Imagine Spot: Difference between revisions

[[File:rsz_love_hina_vol07_086byaaah_5788rsz love hina vol07 086byaaah 5788.jpg|link=Love Hina|frame|[[Megaton Punch|These]] [[Dangerously Genre Savvy|girls]] [[Accidental Pervert|know]] [[Tsundere|the]] [[Twinkle in The Sky|routine]].]]

The combination of a [[Dream Sequence]] and a [[Gilligan Cut]], usually no more than a few seconds long, and commonly [[Book Ends|bookended]] by a [[Fade to White]]. [[Alice and Bob|Alice]] yells at Bob, "What ''am'' I, your maid?!". Cut to Alice cleaning the house in a [[French Maid Outfit]]. Cut to Bob's face -- heface—he's clearly just imagined the role, and Alice has just [[Armor-Piercing Slap|slapped him]] to snap him out of his imagination trance.

May be used to show what would happen [[If I Were a Rich Man]]. A more mundane (and stealthy) version is the [[Daydream Surprise]]. Very frequent in commercials. If someone else can see, that's [[Imagine Spotting]]. Someone who does this a lot is a [[Mr. Imagination]]. If Bob's [['''Imagine Spot]]''' causes him to lash out in anger at Alice over something that only happened ''in'' the [['''Imagine Spot]]''', we've seen an [[Indulgent Fantasy Segue]].

If the [['''Imagine Spot]]''' is a something the character is supposedly remembering, it may be a [[Crazy Memory]]. If it winds up being less fantastical than you'd expect, it's a [[Fantasy Twist]].

* Saitou Hajime of ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'': [[Memetic Badass]], [[Inspector Javert]], [[The Comically Serious]]... and master of the [[Imagine Spot]]. He makes the "If Kaoru → Tanuki and Megumi → Fox, then Misao → Weasel" in one and images a broom shooing away a rooster when Chou and Sanosuke get into an argument.

* Played '''with''' and played '''straight''' in the second episode of the ''[[Ah! My Goddess]]'' TV series -- whenseries—when Keiichi mulls over what wish of his Belldandy should grant, he first imagines [[If I Were a Rich Man|life as a wealthy man]], then Belldandy, who's reading his mind the entire time, says she would gladly "give him more money than he could hope to spend in his lifetime". Then Belldandy says she could also grant the wish of wanting to destroy the entire world, "although [she] would prefer to not do business with that type of client." Cue Keiichi imagining a giant explosion levelling a city, with him off to the side, laughing evilly, in a monocle, a wiry mustache, and what suspiciously looks like a [[Those Wacky Nazis|Schutzstaffel uniform]].

* Masamune of ''[[Gate 7]]'' get lose in his own [[Imagine Spot]] of [[Catgirl]] Hana ''at the middle of a battle''.

* Amélie from ''[[Amelie|Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain]]'' frequently lapses into this. One of the more extreme examples is that, if Nino couldn't assemble a torn-up photograph in time, he'd end up living in Tajikistan with only a goat for company -- andcompany—and Amélie refuses to go out with somebody that would wear a teacosy for a hat.

* This is probably the central comedic tool of ''[[Scrubs]]'', which uses it to great effect. Usually J.D. does this, to the point where other characters [[Lampshade]] it increasingly as the series goes on, mentioning how one was really long, messing with him while he is in his head, triggering one on purpose to get him to zone out, and so on. Usually after his fantasy he says something that sounds completely weird if we weren't to be shown the [[Imagine Spot]]. And his propensity to do this is apparently infectious, as his friends occasionally indulge in it as well, though far less regularly.

** At the end of the Ice Truck Killer arc, where he's walking up to the office Hollywood style -- redstyle—red carpet walkway flanked with adoring fans.

* In the ''[[Leverage]]'' episode "The Scheherezade Job", Nate has a meeting with the woman who is blackmailing them. After telling him what he needs to know about their current mark, she explains that Nate messed up her date and offers to have dinner with him. Cue to Nate imagining a nice, romantic dinner with her, interrupted by one of her [[Mook|Mooks]]s choking him with a garrote, while she is drinking wine. Nate makes up a lame excuse and, once she leaves, feels his neck uncomfortably.

* In the musical ''Allegro'', the [[Greek Chorus]] interrupts the awkward hoofing of a college dance to introduce a fantastic [[Dream Ballet]] which shows how the students ''feel'' they are dancing; this eventually ends and the dance continues as before. In a later montage sequence, the voices professors droning on through their lectures fade away as Joe sees Jenny dancing through his imagination; Joe's buddy Charlie gets his own [[Imagine Spot]] showing two girls starting to strip as a professor reads [[John Keats]]' poem "The Eve of St. Agnes."

* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' has Isabella of all people seemingly quite often breaking off into an [[Imagine Spot]] where she imagines Phineas as a centaur. It's just as weird as it sounds.