GASP



"Everyone: GASP! Stan: Yes, you'd better gasp collectively!"

- Frisky Dingo

Nothing says "Drama!" like gasping it, often preceded by a nicely dramatic double-take. Originally came from Theater, since people far away had to see how terrified the actors were. Then used in silent films for similar reasons. There was an interview once with an old actress, who says that they gave her lessons on how to scream, and that they were taught to deliberately over-act, and always raise their hands up in half made fists to cover their mouth.

Now a Dead Horse Trope in live action, save for comedy, where it's often exaggerated for maximum comic effect. But in Animated Shows, it's often played perfectly straight. But that doesn't make it any less out of place when it's used in animation that tends to be otherwise more subtle than typical Melodrama.

Bonus points if they actually shout "GASP!".

A Sub-Trope of Melodrama.

Compare Milking the Giant Cow, Large Ham, Chewing the Scenery, Rule of Drama, Big "What?", Big Word Shout, Big No.

Advertising

 * Jack in the Box.
 * Wienerschnitzel.
 * McDonald's.
 * Burger King.
 * GEICO.
 * Chick-fil-A.

Anime and Manga

 * Dragonball Z would use this tons of times, with gasps that lasted the greater part of a full minute.
 * And they always make weird sounds and faces while doing it, to the point where it becomes a Big Ham instead of a significant effect.
 * Chiaki Konaka loves this one very, very much. Watch Serial Experiments Lain, Texhnolyze and Ghost Hound in case of doubt.
 * Edward Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood does it all of the time.
 * Hellsing: Rip van Winkle does this in the 4th OVA when Alucard suddenly smashes her alarm clock, alerting her of his presence. She does it again when he catches the bullet she was firing at him in his mouth.
 * Occurs often in Gankutsuou.
 * Sailor Moon's gasp in the SuperS movie is really overblown, moreso in the English dub. Any oxygen left in the castle?
 * Akagi. Have a compilation.
 * The Pokémon anime.
 * The Digimon series.
 * Kirby: Right Back at Ya!.
 * Happens a lot in Studio Ghibli productions, where the trope is typically used to convey surprise:
 * Kiki's Delivery Service, where Kiki does this after she realises she is going to be late for Tombo's party.
 * The Borrower Arrietty, where Arrietty realises that she is being watched by the boy. When Borrowers such as Arrietty are spotted by humans, they have to move away to a new home, creating additional drama.

Fan Works

 * This happens ridiculously often in My Immortal.
 * Also overused in Starkit's Prophecy.

Film - Animation

 * Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs.
 * Bolt
 * The Emperors New Groove franchise.
 * The Cars franchise.
 * Hoodwinked.
 * All of the Toy Story films.
 * Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie. Jonah, Khalil, and the Pirates all take turns at dramatic gasping when they see just what "The Slap of No Return" is, before all doing a simultaneous gasp.
 * In one scene of Open Season 2, a slightly aged Elliot does a long gasp after a slightly older Boog says to a slightly older Giselle, "We're partners, right?".
 * In one scene of Open Season 3, Giselle, Gisela, and Giselita all gasp after Doug (who is disguised as Boog) yells at them to go get him more berries and to massage his paws.
 * In Shrek 2, the three girls who discover the newly human Shrek dramatically gasp (and smile) when Donkey says "First we need to get you out of those clothes."
 * There is a scene in Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel where the Chipmunks and Chipettes gasp upon seeing each other.
 * Several women in the crowd during the climax of Mulan do this when the Huns show up, complete with shaking their heads 'no'.
 * Everyone (and we do mean everyone) in the town of Swallow Falls does this in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs after Flint's food machine produces a rain of cheeseburgers. Flint's gasp is especially and hilariously protracted.
 * In Titanic: The Legend Goes On, Angelica gasps dramatically several times when she's on the boat.
 * There are several occurrences of this in The Return of Hanuman.
 * The Kung Fu Panda franchise.
 * In Beauty and the Beast, Belle does a quick gasp and turns away in horror when she first sees Beast.

Film - Live Action
"Vegan Police: On April 4th at 7:30 pm, you partook of a plate of chicken parmesan. Envy: GASP! Todd: [Nervously] Chicken isn't vegan?"
 * Max Keeble's Big Move.
 * Done for comedy in Spaceballs. When Dark Helmet orders Colonel Sandurz to go to "Ludicrous Speed!" everybody on the bridge gasps.
 * And in a non-animated example, Floop gasps and twitches when Minion turns on him in the first Spy Kids movie.
 * In Scott Pilgrim, Envy does this one as part of her natural scenery chewing.


 * Norbit.
 * It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie.
 * Are We There Yet?
 * Are We Done Yet
 * Christopher Lloyd is really good at these; a perfect example comes in the first Back to The Future, where Doc Brown gets a classic reaction face when a burning wind-up car drives into a pile of oily rags.

Live-Action TV

 * Frasier. Frasier does this when enraptured with something, a lot.
 * Sonny With a Chance does this all the time, but usually they're parodying their fictional TV show "MacKenzie Falls".
 * Family Matters.
 * All in The Family.
 * Good Times.
 * Boy Meets World. A Running Joke was Shawn and Cory doing exaggerated gasps, followed by "TO-PAN-GA!"
 * Angel. Cordelia does this when spoofing the Buffy/Angel romance in "Fredless".

Puppet Shows

 * In "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" puppet skit, the boy gasps when he sees the wolf approaching him before the wolf reveals to the boy that he isn't really evil.
 * In the "Gunni Wolf" puppet skit, the little girl gasps repeatedly.
 * The Muppet Show.
 * Mr. Meaty.
 * Wayside.
 * Sesame Street.

Video Games

 * Done Narmingly in Discworld Noir. The film noir-ish protagonist Lewton is usually pretty hard-boiled and cool, but when he meets Death in person, he gives an enormous gasp, with the overacted line, "You're DEATH!" What's even funnier is that the character onscreen isn't animated any differently than usual, so it's all in the voice acting. Unfortunately, unlike most things Discworld, this is likely not meant as parody and is just a case of bad acting.

Web Comics

 * Seen in this episode of Darths and Droids, then doubled for good measure an episode later.
 * This xkcd strip.

Western Animation

 * Used in the Yogi Bear franchise.
 * The Flintstones franchise.
 * Used in Batman: The Animated Series and Gargoyles, which stick out like sore thumbs, compared to the rest of those series.
 * Pic comes from Care Bears in Wonderland.
 * In the DVD commentaries, the creators joke that Futurama has more gasps per episode than any other show ever.
 * Lampshaded in one episode when after repeated shocking statements, one man faints. A doctor rushes to his side and announces "This man has over-gasped!"
 * Arthur
 * The eponymous Tinkerbell causes an entire group of fairies to gasp and recoil, hands rising to their faces in horror at Tink causing a stampede.
 * Total Drama Island is rather fond of these, either individually or in groups. It's particularly common when contestants are surprised at an elimination.
 * The TDA episode Oceans Eight Or Nine parodies this by showing overdramatic GASP shots of Beth, Lindsay, Justin and then Lindsay again, followed by a Shrug Take from Duncan.
 * The TDWT finale uses exactly the same format (list of GASPs and then a Shrug Take), although the characters who perform the actions are different. The character who performs the Shrug Take (Noah) had been revealed to already be aware of the "shocking revelation" nine episodes earlier.
 * Winnie the Pooh: Tigger does this a lot, literally saying it. Only it comes out "GATHP!"
 * Rob Paulsen deserves a trophy for this trope, whether playing Pinky, Yakko, or nearly anyone else.
 * Definitely used many times on The Simpsons from various characters.
 * Veggie Tales.
 * The Powerpuff Girls.
 * The Sonic the Hedgehog shows.
 * The Super Mario Bros. shows.
 * American Dragon: Jake Long.
 * Caillou.
 * Hey Arnold!
 * The Veggie Tales franchise
 * The Inspector Gadget franchise

Comic Books

 * One issue of Groo the Wanderer has a large crowd perform a COLLECTIVE GASP!

Live-Action TV
"Grace: But then he'll know I snooped. No, he's got to find this on his own. And I've got to be there when he reads it so I can act all shocked about it. Ooh, I know what I'll do. I'll do this. (does three quick gasps) No, too big. Maybe (gasps twice) Maybe just one. (does a long and wildly exaggerated gasp, with slow-mo facial expressions) Will: (Beat) Grace, do you work? Or do you just spend the day practising your reactions? (Grace gives him an offended, open-mouthed look) Thought so."
 * Spoofed on Will and Grace, when Grace snooped in Leo's bag and found a romantic letter from another woman, but wants to pretend to be shocked when he finds it:

"Students: Gasp!"
 * Frank does this repeatedly in an episode of The Adventures of Lano and Woodley. After the third or fourth, Col tells him to stop it because there's a risk of him fainting. Frank gasps and faints. Then when he comes around, he asks what happened. Col tells him that he fainted. Guess what happens.
 * Lampshaded on Friends when Monica admits to an amateur cooking class that she's a professional chef. The whole class let out a theatrical GASP and Monica tells them to stop it. "This isn't a courtroom drama!"
 * Used in the Smosh franchise.
 * In the Shane Dawson franchise.
 * During an All That sketch where a member of the "Cheese Police" visits the school, he finds cheese in Ms. Fingerly's purse.

Newspaper Comics

 * Calvin and Hobbes parodied this, during a series of strips where Calvin floats away with his helium balloon, it pops and he figures it must be a dream. To try and wake up, he looks down toward the ground and "GASP!"s repeatedly. It doesn't work.

Radio

 * I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again had characters saying 'gasp' pretty often. The most notable example is probably when the entire cast, upon being told that their in-universe radio station is being closed down, react with "SHOCKED GASP!"

Theater

 * Parodied in Urinetown, when Pennywise reveals that, the poor react with a "Gasp." When she follows it up with the fact that  , the poor give a much more dramatic, "GASP!"

Web Animation

 * See The Demented Cartoon Movie for this taken to its logical extreme.
 * Spelled out in Bonus Stage episode Evil's New Groove.
 * Homestar Runner uses a "GASP!" stock effect whenever a character declares they're going to do something daring (or what they think is daring.) A good example is Decemberween.

Western Animation
"Mr. Krabs: *gasp* SpongeBob: *gasp* Penny: *gasp* Plankton: Gasp!"
 * Parodied in Fairly Oddparents a couple of times, at one point which Timmy's dad yells, "GIGA.GASP!!!"
 * Parodied in an episode of The Oblongs where a crowd of people continually gasp until it's revealed it was just Mikey's (the ass kid) asthma.
 * One of the episodes of Word Girl features "gasp" as one of the words to look out for. To help show the definition of the word and make sure they could work in the word as much as possible, the characters engage in this the entire episode. It's done so much that it's taken to the point of an Overly Long Gag, and Tobey even gets fed-up at one point and shouts "Will you STOP doing that??" after the crowd gasps for the umpteenth time.
 * In one episode of The Penguins of Madagascar, everyone gasps upon hearing that Mort had been kidnapped. Everyone, that is, except King Julien, who momentarily forgets who Mort is, then reassures them that "I too am gasping in horror, but on the inside."
 * Bugs Bunny actually says "Gasp!" in the short Falling Hare, after turning around to accost the gremlin who almost tricked him into setting off a bomb with a hammer, and finding that the gremlin has vanished.
 * Spoofed and given bonus points (obviously) in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Imitation Krabs."


 * In My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, this is Twlight Sparkle's (and the audience's) first impression of PinkiePie. All Twilight said was "Hi..."

Web Original
"Swaim: Gasp! The Chief!"
 * In episode 3 of Rose of Versailles Abridged, Maria Theresa ended her lesson on "Amp up the drama" with a shot of Oscar gasping.
 * Avatar: The Abridged Series: "Le Gasp! I must flee, sexily."
 * In the Cracked.com webseries Agents of Cracked, Swaim actually says "Gasp!" at least once per episode.

"Joey: It is implied that I am punching you! Téa: Gasp! Tristan: Hey, no fair! You can't punch me while I'm off-screen!"
 * Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series:


 * Code MENT: "Audible gasp!"
 * Potter Puppet Pals.
 * This is also used in the Annoying Orange franchise.