Holding the Floor: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Perhaps he is a politician and must perform an ''actual'' filibuster.<ref>in the U.S. Senate at least, every senator has the right to talk for as long as he likes; abusing this power by talking without end is a "filibuster".</ref> Perhaps he's been cornered by the [[Big Bad]] and is [[Ain't Too Proud to Beg|pretending to surrender]] in the hope that the [[Big Damn Heroes]] or [[The Cavalry]] will turn up to rescue him. Perhaps [[The Hero]] is doing something critical in the next room and Bob [[We Need a Distraction|has offered to hold]] the bad guys off or at least hold the attention of the audience. Perhaps two groups in the room each know [[One Side of the Story]] and he simply can't let [[Right Hand Versus Left Hand|them talk to each other]]. Perhaps Alice is on next and she hasn't turned up yet, but Bob [[Just in Time|knows she will]] if he can hang on for a bit.

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

 

 

* One [[Lucky Luke]] story has Luke help build a bridge, which still isn't finished by the time of the opening ceremony. Luke asks the mayor to stall for time, which he does by declaring that a few words from the Lord wouldn't be out of place, and starts reading aloud: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." By the time the repairs are done he's all the way up to Job.

 

 

== [[Film]] ==

* Mr Smith in ''[[Mr. Smith Goes to Washington]]'' filibusters in front of the Senate

{{quote|'''Patrick:''' I thought for sure I was busted when I was climbing out that window, I tell you. So, how did you keep him distracted?

'''Kat Stratford:''' I dazzled him with my...wits. }}

{{quote|'''Cramden:''' Are you there, sir? Sir, stall! Stall, dammit! Flint is alive!

'''President:''' Uh, no, uh, no great decision... }}

{{quote|'''Dr. Crusher:''' I swore I`d never use one of these... Computer, activate the Emergency Medical Hologram!

'''EMH:''' Please state the nature of the medical emergency.

'''Crusher:''' Twenty Borg are about to break through that door. We need a distraction!

'''EMH:''' According to Starfleet medical records, Borg implants cause severe skin irritation. Would you like an analgesic cream? }}

* This is only a technical example, since it's making a political statement in front of politicians, but in ''Cody Banks 2'', the orchestra is asked to stall the world leaders from having their meeting, (since the [[Big Bad]] has them under [[Mind Control]] and the purpose of the meeting is to hand control of the Earth over to him) while Cody takes on the villains. After the first song, the orchestra goes into a rendition of ''War! (What Is It Good For?)''

* Subverted in ''Little Voice'', where the title character, a [[Hikikomori|shy, shut-in recluse]] with the ability to perfectly imitate any singer she's heard, refuses to repeat her show-stopping performance at a local nightclub, so Michael Caine's character (a seedy manager of third-rate acts) goes on stage to try to stall for time while her mother tries to talk her into performing once again. It doesn't work; Little Voice persists in her refusal to perform, and Michael Caine's character ends up humiliated when the audience, tired of waiting, finally walks out on him.

* In ''[[Oceans Thirteen]]'', Basher dresses up as a stunt man that Willy Bank has hired for his grand opening and yells at Bank about the nature of his payment in order to distract Bank from the fact that Virgil is hacking in and digitally altering the photos of the gang that are being sent to him.

== [[Literature]] ==

* The [[Ur Example]]: in ''[[Arabian Nights]]'', Scheherezade tells the sultan stories night after night, always stopping at a [[Cliff Hanger]] so that he won't execute her until he hears the end. It saves her life.

* In the eighth book of ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'', Klaus and Sunny disguise themselves as surgeons (yes, Sunny's a baby and no, no one notices) to try to stop the "cranioectomy" (read: decapitation) about to be performed on an anesthetized Violet at the hospital by Count Olaf and his henchmen. However, once they enter the operating theater, they realize they have no direct way of stopping the plan, so they try to explain the "surgery" to be performed to the observers in great detail to give Violet the chance to wake up and escape. They end up having to explain the history of the knife, among other things, in order to stall for time.

* In ''Dead Famous'' by [[Ben Elton]], Inspector Coleridge talks on television for five and a half minutes to delay the end of the show so his colleagues can arrive with {{spoiler|faked}} evidence to prompt a confession from the murderer.

* Senator Seab Cooley's filibuster in Allen Drury's ''A Shade of Difference''.

* In ''Crown Duel'' by Sherwood Smith, Meliara attempts to plead for the life of her brother despite her obstinate attitude. Just as the villain catches on to her behavior, she reveals she was stalling for time as the Hill Folk arrive and save the day.

* In ''[[King Solomon's Mines|King Solomons Mines]]'', the heroes take advantage of a [[Convenient Eclipse]] to impress an African tribe with their power to "kill the moon". At the time of the eclipse they pretend to perform a ritual, which (banking on the natives not knowing English) in fact consists of long nonsense speeches strung together for as long as the eclipse lasts.

* Played with in [[Diana Wynne Jones]]' [[Chrestomanci|''Witch Week'']]. In the climactic scene, Chrestomanci is trying to keep the lid on a standoff between a class full of witches and the witch-hunters, and Nan jumps up and begins to talk. Only, instead of buying time for Chrestomanci to act, Chrestomanci is actually holding the ''world'' still with magic so that Nan can finish her story. {{spoiler|The purpose of which is to convince the class full of witches to combine their efforts to undo the mistake of History and merge their world back into its proper place, ending the threat of witch-burnings forever.}}

 

{{quote|'''C.J.:''' If you ever have a free two hours and are so inclined, try standing up without leaning on anything and talking the whole time. You won't make it. I wouldn't make it. Stackhouse wasn't supposed to last 15 minutes. He's 78 years old. He has a head cold. This bill is going to pass. Well, somebody forgot to tell Stackhouse, Dad, cause he just went into hour number eight.}}

** After the white house figures out why he's doing this, and that as a result there's nothing they can do to make that vote happen, they recruit just about every grandfather in the senate to come in with questions so he can have a rest.

* In the season 7 premiere of ''[[NCIS]]'', Tony is captured by terrorists, goes through a rough interrogation under the effects of a truth serum, swearing his captor will die. Despite being [[Can Not Tell a Lie|forced to tell the terrorists everything]], he stalls by telling them about the NCIS team one by one until {{spoiler|Gibbs turns up to rescue him.}}

{{quote|'''Tony:''' {{spoiler|You have 30 seconds to live Salim.}}

'''Terrorist:''' {{spoiler|You are still bound! You are lying!}}

'''Tony:''' {{spoiler|I can't lie, remember? And I never said I would be the one to kill you. You know how I told you my boss was a sniper?}}

* The Doctor, a character who embodies this method of dealing with an imminent crap/fan gestalt, lampshades this trope in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' series 5 episode "Flesh and Stone". As the Weeping Angels are closing in on him inside the crashed ship, he buys himself time to escape by Holding the Floor. As he runs off amid their confusion, he actually yells back to them, “And I'll tell you something else. Never let me talk.”

* An example in which the floor holder is unaware, is Ianto Jones in ''[[Torchwood]]'', during the episode "Cyberwoman". When it becomes clear that Lisa isn't giving up and Ianto can't being himself to shoot her, the rest of the team open fire.

{{quote|'''Paul''': My god, she's filibustering her own meeting!}}

* The ''[[Due South]]'' episode "One Good Man" (alternate title "[[Catch Phrase|Thank You Kindly]], [[Mr. Smith Goes to Washington|Mr Capra]]").

* In ''The [[Blackadder]]'', Prince Edmund is about to be [[Burn the Witch|burnt as a witch]], when he is given one last chance to confess (which won't stop him being burnt, but will supposedly mean he doesn't go to Hell). Realising he can't be burnt ''while'' he's confessing, he starts admitting that he coveted his father's adultery and failed to honour his neighbour's ass. It doesn't work, since the Witchfinder gets fed up and lights the bonfire anyway.

 

 

== Music ==

 

 

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

 

 

'''Rufus:''' Wing it! }}

* On ''[[King of the Hill]]'' episode "Flush with Power" Hank filibusters at a regulations board meeting in order to make the board members use the restrooms in the building in order to make them realize the terrors of the lo-flow toilets that were recently installed. He reads two years' worth of newspaper opinion columns.

* Timon in ''[[Lion King]] 1 1/2'' has to distract the hyenas for long enough to allow his mom and uncle to create a tunnel underneath the hyenas to collapse [[It Makes Sense in Context|(long story!)]] which leads to this unforgettable exchange:

'''Shenzi:''' ''*[[Jaw Drop]]*'' I don't think so! }}

* In one of [[Futurama|Futurama's]] Anthology of Interest episodes, Bender is turned into a human and the professor plans to show him off at a science convention, but Bender goes missing, causing the professor to do a rather poor attempt at this. Made better by the fact he finishes with the line "Without further stalling for time."

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

** [[Huey Long]], an early 20th century populist who filibustered many "pro-rich" bills, was known to read Shakespeare and discuss "potlickers" recipes. For ''fifteen hours''.

** In the Illinois State Legislature (around 2009), a senator filibustered a bill by reading from the phonebook.

** The record so far is Senator Strom Thurmond. He filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1957 for ''24 hours 18 minutes'' until the bill's supporters got the supermajority needed to shut him up.

* In Ontario, the NDP filibustered legislation that would join Metro Toronto and the City of Toronto into a single mega-city by introducing over 12000 amendments: one for each street in the effected areas, 700 different proposed dates for the bill to come into effect, and some more thrown in by the Liberal party proposing historical designations to named streets. The process of voting on each amendment (and then going back and striking down some amendments that did manage to get passed) took over a week.

* Left wing Labour MP Dennis Skinner (and several others asking questions) [http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1989/jan/20/richmond-yorks-by-election spent several hours on 20th January 1989 moving a writ for a by-election in order to stop an anti-abortion bill being debated.]