Circling Birdies: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

== Advertising ==

* In [http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4qngg_froot-loops-hockey-1998_ads this commercial] for Froot Loops from 1998, a teen hockey player gets knocked out during a game and hallucinates that he's playing against an entire team of Toucan Sams. When he comes to at the end, stars and Toucan Sams circle his head, as he asks "What's with all the birds?"

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9adXo8fIVhM In this Cap'n Crunch commercial,] a martial arts instructor is knocked over and sees pieces of Cap'n Crunch spin around his head.

* In the late 80s/early 90s, the Swedish Chef of [[The Muppets]] fame had his own breakfast cereal, Croonchy Stars. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrSGAZNMQOA This commercial] features the circling stars version of this gag while showing the Chef making a batch of Croonchy Stars in "the Muppet Test Kitchen".

* Cookie Crisp makes people have cookies for breakfast, but people say cookies are not for breakfast, but then say that cookies are for breakfast. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=a6EO2zVsIfs This] commercial uses bird sound effects when the teacher gets her taste of Cookie Crisp.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVSVeepDEHs&feature=related This] [[McDonald's]] commercial used bird sound effects when Birdie crashed after she failed to land.

{{quote|'''Birdie''': Now who's gonna teach me how to land?}}

 

* In [[Dr. Slump]] the characters comment on that: "Wait, it's American, we're Japanese", and shoo out the birds, who swear as they fly away.

* In ''[[Sakura Taisen|Sakura Taisen: Ecole de Paris]]'', Erica gets stunned several times; each time she gets a "halo" of little fluttering angels, and remarks on them.

* Mahoro's circling birdies in ''[[Mahoromatic]]'' apparently are real, as they can be seen by other characters.

** Although they appear when she's asleep, and continually multiply until she wakes up, leading to some... awkward situations when Suguru decides to observe her when she's dozing off.

** At one point in the second season, Mahoro's birdies are seen to re-enter her head when she wakes up. Only five this time, though.

** Near the end of the manga, it is explained that {{spoiler|Matthew (actually named "Arcadia Matthew Faye Ray") is an artificial intelligence, the birdies are part of her "sleep program", and that Mahoro was patterned after Matthew and/or the creator of Matthew, "Mahoro Matthew Faye Ray").}}

* ''[[Soul Eater]]'' has Crona seeing stars after a good bash to the head from Stein's foot. [[Ambiguous Gender|He/she]] even says "Uwaa-- I can see stars... but I can't figure out how to play with them~"

* The ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' anime sometimes features characters seeing circling bird-like Pokémon such as Pidgey or Torchic. There is also a low chance of circling stars.

* [[Pokémon Special]] had this trope sometimes. For example, in ''Yellow,'' Gengar gets these when it gets hit by Dizzy Punch. Meanwhile, in ''Diamond and Pearl,'' Roark's Craindos gets circling Torchic after becoming confused by a Water Pulse attack.

 

* ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]''

** Roger sees Circling Birdies after getting hit by a refrigerator while making a cartoon, but the director gets mad at him for not following the script: "It says 'Rabbit gets clonked, rabbit sees stars'. Not ''birds'', '''''stars!'''''" Roger proceeds to repeatedly bash himself in the head, resulting in a whole series of revolving visions of everything ''but'' stars.

* Near the end of the [[The Bible|"Noah's Ark"]] segment of ''[[Fantasia|Fantasia 2000]]'', [[Donald Duck]] is thrown against a wall after getting his foot stuck inside a rope holding up the door, and when he finally crashes down onto the floor, several animals on the ark can be seen circling his head (including [[Furry Confusion|a pair of non-anthro ducks).]]

* In the ''[[Tintin (film)|The Adventures of Tintin]]'', when the pickpocket is confronted outside his home by the police he tries to run away but we hear a crash off screen. Camera moves over to show him on the ground with little birds circling his head. The birds are in fact real and he had run into a woman who had just bought the birds at the pet store. The store owner can be seen catching the birds in a net.

* Fred Flintstone (John Goodman) sees circling pterodactyls after he's punched in the live-action film version of the ''[[The Flintstones]]'' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roEjpll8_gA as seen here].

* Happens to George too many times to count in the two ''[[George of the Jungle]]'' films. One of the henchmen in the first film also hears birds after a punch, and Shep the elephant also sees circling stars and after unsuccessfully trying to use his head as a battering ram in the sequel.

* In ''The Scene,'' Jimmy Fallon hears tweeting birds after running head-first into a bus.

* In ''Gremlins'', [[Big Bad]] Stripe hears tweeting birds after getting knocked out moments before he sees the fountain.

 

== Literature ==

 

== Live-Action TV ==

** Happens to Nick in another episode, in which Nick gets knocked silly while trying to slide into home in a baseball game, leaving him on his back and hearing tweeting bird sound effects.

* Invoked in ''[[Scrubs]]''. After running face-first into a door, J.D. remarks that he hit his head so hard he thought saw cartoon birds but then realized that he was just seeing the wallpaper in the pediatric ward.

* On a segment on Popular Mechanics for Kids, animated stars appear and bird sound effects play after host Jay Baruchel is beaned with a baseball.

* ''[[You Can't Do That on Television]]'' used a bird sound effect after a head injury on rare occasions. Alasdair, for one, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Lw_x26gKag hears tweeting birds] after a hard fall from the ceiling in the ''Wildlife/Animals'' episode. In one of the later episodes, Christian [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEHNjxbJ7EE hears birds] after the coach hits him on the head with a baseball bat. Strangely, the show never used the sound during the caveman sketches, which usually centered on finding a way for the caveman dad to bash his kids in the head with a club.

* MTV's ''Room Raiders'' used bird sounds in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PJJF3BDn-A one episode] after a contestant banged his head on the top of a canopy bed.

* During a stop-motion segment on a holiday episode of [[That '70s Show]], Kelso is struck by lightning, falls to the ground and hears tweeting birds, as seen in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKPOB0M7mGI&list=UUffBt8Lsi5lpJJ_S7083obA&index=4&feature=plcp this clip].

 

== Music Videos ==

* Aaron Carter's music video for "That's How I Beat Shaq" uses bird sound effects near the end after Aaron's mother asks him whether he had hit his head.

 

* The stage musical version of ''[[The Lion King]]'' invokes this trope. At the end of ''I Just Can't Wait to be King'', the actor playing Zazu notices his bird puppet is gone. He asks, "Where is my bird?" before running smack into the wall at the side of the stage. Bird sound effects play as he staggers in a daze momentarily.

* Used in "Hot Shoe Shuffle," a West End musical about five Australian tap-dancing brothers. When the youngest brother, Slide, is [[The Door Slams You|hit in the head by a door]], he does a vaudeville-style dazed stagger while bird sound effects play. Adam Garcia originated the role, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6c1PjYVUqo&feature=related as seen here.]

* Each ''[[Darkstalkers]]'' character has a different circling comething when dizzy. Felicia has white cats, for example. Some, like Morrigan, have little versions of themselves.

* Invoked in ''[[BioShock (series)]] II''. If you club a splicer while guarding a [[Creepy Child|Little Sister]], she comments "Daddy's makin' you see stars 'n' birdies!"

* A character in ''[[Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 2]]'' whose guard has been broken will stand there, dazed and with yellow birds circling over his or her head.

* In one cutscene of ''[[Sonic Unleashed]]'', as Chip explains on how he lost his memory, when he said "And then nothing," he sees stars and tiny versions of himself circling his head (Wii version only, for they are replaced with normal stars in all other versions), [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHlyqlwjVtA&feature=related as seen here.]

* In [[Brain Dead 13]], if you defeat Vivi, a bat circles Vivi's head.

* [[Power Instinct]] has this starting with the first game, but one of the stuns are flying hearts. The second game takes this to the next level with circling objects, such as people, sushi plates, chicks, and fish.

 

== Web Animation ==

* ''[[The Annoying Orange]]'': Seen [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyXX1ltl94E here]. Orange gets hit on the head by Cantaloupe, and has stars flying around his head. Then two cartoon-like birdies turn up complaining that the stars are stealing their jobs. Later, Midget Apple gets hit on the head as well, and the stars turn up again. But this time, the birds get ''really'' angry and start beating up the stars.

* Happens to Strong Bad at the end of the ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' animation "Marshmallow's Last Stand" as a result of him being tripped by Homestar for ripping up the star on his shirt after a fight. Homestar then takes one of the stars circling Strong Bad's head and places it on his own shirt.

 

== Web Comics ==

** Maxim [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20100609 gets] circling [[Nice Hat]]s.

** Mini-Clanks [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20091012 have] circling ''cogs''.

* In a ''Numbskulls'' strip, Ed finds that he doesn't have a star for the top of his Christmas tree, so the Numbskulls send him outside to fall over and hit his head. Sure enough, stars start dancing around his head; however, one of them is frozen solid by the cold, allowing him to pluck it out of the sky and stick it on the three.

* ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]''

** In [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0716.html this strip], a lizardfolk bounty hunter named Gannji gets three circling pterosaurs after getting hit by a "Power Word: Stun" from Vaarsuvius.

** Earlier, Lien threatens to hit Qarr the imp so hard he would see demonic circling birdies.

* ''[[Wapsi Square]]'': [http://wapsisquare.com/comic/back-in-college/ NOT birdies], and with [[Wingding Eyes]] thrown in.

 

== Web Original ==

* [[Smosh]] has a parody called "Pokémon In Real Life" starring Anthony [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzy9D_YKxso&t=1m32s This part] has a scene of Anthony noticing Jigglypuff hiding in a bush after being put to sleep by the song. Anthony then {{spoiler|finds a brick}} and yells, "TAKE THIS!!!" Then, he {{spoiler|throws the brick at said bush}} and it hits Jigglypuff '''in the head''', and Jigglypuff staggers in a daze as it hears bird sound effects, and Anthony has the chance to engage battle with Jigglypuff.

** Anthony himself also experiences this trope in his aptly named video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfPBQwgk3t4 "Punch myself in the face so hard I see birds."] In true cartoon fashion, Anthony tries to shoo away the birds circling his head after he's hit.

 

== Western Animation ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Videogame Effects and Spells]]

[[Category:The Silent Age of Animation]]

[[Category:Stellar Index]]

[[Category:Stock Visual Metaphors]]

[[Category:Avian Tropes]]