］ “But perhaps, somewhere, you might be inspired to add one small, tender, caring cherry of hope. I wonder. While you decide, I will entreat for the very finalest of last, last times, this entreaty of m’colleague, Britain’s very own melody man, as I say to him, please, please, oh please Mr. Music:” (Series 4, episode 7)
"Soupy twist" The catchphrase "soupy twist" was uttered by both Laurie and Fry at the end of each episode of series 3 and 4 (save the Series 3 closer), and is believed to be a phrase, likely meaning 'cheers', from the language Strom (invented by Fry and first used on his BBC Radio 4 series Saturday Night Fry). Strom comprises nonsensical single-syllable words often meaning different things in the same sentence, even shorter words that can only be expressed in over a full sentence in English, and vulgar faux amis.
"What pun?" A running joke had one character adding "if you'll pardon the pun" mid-conversation, when there had, in fact, been no pun uttered. The second character, puzzled, would say, "What pun?" and the first character would say, "Oh, wasn't there one? I'm sorry," and resume as normal.
"M'Colleague" A phrase that Fry and Laurie began using during the fourth series to refer to each other. Both have since used this phrase outside the series to refer to the other, for example on chatshows; the dedication in Fry's novel The Stars' Tennis Balls reads "To M'Colleague".
"No relation" A running gag in which either Fry or Laurie, after mentioning another character by name, follows with "no relation" as if implying that their names - which are invariably completely different from Fry and Laurie's names - would lead viewers into believing them to be a relative.
